As a huge geek, I often get quizzical stares when I proclaim my love for John Wayne. And while, that does make a degree of sense given my usual aversion to most things... “country”, there's something about the John Wayne western that appeals to me on a level that is almost poetic. You see, as far as I'm concerned, John Wayne is the probably the greatest star in the history of American Film.
The Duke's range wasn't great, by any stretch of the imagination, but the man did understand subtlety, the man did have nuances. Unfairly, John Wayne is often reduced to a caricature, a deep voiced, rough edged fat old man, spouting “pilgrim” at the end of every sentence. The real picture is something more, John Wayne was one hell of an actor. He may have only had a few, similar characters, but those characters were all perfect. Ethan Edwards from “The Searchers” and Sheriff John T. Chance from “Rio Bravo” may be, on the surface, pretty similar characters, but it's the little things that sell the performances for me. As Edwards, Wayne displays a level of cold detachment, while obsessively hunting his lost niece. The character refuses to feel anything but the drive to continue onward, sacrificing his very humanity in the pursuit of his family. On the other side of the coin, John T. Chance is a man surrounded by real people, that he does truly care about. His connections are real, his interactions are warm, and even when faced with the villains of the piece, his calm, friendly demeanor never really fades. The climax of the film, a shootout, is more playful than tense, the victory of our heroes was never in doubt.
And in a nutshell, that's what John Wayne is all about, he, as an actor and as a man, serves as a reminder that sometimes, the good guys do win. And they really, truly deserve it.
As a close, I present some gems of wisdom from the Duke Himself:
“I never trust a man that doesn't drink.”
“When people say a John Wayne picture got bad reviews, I always wonder if they know it's a redundant sentence, but hell, I don't care. People like my pictures and that's all that counts.”
“I would like to be remembered, well . . . the Mexicans have a phrase, "Feo fuerte y formal". Which means he was ugly, strong and had dignity.”
“When I started, I knew I was no actor and I went to work on this Wayne thing. It was as deliberate a projection as you'll ever see. I figured I needed a gimmick, so I dreamed up the drawl, the squint and a way of moving meant to suggest that I wasn't looking for trouble but would just as soon throw a bottle at your head as not. I practiced in front of a mirror.”
“I never had a goddamn artistic problem in my life, never, and I've worked with the best of them. John Ford isn't exactly a bum, is he? Yet he never gave me any manure about art. He just made movies and that's what I do.”
“I made up my mind that I was going to play a real man to the best of my ability. I felt many of the western stars of the twenties and thirties were too goddamn perfect. They never drank or smoked. They never wanted to go to bed with a beautiful girl. They never had a fight. A heavy might throw a chair at them, and they just looked surprised and didn't fight in this spirit. They were too goddamn sweet and pure to be dirty fighters. Well, I wanted to be a dirty fighter if that was the only way to fight back. If someone throws a chair at you, hell, you pick up a chair and belt him right back. I was trying to play a man who gets dirty, who sweats sometimes, who enjoys kissing a gal he likes, who gets angry, who fights clean whenever possible but will fight dirty if he has to. You could say I made the western hero a roughneck.”
“Talk low, talk slow and don't talk too much.”
“Hell yes, I'm a liberal. I listen to both sides before I make up my mind. Doesn't that make you a liberal? Not in today's terms, it doesn't. These days, you have to be a fucking left-wing radical to be a liberal. Politically, though ... I've mellowed.”
“God-damn, I'm the stuff men are made of!”
You sure are, Duke.
Happy 103rd to the greatest Actor in the history of America.
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