No doubt one of the most renowned actors in movie history, the all-American Hollywood star John Wayne became an icon of the western genre throughout the 20th century. From the 1920s all the way through to the 1970s, the actor dominated the western landscape, appearing in such movies as John Ford’s The Searchers, Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo and Albert S. Rogell’s War of the Wildcats.
Since those moments, his figure has loomed large over the Hollywood hills. But as time has passed, the man who once stood as a monument to American excellence has become a shadowy statue of its worst aspects, with Wayne now consistently seen as one of the more problematic icons of the era. While his personality and viewpoints have been rightly questioned, his impact on the art of cinema, and especially the western genre, is undeniable.
Rubbing shoulders with the likes of James Stewart, Clint Eastwood and Randolph Scott in the genre, Wayne’s legacy is inextricably linked to western cinema. Oozing on-screen class and potent patriotic vigour, Wayne was highly successful throughout his career, though he often played the same character in each of the movies he appeared in, essentially playing a rough and tough caricature of himself, his stardom grew with every new release.
Wayne’s timeline neatly coincides with America finding its own culture after some of the more turbulent years of its history. As the US began to write its own stories and create its own icons, Wayne acted like a superhero, delivering moral justice to on-screen villainy. However, the role was one Wayne wore so well that it was hard to take off.
The actor was aware of his tendency to be typecast, too, telling Roger Ebert in an interview from 1969 that his role in the Henry Hathaway film True Grit was one of his first opportunities to branch out. Speaking to the influential movie critic, he stated: “It’s sure as hell my first decent role in 20 years…and my first chance to play a character role instead of John Wayne. Ordinarily, they just stand me there and run everybody up against me”.
Though the actor admits to often taking the same kind of role, he goes on to explain: “Of course, they give me that John Wayne stuff so much, claim I always play the same role. Seems like nobody remembers how different the fellows were in The Quiet Man or Iwo Jima, or Yellow Ribbon, where I was 35 playing a man of 65. To stay a star, you have to bring along some of your own personality. Thousands of good actors can carry a scene, but a star has to carry the scene and still, without intruding, allow some of his character into it”.
Talking about the movie, which tells the story of a drunken US Marshal and a Texas Ranger who help a teenager track down her father’s killer, Wayne picks out one scene as his all-time favourite.
The scene comes when Wayne’s Rooster Cogburn and Kim Darby’s Mattie Ross are waiting throughout the night on a clifftop for the bad guys to return to their cabin. A moment of downtime in the intense western, the scene sees Rooster unravel his personality, telling his life story to the teenager, revealing his personal thoughts towards his own wife, his complicated life and where he’s heading in the future.
“I guess that scene in True Grit is about the best scene I ever did,” Wayne told Ebert, giving some insight into how the actor reflected on his later career.
Joel and Ethan Coen directed a remake of True Grit in 2010, with Jeff Bridges taking the role originally played by Wayne. Also featured in the cast were the likes of Josh Brolin, Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfeld, Barry Pepper and Domhnall Gleeson, but it struggled to live up to the original and much of that was because of Wayne’s performance.
The picture would gain Wayne his first Oscar after decades of trying. While it has some competition regarding his finest performance, with his run as Ethan Edwards in The Searchers also of high quality, True Grit and Rooster Cogburn remained highest on Wayne’s mantel.