Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter angered John Wayne so much that he wrote Eastwood a letter about it. Eastwood was an up-and-coming Western star during the early 1960s, which should have made him the natural successor to Wayne, who had been acting since the 1930s. Wayne had first made a name for himself in 1939’s Stagecoach, and he resented the darker turn Westerns were taking when Eastwood came along, especially the gritty spaghetti Westerns Clint Eastwood was famous for, such as the Dollar Trilogy.
John Wayne was critical of much of the Western genre by the late 1960s. He turned down the leading role in High Noon because he thought the hero was too weak and preferred Westerns with more fighting and less talking. When it came to Eastwood, Wayne’s dislike was personal. John Wayne and Clint Eastwood’s feud was well-known in Hollywood and Wayne disliked Eastwood so much that he refused to collaborate with him on a proposed film in the early 1970s,
John Wayne Wrote Clint Eastwood A Letter Expressing He Disliked High Plains Drifter
Wayne Felt Eastwood’s Directorial Debut Glorified Violence
1973’s High Plains Drifter was the first movie that Clint Eastwood directed. This film was a stark departure from the types of Westerns Wayne had made and enjoyed in the 1930s. It involved an unnamed stranger who might have been a ghost and who returned to town to exact vengeance for the death of a US Marshal. It was an extremely violent film that included three fatalities and the assault of a woman within the first 10 minutes.
This level of violence, along with the negative depiction of the Wild West and the supernatural elements, was the last straw for Wayne, who had long felt that the genre had changed for the worse by the time Eastwood joined it. According to Eastwood (via The Telegraph), Wayne wrote Eastwood a letter complaining that the film was not about the pioneer experience or the settling of the West that Wayne felt the genre should represent. However, Eastwood felt Wayne was simply from a different generation and didn’t understand.
John Wayne & Clint Eastwood Had Very Different Approaches To Western Movies
Wayne Wanted To Tell Folktales That Romanticized The Old West
The feud between Wayne and Estwood arose out of their different approaches to the Western genre. Wayne saw Westerns as folktales and played cowboys and sheriffs who were larger-than-life heroes. His characters sometimes had to break the law to protect their families or innocent town residents, but were unquestionably the good guys. The male hero would always save the day no matter what. Conversely, the movies that defined Eastwood’s career featured grayer heroes and a version of the Wild West that was racist, violent, and ugly.
While Eastwood dismissed Wayne’s criticisms as those of an older generation that didn’t understand, Wayne felt that Eastwood was destroying the genre because they no longer romanticized the Wild West. Additionally, the supernatural elements in High Plains Drifter made the film less anchored to reality, which Wayne objected to. He wanted Westerns to not only feature heroes but show this period of history in a positive light, and this film failed to do so on multiple levels.
John Wayne Turned Down A Movie With Clint Eastwood After High Plains Drifter
Eastwood Wanted To Work Together But Wayne Wouldn’t Cooperate
Soon after High Plains Drifter was completed, Eastwood became enamored with the script for The Hostiles, which would have starred a young gambler and older rancher working together to fend off bandits after the gambler wins half of the rancher’s estate. Eastwood wanted Wayne to star as the older rancher in The Hostiles, but Wayne wrote Eastwood a letter rejecting his offer. Wayne’s problem was more with Eastwood and what he felt Eastwood had done to the genre than with the premise.
Eastwood went on to direct and star in many Westerns, and the genre continued to move in the direction he envisioned.
Wayne’s refusal to work with Clint Eastwood on this project is unfortunate, as it meant the movie could not move ahead. A version of the film was finally made in 2009, but Eastwood was not involved and Wayne was long dead by then. Eastwood went on to direct and star in many Westerns, and the genre continued to move in the direction he envisioned after High Plains Drifter. Wayne’s feud with Eastwood was tied to a last-ditch effort to hold onto the way Westerns used to be at a time when the genre was about to change forever.