John Wayne is a divisive character these days. His looming figure may have cast a shadow over the early years of Hollywood’s rise into the 20th century, but as time and attitudes have changed, Wayne is a figure usually dispelled as a racist and, at the very least, an ultra-conservative patriot. The latter is likely a title the western hero would have enjoyed himself.
Wayne has fallen down the pecking order for truly great American heroes on the silver screen, largely because of his outdated outlook. His falling position is most noteworthy because of the height from which he has plummeted. For a certain generation, the image of Wayne as the heroic cowboy or fearsome serviceman is as ingrained in their brains as kids today and Marvel comics. For many, Wayne was the ultimate superhero.
It’s a role he took very seriously. In his time at the top of the mountain, Wayne ensured that his vision of American filmmaking—a wholesome time for the whole family—remained as intact as possible. He was even happy to join the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals.
The community operated to defend American people from Communism infiltrating culture or, as Wayne puts it, as part of his now infamous interview with Playboy, “Just a group of motion-picture people on the right side, not leftists and not Commies. I was the president for a couple of years.” While he said the idea of a Hollywood blacklisting was “a lot of horseshit”, he suggested a better course of action was “just running a lot of people out of the business”.
For Wayne, studio executives lost their way in the 1970s, as he shared: “Today’s executives don’t give a damn. In their efforts to grab the box office that these sex pictures are attracting, they’re producing garbage. They’re taking advantage of the fact that nobody wants to be called a bluenose. But they’re going to reach the point where the American people will say, ‘The hell with this!’” Later, claiming: “I’m quite sure that within two or three years, Americans will be completely fed up with these perverted films“.
Wayne’s legacy as a clean and civil action hero is one with few blemishes; even the villains he killed in his movies passed away with a pratfall and a cloud of dust. However, there was one role in which Wayne permitted himself to get a little perverted, and it may have just about earned him the Oscar he’d always dreamed of.
Directed by Henry Hathaway, True Grit is seen as Wayne’s ultimate triumph. The role of rooster Cogburn has gone down in his filmography as a crowning moment. Mattie Ross contacts Wayne’s Cogburn to track down and seek revenge on her father’s killer. It makes for one of the most potent storylines of Wayne’s career and one that came with concessions, including letting Cogburn swear.
During his interview with Playboy, he revealed why: “In my other pictures, we’ve had an explosion or something go off when a bad word was said,” Wayne said. “This time, we didn’t. It’s profanity, all right, but I doubt if there’s anybody in the United States who hasn’t heard the expression ‘son of a bitch’ or ‘bastard.’ We felt it was acceptable in this instance. At the emotional high point in that particular picture, I felt it was OK to use it. It would have been pretty hard to say, ‘You illegitimate sons of so-and-so!’”
The role also saw Wayne allow Cogburn to shoot people between the eyes, an act he had never allowed before. Wayne suggested that Cogburn would “judge that fella before he did it. He was merely trying to make the area in which he was marshal liveable for the most number of people.”
These allowances would, perhaps, in turn, allow for Wayne to gain his ultimate prize as he picked up the Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ for his performance. It’s not to say that an actor simply has to swear and kill people in their role to gain the award, but that perhaps a little bit of un-American values don’t hurt your claim.