Thirty years ago June 11th, John Wayne died. Seems like he never left us. Two years ago, as I planned for an epic cross-country roadtrip with my niece, it was coincidentally, the 100th anniversary of John Wayne’s birth. At that time, I made it a point to get reacquainted with The Duke’s movies, mostly since we were planning to drive through Monument Valley, the scene of so many iconic John Ford/John Wayne Westerns.
Several days and several Ford/Wayne Westerns later, I came out of the experience with a 180 degree change of view from when I went in.
I hadn’t seen many Ford Westerns or I hadn’t seen them in decades. But my view was pretty much the common perception. John Ford was a genius who reinvigorated the Western and brought new adult themes to it. John Wayne, his frequent star, was a great presence, but no actor. What merit his performances have are all the result of good directing. At least on repeat viewing, I found that perception completely false.
Before you go to Monument Valley, you have to see all the Ford/Wayne Westerns that made this place the iconic look of the cinematic West.
I’m not denying the recognizable abilities of a superb filmmaker. More informed viewers than me such as Akira Kurosawa, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Sam Peckinpah, Peter Bogdanovich, Sergio Leone, and Jean-Luc Godard have all cited Ford as an inspiration. He certainly broke new ground with his cinematography, especially in making Western landscapes further the story line and themes.
But at least the movies I viewed didn’t seem to hold up as well as they should have and didn’t seem as sophisticated as other films before and contemporary to them. Take The Searchers which is hailed for its gritty, dark portrait of a man obsessed with finding his kidnapped niece — not to save her, but perhaps to kill her since, in his mind, she’s now “the leavings of an Indian buck.” Great story and brilliantly told when the focus is on that thread. But Ford interweaves an almost vaudevillian secondary romantic plot into the proceedings which seems to undermine his main theme. In the niece storyline, we are confronted with the racial prejudices of Wayne and the settlers. Yet the romantic plot features a 1/8th Cherokee who is pursued by a white woman — a woman who has stated the kidnapped Debbie would be “better off with a bullet in her brain” than living with Indians. If that’s what she thinks, why is she so anxious to marry the part Indian? And why oh why does that storyline have to be treated like broad comedy complete with a fight scene that wouldn’t be out of place in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? It’s completely jarring when it intrudes on the darker story.
I didn’t think Ford’s directing stood the test of time in The Searchers. But John Wayne did.
The portrayal of Indians in general is pretty cringe-worthy in most of the Ford movies I’ve now seen. Film scholars are always saying, “Ford was not prejudiced. He was trying to portray prejudice.” Well, I will give him this. He was an equal opportunity stereotyper. Although Ford was as Irish as Murphy’s cow, every one of his films seems to feature the kind of broad comedy whiskey drinkin’, Blarney talkin’, brawlin’ Irish buffoon that went out with the demise of Lucky Charms commercials. And he also seems to get a “Ya sure, ya betcha” Swede in most of his movies, as well. I can’t be sure, but I thought he actually had a Mexican character saying, “!Ai, Chihuahua!” (This would be a question for Ask A Mexican, but has any Mexican, anywhere and at any time, ever said, “!Ai, Chihuahua!”?)
The Duke, on the other hand, turns in understated, but complete performances in every film I’ve seen him in so far. If you are going to credit Ford for producing those performances with good direction, why didn’t his directing genius seem to extend to all the hammy, over the top performances of the other actors — including most of his leading ladies and certainly all the twinkly Irishmen and dithery Swedes?
To be fair, I watched the Duke in movies where he was directed by others. The same solid performances. Even Ford gave Wayne backhanded credit. According to Hollywood legend, when he saw Wayne’s dark performance in Red River, he said, “I never knew the big son of a bitch could act!”
Granted Red River was directed by Howard Hawks, who was no slouch himself. But again, I think the Duke gets the credit. Nobody turns in consistently good performances in movie after movie, under a variety of different directors, unless he’s at least a natural.
In Rio Bravo, Duke has great chemistry with a surprising co-star, Dean Martin as alcoholic ex-deputy, Dude. Dino has the same naturalistic acting as the Duke.
Speaking of a natural, check out Dean Martin in one of my favorite John Wayne Westerns so far, Rio Bravo. As one of the few men to stand with Wayne against an outlaw band, Martin plays a drunken ex-deputy, which some of you will call “not much of a stretch”. But Martin doesn’t play a drunk as Hollywood tended to in the Fifties, as a staggering, slurring slob. He underplays as a sweating, shaking wreck in the late stages of the DTs.
Angie Dickinson is around as the love interest for the Duke, but all the chemistry is between Wayne and Martin. While the other actors act. Wayne and Martin just are. It’s a great Western, even if Howard Hawks couldn’t resist adding a little comic relief with Walter Brennan as Wayne’s sidekick, Stumpy. Unfortunately, a little Walter Brennan goes a long way, but I’d suggest that Hawks uses him less than Ford would have.
In Liberty Valence, The Duke takes on Lee Marvin AND Lee Van Cleef. Jimmy Stewart isn’t much help.
My next favorite Wayne movie: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. The Duke plays a classic Western tough guy, at a time when his kind was on the verge of becoming an anachronism. His foil is Jimmy Stewart as the young lawyer (and seriously too old for the part) who represents where the West is heading. Together, they have to face possibly the scariest array of bad guys ever filmed: Lee Marvin as the sadistic Liberty Valance and Lee Van Cleef as his sidekick. (That’s twice the bad guy power of most Westerns and that’s leaving out the members of Valance’s gang played by unknown character actors.) Surprisingly, next to the Duke, Jimmy Stewart — who generally gets credit for being an accomplished naturalistic actor — seems mannered and studied with his stuttering, dithery schtick. Ford, in addition to some great iconic shots, does also shoehorn in his trademark “Ya Sure, Ya Betcha” Swede. But he does a better job than in The Searchers with the theme of prejudice. One of the most sympathetic and loyal characters, Pompey, John Wayne’s Black handyman, is shown in one schoolhouse scene reciting the “All men are created equal” part of the Declaration of Independence. Then in later scenes, he’s shown not invited in to vote and later refused service at the bar. The Wayne character makes clear his views on the matter with one line, delivered without much embellishment: “Sully, give him a drink.”
Eventually I ended up seeing all of John Ford’s work. But I still maintain that John Wayne contributed as much to Ford’s legend as Ford did to Wayne’s.
So here’s to you, Duke. I’m glad I found you again. Now let’s get those cattle across the river.
Addendum: One of my favorite John Wayne stories has nothing to do with Westerns. An executive at the Bath Iron Works, the shipyard that has been producing US Navy vessels for over 100 years, told me about the time John Wayne was invited to christen a battleship. He smashed the champagne bottle over the hull, which was supposed to signal the hydraulics to release the ship down the ramp and into the water. Nothing happened. In as superstition-riddled an industry as the maritime world, this is the greatest bad juju — pretty much a curse on a ship for all time. There was a horrified pause. Then the Duke reached out with one long arm and gave the bow of the ship a shove. It slid down the ramp to thunderous applause.
Need more Duke? Roger Ebert of TV Critic fame and one of the best bloggers out there, put up this post earlier today. (But then Roger is always way ahead of most of us.) Read it for some wonderful personal remembrances of Wayne and a great deconstruction of his acting technique. Which was actually no technique.
My favorite is “Quiet Man”, pilgrim.
I am not really qualified to determine what kind of actor J.W is. But I will tell you that when I saw his movies as a kid, we all wanted to be him. There was always somebody trying to imitate his side ways crabbing walk. If his name was on the marquee, you were going to see the film. As we mature with experince we tend to forget how to watch a movie for just it’s viewing pleasuere. there is something to be said about keeping it simple. The premice of a movie is to entertain. Rio Bravo is a great entertaining flick. When Dean Martin hears the music, and gets his steadiness back and pours the whisky back in the bottle, you could feel the excitment build in the theater. Everyone seemed to lean forward because we all knew it was about to get down and dirty. I still watch Rio Bravo with the exciment of afirst timer.
And no matter how many times you see Rio Bravo, you still have that reaction. But then, I’m an unabashed fan of Dean Martin, who, like The Duke, never really got the credit for some pretty good acting. (Mostly when he wasn’t goofing around with Sinatra.)
My Dad looooves John Wayne I grew up to watching my Dad falling asleep on a Sunday aftenoon watching an old John Wayne Movie.
I am going to look up where that picture is from. I plan to move to ‘Red Rock Country’ or Sedona, AZ in a little over a year and I would love to check out that place too, it has to be relatively close.
The picture is one I took from my cross-country roadtrip two years ago. It is Monument Valley, the site of many John Ford/John Wayne Westerns. And it is spectacular. One of the most beautiful places in the West. It’s in what is called The Four Corners area: the place where ARizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico meet. It’s not near anything, but out in the middle of the sprawling Navaho reservation.
I hope Roger Ebert stops on by to read your tribute. Well done as always! I like that John Waynes acting technique was “no technique” compare that to the stars of today who speak as if acting is rocket science!
My personal favorites are _McLintock!_ and _Big Jake_, two of the five movies where he and Maureen O’Hara appeared together. They were a great team. I like all of his movies and have a number of them on various media.
Now, that was a very insightful essay! I’d never really considered the various flaws of Ford in The Searchers, or in any other of his pics. Excellent food for thought – and I find myself agreeing completely!
My mother was a major fan of JW, but she sure made sure I was aware of the misogyny extant in The Quiet Man and McLintock! Ford was hardly alone in his portrayal of Indians and other ethnic groups. How many Hop Sings did we see “back in the day?”
Since the popular media reflects society at the time, it’s not really fair to dismiss old movies because of such shortcomings. After all, if Rear Window were to be made today, no one would believe it. “Jeff” would have his blinds drawn and A/C fired up, watching cable television and surfing on the internet instead of looking out his window to stave off boredom.
I don’t tend to blame Ford for his treatment of Indians. I blame him for inconsistent thematic material — which is the greater sin of movie making.
As far as his treatment of Indians, when Ford decided to film Stagecoach, his first Monument Valley Western, it was the Depression and the Dust Bowl. The Navaho tribes were literally starving. He hired many local Navaho to play the Comanche and even more locals as caterers, set helpers, etc. Goulding, who owned the trading post that was the set of a lot of Ford’s Valley Westerns, and the Inn where the actors stayed, credited Ford with single-handedly saving much of the tribe from a slow and horrible death.
So Ford gets loads of credit from me as a great humanitarian.
I certainly need to be more clear and precise about what I mean. I guess I tend to write in a sort of mental shorthand at times. I had just come from Ebert’s site. Some of the opinions about JW and crew struck me as pretty judgmental. Something the inner hypocrisy detector in me screams that I do frequently myself…
I was speaking more about how the old westerns – and Ford – portrayed Indians, not how he actually treated them in person. This seems to be a point of contention in many discussions about old movies in general.
I really like your take on Ford’s inconsistent themes. Your analysis is spot on, and that particular take blew right on by me. I was unaware of Ford’s saving the Navajo tribe. It’s also clear to me that I am in no way prepared to debate this subject with you even if I wanted to – heh.
And, while I’m here, congrats on the nod from Ebert!
some of the comments on Ebert’s site were really over the top. Haven’t seen this much frothing at the mouth since the screaming about Hanoi Jane when Fonda released movies in the Seventies. The woman who equated John Wayne with Jeffery Daumer and John Wayne Gacy? WTF?
Most of the vitriol seems to stem from the infamous Playboy interview. While eyebrow raising, I question if the Duke as completely sober for that one. Or if he was seriously misquoted.
Especially when through the years of his career and after, almost anyone who came in contact with him has tales of his decency and kindness. And that goes for some people who were the victims of the Red Baiting Wayne supported.
I agree with your assessment of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
I think the greatest Ford/Wayne movie where Ford’s skills as a director were used for best effect and where Wayne was being his great ‘John Wayne’ self was They Were Expendable. Compared to Ford and Wayne’s westerns along with films like The Quiet Man, this movie is terribly underrated. John Wayne’s chemistry with his costar Robert Montgomery was excellent and the supporting cast including Donna Reed and Ward Bond was strong, but not overpowering in the usual WWII stereotypical way (Bond’s character was Irish, but certainly not the way Victor McLaglen was in the Cavalry Trilogy). The movie with its ‘end of the world as we know it’ theme and poignant conclusion where Montgomery and Wayne flew away while their left-behind crew were doomed left out any chances for Ford’s usual attempts at comedy to ruin it.
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Your writeup of JW’s “push-starting” the launching of a US Navy warship is entertaining, but has some glaring errors. The ship was not a battleship, but a much-smaller Fast Frigate, USS Oliver Hazard Perry (FFG-7). Wayne did not swing the champagne bottle; that honor is reserved for a ship’s sponsor, who for USN vessels is a woman. In the case of O.H. Perry, that woman was the great-great-granddaughter of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. The use of a hydraulic ram to start Perry on its way was not without precedent. Shortly before a ship built on inclined rails, or “ways” is to be launched, all of the myriad holdback fittings except 1 are loosened. At the moment the champagne bottle successfully breaks across the bow, the final holdback is loosened. Gravity should at that point take over, but during the building of a ship a lot of grunge settles on the rails of the marine railway. If needed, the extra oomph of a hydraulic ram overcomes the initial friction, and gravity does what it’s supposed to do. What Wayne did was remarkable, mostly because of the odds of him winding up looking ridiculous. If he stood up and approached the bow early, nothing would have happened at first. If he was late, the ship would’ve started its run down the ways without his “assistance”. As it happened, his timing was well-nigh perfect, and his performance was rewarded by thunderous audience applause. The contract for the Perry-class ships was a huge deal for Bath Iron Works, and just about every Maine TV station was there to record the festivities. Footage of the event is readily available online. If you wish to see a greater context for the Perry class ships, you can view the documentary film I made about the Navy’s Surface Warfare community here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdznIE843vI . The source of my statements above is my own eyewitness account of the events. I was there with a double crew of Navy motion picture cameramen to cover the event. Needing one more viewpoint, I assigned myself the unusual position directly below the point of impact of the champagne bottle. As I’d hoped, the champagne splash came directly at my lens. I was standing on the hydraulic ram, and felt the vibration when it started. Wayne’s dramatic moment was a highlight for all in attendance.
Thank you, CDR Peele for fleshing out the details of the event. I heard the story from another eye-witness, the head of Public Relations for Bath Iron Works. But being a PR guy, his stories were prone to spin. I trust you as a source more.