
The Making of John Wayne - coloneltcb
http://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelenpetersen/making-of-john-wayne?utm_term=.gn1l04Wjyk#.jdRq30ZVjr
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ArkyBeagle
"In truth, Wayne’s roles, and personal ideologies, were much more ambivalent,
complicated, and nuanced in his opinions than popular memory allows."

His characters were always divorced ( and possibly misogynist ) , lousy
fathers and frankly, assholes. I think that's the charm - the character could
say what's on his mind. Embittered, more or less tired of life. Somebody who'd
paid the price for all that violence and hubris. This was pretty outrageous at
the time.

I also think his movies were a lot for people who had ...daddy issues.

But the guy had a basket of riffs ( and usually hooks from the writers ) to
make that work. Those movies play weekly on infinite repeat.

I think Teh Movies would have made movies where women did what John Wayne did
but that would have landed flat at the time. He had ...some movies with the
great Woody Strode, where Woody played the better man ( especially "Liberty
Vallance" ) so it's harder to say he was strictly racist.

Also - see "Rustler's Rhapsody" which is a deconstruction of the contradictory
tropes in Westerns.

They do identify the moment - when "Midnight Cowboy" won the Oscar - when my
parents' generation disconnected from movies.

~~~
douche
> His characters were always divorced ( and possibly misogynist ) , lousy
> fathers and frankly, assholes. I think that's the charm - the character
> could say what's on his mind. Embittered, more or less tired of life.
> Somebody who'd paid the price for all that violence and hubris. This was
> pretty outrageous at the time.

That's part of the reason I love old-man Clint Eastwood movies - Gran Torino
and Heartbreak Ridge, especially.

Also, I think The Shootist is the best John Wayne exemplar of this. And one of
the best John Wayne movies, period.

~~~
ill0gicity
The Shootist was one, if not the, first John Wayne movies I can remember
watching as a kid. At the time I took the movie at face value wanting to be
like Gillom learning to shoot. As an adult watching it I can see the truth of
the story: the pain of an old man wanting to leave life in a manner of his
choosing, and being disappointed that in the end he could not control it.

Sure, most of his characters were macho, misogynistic, and perhaps a touch
racist, but was that his portrayal of the character drawn from his knowledge
of what got him jobs, the writers, or perhaps both? Maybe he was simply the
victim of type-casting. We see type-casting a lot these days: Keira Knightley
seems stuck with period-piece roles, Jim Carrey is one of the go-to guys in
the comedy realm, Jennifer Aniston is perpetually the ditsy girl, and it just
goes on from there. Certain actors and actresses seem destined to play only a
single type of role because of their looks. It's as true then as it is now.
You could argue that these people accept the roles so they're as much to blame
as the casting agents, but if the only roles they're offered are these type-
casted ones who's really to blame? Sorry, I digress.

To me the story of Gran Torino is very similiar to that of The Shootist. It's
been updated for the times, but at its core it's still about an old man
tutoring a young boy and choosing how he'll die. Is the Clint Eastwood story
better? I think that depends on who you ask. Is the character of Walt Kowalski
better than J.B. Books? That depends on your definition of better. I believe
there are things to learn from both characters and both stories. And while
these things may not always be good, they are still important to know.

------
tomohawk
This book was a good read:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/books/review/scott-
eymans-...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/books/review/scott-eymans-john-
wayne-the-life-and-legend.html?_r=0)

------
anti-shill
my dad was an extra in the movie The Alamo (1960), which Wayne starred in and
directed. My dad said Wayne cussed a lot. My dad played a mexican cavalry
man....

My dad and many men of his era and place (we lived in west texas) always sort
of lived their lives in a john wayne sort of fashion.... in the movie Hondo,
Wayne, upon hearing that a young boy could not swim across the creek in front
of him, grabbed him by his underwear and threw him in the creek--sink or swim.
My dad did the same to me at about age 6.

Anyway, I think it was John Ford who made Wayne a real star.

------
nichochar
Buzzfeed making hacker news based on content! This is very interesting. I've
heard the company is doing very well, and really focusing hard on delivering
quality content now.

~~~
dang
This has been a thing for a while:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8439383](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8439383)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9019580](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9019580)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9044063](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9044063)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10224814](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10224814)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10369468](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10369468)

It's not uncommon now for sites to produce 95% junk with a high-quality 5%. Of
course it's the latter HN is looking for.

