John Wayne is a difficult figure for cinema lovers to truly accept in the modern world. His views on subjects such as race and decency have left his legacy cut adrift from the ever-changing social spectrum, but what is often forgotten is that even during his heyday, he was an outlier of conservatism. Famed for his protection of the American way of life, Wayne was maniacal about its defence and would routinely take to sets, interviews and award shows to lambast those he saw threatening it.
This way of living allowed Wayne to be coloured in two different ways. For some, he was an all-American hero, kind of like Hulk Hogan for a war-torn western-loving generation. He would saddle up to the bad guys, punch them in the mouth, and ask them to apologise for it. He acted as a superhero for millions of cinema lovers. However, such patriotism is also unashamedly problematic, and his rage would often bubble out of control, most notably at the Academy Awards in 1973.
As Marlon Brando’s name was called out as the winner of ‘Best Actor’ for his role in The Godfather, Sacheen Littlefeather took to the stage on the actor’s behalf to turn down the award and call out Hollywood’s treatment of Native Americans. It angered Wayne beyond measure. “I remember the faces in the crowd,” Littlefeather later noted of the incident. “John Wayne, backstage, had to be restrained by six men from coming to get me and pull me off the stage.”
In other incidents, during an interview with Playboy, Wayne also labelled Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy as “perverted”, where he noted that heterosexual sex was all fine and well on screen but questioned: “A story about two f*gs qualifies?” It all paints a picture of a Hollywood icon who was unable to access the necessary ability to progress with the fast-changing times. However, it wasn’t only during Wayne’s latter career that he allowed his connection to the sanctity of the Stars and Stripes to cloud his judgement.
Formed in 1944, Wayne was part of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. It operated to defend American people from Communism infiltrating culture or, as Wayne puts it, as “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 — the kind Dalton Trumbo faced — was “a lot of horseshit”, he did admit that instead, they were “just running a lot of people out of the business.”
Wayne himself was being invited to what he called “Communist recruitment meetings” at the homes of Hollywood elites. Wayne would take an open stance against this way of thinking, and when speaking to Playboy, he was curt about those whom he deemed to be a threat to America. “I also knew two other fellas who really did things that were detrimental to our way of life,” he explained. “One of them was Carl Foreman, the guy who wrote the screenplay for High Noon, and the other was Robert Rossen, the one who made the picture about Huey Long, All the King’s Men.“
However, the latter movie both annoyed Wayne and highlighted how his passionate beliefs would often get in the way of his career accelerating. He said: “In Rossen’s version of All the King’s Men, which he sent me to read for a part, every character who had any responsibility at all was guilty of some offence against society. To make Huey Long a wonderful, rough pirate was great; but, according to this picture, everybody was a shit except for this weakling intern doctor who was trying to find a place in the world.”
The notion that such a pitiful character could be considered the hero of the piece clearly found no alignment with Wayne and his vision of the American dream. “I sent the script back to Charlie Feldman, my agent, and said, ‘If you ever send me a script like this again, I’ll fire you.’ Ironically, it won the Academy Award,” he confessed. The movie picked up gongs for ‘Best Motion Picture’, ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for Mercedes McCambridge and, most notably, ‘Best Actor’ for Broderick Crawford.
It’s not the only time such a thing occurred when he was offered the chance to take a role in The Dirty Dozen but turned it down because of his conservative values. The picture is a visceral testament to rebellion and the devious nature of war. Robert Aldrich’s cinematic ballet of renegade soldiers, led by the indomitable Lee Marvin, a role first offered to Wayne, melds gritty warfare with dark humour. However, his affair with an English woman would put Wayne off as he didn’t want to be seen committing adultery on screen.
John Wayne was never one to mince his words. His beliefs in conservative principles were steadfast, even if they were undeniably problematic. However, one thing can be said about the actor: he rarely compromised those values for the sake of his career.