Wayne and Grant as Men of Genre

When analyzing Simon & Schuster’s John Wayne’s America and Steven Cohan’s Masked Men: Masculinity and the Movies in the Fifties, we see two very contrasting images of a “real” man. Wayne is invincible: he represents “America” as a concept, his rugged handsomeness relating directly to the unconquered frontier. In his films, he did not stand for the social and national fears or problems of his audience, “He stood for an America people felt was disappearing or had disappeared, for a time ‘when men were men.’” Grant, however, was a different story. Though he was still dubbed “an authentic American hero,” his persona was not one of invincibility – rather, he portrayed many of the insecurities and instabilities of “manhood” the society of the 1950’s. Rather than being a firm, non-changing image of a “man” when traditional manhood is faltering, in North by Northwest, he portrays exactly what society is fearful of – and resolves his instable position at the end by proposing to Eva Kendall.

How is it that two men, both overwhelmingly popular in the 50s, stand for two very different images of “ideal manhood?” It is possible that the answer lies in the genre that each one occupies. As Andrew Britton writes, “Popular American movies presuppose an enormously sophisticated intimacy with the conventions of genre – an intense awareness of the logic of this dramatic world as distinct from that one.” The rules and conventions of the Western dictate that John Wayne’s character does not have any shortcomings that he must overcome: the Western hero is an unwavering, unchanging man who can overcome all obstacles. In Stagecoach, Wayne’s Ringo knows exactly what he wants, and the only thing stopping him from his goals are his captors and the Indians. From the first moment he sees Louise, he knows he wants to marry her. The suspense thriller, however, is all about the unstable – after all, to create suspense, there must be insecurity and instability. Cary Grant’s character in North by Northwest, then, embodies and mirrors the greater instabilities of the movie by channeling the anxiety towards the image of a “man” and by donning many masks (and, like the way in which a suspense thriller is often set up, he sheds his masks one at a time throughout the course of the movie). The enemies in a suspense thriller are not clear-cut like those of the Western. Who, then, does the hero of the movie have to fight and prevail against? The end, of course, resolves all tensions about masculinity: Roger saves Eva from a precarious situation and proposes.

Questions:

1) John Wayne has remained in the top 10 list of favorite stars decades after his death. Why was this not the same for Grant? What does this say about American ideology?

2) While Wayne’s roles were almost exclusively set in the Western genre, Grant moved more between genres. How is star image affected by the respective decisions of these men?

3) Who are relevant stars today that harken the “manly” images of either Wayne or Grant? How do the more modern male stars reflect the challenges of present-day society?