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John Wayne to the western is as important as bread is to a sandwich. You can change or add some elements (for example turkey, ham, lettuce, cheese, bacon, tomato), but you always end up needing the bread. His walk, his talk, everything about him was rugged, which worked well within the western genre. After the release of Stagecoach established John Wayne as a force to be reckoned with within the western genre, Wayne would spend the rest of his career essentially carrying the genre. Andrew Britton’s “Stars and Genre” article talks about the distinctions between a star vehicle and genre, but in Wayne’s case, his star vehicles defined the western genre. His performances and characters gave way to archetypes that would forever be associated with the genre, and weaved into the storylines of other westerns. Writers and producers would create characters that looked, felt, and acted like John Wayne, but while they could imitate, they could never duplicate. Wayne’s signature voice, walk, and the general atmosphere he created in each scene were so natural that the chemistry he had could not be recreated.
The article “John Wayne’s America,” by Gary Willis, says John Wayne was not born John Wayne, but a persona that had to be invented. I disagree with this statement though because just doing outside research about John Wayne, it is clear to see that his real life mirrors the characters he portrays on screen. Wayne was a celebrated football player so one can assume he was rough and tough in real life, much like the cowboys in the Wild West must be. Even scenes like the one in Stagecoach where Wayne’s character faces off against the native Americans, can be applied back to his real life. In the film he is essentially the white man who defeats the savage minority from threatening the white way of life. Wayne in the same sense embodies these racist undertones in his daily life, and this can expressly be seen in a Playboy interview where he suggested that blacks should not be treated as equals until they learned how to be responsible. (http://www.playboy.com/articles/john-wayne-interview)
John Wayne is especially the character that we see on screen, and elements of his real life inform the characters he plays in westerns. His ability to put so much of himself on screen makes him believable as a cowboy, and it is this sole reason that has afforded him success.
Questions
1. What in particular has made John Wayne the Western's biggest star?
2. Are the racist undertones in Western films a sign of the times, or just another example of Hollywood undermining minorities by making them enemies and/or servants.
3. What does the Western genre offer the culture at large, is it just fun escapism or does it have a deeper message?
1 comment:
There's a lot to talk about in regards to the discussion questions posed here.
The Othering of Native cultures is an unfortunate phenomenon that prevades so many aspects of popular culture. It's not just Westerns; and it's not just movies.
In my opinion, a lot of what fuels the popularity of the Western genre is the old American standard of Manifest Destiny. Not to mention the familiarity of the continual reaffirmation of the status quo that can be seen through these hegemonic spectacles.
Many people do make the argument that the level of racism in these films is due to the ignorance of the era, but honestly, it's not like man has somehow evolved to have a social conscience since the 1950s or something. Though we would hope that the Civil Rights Movement had eradicated such blatant displays, the same destructive attitudes toward minority cultures has merely changed its form - not disappeared. For exmaple, Last of the Mohicans, a supposedly modern take on a 1800's Western, was just as racist in 1992 as it was in 1936. It's formulaic.
Hollywood has never really let go of the "Cowboys v. Indians" discourse in its action movies; but it has in recent times transformed the enemy. Sometimes it's aliens, sometimes it's terrorists - but it's always something that is unable to speak up for itself the way the American Indian Movement began speaking up for the Nations so wrongly portrayed in older films. And there is always some patriotic, frontier-driven undertone. I mean, just look at Avatar.
As was mentioned in another post, as well as discussed briefly in class, this format is familiar, safe and proven to make a fast buck. We must destroy the Other - for America.
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