What is John Wayne’s greatest peformance? – Old western – My Blog
For me, my favorite John Wayne performances are actually in two films.These are not John’s typical heroes. I think I liked him in these two roles because he played characters who were morally ambiguous. They were made up of a mixture of both good and bad qualities. They also had to make very difficult decisions that sometimes went against their nature. Furthermore, they do the right thing at times but just barely. I think John went outside his comfort zone to play these characters. He did an amazing job.
The Man Who shot Liberty Valance. John plays a full-of-himself, sarcastic, somewhat of a narcissist and a bit of a showoff. He thought he could have anything he wanted and take it anytime he wanted. He ended up alone and losing everything he ever wanted. He ultimately did the right thing when the chips were down but due to his hubris, and ego he lost both girl and home and ended up a broken, lonely man.Due to the size of the man, the sarcastic belly laugh, occasionally picking on less physically experienced people (paint can scene), and his selfishness, this character is much more interesting and a bit more ambiguous in nature than many of John’s other characters. There are times in the film where he comes off as obnoxious.The scene where he douses his student in paint and mocks him is exactly the type of thing that the sadistic, villain Liberty would have done.He does do the right thing in one key instance of the film, but sadly pays for it the rest of his life, probably because he was so hard-headed and a wise guy a good part of the time.Only John Wayne could have pulled this off. It required a big, intimidating man who the audience could still have empathy for in spite of him having more than a few obnoxious qualities.The other film is The Searches. Johns plays Ethan Edwards, a type of Ahab character on a quest for his kidnapped niece and for revenge. The vengeance is for the slaughter and kidnapping of his relatives by American Indians.This time he is full of rage and prejudice. He fought in the civil war on the side of the Confederacy. His side lost of course, and you can be sure that he didn’t like that very much. He has some unexplained gold coins. Possibly ill-gotten gains?His biggest flaw is that he is a hard-headed bigot, with a mean streak.When he happens upon a dead Native American, he mutilates the body by shooting the eyes out, so it will stumble around the happy hunting ground in the afterlife. He scalps an Indian. He flies into a rage and tries to murder his niece when he learns that she married a Comanche. He is stopped by another character and an arrow just before he can kill her. Otherwise, she would be dead.Ultimately, he does do the right thing in a key moment in the film, but the last scene of the film shows a happy family entering a house. All but Ethan, who will not enter through the door.Ethan can last be seen walking off toward the frontier alone and lonely while the door closes on his back. Possibly meaning that this man is an outsider and by nature and cannot coincide with simple “normal” people.Maybe Ethan is a certain specific type of unacceptable, hard, heroic man. The type that a family or a nation doesn’t hesitate to use but never acknowledges or allows that man to take part in it.John plays this role in The Searchers very believably, and I don’t think there was another actor who could have handled this role at the time. John appears to be appropriately slightly overweight, massive in size, overpowering, intimidating, and explosive. He gives you the sense that his character is unpredictable and is capable of almost anything. He is rude, and sometimes he rages and gets out of control. He wears a black hat too. Not the normal John Wayne attire, which adds to the ambiguous nature of his character. On the positive side, his character shows himself to be a forceful, take-charge leader. This is probably the closest that John ever came to playing a bad guy. You can see how he could have pulled it off easily had he chosen to do so in another film.John Wayne as Tom Doniphon with actor Woody StrodeJohn Wayne with Jeffery Hunter“That’s my steak”Tom Doniphon finally stands up to Liberty, but ONLY when Toms’s dinner is at stake.This scene shows that Tom’s principles extend only to HIM and HIS property, and he is not a simple white-washed good guy. This scene is important to showing the ambiguous attitude of this character. Later in the film, he steps outside of his “me first principles.” When he does, he is “cheating” and arguably committing murder. This act will dash all his future hopes and plans.
John Wayne’s ”expensive” sayings made the fans ”nod”’. – My Blog
John Wayne (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979) was an American movie Actor, director, and producer, known in movies like Stagecoach, Angel and the Bad Man, Red River, and The Shootist.They say that life is a good teacher and through them who lived this life we can learn a lot, especially from great people like John Wayne a.k.a Duke.Today I am going to share with you Wayne’s 5 rules you should be remembering in your daily life:
1. Money cannot buy happiness but its more comfortable to cry in a Mercedes than on a bicycle.
This is a long debate everywhere, rich people say that “those who say money can buy happiness are the ones who don’t have” and broke people reply that “you don’t know how miserable we are just because we don’t have coins in our pocket”.John Wayne made it clearer that though money cannot buy happiness but when unhappy moments arrive money can make someone comfortable.
2. Forgive your enemy but remember the bastard’s name.
Forgiving your enemy is in your favor, most of the time carrying such burden in your heart is more painful while the bastard doesn’t even know.Just to be careful, put their names somewhere in your mind. Once a soldier always a commando and once enemy, I don’t know.
3. Help someone when they are in trouble and they will remember you when they’re in trouble again.
Do what is right, help people but never expect something in return.According to John Wayne, the only thing you can expect from people is that if you have helped them in the hard times, they will remember you when they’re in trouble again.
4. Many people are alive only because it’s illegal to shoot them.
Everyone has enemies and some people do harm to us to the level we even wish to kill them. Not only our enemies would be killed if to kill was not illegal but also some innocents and powerless people.About this rule, something you have to learn is that we’re surrounded by people that don’t kill us only because it’s illegal.
5. Alcohol does not solve any problems, but then again, neither does milk.
Haha this rule is somehow funny but it is true on the other hand. You will find people telling you stop drinking alot it will solve nothing but at least you’ll have that sedative moment.Alcohol does not solve any problems, but then again, neither does milk.
Interesting things happen at the “Duketober” celebration at the John Wayne museum . – My Blog
The enduring legacy of actor John Wayne, America’s ultimate cowboy, was celebrated last month, fittingly enough, by the Cowboy Channel in association with the John Wayne: An American Experience museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
The “Duketober” celebration is a month-long airing of classic John Wayne movies via broadcast and streaming. It will culminate with a 50th anniversary live panel discussion on Nov. 3 in remembrance of Big Jake, the 1971 movie that bought Wayne together with sons Ethan and Patrick, who will participate in a discussion about his films and career.Wayne’s legacy has taken a few hits in the last couple of years.
A 50-year-old Playboy magazine interview outlining some of his controversial views on race surfaced, sparking his USC alma mater to remove an exhibit on him. There’s also a movement to remove his name from the Orange County airport. So far, that action has failed to gain ground . But Wayne’s cinematic legacy, particularly his western movies, continue to rank among the finest ever produced by Hollywood. Such films as The Searchers, True Grit, Stagecoach and Rio Bravo are considered classics of the genre.
“The John Wayne: An American Experience (JWAAE) museum in the Fort Worth Stockyards has created a perfect synergy for the Cowboy Channel to highlight this incredible western film legend and showcase many of his classic films for our audience,” said Cowboy Channel CEO Raquel Koehler Gottsch.
“Our fans absolutely adore John Wayne, and we couldn’t be happier to have a great relationship with his family and be able to share his movies with our audience and dedicate an entire month to such a western star legend.”“He would be thrilled to learn that so many people still cherish his films after all these years and I know he’s smiling somewhere,” said son Ethan Wayne.
The Cowboy Channel will also feature a Halloween movie marathon of Wayne films, and fans can tune-in to such classics such as Rio Grande, Sand of Iwo Jima, and The Shootist.
James Caan shares a memorable collaboration with John Wayne on the set of El Dorado. – My Blog
In 1997, James Caan joined The Late Show with David Letterman to starred on John Wayne after they alongside one another on the hit movie El Dorado.While Wayne portrayed the noble elder gunfighter Cole Thorton, Caan plays his loyal friend, Mississippi. Furthermore, the movie was directed by esteemed producer Howard Hawks.
James Caan notes that the first big-name he worked with in Hollywood was John Wayne. Wayne was 33 years older than Caan and already had boomed success in the industry, so naturally, James Caan admired the Duke.“He was great because he could intimidate you,” explains Caan. “He’d stay on you forever, and you’d just crumble. I mean, he’d just try you.”However, on the set of El Dorado, James Caan recalls getting directions from Howard Hawks, also known as Coach.
“So this one night I remember I was between he and Mitchum and Howard Hawks was about 72 at the time, and we’re outside in this old Tucson. This big old western town and Hawks comes up and says, ‘now look, Kid, when you say that line, here’s what’s going to happen. Duke, you go down the middle of the road right down the center because we are going to surround this bar. Mitchum, you go around that way, and Kid, you go around.’ I said, ‘alright, Coach.’ because that’s what we called him, Coach.’
“He was coach,” notes Letterman. “John Wayne was Duke, and you’re the Kid.” After Hawk gave the instructions, he began walking back to the cameras. James Caan, who does a perfect John Wayne impression, reflected on when Wayne tried to offer the then-youngster a few tips.“So now he has to walk back up 50 yards back to the camera. There’s all kinds of extras, and he’s walking back, and the dude looks at me and goes, ‘now look, Kid.’ He says, ‘when you say that there line, I want you to turn around and give me that look you give me.’
“Give Me That Look That You Give Me.”The men begin to laugh hysterically because Jame Caan has no idea what John Wayne is talking about. Regardless, Caan still gave it a try.“I have no idea what he’s talking about. But the truth is that Mitchum explains me that I was laughing at him all the time. Every time he talked because you had to. How can you take him seriously? That ‘why did you do it’ look. So he said, ‘give me that look that you give me.’ I said, ‘alright. Alright Duke.’
At this point, it isn’t Wayne who is mad about Cann’s performance. It is Hawks. However, the Duke still offered his advice. James Caan must.“He gets behind the camera everything starts going, and they go ‘ACTION!’ and I send my one line and I take a step, and I turn around. Coach goes ‘CUT’. Comes running up, and he goes, ‘look, when you take the step. Don’t take the step. I want you to say the line and go. Just go!’ He starts to walk back to the camera, and Wayne goes, ‘now look, Kid. Don’t take a whole step, take a half a step and then turn around and give me that look you give me.’