John Wayne

How John Wayne Helped Revolutionize The Art Of On-Screen Fighting

Before John Wayne began making low-budget Westerns in the 1930s, stunt performers were rarely, if ever, acknowledged or given credit for their work. Studios didn’t want to break the illusion to reveal that it wasn’t the main star on-screen performing their own stunts, so the practice became one of Hollywood’s biggest secrets. Looking back on the history of stunts from the era, the British Action Academy noted that, during that time, studios and directors began demanding more dangerous stunts that resulted in a large increase in on-set fatalities.

The marquee star wasn’t in mortal jeopardy and some actors like Harold Lloyd had it written into their contracts that it could never be revealed when a stuntman was utilized. Tom Mix, the first bonafide movie star, always claimed that he was the one who made the famous horse jump across the Beale’s Cut ravine in John Ford’s 1923 short film, “3 Jumps Ahead.” However, Mix biographer Robert S. Birchard, author of “King Cowboy: Tom Mix and the Movies,” insisted that it was actually a stuntman and horse trainer named Earl Simpson.
Up until the era of John Wayne, there was always a clear delineation between actor and stuntman. Once talkies became mainstream, the Western remained popular but the genre was relegated to B-movie status. After the failure of his first starring role in “The Big Trail,” Wayne took an interest in learning more about stunt work, becoming proficient in horse riding and the general cowboying skills needed to look the part on-screen. Over the next decade, Wayne would hone his skills and become fast friends with the legendary stuntmen Yakima Canutt. In the years ahead, Wayne would help usher in an entirely new approach to fight choreography that proved safer for performers and more realistic to audiences.
Acting like a real-life street fighter

Warner Bros.Most of John Wayne’s greatest movie moments involve punching something or someone. The sound of his punch alone echoed throughout movie halls and became a famous signature of his. Since the actors weren’t really punching each other, the sound of the hit would be added later in post and it always seemed like the hero’s punch was always a little louder. Back when the action star began his career, however, the actors really were making contact. “At that time, in pictures, the way they did a fight was, you and your opponent, you hit each other in the shoulders and faked it to look like real,” Wayne said in an interview in author Maurice Zolotow’s biography “Shooting Star.” Wanting the fights to be as realistic as possible, Wayne emulated world heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, studying old newsreels of Dempsey training before a bout.
Unfortunately for performers like Yak Canutt, someone who found himself on the other end of those punches on more than one occasion, Wayne’s commitment to authenticity resulted in some real abuse. “I wouldn’t hold back when I felt myself gettin’ all worked up with hatred for a villain,” Wayne recalled. “I wanted to kill the son-of-a-b****. Matter of fact, I guess I liked these fight scenes more than any other stunts we did.”
Canutt went on to perform incredibly dangerous, spectacular stunts in “Stagecoach” and “Zorro’s Fighting Legion,” but he went up against John Wayne’s fists first. Complaints from Canutt and a little ingenuity from director Robert Bradbury (“West of the Divide,” “Westward Ho”) wound up leading to a completely new way to shoot a fight scene, with a technique still used today.
Inventing a new camera trick

United ArtistsInstead of punching the daylights out of his co-stars until they were black and blue, John Wayne described the day when director Robert Bradbury, one of Wayne’s early cohorts and collaborators, had a moment of inspiration. As told in the “Shooting Star” biography:
“[Bradbury] said that he thought if he placed the camera at a certain angle it would look as if my fist was making contact with Yak’s face, though my fist was passing by his face, not even grazing it. We tried it out one day, and when we saw the rushes we saw how good it looked. Bradbury invented this trick, which he called the pass system. Other stuntmen and directors picked up on it, and it became the established way of doing a fight.”
Before this simple but brilliant idea of the pass system was invented, there just wasn’t a lot of thought paid to protecting actors and efforts to make movie sets a little safer were still in early stages of development. Something as basic as changing the angle of the shot immediately lessened the blows performers were taking without compromising a fight scene’s believability. Wayne loved it because he could still pack just as much power into his punches. In the famous fight against Vic McLagen in “The Quiet Man,” Wayne played a retired American prizefighter for the first time. Watching the brawl, it’s clear both actors aren’t holding anything back but, miraculously, they never made physical contact once.
For a heavy like John Wayne who loved a good battle, the new technique was a welcome tool in his arsenal that allowed him to keep punching for years to come, in films such as 1975’s “Brannigan.” “I had plenty of fights on-screen. I’ve been told I’ve done more fighting in pictures than any other star –- and I’ve also had a few fights off the screen.”

John Wayne

Yellowstone: Why audiences compare Kevin Costner to a ‘modern John Wayne’.

Will there ever be another Hollywood cowboy quite like John Wayne? These Yellowstone fans think Kevin Costner is the only to come close.Right off the bat, this feels an odd comparison to draw for this Outsider. Sure, on the surface it works: both men are incredibly famous for their work in Westerns. Yet as individuals and their roles in Hollywood at large – they could not be more different.

But that’s just one man’s opinion! As a fellow Yellowstone fan, however, I do think it’s fair to say Costner’s John Dutton is having a considerable impact on American pop culture today – much in the same way John Wayne did in his heyday.

Perhaps this, then, is what has led to an active discussion over on Reddit’s Yellowstone board between passionate fans. There, Redditor deepinterwebz jumpstarts the conversation with: “I see Kevin Costner as America’s modern day John Wayne. He embodies America’s true cowboy spirit as Wayne did.”Which, again, on the surface kind of works. The top comment picks up on some of the same hiccups mentioned earlier, though, as u/hitch_in_my_gitalong replies: “Leaving out their actual personalities, John Wayne generally played good guy roles. John Dutton wants something that’s honorable and good but is crooked in how he goes about it.”

True, yet both were products of their time. In this discussion, fans seem to be whisking all of Wayne’s iconic cowboy roles into one fictional cowboy of a man – which was largely The Duke’s public persona. Wayne always wanted to play good guys, sure (except, you know, that one time he played Genghis Khan in one of the worst missteps in Hollywood history), but many of his characters were just as “crooked” as Costner’s Dutton for their time. Cinema simply wasn’t as breakneck and gory in the golden age. Things were… Much different. Something like Yellowstone would be unfathomable to audiences of the mid-20th century.

‘Yellowstone’ Fans on ‘Hollywood’s Version of a Cowboy’

To this end, Redditor DemenicHand believes “it would probably be better to compare Rock “The Dwayne” Johnson’s persona to John Wayne, instead of [Costner].”An interesting take! Honestly, Johnson certainly has a much more similar bravado to Wayne about him that Costner. Wayne was “larger than life,” as is Johnson. Costner, however, is far closer to that actual “cowboy spirit” of less showmanship – more action.

Yet Redditor johnnykoxville (not to be confused with the actual Jackass star) disagrees that either could ever be considered the “True cowboy spirit,” saying “It’s so far off in reality.”Eh… I Disagree. From someone who has two literal cowboys for great uncles, both men remind me a lot of Kevin Costner and a little of John Wayne. So take that for what you will, Yellowstone fans.As Redditor AnnaNonna says, “John Wayne embodied Hollywood’s version of a cowboy.”

Kevin Costner and his characters – like one John Dutton – however, feel far more true to life.

John Wayne

Do you know the huge value of John Wayne’s top 5 guns used in Western movies?

John Wayne is cinema’s favorite cowboy. Sorry, Clint Eastwood. The actor made a name for himself with his tough as nails characters. Throughout his career, Wayne played many different cowboys, soldiers, and police officers. The actor was known for his weaponry.But some guns are more memorable than others. Here is the Top Five guns Wayne used during his career:

5. John Wayne Used a Colt Diamondback in ‘Brannigan’John Wayne was always the motto of Theodore Roosevelt’s famous quote: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Okay, so maybe he didn’t speak that softly. But Wayne certainly never backed down, even when he traded the Old West for London. The 1975 film “Brannigan” saw the actor go abroad as a detective trying to capture a criminal.

Wayne uses the iconic Colt Diamondback in the film, which certainly packs a punch. The weapon becomes a source of contention in the film. Because it’s against British law to carry a firearm. But Wayne refuses to listen and continues to carry the weapon.

4. The Cowboy Retrieves Two Double-Barrels in ‘Big Jake’You don’t want to mess with a grandfather and his greeners. A couple of bandits found out the hard way in the 1971 film “Big Jake.” Wayne plays a grandfather on a mission. When his grandson is kidnapped, Wayne’s wife brings him his guns. In the iconic scene, Wayne pulls two short double-barreled shotguns. Notably, Wayne h as a cinematic gunfight with the bandit le ader, using one of the double barrels.

Why were the shotguns called Greeners? W.W. Greener is a British manufacturer of weaponry. The actual shotguns used in the film were created by the American Gun Company. So, this is a little bit of a white lie on the part of the film’s production.

3. Wayne Has Fun with a Mac-10 in ‘McQ’ Now, that’s a gun. The screen legend gets his hand on a MAC-10 submachine gun with a suppressor almost as big as his arm. For most of his career, Wayne dabbled in revolvers, rifles, and westerns. But the actor starred in the 1974 police film “McQ,” opening the door for modern weapons.

During the film, Wayne brings out the weapon for a beach chase at the end. While Dirty Harry may have his Magnum, audiences will hardly see a more fun image than Wayne firing a submachine gun.

2. ‘Stagecoach’ Features the Iconic Saddle Ringe Carbine One of Wayne’s earliest films also featured one of his most iconic weapons. The cowboy and the Winchester 1892 Saddle Ringe Carbine make for a deadly combination in 1939’s “Stagecoach.” It may not make sense for the film’s timeline. The gun wasn’t released until the 1890s while the film is set in the 1880s. But audiences forgave the inconsistency.

The film features a group of people traveling on a stagecoach between Arizona and New Mexico. During the film, Wayne flips the rifle in an iconic twirl. And the cowboy was born.

1. John Wayne Goes Out with a Pair of Revolvers in ‘The Shootist’From one of John Wayne’s first to his last. The 1976 film “The Shootist” features Wayne in his last movie role. The actor is at his most poignant, playing an aging gunfight looking for one last fight. After the film, Wayne died from cancer in 1979. In the film, Wayne used his own personal guns – a pair of Great Western Revolvers.

Wayne will always be connected to the image of the cowboy, with revolvers as his go-to. These pair of guns were created personally for Wayne in the 1950s. Wayne’s decision to use the weapons in the film fits with the flick’s swansong nature. It’s only right that the cowboy goes out with a pair of revolvers in either hand.

John Wayne

John Wayne’s family members revealed his personal letter, have you seen these pictures?

John Wayne được cho là cái tên mang tính biểu tượng nhất trong làng điện ảnh Mỹ – ngoài một diễn viên, anh còn là một báu vật quốc gia. Giờ đây, Gia đình Wayne đang chia sẻ những bức thư cá nhân, điện tín, thẻ và những bức ảnh chưa từng thấy của ngôi sao trong Duke: In His Own Words, do Media Lab Books xuất bản.

Wayne nói: ‘Người mà bạn nhìn thấy trên màn hình thực sự không phải là tôi. Tôi là Công tước Morrison, và tôi chưa bao giờ và sẽ không bao giờ là một nhân vật điện ảnh như John Wayne. Tôi biết rõ anh ấy. Tôi là một trong những học trò thân thiết nhất của anh ấy. Tôi phải là người kiếm sống nhờ anh ấy. Đó là mẫu người đàn ông mà những người vợ bình thường muốn dành cho chồng mình ‘.

Daily Mail Online đã được cung cấp những bức ảnh và bức thư độc quyền này từ Kho lưu trữ John Wayne để chia sẻ với độc giả. ba mươi năm. Anh ấy tắm cho lũ trẻ bằng những món quà xa hoa nhưng đảm bảo rằng chúng biết giá trị của sự chăm chỉ.

Ông có ba người vợ, trải qua nhiều cuộc tình, quanh quẩn với Ward Bond và Frank Sinatra – và không bao giờ ngại ngùng khi đưa ra lời khuyên cho Tổng thống Hoa Kỳ. ‘Duke’, ‘Everlovin’, hay chỉ ‘Bố’ đối với gia đình và bạn bè của anh ấy sinh ra ở miền Trung Tây nhưng sớm cùng gia đình tái định cư ở miền nam California để thích nghi với tình trạng phổi của chính cha mình.

Chính việc di chuyển về phía tây đã giới thiệu người đàn ông và phụ nữ 6’4 ′ gồ ghề đến các xưởng phim Hollywood. Anh ấy đã mất học bổng bóng đá của mình vào Đại học Nam California sau một tai nạn lướt ván trên cơ thể.Anh ấy thực sự không bao giờ ghi bàn thắng thua, không có tiền đi học, anh ấy rời đi và tiếp tục trở thành một cậu bé hỗ trợ và phụ trong các bộ phim vào những năm 1920.

Đến năm 1930, anh được giao vai chính đầu tiên trong The Big Trail và đó là khi cái tên John Wayne xuất hiện trên màn ảnh. Ông tiếp tục trở thành ngôi sao của phim phương Tây và cuối cùng đã trở thành ngôi sao vàng phòng vé trong 5 thập kỷ cho đến khi ông kết thúc phim vào ngày 11 tháng 6 năm 1979. Wayne bị ung thư dạ dày ở tuổi 72. Wayne đã kết hôn ba lần – tất cả đều là phụ nữ Latina.