Reply #7: He was the other side of Jimmy Stewart. The other type of "common man" [View All]

[jobycom]

Jimmy Stewart was the soft side of the common man, who wore his insecurities on his sleeve by still acted righteous and heroic. Wayne was the harder side, the man who hid his insecurities and emotions while trying to act righteous and heroic. But you still saw the insecurities, in his quick furrowed brow, or his broken speech as he tried to reason everything out as he spoke, or his quick temper. In his best films, you saw the conflict even as you saw the unbending hero. I'm not completely sure Wayne did it on purpose, even. But it was there.

He's not my favorite, and I'm not old enough have watched him in the day. But I've started to see why he was interesting to watch. Not in his bad films, but in better ones, like The Searchers, or Liberty Valance, or True Grit.

He was also a complex man. He supported Viet Nam, of course, and helped George Bush Daddy campaign against one of my heroes (Ralph Yarborough). But he wasn't a simple conservative. A local liberal radio personality in Austin was in The Green Berets. Back in 92 when conservatives where using John Wayne's image to complain about gays in the military, Cactus Pryor talked about the movie. He said there were several actors who were openly gay, and John Wayne hired them, worked with them, respected them as professionals, and was friends with them. He wasn't sure how Wayne would have come down on the issue.