John Wayne once said, “I am proud of every day of my life waking up in the United States of America. Now, the Grand Duke will awaken – at least in the United States – no more, but the John Wayne legend is sure to prove as immortal as any pop-culture figure in the history of the republic. his dear.
His ԁеаtһ at the age of 72 from cancer sparked a massive nationwide response to the man, movie star and legend more than a tribute to a career that spanned 50 years with more than a decade. 200 films grossed over $400 million. It was a moment for America, the greatest producer of mass fantasy films in human history, to take a close look at one of the .
The biggest, most obscure embodiments of such fantasy. Celebrating the ԁеаtһ of John Wayne, America is celebrating one of the great dreams of the ԁеаԁ— a dream of national resilience, courage, moral integrity, and unwavering sincerity. Or chivalrous dream? The President of the Republic thought so. Jimmy Carter said: “John Wayne is greater than life. “In an age of few heroes, he is a genuine article.”
There is no doubting the bravery of John Wayne. 15 years of battling illness – cancer costing him his lungs and stomach, open heart surgery and cholecystectomy – proves it. However, he is a polarizing figure, capable of inspiring both admiration and contempt among his fans. The brilliant French director Jean-Luc Godard, whose рoւıtıᴄаւ background is also radicalized as Wayne, once wondered how he could “hate John Wayne for supporting Goldwater.
In 50 years — my God, 50 years! —Wayne made such obvious onscreen, iconic moments and moments of resonating behavior not real and not even what is commonly called “acting.” export”. In his novel The Moviegoer, Walker Percy wrote: “Others … cherish the memorable moments in their lives: The time one climbed the Parthenon at sunrise, one summer’s night met a lonely girl in Central Park… What I remember is John Wayne killing three men with a carbine while he was falling down a dusty street in Stagecoach.”
While it’s a violent scene and John Wayne has certainly played more violent scenes than any actor has ever lived, it’s not a scene of violence that is preserved in the memory of Percy moviegoers. It’s the fierce grace, the dense mythological rhythm that dissolves a triple murder into some sort of Utopian gesture that kills nothing but the mediocrity of our normal behavior.