elohiym
Well-known member
What do you John Wayne lovers think of this?
John Wayne wasn't my favorite movie star, but he was fun to watch in such films as "The Longest Day," "The Alamo," "Sands of Iowa Jima," "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance," "Stagecoach" and many others. But my favorite of his was "The Quiet Man" which a critic called a labor of love for the director, John Ford, and his Irish-American stars. Wayne was super in that movie, a great acting job in portraying Irish life as well as a love story with Maureen O'Hara. Ford won a best director Oscar.
But imagine my shock when I found that Wayne, despite his many film roles as a war hero, turned out to be the biggest draft dodger you'll ever see - and that was World War II when thousands of Americans eagerly volunteered. Wrote Greenwald: "Male American movie stars of the World War II era - from the most politically conservative to the most liberal - went off to fight for their country in droves. Virtually every one of the top male box-office draws of that time enlisted, among them William Holden, James Stewart, Clark Gable, Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda."
"Wayne," said Greenwald, "feared that leaving Hollywood would harm his career and told friends that he couldn't serve his country because he was too old and he needed to support his three children. In contrast, Jimmy Stewart was 33, a year younger than Wayne and flew more than 20 combat missions. Clark Gable was 40 and he volunteered for combat, as did Henry Fonda who was 37, three years older than Wayne and who had three children. He could have easily avoided combat, but didn't."
The author of the book said Wayne "was a true trailblazer of the modern American right-wing movement and was one of the first Americans to pretend that he possessed the ‘warrior virtues' and loudly urged that other Americans be sent off to fight in wars." Greenwald also said this: "Wayne scornfully condemned films that he claimed deviated from wholesome values. Yet in his own life, Wayne was not only married to three different women, but engaged in multiple affairs with a whole array of Hollywood actresses and socialites. While he loudly denounced those whom he deemed to be morally impure, Wayne indulged an alcohol addition and a barbiturate and amphetamine habit for years.
"This man who ran away from war," wrote Greenwald, "then spent the rest of his life loudly cheering for every American war he could find. And as he left a series of broken marriages characterized by ugly divorces involving allegations of abuse, and as he furthered multiplied relationships, he insisted that he was devoted to wholesome, American, Christian values."