‘The Searchers’: A perfect reflection of the moral enigma that is John Wayne
Any star with designs on longevity is virtually obligated to embrace, adapt, and evolve with the times in order to remain relevant, but John Wayne clearly didn’t get the memo.
He may have reigned as one of Hollywood’s most popular, bankable, and recognisable stars for decades, but when modernity started to creep into cinema, he rejected it outright. As his glory days drew to a close, ‘The Duke’ became increasingly and vocally disgruntled about where the industry was heading, washing his hands of several incoming trends that would go on to define the 1960s and 1970s.
Wayne had become so comfortable with how closely the film business had hewed to his concept of what he thought it should be that any deviations from the template were viewed as an affront to the very art form. A lot has been said about the actor’s openly racist comments made over the years and his well-known political viewpoints, but he gradually expanded his vitriol to include an inescapably seismic shift in the medium.
After winning an Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ playing Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, the last decade of Wayne’s life and career was increasingly defined by his bitterness towards the very industry that turned him into a star, and it inevitably coincided with the rise of the ‘New Hollywood’ era that saw auteurs putting their stamp on celluloid by telling boundary-pushing stories that reinvented how mainstream filmmakers approached previously-touchy subjects like sex, violence, and taboos in general.
He even remarked that he was “glad I won’t be around much longer to see what they do with it” after being pressed for his thoughts on authentic and intimate stories taking increasing precedence, with his idealised version of cinema all-ages entertainment the whole family can sit down and enjoy. The ’70s had different ideas, and it was something he simply couldn’t wrap his head around, describing the rise of outside-the-box directors telling controversial stories as “poison polluting Hollywood’s moral bloodstream“.
Life imitating art has become a well-worn cliché for a very good reason, and in Wayne’s case, it can’t be overlooked that he was gradually becoming the embodiment of what might very well be his best-ever performance. Arguably the magnum opus of the inimitable John Ford, The Searchers was an elegiac Western for the ages that made it clear in the years to come that ‘The Duke’ didn’t have to deviate all that far away from his own personality to embody Ethan Edwards.
The grizzled veteran feels increasingly lost in a world that isn’t the one he once recognised, and as a result, it’s made him increasingly distant, bitter, and prone to rage-fuelled outbursts. He also carries deep-running prejudices against anyone and anything that doesn’t adhere strictly to the code or worldview he’s lived his life by before coming to the realisation that a peaceful existence in a modernised society is something he’ll never be cut out for. The final shot of him walking away is one of the most famous ever captured on-camera, and it’s reflective of Wayne turning his back on what Hollywood was becoming.
Edwards and Wayne are two peas from the same pod, separated by a century, with the latter stages of the actor’s career echoing the animosity Ethan held towards his surroundings. ‘The Duke’ saw the industry changing before his very eyes, and instead of contemplating the notion of accepting it as a by-product of a constantly shifting art form, he decided to use his platform to openly rebel against it.
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