John Wayne And Clint Eastwood They were certainly the two biggest Western movie stars, but they made very different Westerns and had very strong opinions about each other’s films. Throughout Hollywood’s storied history with the Western, many iconic actors have left their mark on the genre – Henry Fonda, Gary Cooper, James Stewart, Lee Van Cleef, Glenn Ford, Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, the list goes on – but Wayne and Eastwood are the two actors who defined the genre. And not only that, they each defined completely different eras of the genre.
Like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger or Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel, Wayne and Eastwood had one of the most famous celebrity feuds in Hollywood history. But Wayne and Eastwood’s feud was not based on any personal differences; It was based on their ideological differences and their vastly different approaches to the Western genre. Wayne and Eastwood both played gunslinging cowboys in classic Westerns, but their movies couldn’t have been more different in their tone, style, and above all, morality.
John Wayne’s Westerns have more traditional American heroes and clear morals
Wayne’s view of good versus evil was very black-and-white
Wayne’s western movies have straightforward, clear morals and traditional American heroes. They have a very black-and-white view of good versus evil; There are heroes who always do the right thing and never fail, and villains who do nothing but wrong and need to be defeated for the greater good. Wayne’s characters never dip into a moral gray area; They steadfastly defend the law and their actions are always justified. In John Ford StagecoachThe Native Americans attacking the coach are controversially depicted as cold-blooded savages, while Wayne’s “Ringo Kid” is depicted as the noble hero who saves the day.
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Being disgusted by the cowardice shown by Gary Cooper in High noonWhat he considered an American, Wayne made a whole movie in response. In Howard Hawks Rio BravoWayne plays a small-town sheriff who arrests a local crook, who informs him that his gang is on their way to break him out. Unlike copper in High noonWine does not spend the rest of Rio BravoS Runtime running scared, desperately asking the townspeople for help; He spends the movie going back, getting to know his new deputies, and waiting for the gang to arrive.
Wayne’s characters never dip into a moral gray area; They steadfastly defend the law and their actions are always justified.
Wayne occasionally experimented with some darker stories and more ethically ambiguous characters. in The searchersWayne plays a war veteran who struggles to adjust to civilian life after the war and relentlessly pursues his kidnapped niece, who he finds unwilling to even be rescued. in True sizeHe plays an alcoholic US. But in the darker movies, Wayne is still portrayed as the hero who is in the moral right. Wayne’s movies defined the traditional good-versus-evil westerns of classical Hollywood.
Clint Eastwood’s westerns took them in a more complex, darker direction
Eastwood played morally ambiguous antiheroes in darker, grittier movies
Eastwood’s Westerns, on the other hand, took the genre in a more morally complex direction. Eastwood’s Westerns were much darker and grittier than Wayne’s, and he often played anti-heroes with deeply unlikeable qualities. In Eastwood’s Western movies, the lines between good and bad and right and wrong were a little more blurred than in Wayne. In Sergio Leone Dollars trilogy, Eastwood plays “The Man With No Name,” whose morals are just as unclear as his name. He pits two warring gangs against each other to liberate a city, but he’s also a cold-hearted bounty hunter who kills for money.
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In a traditional revenge western, the hero gets his revenge and rides off into the sunset. in the wine-star The Don RiderWayne avenges his father, it magically makes him feel better, and he marries the love of his life. But revenge is much messier than that, and Eastwood’s grimmer revenge westerns reflect this. in The bandit Josie WalesAs Eastwood seeks revenge for the death of his family, it gradually turns him into a murderous monster, feared across the country. Eastwood’s Westerns were much more complex than Wayne’s, and reflected a more complex world in their time.
John Wayne & Clint Eastwood defined different eras of the western genre
Wayne defined the traditional western, but Eastwood defined spaghetti and revisionist westerns.
Wayne and Eastwood each epitomize a different era of the West. The genre has a very long history that predates them – back to the 1899 British short Kidnapping by Indians – and there is some overlap between Wayne’s Western career and Eastwood’s. But Wayne’s era and Eastwood’s era can be seen as distinct chapters in the history of the western genre, and their movies perfectly embody what the westerns were doing at that time. of The man who shot Liberty Valance to How the West was won, Wayne’s Westerns embodied the sprawling epics and clear-cut ethos of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
on the other hand, Eastwood’s Westerns embodied the ambiguous ethics and experimental approach of the American New Wave. He scored his first starring role in the seminal Italian Spaghetti Western A fistful of dollarswhich introduced a darker, more surreal vision of the Old West. Eastwood brought this approach back to Hollywood with grisly anti-Western vibes Hang ’em high, High Plains DrifterAnd of course his masterpiece, Unforgiven. Eastwood picked up the tropes that Wayne pioneered to fuel the revisionist West.
What John Wayne said about Clint Eastwood’s Westerns
Wayne was not a fan of Eastwood’s movies
Wayne was not a fan of Eastwood’s Westerns. In 1973, Eastwood directed and starred in High Plains DrifterA very violent western that borders on supernatural horror when a demonic spirit rolls into town. Wayne despised High Plains Drifter So much so that he wrote Eastwood a letter about it. Wayne felt that Western movies should be about the pioneer experience and settling in the West, and he found it High Plains Drifters paranormal storyline to be an insult to that. Why did the movie glorify violence; Eastwood felt that Wayne just didn’t get it Because he came from another generation.
What Clint Eastwood said about John Wayne’s westerns
Eastwood was much better at Wayne’s Westerns
Despite the fact that Wayne hated Eastwood’s movies, Eastwood was an admirer of Wayne. Eastwood believes that Wayne gave his best performances in two classic Westerns: 1948s Red River and 1956s The searchers. According to Eastwood, Wayne’s performance in The searchers “Proved that he is not only a movie star, but a really good actor.“It’s no surprise that Eastwood admired The searchers so much; It’s the closest Vine came to making one of Eastwood’s dark, gritty revisionist Westerns. John Wayne May have enemies Clint Eastwoods westerns, but Eastwood was a big fan of Wayne.