In looking for films expressing values and messages that underscore rather than undermine Christian tenets, the future may be in the past. Movie star John Wayne died of cancer in 1979. The cultural icon John Wayne lives on.
Not Just a Cowboy
If you type in the name “John Wayne” for a Google search you will turn up two million, eight hundred thousand different sites relating to some facet of his movie career or personal life. That’s staying power. Home entertainment technology in the form of the DVD has brought any number of John Wayne films back to life with vivid new prints, remixed sound, and supplemental information on the DVD disks that give insights into the particular productions for a fuller movie-watching experience. And through the magic of computer wizardry John Wayne’s image is used to this very day in multi-million dollar advertising campaigns.
The name of John Wayne is invoked even in our current political climate. The president of the United States is sometimes derided by those who oppose his domestic and international programs for being too much of a “cowboy.” The New York Times Middle East expert, Thomas Friedman, lamented in an article in March of this year that “Americans need a little less John Wayne and a little more John Kennedy.”
What Mr. Friedman has missed is that there is more nuance to the John Wayne image than throwing punches and shooting six guns. In fact, many Wayne movies depict Catholic values that are as relevant today as they were when these films were made.
Redemption and Reconciliation
Stagecoach is the film that made John Wayne a star and rescued him from the drudgery and B-movie status of the formula cowboy movies that had been his living. On one level it is a pure entertainment and a proto-disaster movie where we see a cast of characters in a particular mode of transportation facing a crisis. But there is a deeper, more human story in Stagecoach and the way Wayne’s character, the Ringo Kid, responds to it is worth noting. There’s a scarlet woman on board the coach. Her name is Dallas and she’s just been kicked out of town by the respectable women. Dallas is a broken person and believes there is little about her worthy of redemption.
But Wayne’s character sees only her goodness as Dallas takes care of a pregnant woman on the stagecoach and treats all the other misfits decently. Dallas begins to have feelings for the Ringo Kid but is convinced that once he knows the truth about her past, he will reject her. Eventually the Ringo Kid learns the truth and it matters not. Wayne’s character sees only the good in her and we get a very clear message of forgiveness and redemption.
In the film Rio Grande, John Wayne plays U.S. Cavalry officer Kirby York, a man alienated and separated from his wife (played by Maureen O’Hara) due to the burning down of her family home during the Civil War. When they meet again we see a couple who, though bitter and angry, are still devoted to one another and to their son who plays a key role in reuniting them. There are the prerequisite action sequences and adventure moments to drive the plot of the film but in its essence, it is a love story about two married people who find a way to work through their differences. A more positive presentation of marriage will be hard to locate in the usual batch of summer blockbusters.
The Supreme Sacrifice
One of the greatest Christian virtues and one that Christ demonstrated to us in the most profound manner, is the giving up of one’s life for another. In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance that is exactly what John Wayne's character does. The film even starts with a reenactment of the Good Samaritan parable as John Wayne finds a badly wounded James Stewart abandoned in the woods and brings him to an inn for safety. Wayne’s character, Tom Doniphon, has it all. He’s respected, has a beautiful fiancé, and a nice piece of property he’s preparing in anticipation of the day she will be his wife. It all changes when the idealistic lawyer (James Stewart) is targeted for death by the lethal villain of the movie, Liberty Valance. In a classic showdown, it appears James Stewart’s character is the man who shoots Liberty Valance. He becomes a hero; he’s the one who gets the girl and they go off to a life of great good and renown. Only in flashback does the audience come to understand how Tom Doniphon actually saved his friend’s life at the cost of everything he ever cared about.
How much influence or control Wayne had in the production of these films is debatable; it certainly took writers and directors and producers to all come together in some mysterious way to promote these virtues. But without the omnipresent John Wayne, the bigger-than-life performer, these films would be lesser ventures and we wouldn’t be still talking about them more than twenty years after the actor has passed away. Thanks to modern technology these films can be saved for the eyes and ears of another generation and they may certainly endure even longer. But not as long as the last scene of the Duke's life. After an acclaimed career before the cameras and a personal life filled with its share of imperfection, a dying John Wayne was received into the Catholic Church.
Robert Brennan is a professional television writer based in Los Angeles. He and his wife, Melissa, are members of St. Cyril of Jerusalem parish in Encino, CA.
This article originally appeared in Our Sunday Visitor and is adapted by permission of the author.
