I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys biographies particularly biographies of actors. Scott Eyman has written a number of detailed, intelligent and engaging biographies of famous film figures and this is another one. Eyman wrote the definitive biography of the director John Ford and in the process of writing that book he gained insight and a wealth of knowledge into Ford's leading star -- John Wayne. Ford literally made Wayne a star after Wayne had spent many years laboring as a prop man and then an actor in forgettable low-cost films made by the poverty row studios in the Hollywood of the late 20's and early 30's. Ford was already an established director when he cast Wayne in "Stagecoach" an acknowledged classic today. The film made Wayne a star and paved the way to a series of literally classic films with Wayne as star and Ford as director. The men had a strange relationship -- Ford was the mentor/father figure to Wayne and Wayne was eternally grateful to Ford and was willing to accept along with Ford's "love" the abuse that Ford regularly dealt to him and anyone else who he decided to "put in the barrel" and kick around for awhile. That relationship is just one of the more interesting things about John Wayne or Duke Morrison -- the name he never relinquished despite the fact that "John Wayne" was the name by which his fans knew him.
Eyman's greatest achievement with this biography is his ability to treat his subject with objectivity, balance, and fairness. Wayne was a rightwing conservative in all of the ugliness that entails before we arrived at the kind of rightwing ugliness that prevails today. He was a member of the Motion Picture Alliance -- a group of Hollywood people who elected to jump on the McCarthy Era bandwagon led by the booze-addled senator from Wisconsin that proclaimed there were communists in the US government as well as in the motion picture industry. The members of the MPA set themselves up as judge and jury of their fellow actors, directors, writers etc. and a word from that group could end a career. Ford's closest friend and fellow actor Ward Bond was a member of the group. Bond was a racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic alcoholic who regularly cost people jobs on films by putting out the word that they were "red" or Communists. The fact that Wayne associated with such a despicable human being and belonged to an organization that specialized in rumor and destruction of other people with little proof of anything and instead just their own mean-spirited gut feeling makes one really look at the character of a guy like Wayne who wanted to be seen by his audience as "the good guy," the hero who would look out for the little man, the brave soldier, cowboy etc. It was just one example of the hypocrisy at the heart of John Wayne. During WWII when practically every man in America including every major Hollywood star who was of age went into the military or worked in the defense industry, Wayne didn't serve in any capacity. It's obvious from the telling that he was averse to being in the military and got numerous deferments for ridiculous things such as "chronic ear infections." The irony of this is the fact that Wayne then made a series of WWII films in which he was a brave fighting man! During Vietnam, he was a hawk on that war and made the "Green Berets" -- another blood and guts film in which he got to wear a uniform and play soldier. Wayne in that instance was like so many rightwing Conservatives who are very willing to start a war and shout "Support Our Troops" but who never intend that they will be one of those troops whose life is on the line. The director William Wyler a WWII veteran saw through Wayne and referred to Wayne as "a great American hero fighting for God and country in all services in all wars. And it was all done before movie cameras in Hollywood and on safe locations. That's damn good acting." Eyman doesn't make Wayne's draft dodging a central part of the book but he gives it enough space so that the contradiction i s highlighted of a guy who always wanted to play the hero on screen was decidedly un-heroic when it came to actually serving his country when the US was in the fight of its life.
The fact that Eyman allows the reader to see the worst of Wayne the man but also manages to show other aspects of him that make him likeable, charming, intelligent, kind etc. is a tribute to Eyman's ability to write a balanced view of a complex man. It certainly is a tribute to Wayne's charisma and one-to-one interactions with people that even people who loathed his politics whether they were fellow actors, directors, politicians or ordinary people the majority of the time came away liking the man.
I've never been a fan of John Wayne films and decided to read this book because I've enjoyed all of Eyman's other books and this book did not disappoint me. Although I still find Wayne's actions during the blacklist to be reprehensible and his politics in general to be loathsome, by the end of the book, I liked the man John Wayne more than I had when I began reading.
Without a doubt, he was a huge film star who made some really fine films -- particularly the westerns he made with Ford, and something about him connected with a vast audience both in the US and abroad and Eyman captures all of that along with Wayne's failings and successes as a human being.
I think this is the biography of John Wayne that will stand the test of time because it allows the public to see the man in all of his complexities -- literally, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Similar items that may ship from close to you
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Top reviews from other countries
Kindle Customer
Very good biography of john wayne the duke
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 5, 2023
Wolfgang Lorenz
Sorgfältige Recherche und professioneller Aufbau...
Reviewed in Germany on September 17, 2017
