When we look back at the history of Hollywood icons, there are some that simply do not stand the test of time. The icon of western cinema, John Wayne, is one such individual, having made some of the greatest movies of the 20th century, such as The Searchers, True Grit and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, alongside the likes of James Stewart, Vera Miles, Glen Campbell and Dennis Hopper.
Yet, Wayne certainly wasn’t without his faults, with many of his most famous movies reflecting racist stereotypes. Such was the reason why filmmaker Spike Lee stated, “Fuck John Wayne and John Ford,” criticising the pair’s depiction of Native Americans as “savages and animals”, before concluding: “The US was built upon genocide, stealing the land, and stealing Africans from their land to work the land they stole. Black people built America…A narrative was hijacked”.
Wayne never hid his own political beliefs and controversial public opinions, often discussing racist, sexist and homophobic views in interviews with the press.
“I’m quite sure that within two or three years, Americans will be completely fed up with these perverted films,” Wayne told Playboy in 1971. When pressed as to what movies he was referring to, he added: “Oh, Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy—that kind of thing. Wouldn’t you say that the wonderful love of those two men in Midnight Cowboy, a story about two fags, qualifies?”
The actor went on to compare such LGBTQ films with other modern romance tales, stating, with little care to who might read the interview, “When you think of the wonderful picture fare we’ve had through the years and realize we’ve come to this shit, it’s disgusting. If they want to continue making those pictures, fine. But my career will have ended. I’ve already reached a pretty good height right now in a business that I feel is going to fade out from its own vulgarity”.
This wasn’t the only time in the very same interview that Wayne would present such controversial opinions, however, with the actor later going on to spit some vile racist views.
“With a lot of blacks, there’s quite a bit of resentment along with their dissent, and possibly rightfully so,” Wayne said of the contemporary Civil Rights Movement, “But we can’t all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks. I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility”.
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