As established in Willis's reading, John Wayne's America, the image of John Wayne has had a lasting power decades past his career and even past his death. Seeing as our ideas and understanding of masculinity has changed over the years, I aim to explore why we are still drawn to his image today. According to the excerpt, 25 out of 26 years, Wayne has made the top 10 list of stars with commercial appeal (p. 12). He remains a cultural icon.
Other stars of the time, like Brando, were beginning to represent a fragmented and imperfect image of the male. Yet Wayne's image had resilience. Is this because the image of the powerful man is still attractive to our patriarchal society? Because we still place such a high value on masculinity despite progress we have made? In some aspects, I think yes is the answer to these questions.
But I also think that Wayne taps into a confidence and a strand of the American identity that is hard to resist. In my opinion, Wayne onscreen in the classic Western genre represents strength, freedom, purpose, and justice. Seeing such a representation onscreen of these ideals is irresistible to Americans, especially the American male. The article explains, "He stood for an America people felt was disappearing or had disappeared, for a time when men were men (p. 14)." Several key elements lead to his onscreen success, namely his confident mastery of his physicality, and his calculated and measured phrases in dialogue.
John Wayne was a carefully calculated persona, as he consciously would make decisions like to never play a coward and never shoot anyone in the back. Although America has been drawn to this swaggering hero for decades, it is important to remember and realize that this pinnacle of masculine representation was just a construction. In reality, masculinity is not defined by these parameters as much as media may suggest.
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