From Who the Hell’s in It: Conversations with Hollywood’s Legendary Actors
His performances in these pictures [Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, The Searchers, The Wings of Eagles, Man Who Shot Liberty Valance] rate with the finest examples of movie acting, and his value to each film is immeasurable; yet none of them was recognized at the time as anything much more than “and John Wayne does his usual solid job,” if that — more often he was panned. The Academy nominated him only twice; first for Allan Dwan’s excellent Sands of Iwo Jima, an effective and archetypal John Wayne Marine picture of non-Ford/Hawks dimension. Yet I remember that Wayne’s sudden death from a sniper at the end of Sands was the first real shock — and one of the most lastingly potent — I ever had at the movies. The reason why this worked so powerfully for me at age ten, as well as for millions of all ages, was because of Wayne’s even then accepted indestrucability. In fact, Sands of Iwo Jima was the second of only five films in which Wayne dies. Still, it wasn’t until twenty years later, when he put on an eye patch, played drunk, and essentially parodied himself in True Grit, that anyone thought he was acting, and so with this over-the-top performance Duke Wayne got his second nomination and finally won his Oscar.
The particular quality in a star that makes audiences instantly suspend their disbelief — something men like Wayne or Jimmy Stewart or Henry Fonda naturally bring with them when they enter a scene — is an achievement which normally goes so unnoticed that most people don’t even think of it as acting at all. To a lot of people, acting means fake accents and false noses, and a lot of emoting … John Wayne was at his best precisely when he was simply being what came to be called “John Wayne”.
Wow. I have to get this book.
Just came out in paperback!
Oh and you’ll like this – there’s a huge chapter on John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands too. :)
I’ve said a lot of unkind things on occasion about The Quiet Man *ahem* but its a great performance by John Wayne.
Perhaps because of the character he plays, perhaps just because he does an amazing job in the role, but he’s separate and apart from the shenanigans going on around him – in the story and by the rest of the cast… and a lot of that is due to the capturing of his reaction to those shenanigans [as you’ve mentioned in a later post, Sheila]
peteb –
I’ll always think of the horrible Ice Bar in Dublin when I think of The Quiet Man now!
Oh, and he talks a lot in the interview in the book about how concerned he was during the shooting of the Quiet Man because everyone AROUND him got all the great lines. He said he had a hard time keeping up his character – and John Ford, of course, filled the movie with great reaction shots of Wayne, so he never gets lost in all the Irish kitsch around him.
Ford took care of Wayne. So important with a star of that magnitude.
I’ll have to add this to the Book List now, Sheila. Although I suspect that Ford may well have deliberately kept Wayne keeping up with his character.. while capturing those reactions.
Probably – Wayne describes a lot of tricky (kind of mean) things that Ford did to Wayne to keep him on his toes.
But then Wayne says: “When I had a big scene to do, though, he left me alone.”
Ford – a HUGELY under-rated director. Steven Spielberg said a great thing once – “He never gets credit for being what they call an ‘actors director’ – but I think he’s one of the greatest actor’s director we’ve ever had.”