John WayneandClint Eastwoodare arguably the two biggest western movie stars, but they made very different westerns and had very strong opinions about each other’s films. Throughout Hollywood’s storied history with the western, plenty of iconic actors have put their stamp on the genre – Henry Fonda, Gary Cooper, James Stewart, Lee Van Cleef, Glenn Ford, Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, the list goes on – but Wayne and Eastwood are the two actors that defined the genre. And not only that, they each defined completely different eras of the genre.
Like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger or Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel, Wayne and Eastwood had one of the most famous celebrity feuds in Hollywood history. ButWayne and Eastwood’s feudwasn’t based on any personal differences; it was based on their ideological differences and their vastly dissimilar approaches to the Western genre. Wayne andEastwood both played gunslinging cowboys in classic Westerns, but their movies couldn’t have been more different in their tone, style, and above all, morality.
Wayne’s View Of Good Versus Evil Was Very Black-And-White
Wayne’s Western movieshave straightforward, clear-cut morals and traditional American heroes.They have a very black-and-white view of good versus evil; there are heroes who always do the right thing and never falter, and villains who do nothing but wrong and need to be defeated for the greater good. Wayne’s characters never dip into a moral gray area; they steadfastly protect the law and their actions are always just. In John Ford’sStagecoach, the Native Americans attacking the coach are controversially depicted as cold-blooded savages, while Wayne’s “Ringo Kid” is depicted as the noble hero who saves the day.
10 Movies You Didn’t Know Were Inspired By John Wayne’s The Searchers
John Wayne’s classic western The Searchers is one of the most influential movies ever made, having inspired everything from Star Wars to Taxi Driver.
Having been disgusted by the cowardice shown by Gary Cooper inHigh Noon, which he considered to be un-American,Wayne made a whole movie in response. In Howard Hawks’Rio Bravo, Wayne plays a small-town sheriff who arrests a local crook, who informs him that his gang is on their way to break him out. Unlike Cooper inHigh Noon, Wayne doesn’t spend the rest ofRio Bravo’s runtime running scared, desperately asking the townspeople for help; he spends the movie kicking back, getting to know his new deputies, and awaiting the gang’s arrival.
Wayne’s characters never dip into a moral gray area; they steadfastly protect the law and their actions are always just.
Wayne occasionally experimented with some darker stories and more ethically ambiguous characters. InThe Searchers, Wayne plays a war veteran who struggles to adjust to civilian life post-war and relentlessly pursues his kidnapped niece, who he finds doesn’t even want to be rescued. InTrue Grit, he plays an alcoholic U.S. Marshal who reluctantly teams up with a young woman to find her father’s killer. But in these darker movies, Wayne is still portrayed as the hero who’s in the moral right. Wayne’s movies defined the traditional good-versus-evil Westerns of Classical Hollywood.
Clint Eastwood’s Westerns Took Them In A More Complex, Darker Direction
Eastwood Played Morally Ambiguous Antiheroes In Darker, Grittier Movies
Eastwood’s Westerns, on the other hand, took the genre in a more morally complex direction. Eastwood’s Westerns were a lot darker and grittier than Wayne’s, and he often played antiheroes with deeply unlikable qualities. In Eastwood’s Western movies, the lines between good and bad and right and wrong were a little more blurred than in Wayne’s. InSergio Leone’sDollarstrilogy, Eastwood plays “The Man with No Name,” whose morality is just as unclear as his name. He pits two warring gangs against each other to liberate a town, but he’s also a cold-hearted bounty hunter who kills for money.
30 Best Clint Eastwood Movie Quotes, Ranked
From gunslinger one-liners to angry cop retorts, Clint Eastwood’s characters have plenty of memorable lines that are still being quoted decades later.
In a traditional revenge Western, the hero gets his revenge and rides off into the sunset. In the Wayne-starringThe Dawn Rider, Wayne avenges his father, it magically makes him feel better, and he marries the love of his life. But revenge is a lot messier than that, and Eastwood’s grimmer revenge westerns reflect that. InThe Outlaw Josey Wales, as Eastwood seeks vengeance for the death of his family, it gradually turns him into a murderous monster, feared across the land.Eastwood’s Westerns were a lot more complex than Wayne’s, and reflected a more complex worldin their time.
John Wayne & Clint Eastwood Defined Different Eras Of The Western Genre
Wayne Defined The Traditional Western, But Eastwood Defined Spaghetti & Revisionist Westerns
Wayne and Eastwood each epitomize a different era of the Western. The genre has a very long history that predates them – going back to the 1899 British shortKidnapping by Indians– and there’s some overlap between Wayne’s Western career and Eastwood’s. But Wayne’s era and Eastwood’s era can be seen as distinct chapters in the history of the Western genre, and their movies perfectly embody what Westerns were doing at that time. FromThe Man Who Shot Liberty ValancetoHow the West Was Won,Wayne’s Westerns embodied the sprawling epics and clear-cut ethics of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
On the other hand,Eastwood’s Westerns embodied the ambiguous ethics and experimental approach of the American New Wave. He scored his first starring role in the seminal Italian spaghetti westernA Fistful of Dollars, which introduced a darker, more surreal vision of the Old West. Eastwood brought that approach back to Hollywood with grisly anti-Westerns likeHang ‘Em High,High Plains Drifter, andarguably his masterpiece,Unforgiven. Eastwood upended the tropes that Wayne pioneered to spearhead the revisionist Western.
What John Wayne Has Said About Clint Eastwood’s Westerns
Wayne Was Not A Fan Of Eastwood’s Movies
Wayne was not a fan of Eastwood’s Westerns. In 1973, Eastwood directed and starred inHigh Plains Drifter, a very violent Western that borders on supernatural horror when a demonic spirit rolls into town.Wayne despisedHigh Plains Drifterso muchthat he wrote Eastwood a letter about it. Wayne felt that Western movies should be about the pioneer experience and settling in the West, and he foundHigh Plains Drifter’s paranormal storyline to be an insult to that.Wayne felt the movie glorified violence; Eastwood felt that Wayne simply didn’t understand itbecause he came from a different generation.
What Clint Eastwood Has Said About John Wayne’s Westerns
Eastwood Was Much Kinder To Wayne’s Westerns
Despite the fact that Wayne hated Eastwood’s movies,Eastwood was an admirer of Wayne’s.Eastwood believes that Wayne gave his best performances in two classic Westerns: 1948’sRed Riverand 1956’sThe Searchers. According to Eastwood, Wayne’s performance inThe Searchers“proved he wasn’t just a movie star, but a really good actor.” It’s no surprise that Eastwood admiresThe Searchersso much; it’s the closest Wayne came to making one of Eastwood’s dark, gritty revisionist Westerns.John Waynemight have hatedClint Eastwood’s Westerns, but Eastwood was a big fan of Wayne’s.
