American Titan

Starred review from October 13, 2014
In this incisive biography, Eliot (American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood) reveals the man behind the on-screen paragon of stoic, all-American manhood: an insecure actor (he would passively bow to the humiliating on-set insults showered on him by his mentor, director John Ford); a husband with mother-in-law issues and messy public divorces; a sex slave of Marlene Dietrich; an assiduous avoider of military service during WWII as he became the movie industry’s reigning action hero; and a sometimes guilt-stricken right-wing bully who helped enforce the McCarthy-era blacklist against leftists in the movie industry. Eliot’s narrative is briskly paced, with plenty of entertaining show-biz profiles and anecdotes, and not given much to thumb-sucking rumination, but his critical appreciations (and depreciations) of Wayne’s movies are pithy and evocative, from the mediocre Blood Alley, which imported Lauren Bacall “to add some romantic relief for the women” who wanted more than to “see Wayne beat up some Commies,” to the sublime western The Searchers, in which Wayne displays “deep passion... humanity, great physical strength and endurance, weariness, courage... eerie coldness.” Eliot’s canny, well-judged study gives us the complexity of Wayne the man and the archetype. Photos.

December 1, 2014

Marion Morrison of Winterset, IA, moved to Southern California in 1914 at age seven. He went to the University of Southern California on a football scholarship, which led to bit parts in the movies, and was noticed and rebranded as John Wayne. In 1939, the director John Ford made him a star in the movie Stagecoach. Wayne made two dozen films with Ford and remained a renowned actor until his death in 1979. Eliot, who has written biographies of Cary Grant, Clint Eastwood, and Walt Disney, studies Wayne as an auteur. Eliot's focus is on the films--how they got made, their messages, the acting, and the critical and public response. He particularly highlights Wayne's politics. Unlike most of the big stars of that time, Wayne did not serve in the armed forces in World War II, and Eliot traces his superpatriotism and anticommunist fervor to that fact. The actor detested the 1952 Western High Noon, starring Gary Cooper, as thoroughly un-American and repeatedly pushed a hard-line message in his films such as The Alamo (1960) and The Green Berets (1968). It's a readable, solid book based on library research.

Screenwriter and playwright Brode's book is a well-illustrated guide to the Duke's films, describing each with a short life lesson (e.g., the lesson from 1968's Hellfighters is "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do; his woman must either accept and live with that or cut and run." VERDICT Eliot's book is a great account of the star's life more for film buffs in general than for fans of Wayne. Brode's well-done work will make an excellent present for those who love Wayne's films.--Michael O. Eshleman, Bloomington, IN

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