On the other hand, it’s possible to feel a certain weariness about a new right-on mindset finding fault with, of all people, John Wayne.
There exists a want of nuance in understanding politics in the golden age of Hollywood Ford was not a racist, nor was Wayne, but they made films that were sadly unenlightened.” Ebert’s euphemism here is painfully insufficient. The Apaches are seen simply as murderous savages there is no suggestion the white men have invaded their land. A quick trawl through critical writings on Wayne shows that our culture is still not adequately condemnatory of this: as recently as 2011, the critic Roger Ebert could still write of Stagecoach, that: “the film’s attitudes toward Native Americans are unenlightened. Many of the films that Wayne made rest on a completely racist ideal, which others and stigmatises non-white cultures, and claims America for white people.
In one sense, revisiting Wayne’s views is important: we should be mindful to revise and decolonise the film canon, and it’s essential to reassess cinema’s heroes in the light of our shifting politics.
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