Review: An American hero by a top flight writer
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 11, 2013
In this essay, David Morrell puts a human face on a great American icon. Focusing on Wayne's numerous western movies, Morrell builds a strong case that the actor really was a larger-than-live figure. Along with all of the movies, Wayne was also a Latin scholar, a superb bridge player, a football jock at USC and directed as well as acted in some of the most beloved movies of the 20th century.Fortunately, Morrell doesn't gloss over some of Wayne's less than heroic traits. The actor was a heavy smoker and drinker with a deserved legendary capacity to consume alcohol and he clung to a naive and simplistic vision of what America was, a view that drove him to make awful films like "The Green Berets and "The Alamo" that were little more than political statements. But all in all, John Wayne emerges from the pages of this essay as a hard working, admirable figure that deserves his place in the galaxy of American stars.