John Wayne appeared in one of the greatest Western movies of all time when he starred as Ethan Edwards in John Ford’s The Searchers. The movie remains a masterpiece, in part because it has Wayne playing a character who travels in shades of gray, rather than his regular white-hat good guy persona. Edwards is a racist with hate in his heart, and while he does the right thing, in the end, he is a man bred into violence.

The Searchers has Wayne portray a Civil War veteran who also fought in the Second Franco-Mexican War. A Comanche attack on the Edwards homestead leaves several dead and Edwards’ niece and her older sister missing. Edwards then puts together a team to find them, and when he finally does and realizes his niece has become acclimated to the Comanche tribe, he considers killing her.

This is a dark story that is unlike most of Wayne’s output at the time. It is also a brilliant tale of a broken man trying to do the right thing, the only way he knows how. Wayne loved the role so much that he even named his son after his character in the movie. However, this is not even Wayne’s favorite Western movie, and there are several that surpass it in quality.

6

Red River (1948)

There are two movies that John Wayne starred in that he said he considered to be better than The Searchers. Wayne said he believed that both Stagecoach and Red River were better than The Searchers. Stagecoach was Wayne’s breakout, so that might be why he liked it so much. Red River is not one of John Wayne and John Ford’s collaborations, and it is instead a movie Wayne made with Howard Hawks, and it is a genuine masterpiece.

“Two classic Westerns were better: Stagecoach and Red River,” Wayne said. “The Searchers … deserved more praise than it got.” Red River stars Wayne as Thomas Dunson, a man who sets out on a wagon train for the California Trail to establish his own cattle ranch. Red River is, in many ways, a precursor to The Searchers, with Wayne playing both the hero and villain of the story, one of his most complex roles.

5

High Noon (1952)

John Wayne absolutely hated High Noon. Wayne was offered the lead role, and after he read this script, he immediately rejected it and then called the movie “un-American.” Even after the movie came out with Gary Cooper in the role, and then went on to win Oscars, Wayne still insulted it. He said, “What a piece of you-know-what that was. I think it was popular because of the music.” Wayne was in the minority with this opinion.

High Noon stars Cooper as Marshal Will Kane, a man who just got married and was planning to retire to enjoy married life. However, when a criminal whom he previously arrested is released and plans to come seeking revenge, he looks for help. No one helps him, and he ends up fighting alone, with only his new bride by his side. Wayne hated this, saying that in his mythological version of the West, people would have helped. High Noon won four Oscars.

4

Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)

Sergio Leone has several Western masterpieces to his name, and his love letter to the Old West arrived in 1968 with the movie, Once Upon a Time in the West. The film is an epic Western, with three different versions ranging from 140 minutes to 171 minutes in length. One thing that really stands out about this movie is Henry Fonda signing on to appear against type as a terrifying villain.

The cast is great, with Fonda, Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, and more, all in a script based on a story by Dario Argento, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Leone. From the epic gunfight to the incredible dialogue and the beautiful set pieces, this remains one of the best Westerns ever made and one of the greatest films in history, regardless of genre.

3

True Grit (1969)

It might be hard to believe, but John Wayne only won one Oscar for an acting performance. While he was on top of Hollywood as a leading man for multiple decades, Wayne’s performances were never appreciated as much by critics and award ceremonies as they were by his fans. The only movie that won Wayne a Best Actor Oscar was his 1969 film, True Grit.

The movie stars Kim Darby as a young girl whose father is killed, and she wants revenge. She hires an aging, alcoholic, one-eyed U.S. Marshal named Rooster Cogburn (Wayne) to track the killer down. The movie is the best film of Wayne’s later career roles, and it might be the best of his entire career, with him playing the older gunfighter who has watched the world change into something he no longer recognizes.

2

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (1966)

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is another Sergio Leone movie, but this one stars Clint Eastwood, an actor whom John Wayne never cared for. The big reason Wayne hated Eastwood’s movies was that they were often more violent, and Eastwood refused to play a hero who was a genuinely good guy. All of Eastwood’s Western antiheroes were scoundrels, outlaws, and killers. It was also why Eastwood’s movies became more popular than Wayne’s in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the third movie in Leone’s Dollars Trilogy, all of which see Eastwood playing the Man with No Name character type. In this film, he and two other men are searching for Confederate gold, and none of them completely trust each other. This movie has the incredible three-way face-off that has become popular in movies, and it remains the best spaghetti Western of all time.

1

Unforgiven (1992)

John Wayne famously refused to appear in any movie that was considered to be the end of the classic Western. He turned down the role in a movie called The Streets of Laredo because director Peter Bogdanovich wanted to create what Wayne called the “final Western movie.” Wayne said no, and the movie wasn’t made. The fact that Clint Eastwood stars in a movie that does that exact thing in a revisionist Western should come as no surprise.

Unforgiven has Eastwood as William Munny, a former outlaw who has settled down. After his wife dies, he seems to be living out his final days until a series of events forces him out of retirement to seek revenge on a local sheriff following the death of Munny’s close friend, Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman). Unforgiven was the first Western to win Best Picture at the Oscars in decades, and Eastwood won for Best Director.

Release Date

May 26, 1956

Runtime

119 minutes

Director

John Ford

Writers

Frank S. Nugent

Producers

C.V. Whitney

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  Jeffrey Hunter

  Martin Pawley