Birth Of "John Wayne"

Ringo Kid's entrance in "Stagecoach"

While trying to pick the films to analyze I tried to select ones that I considered the most important examples of Wayne’s theatrical skill. This was difficult to do once I had resolved to pick the four best examples because, as Richard McGhee claims, “…the myth of John Wayne is larger than any single role in any single film”. It was especially hard to find a good starting point but I finally decided to go head and pick “Stagecoach” as the first film, despite it being made ten years into Wayne’s career. I believe this film is one of the earliest examples of Wayne playing a character with under-appreciated complexity. One thing to note is by this point in time Duke had already changed his billing name from Marion Morrison to John Wayne to go with his image of the manly gunfighter, and all of his roles will reflect this masculinity. This film, released in 1939, has Wayne staring in his breakout role of Ringo Kid, a charming vigilante looking to avenge his father. In the post WWI area Wayne acts as the hero for the common American: he’s loud, brash, but honors justice and family above all else. “Ringo is the hero representing the poor and seemingly forgotten commoners of the era. This connotes that the real heroes are actually the ones making ends meet rather than the rich playing Robin Hood” (My Blog: Stagecoach). Of all the movies this blog will examine, this film plays the John Wayne gunslinger the straightest, which ties into the popularity of the genre at the time. Despite a world war and a decade long economic depression the nation still enjoyed the honest, upstanding gunslinger that Duke portrayed. Ringo can also very much resemble John Wayne at this point in his life as a young man looking to find his place in the world with a conflicted mix of innocence and experience. Wayne’s great performance as Ringo did not come easily though, his B-movie habits and poor acting were exacerbated when filming in the company of stars such as Claire Trevor. Under constant stress and abuse from director John Ford the Duke would “…shake loose from the bad habits he had acquired making cheap Westerns and give a creditable performance”(Davis 84). “Stagecoach” was a massive success and marked the birth of the true John Wayne. Wayne’s status as a star and Western icon would only continue to rise as he became more beloved by his fans, but the idea of the heroic John Wayne would eventually be put into question with the next film I’ll analyze.



McGhee, Richard D. "John Wayne: Hero With A Thousand Faces." Literature Film Quarterly 16.1 (1988):
     10. Academic Search Elite. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

Davis, Ronald L. Duke: The Life and Image of John Wayne. Norman: U of Oklahoma, 1998.
     Google Books. Google, 1 May 2001. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.

"Film Analysis: Stagecoach." Web log post. My Blog. Blogger, 23 Oct. 2008. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.