John Wayne the Hero

Paper Summary:

The life and the work of John Wayne are examined in this paper. The author looks at some of the films on which John Wayne's reputation as a virile hero is based before turning to a more general consideration of the role that the mass media have in shaping our notions of the heroic.

From the Paper:

"This paper examines one person who as much as anyone became the emblem of a hero in the 20th century because of the image that he portrayed on the big screen: John Wayne or The Duke. To say that he was a hero because of the roles that he played is not to imply that he was not himself a good person. But we remember him today, and remember him as a heroic figure not because of his actions as an individual but because of the characters that he took on. It says something important about our culture that today, nearly a quarter of a century after Wayne's death, we still remember his roles whereas few of us can probably name a single one of the paramedics, firefighters or private citizens killed in the attempt to save others during the attack on the World Trade Center. Even though most of us would acknowledge that these people are the true heroes "or what, after all, could be more heroic than risking and losing one's life to save the life of a stranger" and that actors merely represent heroes, it is the actors that we remember."

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