Were John Wayne's movies rascist?
By burrito88
@burrito88 (2774)
United States
January 7, 2013 7:38pm CST
I first had this thought after watching two John Wayne's later movies recently. As you'll see the movies were somewhat alike. The first was "Big Jake". In the movie, Big Jake(Wayne)'s comes home after 10 years to find out that his grandson has been kipnapped. Jake and his two sons, plus Indian Sam Sharpnose ride off to rescue little Jake. In the gunfight at the end, the only good guy that gets killed is Sam. The second movie is Cahill, US Marshall. In the movie Cahill (Wayne) has spent too much time hunting bad guys and his two young sons, feeling neglected, help some bad guys rob the bank. Cahill and his Indian friend, Lightfoot, set off to rescue the sons. In the final battle, Lightfoot gets killed.
For one, it seems like a bad plot device to make the Indian character expendable but besides killing off the Indian, in each movie nobody looks for the Indian or feels any remorse at his death. We all know that John Wayne made a lot of westerns where he was an Indian killer but using Indians as expendable characters seems to be a possible indicator.
Besides killing off Indians with no remorse, many of Wayne's movies did not have many blacks. I have to give him a pass for his early westerns, where he was not in control of the movies. Early westerns pretty much ignored blacks despite the fact that 25% of the cowboys after the Civil War were blacks. However, most of Wayne's later western movies had no blacks in them, an exception being
6 responses
@UmiNoor (4523)
• Malaysia
8 Jan 13
It's not just true to John Wayne's movies. Even now, the main characters in most movies are white and those of the minority race would be delegated expendable; body counts. You can see this clearly in many horror movies. If there are any blacks or latino in the movie, they will be killed off. They are just body count.
@burrito88 (2774)
• United States
8 Jan 13
In an interview with Playboy magazine, Wayne made a number of derogatory remarks about Blacks and also Vietnamese while that war was going on.Wayne was also sober during the interview unlike some rants by people like Mel Gibson who said a lot of things while they were drunk.
@ElicBxn (63614)
• United States
8 Jan 13
Ya know, you have to remember that these movies were made in a time when minorities were just not even considered... the fact that they made a Native American even a good guy, albeit expendable, was really a pretty good sized step, though, even then, the "Noble Native" had been around a LONG time, and lets not forget Tonto...
And there were plenty of Africans in Hatari! And I do mean mostly Africans since it was filmed in Africa... Not leads, but they were there...
@burrito88 (2774)
• United States
8 Jan 13
I know that westerns, as a rule ignored blacks until around the 1960's. I still remember 'The Wonderful World of Disney' broke some ground by having a black cowboy, though I don't know the actor's name or remember how many shows he was in. Some TV westerns did occasionally have a black cowboy but to my memory most of the time it was the same person, Sammy Davis Jr.
I haven't really seen "Hatari" but I see from the listing of the actors in it, most of them were either white Americans or Europeans. Interestingly, Bruce Cabot is in the movie playing Little Wolf (aka the Indian). He was the actor who also played Sam Sharpnose. Cabot's character gets gored by a rhino early in the movie. Hatari was a Howard Hawks movie so Wayne didn't necessarily have control of the casting (although Cabot was one of Wayne's regulars). Besides that, filming a movie in Africa would have necessitated busing in a large number of white extras and also would not have made much sense since the movie was supposed to be taking place in Africa.
@yoyo1198 (3641)
• United States
8 Jan 13
I saw a television piece recently that claimed that several of Wayne's movies would be considered racist today. They were featuring The Searchers in the piece mainly.
I never did watch many of his movies. Really didn't think he was all that great of an actor.
@burrito88 (2774)
• United States
25 Jan 13
Wayne fell into a trap that sometimes afflicts actors. He stopped acting and started playing himself. He also would change his lines if he didn't agree with the script. Some of his movies even seemed to be re-makes of earlier movies. That's what made True Grit one of his best movies. He didn't come off as much as playing John Wayne.
@silverfox09 (4708)
• United States
9 Jan 13
I think that how it was those time , People will kill a lot of Indians and got away with it . I dont really know the movie I am just going after your post . I dont think it really racist if there were no blacks in his western , I dont really see a lot of black people in western any ways .
What I do see in a lot of western are white people killing the Indians/Mexicans with no remorse as you said .
The past was a strange place , the world was new to everyone and it was all about jungle justice .
@burrito88 (2774)
• United States
25 Jan 13
After the Civil War, 25 percent of the cowboys out west were blacks and western movies neglect this. There were 2 black cavalry units, the 9th and 10th Cavalry who were named "Buffalo Soldiers" by the Indians. The 9th Cavalry helped end the Johnson County wars. Just because the movies neglect them doesn't mean they weren't there.
@cupkitties (7421)
• United States
8 Jan 13
Could be, but wasn't that true of most films in those days? Most "Native Americans" in movies and on tv then were not Native American at all. They were whites or people who were dark, but still Caucasian looking enough that they were "acceptable". The black people that were portrayed on screen at all, were often made to appear as dumb as possible.
@SpikeTheLobster (6403)
•
8 Jan 13
Of course they were racist: the civil rights movement had barely got its feet at that time. Blacks were just amusing clowns put on Earth to amuse the dominant whites and any kind of sympathy for the Indians (or Native Americans if you prefer that wording) was extremely rare.
There was also the political climate to consider: the civil rights movement, the incredibly socially conservative norms (Elvis Presley and rock 'n' roll music seen as the work of the devil... 
), the end of the Korean War, McCarthyism (!), the Cold War...
All in all, it was a time when the US was looking for people to blame and hate, minorities were in no position to push for proper treatment and the governing culture was one of "toe the line or pay the consequences".
Hollywood has always reflected the worst of the political climate because it's always been so unwilling to take risks (because risks mean less certain returns).
That's all a generalisation, of course, but you can see what I mean. 
), the end of the Korean War, McCarthyism (!), the Cold War...
All in all, it was a time when the US was looking for people to blame and hate, minorities were in no position to push for proper treatment and the governing culture was one of "toe the line or pay the consequences".
Hollywood has always reflected the worst of the political climate because it's always been so unwilling to take risks (because risks mean less certain returns).
That's all a generalisation, of course, but you can see what I mean. @burrito88 (2774)
• United States
8 Jan 13
In the Playboy interview I recall that Wayne said he didn't feel he owed anything to blacks because of slavery. He felt they needed to earn their way up the ladder and he complained about reverse discrimination saying if two people were equal the Black would get the job.
The Korean War was the first war where our military was integrated. And when you speak of McCarthyism, you need to remember that McCarthy started to focus his attention on gays and lesbians. He lumped them in with Communists because he felt they could be blackmailed.
