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I agree with John Wayne when he said "They seem to forget the one basic principle of our business—illusion. We're in the business of magic. I don't think it hurts a child to see anything that has the illusion of violence in it. All our fairy tales have some kind of violence—the good knight riding to kill the dragon, etc. Why do we have to show the knight spreading the serpent's guts all over the candy mountain?" Film Makers today go to far with all the gory stuff. John Wayne is a little ruff around the edges but I learned a lot from this interview like,"They went out and brought the best hillbilly recording artist in the country to Hollywood to take my place. For the first couple of pictures, they had a hard time selling him, but he finally caught on. His name was Gene Autry. It was 1939 before I made Stagecoach—the picture that really made me a star." Who knew John Wayne had a hand in making Gene Autry what he is today.John Wayne is old fashioned. He says he does not feel bad about what happened to the Indians and I can understand not feeling guilty but not even feeling sorry for those who were hurt, that's wrong.
We are on the second day of watching the Searchers I missed the first day but I was able to catch up quickly with the help of my classmates. I really got into the movie. I did not think I would like it since I hate westerns but this one is funny and I find my self curious about what will happen. My favorite part was when the guy who accidentally married an Indian kicked his wife and sent her rolling down the hill. Shocking but hilarious none the less.
I can admire some good old fashioned values and I understand this interview took place many years ago and that John Wayne was fairly old even then, but his views, even then, were pretty outdated. I did like what he said about the illusion of violence though.
ReplyDeleteYeah I actually did not realize how long ago the interview took place until after I bloged but It would not have changed anything even if i did :)
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