For those who have seen his movies, did the characters John Wayne played convince you that they could be real people or did they seem a little less than three-dimensional? Nevermind that he played pretty much the same character in every movie, only with different names. My personal opinion? His characters always seemed a bit too Mary Sue-ish for me. He was always the hero, always right and the ones that questioned his actions were portrayed as losers. Discuss.
Personally I thought John Wayne was terrific, however like a lot of big stars - their personalities often over-rided their roles. Think about it Nicholas Cage is , Nicholas Cage in every movie , a bit of a wacko , Tom Cruise is always a go-getum charmer ( I could go on and on. ) I think certain roles were pretty paint-by-numbers where he could've sleep-walked through them, but in other movies yes , I think he played three dimential characters. The easiest is Ethan from the Searchers in which he was a hero but also lusting after his brother's wife and wanting more to strangle Debbie rather than rescue her. That's definitely a multi-layered character. Even in some of his lightweight roles like McClintock - he makes the role seem so easy - because so much of the character is him. Whether or not he played a believable character would be in contrast to the story - is he a cliche in a cliched story? Remember going back so far there was no television , so the movies they cranked out for the stars were based on a supply demmand mentality. Like any star who was popular to a studio - they strived to pump out as many movies ( or vehicles as they called them ) starring their breadwinner as possible , sometimes the quality wasn't the best.
My favorite character of his was JB Books in The Shootist. The role was a little more complex and gave my brain more to chew on.
Sometimes he played characters with real depth. For example, he's a tragic, noble figure whose nobility breaks him in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. Check it out, if you haven't seen it - it's a great movie.
i met him once and what you see on screen is pretty much what you get in person--a 'nice, likeable guy'... while he may not have had the acting range of those we consider 'great actors' he always gave a good performance and imbued his characters with human traits, not just letting them be cardboard figures...
In essence John Wayne played himself. He was an actor with true character. All the roles I've seen him portray were the hero archetypes, perfectly suited for his personality. El Dorado is still one of my favorites. - Darkkin
At some point, John Wayne actually admits that he's basically the same in every movie. He said he liked his role in True Grit the best because he actually got to do a different character.
