One thing you have to love about America is our western movies. To me they’re pure Americana, especially if they starred John Wayne. What makes the Duke special? Well, my father was a big Wayne fan and, thanks to these two men, I fell in love with film, especially the western. It’s a love that remains strong to this day.
Western movies were, for me, an uncharted land filled with danger and excitement. They represented a place where a man lived by his own rules, where, to quote Wayne, “There’s right and there’s wrong. You got to do one or the other. You do the one and you’re living. You do the other and you may be walking around, but you’re dead as a beaver hat.” The westerns I watched growing up were always centered around morality and I believe they helped shape my views on right and wrong.
Of course, Wayne didn’t just star in westerns. I watched him kill half of the Japanese army, wrestle a giant octopus not once, but twice (okay, one was a squid), get lost in the desert with Sophia Loren, put out oil fires and catch animals in Africa. But the westerns were my favorites. John Ford’s cavalry trilogy, Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo and El Dorado, his Oscar winning turn in True Grit and, of course, The Shootist and The Cowboys were some of my more recent favorites. But I think my all time favorite Wayne western was The Searchers.
But film wasn’t my only exposure to westerns. My dad and I watched all the TV westerns during their heyday. Hondo, Have Gun Will Travel, Sugerfoot, Cheyenne, Bronco, Wanted Dead or Alive, Trackdown, Lawman, The Rifleman, Maverick, Tales of Wells Fargo, Death Valley Days, and, of course, Gunsmoke were regular events at our house. And before them (although my dad seldom watched them with me) were Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger, and The Cisco Kid. In all of them, the underlying message was one of basic, cowboy morality, doing what’s right ‘cause it’s right.
Many of my most vivid memories of growing up are shared film or TV experiences with my father. Even now, when I watch a modern western like Open Range, I find myself thinking, “Dad would have enjoyed this.”
Yes, the western movie is as American as, well, apple pie. But that’ll be another post during this journey.
Remember to check out the other Patriotic Journeyers… JimK, Scott, Larry, Drumwaster, and Cosmicbabe.