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John Wayne: Father
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In later years, Wayne was recognized as a sort of American natural resource, and his various critics, political and film, looked on him with more respect. Abbie Hoffman, the radical of the 1960's paid tribute to Wayne's singularity. Reviewing The Cowboys, made in 1972, Vincent Canby, film critic of the New York Times, who did not particularly care for the film, wrote, "Wayne is, of course, marvelously indestructible, and he has become an almost perfect father figure." But years before he became anything close to a father figure, Wayne had become a symbolic male figure, a man of impregnable virility and the embodiment of simplistic, laconic virtues, packaged in a well-built 6-foot-4-inch, 225- pound frame (1.94 m, 102 kg). (His height has been disputed since he was known to wear lifts).
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Next to work, strong family life was the other defining center of [John Wayne's] existence. He was married three times and was the father of seven children. At the time of his death, he was the patriarch of a large family consisting of 21 grandchildren.
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[T]here is an escape clause, for Wayne is seldom just a tyrant. After Dunson and Matt have fought themselves into the ground in Red River, Tess Millay (Joanne Dru) comes up to them: 'Whoever would have thought that you two could have killed each other?' she chides, and the loving father-son relationship is re-established. 'Come on Debbie, let's go home,' Ethan (Wayne) says to his niece instead of killing her as he had set out to do in The Searchers, and it was Jean-Luc Godard who pinpointed the secret of Wayne's appeal when he wrote:
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John comes out of hiding to run the ranch for Bess, but as they get closer, the secrets of her fatherA A A s death are revealed in whispers, chases and fistfights. via Internet Archive
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