American Artist

[poliphilo]

I was wrong about John Wayne. He didn't dodge WWII on the strength of a football injury. The truth is he was exempted from service on the grounds of age (he was 34 at the time of Pearl Harbour) and because of  family commitments. No shame in that. Of course he could have got round the ruling easily enough- and in fact he tried- only not hard enough. That's what he reproached himself with afterwards- not having tried hard enough.

Poor John Wayne. He was a sissy at heart. I'm convinced of this. He was a very delicate artist- look at the grace with which he moved, look at the understatement he brings to all his best roles, look at the fine and sensitive business with which he creates character- the fumbling with the glasses in My Darling Clementine, the right hand grasping the left elbow as he walks off into the desert at the end of the Searchers, consider the intelligence with which- if caught off guard- he could discuss the craft of acting. But America- Bitch mother that she is- insisted on him being a Man- meaning all that two-fisted, raw-steak eating, whisky drinking  machismo he fell into in later life. He wasn't alone. American artists of all types keep being squeezed into this mould. 

Want a list? Here, have a list.

John Ford
Howard Hawks
William Wellman
John Huston
Sam Peckinpah
Ernest Hemingway
Charles Bukowski
Hunter S Thompson
Norman Mailer
Jackson Pollock
Jim Morrison
Snoop Dogg

And that's just off the top of my head.

Why do so many American artists end up as alcoholics? Because they're running scared. Because they're afraid they're going to be exposed as the sissies they are. 

In any other society Wayne's reasons for staying out of uniform would have been accepted as perfectly honourable. In every other society the artist is valued for being an artist and isn't also expected to out-drink, out-fight, out-fuck every man in the bar.  Only in America do artists  feel compelled to turn themselves into dicks.

Comments

[senordildo.livejournal.com]

I remember reading how on the set of the Alamo Wayne would shout at his actors "Walk gracefully damnit! Like me!"
I'm sure that masculine guilt plays a large part in the massive alcoholism of American artists, but on the other hand, artists have a propensity for substance abuse and being difficult. John Ford and John Huston both had nothing to be ashamed of during their WWII service--they both just liked booze. Nor am I so sure that Wayne was a macho man because America insisted on it--it did, but I think he quite liked being one. Had he really wanted to, he could have taken different roles (Henry Fonda helped invert his screen image by playing cold, psychopathic villains), but he had a pretty square, neo-chivalric conception of the sort of roles he wanted to play and of the Western--he criticized Clint Eastwood and Sam Peckinpah for not meeting his genre standards, and The Shootist might have been a much better film if the Wayne hadn't insisted on reworking the original part to match the persona he spent his lifetime building up.

P.S. Henry Fonda starred in My Darline Clementine, not the Duke. Perhaps you meant She Wore a Yellow Ribbon?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ach- *slaps wrist*- of course I meant She Wore A Yellow Ribbon.

Wayne was offered a role in Blazing Saddles. He told Mel Brooks (in so many words) "I can't be in your movie becasuse it's too dirty, but I'll be first in line to see it."

I'va always wished he could have worked with Peckinpah. William Holden was magnificent in The Wild Bunch, but just imagine if that had been Wayne playing Pike Bishop!

[philtration.livejournal.com]

And what about the long list of British rock stars?
Surely you could wirte an entire book about them with Keith Richards and Keith Moon having a chapter all their own.
Was their a point to this other than "Americans are assholes while we are so much better"?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There's a certain kind of machismo that is purely American. Drinking is a part of it, but only a part. This wasn't Yank-bashing but an attempt to identify something particular and peculiar in American culture.

Yeah, a lot of British artists have been equally drunk- but the persona affected by the drunken British artist is different. Brits go for a an effete, floppy-haired dandyism.

The American artist needs to prove that in spite of being in a sissy profession he's still a man. The British artist embraces his inner sissy and aspires to be Oscar Wilde.

[philtration.livejournal.com]

I don't know.... saying that drunken machismo is purely American is far from the truth. We have sports events year round here and even in the dead of winter they will be 100,000 fans attending an American football game. When have you seen any reports about drunken hooligans fighting in the stands and starting fires?
It does not happen here but it certainly does happen in the U.K.
For all the talk of the "Ugly American" tourist, when have you seen mobs of Americans running amok in the streets of a foreign country? When British football fans travel abroad to support their team security has to be beefed up to contain the drunken riots.
I love the Brits. I cannot imagine my music collection without the Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Who, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin...
I love your sense of humor and wit.
It seems that the Brits are in the mood for lecturing us on our shortcomings, as if we are not aware that we are not perfect. Believe me.. we do know.
A film containing violence and crude behavior is just "Typical brutish Yank behavior" unless it is a Guy Ritchie film then it is a "Cinematic Masterpiece"
The Brits have their own long sorid history filled with colonialism, slavery, conquest, murder and pillage of dirt poor people from every corner of the globe but expect the Americans to be without fault and seem to take great pleasure in pointing them out to us.
This tide of anti-Americanism in the U.K.cannot be all from George Bush. Believe me, we hate him far more than you do.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

But I'm talking about artists not sports fans.

British artists don't feel obliged to be tough guys, American artists do.

I know that's a sweeping statement and there are exceptions on both sides of the pond.

Guy Ritchie for instance- who gets much mocked over here for pretending to be a cockney geezer when he's really a privately educated toff. I can't stand the fella.

[philtration.livejournal.com]

I agree that many artists go that route but it is certainly not a monopoly held by the Americans.
Is there a bigger jerk in the acting world today than Russell Crow?
I do see your point and I find the whole macho image rather boring myself.
I saw a documtery the other day about Monty Python's The Life Of Brian and John Cleese was talking about the film. I loved the fact that he was very humble in spite of his populairty on both side of the ocean.