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

[saare-snowqueen.livejournal.com]

You left out Humphrey Bogart and Jason Robards (Both married to the same actress by the way; not at the same time of course.)
At the risk of calling a kettle less than white; your own 'ahem' artists, don't stand up to scrutiny on the alcohol front either; Hmmm now. let's see.......... Burton, Behan, Thomas and that's just at the Western edge of the Sceptered Isle.

Yes...

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

And the women a cross between Mata Hari and the virgin mother.

[zeeshanmn.livejournal.com]

I would agree with what you say, specially when you mention Jim Morrison in your list.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

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.

Well, let me see. There's Peter O'Toole, there's Richard Burton, there's Laurence Olivier. All wonderful actors. Peter O'Toole admits he has been in rehab, Richard Burton was a drunk and Laurence Olivier had strange sexual preferences.

You are the master of sweeping statements, aren't you?

[creakiness.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering about something like this. On the art forums I read, when ever someone brings up the topic of fighting everyone seems to jump in with how much they love to fight, and how they only go out on the town for this purpose. It'll then go into a lot bragging about how many arms, legs, and jaws they've broken. I not sure how much of it I believe, but you would think it's like Fight Club or something. The biggest tough guys of the bunch always seem to end up being Canadian.

[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?