The Duke
Remembering the big screen's straighest shooter
By Joe Leydon
URL: http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/article/the_duke_3401/
His gritty, gruff demeanor and that this-is-a-man-coming-through swagger defined not only the Western for decades (and in many ways still does), but American manhood in general. Wayne's roles in Westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, True Grit, Red River and Rio Bravo, along with war movies like The Longest Day, The High and the Mighty and Sands of Iwo Jima, created an image of Man unlike any seen before. Man was action, Man was the leader, Man simply was.