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War-torn country EssayThe war in Viet Nam, unlike prior conflicts entered by America, provoked a bitter, emotional debate that divided the nation. Waynes traditional faith in God and country would have seemed out of place, exactly he remained firm in his convictions. Moreover, he was not content to stand idle while the American flag was being ripped to shreds. His reaction was in the descriptor of another war picture, this time set in the fightfields of Viet Nam. In 1967, after visiting that war-torn country, he decided to make a celluloid, entitled The kB Berets, about the exploits of the Special Forces. At 62 years he was to play a Green Beret, notwithstanding Wayne did not mind.He wishd it would bring home the cognitive content to Americans about the necessity of the war being waged in Vietnam. Until recent times, The Green Berets has been the only film that supported the American intervention in Southeast Asia. (Wayne 221). In Waynes war pictures, the message was un mistakable one has a duty to his country and he has to do his best to perform it. In the 1949 film sand of Iwo Jima which earned him his first nomination as Best Actor, Wayne portrayed Sergeant Stryker, a professional soldier who fought in the blood-soaked beaches of Iwo Jima. But more Americans were beginning to question the U. S.newfound role as keeper of world peace. Attacks against The Green Berets were therefore expected. Wayne was labeled Apostle of War by the press. Critics lashed at the film at all angles. But people lined up in theatres to see the scene, which was a huge box office success worldwide. In a stop consonant of turbulent protests, Wayne bravely faced anti-war crowds, giving them his idea of what America had always stood for. Once, he confronted student demonstrators in the University of Southern California who waved a Vietcong flag they ceased beckon the flag when he told them that his companion, Jimmy Stewart, had lost a son in Viet Nam.(Szabaga 3). Gamely facing a forum of hostile youths in a university, Wayne scour managed to win the other side by his father-figure and sense of humor. Asked why he wore a phony toupee, Wayne countered Youre wrong, this isnt phony its real. Its not mine, of course, but its real (Wayne 250). whoremonger Wayne continued to star in big-budget films long after contemporary actors had faded, retired or shifted to character roles, which meant they were no interminable considered box-office draws. Surprisingly, his aging lent greater depth and believability to his roles, and critics were beginning at last to take notice of him.In 1969, when he was 61 years old, he won the Oscar Best Actor trophy for True Grit. The climactic fight guess in that film shows John Wayne, as federal marshal rooster Cogburn, ranged against four mounted antagonists on high altitude. His challenge rang clear Fill your hand, you son of a bitch Placing the reins between his teeth, he drew a handgun in his left hand and spun a r ifle on the other, charging the bad guys. Filming of the sequence took place all day before director Hathaway, a true perfectionist, was satisfied. Wayne refused to have a double, and the scene is one of the best ever produced.His Oscar could not have been more deserved while filming the gut-wrenching action sequence, he was suffering from pain, one of his lungs having been removed some months before. While the critics did their best to downgrade his films, taking potshots at everything from the story to the acting, his films continued to make it big at the tills. John Wayne made it a point to exclude all kinds of graphic violence in his movies, no rape, no adult scenes. His only passionate love scene was with Maureen OHara in the 1952 film The Quiet Man, the only contemporary love story he ever made.Despite the advent of the so-called spaghetti westerns starring Clint Eastwood and company, patronized due to their novelty and shocking violence, the appeal of the Duke did not wane, n or his formula for old-fashioned westerns change the good guys still defeated the bad guys, and they did it fair and square. Most people, movie fans in particular, often presume their idols are not unlike the roles they portray on screen. Thus, they are disappointed when they discover their swashbuckling hero on film a very tame, unexciting character in real life.John Wayne may not be exactly the same as his never-say-die characters, but he gave everything to maintain appearances as long as he could. His fans remember Duke as an aging but no less heroic figure. The lined, weather-bitten face, in fact, punctuate the gritty roles he portrayed onscreen, adding a touch of realism, vulnerability, and pathos. That an aging actor would continued to act and be patronized by loyal fans was unheard of in Hollywood Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson were to follow Waynes footsteps. Although ravaged by genus Cancer, he refused to display weakness until the end.Three weeks after he was operate d on, Wayne was about to leave the hospital, looking abysmally un-John Wayne, bound to a wheelchair. He was aghast when told that reporters waited outside, eager to confirm rumors about his real condition. Reporters adage, not an emaciated patient, but a confident-looking John Wayne striding to the hospital submission as if he had just been on a two-week vacation. He had kicked his wheelchair aside and forced some color into his face, truly an award-winning performance. At the car, Duke groaned as he asked for oxygen.(Wayne 188-189). Ronald Reagan remembered Wayne for his courage in the stand-off against communists in the film industry, his generosity and compassion to those suffering and in need. Nancy, describing how it was to be with the Duke in moments of crisis, said it was like being next to a force bigger than life. Elizabeth paid him a tribute by saying He gave the whole world the image of what an American should be. John Waynes battle against cancer would inspire other sufferers to fight what was then considered an incurable disease.With his legendary tough talk, he told people that the Big C could be licked, and acted as if battling cancer was like taking cure for a cold. He was instrumental in raising millions of dollars for private cancer research. He urged his doctors, when it was apparent there was no hope for a cure, to use his body for medical research (Reagan). His role of the cancer-stricken, dying gunfighter in The Shootist, depicted John Wayne at his best courageous until the very end. As abovestated, John Waynes real life image is inseparable from his screen persona, no matter what role he played.Whether as a police officer, oceanic sergeant, frontiersman, gunfighter, John Wayne was John Wayne, and his fans could not care less. John Wayne was relevant and continues to be so because his fellow Americans still identify with him. He had endured for so long because Americans saw themselves in his roles. To them, John Wayne was everything they could ever hope to be.WORKS CITEDBiography. 19 May 2007. http//www. leninimports. com/john. wayne. hypertext mark-up language John Waynes Congressional Gold Medal. 20 May 2007. jwplace. com/medal.html OHara, Maureen. John Wayne, American. 19 May 2007. http//www. congressionalgoldmedal. com/JohnWayne. htm Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient John Wayne. 19 May 2007. http//www. medaloffreedom. com/JohnWayne. html Reagan, Ronald. Unforgettable John Wayne. Readers Digest, October 1979. 19 May 2007. http//www. jwplace. com/biography. html Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin was So Angered by John Waynes Anti-Communism that He Plotted to create Him Murdered. 19 May 2007. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/America/3114963. shtm