It is no shock that John Wayne, hero of the American Western, hated it. In reality, he disliked it sufficient to put in writing a letter to the youthful star telling him so. He mentioned it wasn’t actually in regards to the individuals who pioneered the West,” Eastwood mentioned, including he meant his film to be an allegory. “I noticed that there is two totally different generations and he would not perceive what I used to be doing.”
As America’s most well-known Western star, Wayne felt obliged to uphold sure beliefs. “He was delicate in regards to the drift towards nihilism and possibly felt a bit threatened,” mentioned Scott Eyman, writer of John Wayne: The Life and the Legend.
It additionally could have been a bit private. A number of years earlier, Wayne turned down Soiled Harry, the 1971 movie that made Eastwood a celebrity.
“I believed Harry was a rogue cop,” mentioned Wayne. “I noticed the image, and I noticed that Harry was the sort of half I might performed usually sufficient – a man who lives throughout the regulation however breaks the foundations … to save lots of others.”