John Wayne _ The Man Behind the Myth - Michael Munn [142]
‘You’re too good to give a chance to.’ That didn’t mean his character liked the guy I played, but he respected him. But Duke kept saying to me, ‘Chris, you’re just too goddamn nice,’ and I said, ‘Duke, the best villains are always the ones that have charm. Not those guys who snarl and sneer.’ He grinned and said, ‘You’re right. By God, you’re gonna work with me again.’ And I did, in Chisum and The Train Robbers.”
El Dorado didn’t get released until June 1967, because Paramount didn’t want it going up against their other big Western of the time, Nevada Smith, starring Steve McQueen and directed by Henry Hathaway. El Dorado got good notices and earned around $12
million worldwide, the same amount as The Sons of Katie Elder.
Although this demonstrated that there was still a steady audience out there eager for John Wayne in Westerns, Duke now had something else on his mind, and it came to occupy his attention and dedication increasingly. It never became the passion that The Alamo had been, but it was a film he had to make. It was called The Green Berets.
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The Vietcong Sniper
The world Wayne had grown up in had changed. Even his own country was a place he was beginning to feel a stranger in. There was unrest in America, and there were people protesting against the Vietnam War, which was just beginning to make headlines. But he thought no less of his country: “I thank God every day I wake up as a citizen of the United States. But it seems there are some Americans who don’t feel as I do. Things began changing in the mid-sixties and during the Vietnam conflict. I saw it happening for the first time after I’d made Cast a Giant Shadow, which I made because I wanted to remind Americans what their country had done for another little country. Well, we were in Vietnam giving lives for another little country.
“I’d gone into Los Angeles to discuss plans for a charity benefit in aid of burn patients at a children’s hospital, and there were a lot of meetings. I enjoy being involved but I hate meetings, so I took a break and went over to the old USC campus for a stroll with my secretary [Mary St. John]. I saw a group of students protesting against the Vietnam War. It’s only natural that young people should protest against the idea of war. Hell, there were plenty of Americans who opposed our country’s entry into the Second World War. But 266
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you gotta do what’s right. You gotta know what you’re protesting about.
“What got my goat was that these students were heckling a young marine, a corporal, who was going by and heading for his car. He walked with his back straight as a rod, and he wore his uniform with pride. Then I noticed that where his right arm should have been there was only an empty sleeve which was neatly folded and pinned down.
“Turned out he was one of the Ninth Marine Brigade which were the first ground troops America sent to Vietnam [in March 1965]. He had a chest full of medals and ribbons. He said his drill instructor had taught him to ignore impolite civilians. He said, ‘You don’t give them the satisfaction of noticing them.’ I waved to him as he drove away. And my blood was boiling.”
As Wayne continued his story, he could not hold back the anger he’d felt, and it grew until Duke was yelling the way he must have yelled at those students: “I ran over to the students and I was just so angry, I drummed my fists into their goddamn table and I said,
‘You stupid bastards! You stupid fucking assholes! Blame Johnson if you like. Blame Kennedy. Blame Eisenhower or Truman or fucking goddamn Roosevelt. But don’t you blame that kid. Don’t you dare blame any of those kids. They served! Jesus, the kid lost his arm. I mean, what the hell is happening to this country?”
It was around that time that Wayne decided he wanted to make a film set against the Vietnam War, and he bought the rights to The Green Berets,