John Wayne : The Man Behind the Myth

I really liked this book. It provided a lot of depth and insight into the man. It also included some interesting facts. One of these was that John Wayne did not like horses. He also wanted to be an attorney. All his wives were Latin women. I thought this was especially interesting since I am an attorney and have a Latin wife.

Book started out a little slow but as it went along it became a more interesting read. I do recommend it for any John Wayne fans.

Michael Munn's "John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth" (2003) presents the life of one of America's greatest 20th century icons. This 386-page hardback is comfortably researched with 17 pages of filmography (describing, briefly, each John Wayne film), 5 pages of sources, and a two page annotated bibliography.

Munn brings motion picture super star John Wayne to life with a comprehensive chronological narrative of his life and career. Using Wayne era media documentation, personal interviews with friends, family, and co-stars, and reviewing books about the Duke the author reintroduces readers to John Wayne's greatness. Memorable stories are told from the Duke's personal, family, and performance lives.

We hear from John Agar, Lee Van Cleef, Rock Hudson, Charlton Heston, Jennifer O'Neill, Sammy Davis, Jr., Maureen O'Hara, and many more about Wayne. Readers learn about his opinions on Richard Widmark's acting, John Huston's directing, and daughter Aissa's script reading. One discovers which one of Wayne's films was his own favorite ("The Alamo") and which was the simplest for him to make ("True Grit"). (John Wayne turned down the "Dirty Harry" part after Frank Sinatra's refusal because he didn't want a Sinatra's rejection and the Duke also didn't like the image of a rogue cop.) Wayne's families, religion (as a back-sliding Presbyterian), politics (as an Orange County Reagan Republican), love for alcohol, and lung cancer (which ultimately killed him in 1979) are reviewed.

Munn's story of John Wayne's rise from a movie back lot janitor (as an injured USC football player) to mega star adored by millions is interesting and at times riveting. Much of the Duke's life was like a John Wayne movie. The Duke was involved in hunting accidents, stage and scene mishaps, and was once targeted by the Brezhnev government for his anti Soviet views. The Duke liked fist fighting, rifle shooting, and loving Latinas. (Munn is comprehensive, reflective, and convincing.)

Michael Munn's "John Wayne: The Man Behind the Myth" is written in a non-technical novelistic style. For me, it was a quick read. All John Wayne aficionados should own a copy. It is recommended to everyone.

British journalist Michael Munn does a good job at delving into the core of a remarkable man, the motion picture legend we call "the Duke." Some people have criticized John Wayne over the years for not acting, but Wayne carefully crafted and honed his Duke persona to give his audiences something they could take with them, especially during the grim days of World War II. Wayne wanted to enlist, but he was a man of his word and under contract. Instead, he boosted morale through his films.

John Wayne embodied the spirit of the rugged American. He was a man's man who never backed down from a fight, on or off screen. And yet, he showed a flexibility and tolerance with actors who marched to a different drum. Kirk Douglas and Rock Hudson are examples of men whose politics and lifestyle, respectively, John Wayne disagreed with very strongly. But Wayne respected their acting credentials and for him that was the decisive factor. Wayne was a true acting professional and a man of passion who could project himself as larger than life.

Munn captures all of this and more. Where he goes astray, perhaps, is with his curious anecdote about Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin wanting to kill the Duke. Surely as cunning a player on the world stage as Stalin would never have risked an international incident, or even war, by having John Wayne assassinated. I'm not sure of the source Munn used, but it could be of the "red herring" variety. This jazz about the Duke getting the scoop from Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin's wily successor who admittedly did his share of de-Stalinizing, is far-fetched. Yet, it all adds to the mystique.

This book was an easy read and I liked pouring through it. One has to be aware, however, that John Wayne was no saint. He caroused with women while letting his marriages fall apart, he drank hard, and he used salty language. Munn quotes Wayne and his circle of friends verbatim, especially when director John Ford was among them, so be forewarned that there is profanity in this book. In the end, Munn's take on the Duke leaves you feeling like you almost knew him, and that is good. Rev. Dennis J. Mercieri, alumnus of Holy Apostles Seminary

When is someone going to come out with a satisfactory biography of America's greatest star? It used to be that people scoffed at John Wayne's acting, but in recent years the circle has come around and i think we all know he wasn't a bad actor but an incandescent performer with infinite gobs of star quality radiating all around him like shooting stars. And yet the biographies of him lack his moral depth and complexity. Invariably they are written by people like Michael Munn, an okay journalist but a man with too many irons in the fire (18 previous books, including lives of Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone) to afford himself the luxury of time--the precious time it would take to write a first-class biography of this great, iconic presence. Munn has interviewed a lot of people, all of whom sound pretty much the same in his chatty transcriptions, and he has gotten close to many who were close to the Duke, and the book is readable enough, but it doesn't come close to conveying what happens to an audience when they sit through a John Wayne picture, the intense identification and mythologizing of his screen character as it moves from frame to frame, decade to decade. Munn also in British and gives Wayne through the British tabloid lens, when as we know Wayne was American as apple pie.

And he brings a lot of rumors to the book, particularly those which emphasize Wayne's right-wing political views and his proud conservatism. All very well and good but to make Wayne a hero on the basis that Joseph Stalin put out a fatwa on him is just ridiculous. If Stalin had wanted Wayne assassinated (for what reason?) wouldn't it have been taken care of during Stalin's lifetime?

Munn also fails to gloss over Wayne's miserable personal life. In fact the way he lingers on it makes you think he enjoys seeing the Duke brought to his knees by the women around him and by his troubled, semi-nutty mentor John "Pappy" Ford.