John Wayne: America’s Greatest Movie Star

The centenary of John Wayne’s birth passed in 2007 with hardly any attention from the U.S. media, which shows both how out of touch the critical community is and how much more astute audiences are than the great majority of those who would presume to guide them. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the death of the greatest movie star of all time, John Wayne, and his films still remain immensely popular on television and video, while critics grossly underestimate both his talent and his cultural significance.

Wayne surely wasn’t the most skilled actor ever, but he played a much wider variety of roles than is commonly acknowledged, and he brought his characters vividly to life with a force of personality very few, if any, other performers have even approached. A tall, powerfully built, former college football player, Wayne was a huge presence in the motion picture industry, and a superb actor whose skills were consistently underrated by the critics and still are.

Audiences, however, knew just how great he was, and they made his movies nearly automatic successes at the box office. (more…)

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Tags: Big Trail, Flying Leathernecks, Green Berets, Hatari!, john ford
Posted Jun 13th 2009 at 7:03 am in Entertainment, Featured Story | 15831051 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/stkarnick/2009/06/13/americas-greatest-movie-star/John+Wayne%3A+America%27s+Greatest+Movie+Star2009-06-13+14%3A03%3A29S.T.+Karnick

Top 5: Is The Color Film Big Hollywood’s Problem?

My original plan was to do a top five list of today’s actors under thirty-five with more personality than the ShamWow! guy, but you can only tap your chin so long.

To try and explain away the fact that the true movie star is fast becoming extinct, a few apologists over the years have tossed out the excuse that there’s no way today’s celebrities, er, uhm, actors can compete with their historical counterparts because color, unlike black and white, makes them too human and thus brings them down to earth. It would be foolish to completely dismiss that idea, but not as foolish as raising it before, oh, say, a lack of presence, talent, and most of all, class. Of course, if you’re determined to hold that position you must also believe that putting Ashton and the Jessica-of-the-day in a good noir film would change everything. (more…)

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Tags: errol flynn, gary cooper, ingrid bergman, john wayne, Linda Darnell
Posted Feb 4th 2009 at 12:17 pm in Top 5 | 4113862 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/02/04/top-5-is-the-color-film-big-hollywoods-problem/Top+5%3A+Is+The+Color+Film+Big+Hollywood%27s+Problem%3F2009-02-04+20%3A17%3A10John+Nolte