John Wayne: American by Randy Roberts, James S. Olson
|
Book Summary Author: James S. Olson, Randy Roberts Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 1997-09-28 ISBN: 0803289707 Number of pages: 762 Publisher: Bison Books |
| New | New Usually ships in 24 hours | $21.86 | ||
| Used | Used Usually ships in 1-2 business days | $8.45 |
Your purchase is protected by the A-to-z Safe Buying Guarantee. Amazon.com automatically transfers your payment to the merchant so you'll never need to pay a merchant directly. Amazon.com A-to-z Safe Buying Guarantee covers both the delivery of your item and its condition upon receipt.
Book Reviews of the John Wayne: American
Customer Review: Warts and All
Summary: 4 Stars
I've always been a fan of John Wayne. His westerns and war films make up a good part of my DVD collection.
If you're a fan of Duke, this is a "must" read. It goes more deeply into the man than it does into his films, which is a great thing in my opinion.
Like all of us, Wayne was flawed. However, unlike most of us, he never tried to hide who he was and you either accepted him or not. He was a pretty heavy drinker (more so than I was aware of) smoked 6 packs a day (I quit 11 years ago) and had, shall we say, an eye for the ladies. In other words, he was human.
What I was also unaware of was the depth of this political feelings. I consider myself a conservative, but next to Wayne I'm not even in the same league. I guess one must consider the era in which he lived when putting his life under a microscope, but I found his homophobia deplorable (no, I'm not gay).
One fact that I had never even considered was that Wayne starred in numerous films as a member of the military yet never served a day in the armed forces. Be that as it may, I think that he did more for the morale of his country during wartime than if he had won the Congressional Medal of Honor.
I did find the book a bit long and it did "drag" at times. Cutting it by 25% probably wouldn't have hurt a bit.