Why Western icons were worlds apart

It’s no surprise that John Wayne, the hero of the American Western, hated it. In fact, he liked it so much that he wrote a letter to the younger star telling him so. He said it wasn’t really about the people who pioneered the West,” Eastwood said, adding that he meant his film was an allegory. “I realized there are two different generations and he wouldn’t understand what I was doing.”

As America’s most famous Western star, Wayne felt obliged to uphold certain ideals. “He was prone to a tendency toward nihilism and probably felt a little threatened,” says Scott Eyman, author of John Wayne: The Life and Legend.

It might have been a bit personal too. A few years earlier, Wayne declined Dirty Harrythe 1971 film that made Eastwood a superstar.

“I thought Harry was a rogue cop,” Wayne said. “I saw the photo and realized that Harry was the kind of role I had played enough times: a man who follows the law, but breaks the rules… to save others.”