John Wayne

 What is John Wayne’s most real and human role as an actor?

That would be the Duke portraying Army Captain Nathan Brittles in “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon”, the middle feature of John Ford’s “cavalry trilogy”. (“Fort Apache” and “Rio Grande” book-ended “Ribbon”.)

The time is 1876, soon after Custer’s defeat at the Little Bighorn. Brittles is a 65-year-old cavalry officer on the cusp of retirement. With six days left in the army, he doesn’t want to muck up the end of his career with disasters. But a series of mishaps

But few things go right. He arrives too late at a stagecoach station to prevent its destruction and the deaths of stage passengers and crew at the hands of young native braves out to duplicate the Sioux and Cheyenne’s victory against George Custer . He also fails to get his commanding officer’s wife and niece out of hostile territory. He then is unsuccessful (along with old friend Chief Pony That Walks) persuading young braves to return to their reservations. Only running off the warriors’ horses finally forces them to return to their reservations.

John Wayne was 42 when She Wore A Yellow Ribbon was made, playing a character in his sixties beset by defeats, who proclaims “Never apologize, it’s a sign of weakness” yet tears up when his regiment presents him with a gold watch. The legend? Ford was leaning toward casting Henry Fonda in the Brittles part, but after seeing Duke Wayne as Tom Dunson in Red River, changed his mind and cast Wayne.

(“I never knew the big son of a bitch could act” is a Ford quote the director supposedly made regarding Wayne in “Red River”. But John Ford knew damn well his longtime star could act. And Henry Fonda was busy on Broadway in the title role of “Mr. Roberts” when “Ribbon” was prepared and shot, so there’s that. Legend is not necessarily fact.)

John Wayne received his first Oscar nomination for a part he played the year She Wore a Yellow Ribbon was released, but it it was for Sergeant Stryker in The Sands of Iwo Jima, a straight-ahead “John Wayne” role.

The Duke thought the nomination went to his work in the wrong movie:

“There are no nuances because Nathan Brittles, like Tom Dunson [in Red River], is folklore and legend, They’re men working against strong handicaps. But Yellow Ribbon may be the part I’m most proud of.”

Wayne’s right about Brittles being his best work; wrong about Brittles being without nuance. Brittles is a sentimentalist who preaches toughness, a commanding officer who cares about the welfare of his men but camouflages himself in the pretense of stern authority.

Tom Dunson in “Red River” and Ethan Edwards in “The Searchers” are cut from the same cloth as John Stryker in “The Sands of Iwo Jima”. All three are hard-charging “John Wayne” parts in which the actor specialized after World War II. But Captain Brittles is another kind of character altogether, softer and less fierce, a peace maker rather than an avenging warrior. And John Wayne becomes Brittles without a false note, which is probably why the Big Cowboy considers the role his best.