The John Wayne myth and the realities of real war. [View All]

[ginnyinWI]

On this Memorial Day weekend, I've seen the usual old war movies in my TV listings. And I thought, you know, that's where the trouble begins. We watch these old war and Western movies from childhood on up , and buy into it--the whole "tough guy goes out alone against all odds and wins because he has a good and true heart" kind of stuff. As long as he's tough and brave and never flinches from a fight, he ends up winning--and then the big "The End" sign goes up and everyone has a warm fuzzy feeling in their heart. There's never an insurgency or a mess to clean up afterwards--that stuff just isn't interesting or important. Let somebody else worry about that--we're busy cheering for our hero.

And you know what? I'll bet * learned about war this same way. His idol, Ronald Reagan learned to project this Tough Guy personality from the inside, being an actor himself and starring in just those kinds of roles. He brought it to the presidency and the people just ate it all up. Tough Guy president faces down the Evil Empire and prevails! Yay!

Chimp wanted to be a president like Reagan--or like Reagan's image of him presented. The authors of Hubris pointed out that * thought of Reagan's Evil Empire speech and proceeded to call out the "Axis of Evil". Of course he and his people were far too short-sighted and incompetent to do what they tried to do--to get a similar capitulation in the Middle East like Reagan's supposed ability to make the Berlin Wall come down. (We know it was due to fall anyway--he just touched it with his little finger and it fell of its own weight.)

It's not only the chimp, it's all the people in this country who have never seen real war, only the glorified John Wayne kind. So they get to be 18 and decide that it would be a noble thing to sign up and go and fight one like that. They reason that if their president needs them, it's for a just and noble cause. I'll leave it to others to estimate how many find out differently once they are there.

So many of the old war movies from the 40s and 50s are either blatant propaganda or are the glorified and idealized memories of veterans who seek to make war make sense. Sometimes war is justified, but we have to be very careful not to apply the reasons for a just war to just any old war that any old president decides that he wants so that he can be a "war president" and show up the old man. A president who doesn't care about anybody more than himself and his legacy, and has convinced himself that he's right and everyone else in the country is dead wrong.

So let's not watch Hollywood war movies anymore, and stop letting our kids soak in all of that B.S. about the glories of war. Let them watch "Saving Private Ryan" or "Flags of Our Fathers" and other films which show us the bravery, yes but also bloody death and defeat--the flip side of the coin.
No more "The Longest Day" with John Wayne in his freshly pressed uniform charging over the hill, leading his men to victory. And there are dozens and dozens more of these sanitized war movies.

My nephew loved to watch stuff like "Mr. Roberts" with all its frat-boy towel-snapping cameraderie. Now he's in the Air National Guard and I worry he'll be the next to be shipped overseas if this war doesn't end soon. All for a dream. I wonder if he sees the difference yet. I wonder if he still buys into the myth.