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The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (1959-1964) had a segment called "Aesop and Son" suggested by the ancient Greek fables of Aesop. In that segment Aesop would tell his son a story and then tell his son the moral of the story. And then Aesop Jr. would suggest a different moral which made a pun.

And I remember one episode where several critters were plotting and made a time bomb. At the end the time bomb exploded in their faces. And Aesop said the moral was that "Time heals all wounds", but Jr. said the true moral was that "Time wounds all heels".

And that is true. Time wounds all heels. Time also wounds all good people, and everyone and everything else as well.

So if John Ford and John Wayne were "progressive" when younger and "conservative" or "reactionary" when older, a change that many people go through, that can be considered an example of time wounding, diminishing, and tarnishing them.

It's an excellent observation. I'm going to put out there that this film, and others like it, were Ford's vision, not Wayne's.

I generally don't 'like' Wayne, or his later performances, but he was great here.

One thing, he dodged service in WWII, when his own butt was on the line. Maybe his rancid nationalism after was some sort of compensation. He was a chickenhawk. They should hardly have named an airport after him. That was ludicrous.