John Wayne was just plain annoying, totally unlikeable

Must be something wrong with me . . . I was rootin' for him!

I don't understand how anyone could have any sympathy for a constantly angry one dimensional character like this

Poor John Wayne is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't!

If he plays the dashing cowboy hero or a fighting member of the armed forces, it's "John Wayne can't act because he always plays himeself!"

If he plays morally ambiguous and complex characters like he did in THE SEARCHERS, REAP THE WILD WIND, WAKE OF THE RED WITCH and THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE, then "artistic merits," "storytelling" and "characterization" be damned (especially for THE SEARCHERS and LIBERTY VALANCE) and Wayne bashers who cannot see the forest for the trees are equally blind to the kind of nuanced portrayals the Duke capably brought out as Ethan Edwards, Tom Doniphon and even Captain Nathan Brittles in SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON.

I will be the first to admit that there were many actors who were much better actors than John Wayne; however, when Wayne was outdoing himself with the fine support of a great cast and the guiding hand of great filmmakers like John Ford and Howard Hawks, few if any of his peers in the profession could best him or even equal him in pictures like:

THE SANDS OF IWO JIMA (Best Actor nomination)
HONDO
THE SEARCHERS
THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE
TRUE GRIT
THE COWBOYS

...and about a dozen others I could name. There were quite a few stinkers and mediocre films and performances in Wayne's resum`e, to be sure, but it's just plain philistinish to find less to appreciate about THE SEARCHERS and Wayne's work in that picture than no less than industry giants like Martin Scorsese and George Lucas, who rave over this picture, have drawn from it in their own screen works, and who have given Wayne his just accolades as Ethan Edwards.


Okay folks, show's over, nothing to see here!

"I just couldn't stand John Wayne's character in this movie"

What a shame. I don't think he's worried.

"I don't understand how anyone could could have any sympathy for a constantly angry one dimensional character like this"

Because his mother was killed by comanches, he lost the woman he loved to his brother, he fought in a war where he would have seen many people, including his friends killed, and then he returns home to his family who are massacred, including the woman he loves who was also raped. He also finds his niece's raped corpse that he buries. And how was he one dimensional and constantly angry when he was nice and caring towards Martha and the kids in the beginning.

"especially compared to other western heroes such as Clint Eastwood in the Dollar trilogy"

Yeah Clint was a real three dimensional character in those movies. And he went through a range of emotions.

"at least they had heart"

Ethan isn't supposed to have heart. He's a deeply troubled, flawed, bitter, sometimes bordering on psychotic, person.

You're not supposed to like his character. His character is extremely flawed in this movie. This is a much more complex movie than the typical good-guy, bad-guy cowboy movie. He is bitter and uncaring and a racist, driven by a burning desire to kill his niece so that she never turns Comanche. His character is deeper and more complex than the typical John Wayne character. I think it's his best performance.

Congratulations. You got it. He's NOT likeable. He IS an annoying prick.

One thing though: he wasn't trying to be a badass, he was a badass. Note how quickly Captain Rev. Johnson wanted him in his company? He knew that Ethan would kill Comanches if it's called for.

He wanted no sympathy. After his family was killed he wanted nothing but vengeance. He wanted nothing but to kill those responsible.

Note that he didn't - like so many today - need to "share his pain" by killing a bunch of innocent people; no: he went after those responsible and took as look as was necessary to bring them to his version of justice.

That was the nuanced performance by The Duke.

And people say he can't act- this whacks Eastwood's character in The Unforgiven to the wide.

..Joe

His character was supposed to be "just plain annoying, totally unlikeable!" This is the closest Wayne came to playing a villain in a movie.

Fooled you didn't he?

He is not supposed to sympathetic or likeable but represents areas of life - The military etc- that we dust off when needed and forget about after.

He lives on the periphery of society which is represented at the start and closing of the film with the door opening then closing on him. He has done what we needed and then they ignore him (notice the entire family ignores his presence) again and eliminate him from our consciousness..