John Wayne could be considered to be the ultimate figure of authority in cinema. His popularity spans both social groups and eras. His imposing stature dominated his films but it was really his motions and poses that reinforced and accentuated his authority on screen. In a scene in Red River, Wayne strides towards the camera, through a herd of cattle who part before his inexorable motion; he does not even bother to look at them, his eyes fixed on the camera. A gunfighter calls out from behind, to stop him. But Wayne in one fluid motion, pivots while drawing his gun, downs his opponent, and completes the circle of his turn, his regained stride undeterrable as fate. His role in so many westerns earned him the nickname 'The Duke', undeniably an authoritarian nickname conveying the power that he presented on screen.
All his roles were essentially the same, he was always a cowboy or a hardened army sargeant who either punched people out or shot them. However, this provided a basis for Wayne's authority before the viewer ever saw the film, because it was these percieved traits that helped to reinforce his indominitable presence on the screen. Equally important were his actions, his characteristic stances and gestures. Wayne constantly assumed the pose of Michelangelo's David, the classic model of both maximum tension and relaxation, motion and stillness in the body. With a wider, less rigid stance, he also assumed the position of Donatello's David. Likewise, his walk was a carefully structured action. What initially appeared as a casual stroll was infact both graceful and menacing yet ultimately inescapable. This was also carried over into his dialogue. What appeared to be a lazy drawl, full of 'aints' and 'pilgrims' was a carefully calculated and measured phrasing which fostered an air of inevitability that conspired with his actions to create an overwhelming air of authority.
Wayne's films were unswerving in their narrative, with a strict linear structure. The good guys were introduced, the bad guys were introduced, the good guys fought with the bad guys, the good guys won and the hero got the girl. End of story. Little is left up to the viewer in terms of narrative, interpretation or lack of closure. However post modernity and post structuralism have allowed the realisation of the application of hypertextual structures in the cinema. Films such as Pulp Fiction, Grand Canyon or any Robert Altman film contain mnemonic strucures, and textual anchors and links. The play of signs within a film such as Pulp Fiction or Short Cuts (by Robert Altman) means that no definite meaning is reached and as such no point of closure is ever reached within the film. In Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino provides visual and mental cues for the viewer to determine their own interpretation of the storyline. There is no authority figure on screen to dictate the sequence of events, the logical flow of the story or even what is in Marcellus' suitcase. Even the modern day John Waynes, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis became lost within a maze of mnemonic strucures and links in The Last Action Hero and Terry Gillam's Twelve Monkeys respectively. However, the action hero that Wayne represents will always exist as shown by his enduring popularity; he is still voted as the most popular film icon in the United States today. John Wayne's staple diet, the western and the war film are almost extinct today, replaced by films where the hero is trapped in a skscraper/ boat/ bus/ plane/ airport/ subway loaded with high explosive. As Pop Will Eat Itself said: "get the girl, kill the baddies and save the entire planet".
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