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campaign that would eulogize the fading West. They needed
someone who connoted grandfatherly dignity, good-faith trust-
worthiness, and gobs and gobs of Western flavor. The movie star
was low on cash. His last movie, his final movie, had been filmed
three years before.
On August 25th, 1978, a thinning John "Duke" Wayne rode
into frame on a horse. It was one of his last acting gigs, lensed by
the great ad man Haskell Wexler, with whom Wayne enjoyed a
jovial antagonism. Wayne knew Wexler might be the last direc-
tor he ever worked with. He knew he was sick, but he wasn't sure
what was sickening him, yet.
In the tenor and cadence that was his trademark, he began to
speak. He could have phoned it in, but instead he delivered his
lines with warmth and presence.
"Beautiful country. You know, I rode out here about fifty years
ago on a little dun horse and started a film career. Picture called
A Big Trail. Well, I made quite a few since then, some good and
some bad. Matter of fact, in those days, a Great Western Savings
account would have come in handy."
He would die of cancer 11 months later, his legend secure.
He remains one of the biggest movie stars of all time. In
the state of Montana, where his carefully crafted Western im-
age probably has even more appeal than it does in most other
states, his face is festooned on countless books, posters, decora-
tive plates, paintings, statues, and murals. You've probably met
someone who seems to affect John Wayne's trademark drawl.
For millions all over the world, he remains the Platonic image of
the cowboy, just as Montana will now and forever be the far hori-
zon of the eternal West—at the end of the fabled big trail.
The
Duke Duke
TODAY, THE BIG TR AIL IS RIGHTLY REGARDED
AS A LANDMARK EPIC, SOMEHOW BOTH AHEAD OF AND BEHIND ITS TIME.
