Distinctly Montana Magazine

2025 // Winter

Distinctly Montana Magazine

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59 w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m 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.

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