Posted on 06/26/2015 5:16:45 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen
--SNIP-- The plain fact is, believe it or not, that up through the 1970s or so, every major male star in Hollywood portrayed a sympathetic and admirable Confederate or ex-Confederate character. In fact, ex-Confederates moving West and/or being persecuted by carpetbaggers is a major theme of Westerns in the period. Hollywood was all on our side on the badness of Reconstruction . Indeed, that was the American consensus at the time. Even the impeccably Bostonian Samuel Eliot Morison of Harvard in his standard college history text deplored Reconstruction.
Here is some evidence.
(Excerpt) Read more at abbevilleinstitute.org ...
Did John Wayne ever play an Ex-Confederate?
No, he was always a Union character, most notably Colonel Grierson.
Johnny Yuma
One of my favourite Civil War pics is “Shenandoah”, with Jimmy Stewart, Denver Pyle, James Best, Patrick Wayne, and Doug McClure. Very well done, and neat to see a couple of “Dukes of Hazzard” stars in their earlier years.
***Walter Brennan: I don’t recall specific films in which Brennan played a Confederate ***
THE WESTERNER with Gary Cooper. Brennan played Judge Roy Bean and wears his Confederate Uniform to see Lilly Langtree.
Yes, for instance in ‘The Searchers’ Wayne was an ex-confederate.
The article also mentions the Rooster Cogburn character.
Rooster Cogburn named his cat General Sterling Price. I don't think a Yankee would have done that.
***Did John Wayne ever play an Ex-Confederate?***
THE SEARCHERS. He even has a metal showing service in Maximillian’s army in Mexico.
“Ride With The Devil” deals with Southern bushwackers in a basically sympathetic manner.
John Wayne is the greatest example.
John Wayne whupped Yankee carpetbaggers in ‘The Lonely Trail’.
You are wrong on this one. Wayne played Rooster Cogburn who was a rebel guerrilla fighter under Quantrill.
My mistake. I stand corrected. Thank you!
she was cute
Possibly more or less true of Mosby's men. But there were lots and lots of "partisans" fighting for the southern cause who were little more than bandits, notably in the border states. To be fair the same types "served" the Union cause.
Most officers in both armies considered them worse than worthless as fighters and a great deal more trouble than they were worth.
Some of those links aren’t working for me
IIRC, in SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON, one of the cavalry troopers under Wayne’s command is a former Confederate officer.
This was a common thing in a lot of Westerns.
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