John Wayne developed such an iconic representation of what an idealized Western hero looks like that it shocked people when The Searchers hit theaters. No less than Martin Scorsese said that when he and his friends went to see the film in theaters when it came out, they were shocked that Wayne was playing a despicable racist. Scorsese created Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver based on Wayne’s character from that seminal Western movie. However, this wasn’t the first time Wayne played against type in a Western.

When getting past the problematic aspects of many Westerns, including the depiction of Native Americans, John Wayne usually played characters who often made the right, moral decisions. He might have been part of the groups battling the Native Americans, but in many movies, he also respected them in many ways. That changed in The Searchers, and for anyone who knows his career, this wasn’t the first time he portrayed a man who does very bad things, even as the so-called good guy in the film. There is no better example than Red River.

John Wayne Played A Vindictive Western Antihero In Red River

John Wayne’s Thomas Dunson Was Not A “Good” Man

Released in 1948 and directed by Howard Hawks, Red River stars John Wayne and Montgomery Clift and tells the story of the first cattle drive from Texas to Kansas along the Chisholm Trail. It also deals with the more personal story of the feud between the man who initiated the drive (Wayne) and his adopted adult son (Clift). The film goes a long way to showing why Wayne’s Thomas Dunson is such a hardened man early on when the love of his life likely died in a wagon train attack at the start of the film.

However, Thomas’s actions throughout the movie are nothing like the good, honorable characters Wayne played throughout much of his career. Instead of being concerned about being a good man and standing up for the right way of doing things, Thomas only cares about his professional ambitions and his rule of law, which often sees him shooting people just for deserting him and wanting to leave. He even sets out to kill his adopted son when he defies him, refusing to accept his son is in the right.

Howard Hawks scholar Gerald Mast wrote about Wayne’s character in the biography Howard Hawks: Storyteller:

“Wayne had never played the character he played in Red River. Once he had played it, that persona came to represent such a powerful cultural archetype that it served, for many, as a symbol, if not the cause, of the American atтιтude that produced the Vietnam War … no star in the history of film other than John Wayne could play this role.”

While it was a different role for John Wayne, it received high acclaim. The film received a perfect 100% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, and the Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 1990.

Red River Opened The Door For John Wayne’s Later Antihero Roles

John Wayne Began Expanding His Roles After Red River

Many fans accused John Wayne of only playing himself in all his Western movies. However, Wayne played against type in Red River, and it shocked even the man he worked with the most. After seeing the film, John Ford famously said, “I never knew the big son of a bitch could act,” (via Roger Ebert). This also changed how Ford and Wayne worked together in the future. It was Ford who directed The Searchers, where Wayne played a racist who went so far as to shoot a ᴅᴇᴀᴅ man in the eyes to ensure he didn’t go to his afterlife.

Wayne also played an antihero in The Man Who SH๏τ Liberty Valance. He was the violent rancher working with the more good-hearted politician Rance Stoddard (James Stewart). He also took on the darker role in Rio Bravo, where he was another violent man, but this time using his talents to protect a small town in a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. However, these roles would not be possible without Howard Hawks helping John Wayne step out of his comfort zone in Red River.