John Wayne made his name acting in two specific genres: Westerns and war movies. Wayne had big roles in modern war movies like Sands of Iwo Jima, but there were also several instances where Wayne combined the two genres and appeared in films dealing with wars in the Old West. The Searchers is a movie where Wayne plays a Civil War veteran who fought for the Confederacy. Wayne also directed his own war movie with The Alamo, where he played Col. Davy Crockett. However, Wayne also starred in three films known as the Cavalry Trilogy.
These three movies included Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and Rio Grande (1950). While the third movie was only made so John Ford and John Wayne could make a pᴀssion project called The Quiet Man, the trilogy remains a beloved part of Duke’s film career. One of the movies was so beloved that one of the greatest U.S. Army generals in history called it a personal favorite and said he watched it every month. This was General Douglas MacArthur, and the movie was She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.
U.S. War General Douglas MacArthur Watched John Wayne’s She Wore A Yellow Ribbon Once A Month
MacArthur Called John Wayne & Ward Bond His Favorite Actors
Scott Allen Nollen wrote in his book Three Bad Men: John Ford, John Wayne, Ward Bond that U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was a mᴀssive fan of John Wayne. This came after Wayne’s primary collaborator, John Ford, directed and released a 1951 U.S. documentary propaganda movie called This is Korea after signing his loyalty oath during the Communist scare. MacArthur was impressed with the propaganda film and commented about Ford and Wayne.
In April 1951, MacArthur, recently removed from command by President Harry Truman, said that he liked This is Korea and considered John Wayne and Ward Bond his favorite actors. He then took it one step further and said he watched the movie She Wore a Yellow Ribbon once a month, every month. This gave John Ford and John Wayne a considerable push for anyone watching their military films at the time.
Robert Barrat played General Douglas MacArthur in the John Wayne movie They Were Expendable.
This was also a personal honor for John Ford. Six years earlier, Ford directed the war movie They Were Expendable with John Wayne. That movie was based on the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three in World War II and featured actor Robert Barrat as General Douglas MacArthur.
What Makes She Wore A Yellow Ribbon A Classic John Wayne Western
The Second Movie In The Cavalry Trilogy Had John Wayne In A Unique Role
John Wayne and John Ford made several movies together. This included their Cavalry Trilogy, and while Rio Grande remains the more popular of the three, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon deserves all the praise it gets. While a “trilogy,” Wayne played a different character in Yellow Ribbon than Rio Grande. This was a genre trope movie, with Wayne playing Captain Brittles on the night of his retirement. However, he has one last mission before he retires.
His job is to stop the start of another bloody war in the plains between the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. Unlike many Western war movie heroes, Brittles doesn’t want to fight. He wants to stop the fighting, and he sets out to find a way to settle the problems without launching the country into another war. What resulted was an Oscar win for Best Cinematography and a film that shows John Wayne was always the best actor in classic Westerns, especially when they are set in a wartime environment.
