John Wayne and Clint Eastwood Almost Starred in a Western 50 Years Ago!

Imagine a Western starring Clint Eastwood and John Wayne. Director Larry Cohen had this vision in the 1970s when he conceived of a film called “The Hostiles,” co-written with Bob Barbash (The Price of Fear).

In the proposed movie, Eastwood was to play a professional gambler who wins half of a ranch in a game, the other half owned by a retired gunslinger portrayed by John Wayne. Despite their differences, the two men were to join forces against a gang of outlaws.

The Eastwood-Wayne Dynamic

By the 1970s, Clint Eastwood was at the height of his fame, renowned for his role in Dirty Harry and beginning to direct his own gritty, violent Westerns.

John Wayne, on the other hand, was in the last decade of his life and his star had dimmed. He was out of sync with the counterculture era and a youth in rebellion against traditional values. Apart from The Cowboys (1972), his work had become somewhat monotonous, alternating between classic Westerns and decent detective movies.

“He Threw It All Overboard”

In the book Larry Cohen: The Stuff of Gods and Monsters, mentioned by Slash Film, the writer-director recalls that Wayne showed no interest in the project and had already expressed his refusal. Cohen attempted one last approach using Wayne’s son, Michael Wayne, as an intermediary. Here’s what happened:

“The following week, I called Michael to ask what had happened. He said, ‘Well, dad was sitting on the boat, and I handed him the script. He looked at it for a few minutes and then said, ‘Not this crap again?!’ and threw it overboard’. Just like that, my great script was sinking into the blue of the Pacific along with my hopes and dreams of Clint Eastwood and Bob Barbash!”

Ultimately, Wayne never did work with Eastwood. The closest they got was when Wayne sent a letter to Eastwood upon the release of High Plains Drifter (1973). In the book Ride, Boldly Ride: The Evolution of the American Western, published in 2012, Eastwood reflects:

“[Wayne] said it didn’t really represent the pioneers of the West. I realized that we were from two different generations and he didn’t understand what I was doing. High Plains Drifter was a fable. It wasn’t meant to depict the hard work of the pioneers. It wasn’t about evoking the spirit of the Western pioneers.”

Misunderstandings, impossible dialogue, two irreconcilable eras.

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