Reaching heights up to 300 metres, they are silhouetted against a black velvet sky splattered with countless stars; as the sun finally breaks across the long horizon they are more like giant sentinels standing guard over this huge red expanse.
Monument Valley was such a favourite of Ford and Co that it is now known as John Ford Country. Indeed, he filmed seven of his best movies here, five starring John Wayne. But for those who worked with Ford, it is often his personality that people remember rather than his movies.
‘He was a nervous fella,’ says Musselman. ‘He had this odd habit of chewing on his bandana when he was working; he went through at least one a day. But it was his temper that really stands out. He would fire people at the drop of a hat and then five minutes later rehire them. But he had the biggest effect on John Wayne. Whenever he was around Ford, John Wayne would become almost like a schoolboy, very deferential and frightened. I think it’s because he knew that it was Ford who saved and built his career.’
However lopsided the Ford/Wayne relationship may have been, they nonetheless collaborated on some of the most enduring Western movies ever made. And with the epic scenery of Southern Utah thrown into the mix it was a combination that gave the Old West its enduring myth as a wild place where a man can be a man, a myth that still stands today.
And although Monument Valley is tribal land of the Native American Navajo Nation, they willingly put up with the John Wayne myth, not so much for the Duke’s sake, after all he was always gunning down Indians – on film at least – but more out of the respect that director Ford had for this land.
Still it wasn’t just the Wayne/Ford team that used Utah’s epic landscapes, nor was Monument Valley the only location. Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda rode through here on Harley Davidsons in Easy Rider, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was shot among the steep valleys of Zion National Park, even Clint Eastwood got in on the act with The Outlaw Jose Wales filmed in Kanab County and Thelma and Louise drove their 1966 Thunderbird convertible off the cliff’s edge of Dead Horse Point State Park.
Thank you for your article on the Old West and how John Wayne is remembered here. I am from Utah and grew up wishing I was the character that John Wayne was portraying. In fact, that is one of the reasons I wrote my book. I believe that America was made by people just like John Wayne portrayed. Men who stuck to the values they were taught. Even when someone tried to take their dream away. They were the quiet ones that got things done. Thank you. B L Strong, author strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/TheDreamTheMan