John R. Coyne Jr. offers a good review of Scott Eyman's John Wayne: The Life and Legend for the Washington Times.
Before graduation, these were the three high points of Marine boot camp at Parris Island, as I remember them: qualifying at the rifle range, being told by our drill instructor that we had earned the right to be called Marines, and being marched to the outdoor theater to watch John Wayne as Sergeant Stryker in “Sands of Iwo Jima.”
...The great strength of Mr. Eyman's book derives from the strength of its subject, for a quarter of a century one of Hollywood’s top-10 box-office stars. While many of the most celebrated of his contemporaries have faded into late-late-show nirvana, the man we know as John Wayne, from cinematic birth in “Stagecoach” to an appropriate death in “The Shootist,” remains with us as a symbol of something more, something buried deep in our national DNA.
You can read the rest of the review via the below link:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/9/book-review-the-marine-who-was-john-wayne/?page=1
BTW . . . when I was initiated as a chief petty officer while stationed in Iceland in 1981, the post-initiation party featured a showing of John Wayne's fighting Seabees movie. The movie turned an otherwise disgusting day into a pleasant day to remember.
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