Despite being one of Hollywood’s greatest legends, John Wayne’s reactionary politics only tarnished his memory. Republican conservatism made him a kind of lackey of those in power.

Wayne made numerous racist, misogynistic, and homophobic comments and advocated McCarthyism in order to gain political favor. However, despite his disgusting behavior and political hypocrisy, Steven Spielberg considered him for the 1979 comedy 1941, alongside Charlton Heston and Jimmy Stewart.

Ultimately, with a cast that included Toshiro Mifune, Christopher Lee, John Belushi, Ned Beatty, Dan Aykroyd, and many others, 1941 was an epic war comedy that depicted the frenzy with which some Californians prepared for war after the Japanese attack on the Pearl Harbour.

Spielberg’s project didn’t do well with audiences, and currently only has a 5.8/10 rating from 34,000 viewers, despite three Oscar nominations.

Wayne was highly critical of the proposal for a comedy about the attack on Pearl Harbor and said that Spielberg’s script was “the most anti-American nonsense he’s ever read.”

If his moral rebellion was predictable, his patriotism was not shown through his wartime enlistment. Spielberg recalls:

“[Wayne] he was very interested and I sent him the script. He called me the next day and said he thought it was an un-American film and I shouldn’t waste my time making it. He also told me that this was an important war and that I was joking about a war that took thousands of lives at Pearl Harbor; not to joke about World War II.”

Sources: Far Out Magazine, IMDb.