John Wayne Fans React to Controversial Movie Clip Teaching Kids to Swim
Western movie actor John Wayne has over 180 credits to his name running through 1976. However, some of his most iconic clips frequently come back into popular culture through social media. One particular Wayne clip from Hondo resurfaced and his fans are reminiscing about how they feel about the controversial snippet.
John Wayne starred as Hondo Lane in ‘Hondo’
The 1953 Wayne movie called Hondo was directed by John Farrow. The screenplay was based on the 1952 short story called “The Gift of Cochise.” However, Farrow wasn’t able to finish shooting the movie due to the shoot going over schedule. As a result, Wayne asked his mentor, John Ford, to help out. However, he didn’t receive credit for his work.
Hondo follows an Army dispatch rider named Hondo Lane (Wayne), but everything changes when he becomes their protector. However, they don’t expect him to introduce such massive changes to their lives.
John Wayne fans react to resurfaced ‘Hondo’ movie clip
The official Wayne Twitter account tweeted a movie clip from Hondo. Social media users turned a portion of the snippet into a GIF as a reaction to particular comments online. However, the full Hondo scene itself earned plenty of controversial reactions over time.
In the Hondo clip, the young boy is fishing in a body of water. Hondo approaches him and gives him a piece of advice on where to best position himself to fish. However, the boy explains that he can’t follow his advice because he doesn’t know how to swim. This instantly catches Hondo’s attention and he leans down to ask the young boy how old he is.
The boy responds that he’s 6 years old. In response, the Wayne clip shows him grabbing the young boy and throwing him into the water, who begins to panic in the water. The boy’s mother runs out shouting that he can’t swim.
“Time he learned,” Hondo responded. “Everybody should swim. Just reach out in front and grab a handful of water, pull it back towards you. Not too fast. That’s the way I learned.”
The Wayne movie clip ends with the woman admitting that she doesn’t know how to swim either before running off to avoid Hondo tossing her into the water, as well.
Twitter users responded that this is how their own father taught them. However, they noted that this didn’t work too well with their sibling. Others responded how much they love the Wayne clip and the humor involving the mother.
However, some other Twitter users took this as an opportunity to tease others: “Spit out my orange juice laughing,” one user responded. “Wonder what the ‘safe space’ generation thinks of the John Wayne swim school?” Many other Wayne fans responded in agreement with a few responses calling out their overcommitment to an actor who isn’t a real cowboy.
The movie was a big success with audiences
Hondo is an example of a Wayne movie that was a big success during its initial release. It became quite popular with audiences, bringing in over $4 million at the box office. As a result, Hondo‘s run ended as one of the top 20 money-making films of the year.
This particular Wayne movie also earned a 3D release at the time, since this format was particularly popular at the time. However, this technology continues to find its way back into popularity before fading away. The same can be said about the Wayne movie clip itself, which occasionally continues to resurface in the form of the full snippet or a simple GIF. Nevertheless, it always garners big reactions for how the actor tossed a young boy without swimming abilities into the water.
