Hollywood, like the rest of the world, wasn't feeling so hot about the United States in the 1970s. Faced with the relentless cruelty of the Vietnam War and the overt racism of President Richard M. Nixon's "law and order" dictates (plus his wanton abuse of power via the cover-up of the Watergate scandal), the most excitingly talented filmmakers of that era offered up "The Godfather," "Serpico," and "Nashville." Even a rollicking mainstream comedy like "The Bad News Bears" carried an anti-establishment charge.

All of this was juxtaposed against the realization that John Wayne was dying. The quintessential American movie star who, alongside his frequent collaborator John Ford, transformed the Western into manifest-destiny mythmaking, was grasping for relevance in hoary oaters and toothless cop flicks while losing his second battle with cancer. Moviegoers were alternately hostile to and unsettled by this; the man they either dearly wanted or steadfastly did...