I don't think I've seen ten John Wayne movies
Yeah or for those of the generation that game after his heyday - mainly Generation X (those in their 40s and 50s) and younger, the likely exposure we've had to John Wayne is either as just an icon - someone we've heard about, have seen pictures of on memorabilia, t-shirts, and memes OR have maybe seen bits and pieces of his movies chopped up and edited with commercial breaks back in the 1990s and early 2000s when they played regularly on cable tv network like TBS and TNT OR have maybe been visiting the grandparents and our grandpas had a John Wayne flick on in the background.
BUT, several people on here may have seen them in class... for example, back when I was teaching American Literature in High School, I played The Searchers to culminate our unit on American Indian literature and storytelling and then I know I was shown The Searchers back when I was in High School in film history class. That would have been way back in 2001.
I think enough time has passed between John Wayne as a present cultural icon - he passed away in 1979, that the youngest generation and hopefully future generations can hopefully discover his material and look at it through the lens of storytelling, acting ability (despite limited range and genre - 9/10 of my top 10 of his films were westerns), and just the quality of the pictures he was in and not only that, but also perfect casting... really, can you imagine any else as Ethan Edwards, Tom Dunson, and/or Tom Doniphon?
If you really want to get into John Wayne's films then forgo all those films like Big Jake, McQ, Brannigan, The Sons of Katie Elder, etc... stuff that got played on TV a lot back in the day, and just go down my top 10 list and watch them in order. John Wayne was likely in two or three hundred films, so it stands to reason that a majority of them were OK, mediocre, or just good escapism, but little else.
However, there are a few absolute masterpieces and true works of cinematic art sprinkled in the career of a man who worked all the time and starred in films at a breakneck pace and rate.
Here's my list again for reference; I'd just track them down in order.
1. Red River
2. The Searchers
3. Rio Bravo
4. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
5. The Shootist
6. McLintock!
7. Stagecoach
8. The Quiet Man
9. The Cowboys
10. True Grit