Unforgiven also loves to use symbols to discreetly give its audience insight into its characters and their motives. In particular, Unforgiven uses homes/home building skills as a symbol for the main men’s true character.
Clint Eastwood’s film Unforgiven is often called a “new” or “revisionist” Western because it is part of a group of films that revitalized the Western genre in the early nineties and because it provides a narrative about the Western within its storyline. Previou s Western films focused on the story of the lone outlaw while he seeks revenge for the wrongs done to him and for his version of the American Dream. They fall right into the stereotype of the Western in many ways: fantastic gun skills, revenge quests, Indian fights, and lowly Mexicans. The surface narrative of Unforgiven almost follows the storyline one would expect from a Western film. An infamous but retired outlaw gets back with his partner to uphold the honor of a woman, albeit a whore, while also battling internal conflicts. In the end, justice is served, the bad
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Ned has easily transitioned into being a farmer and has, unlike Will, completely severed himself from the outlaw lifestyle. At first, Ned believes he can still be the outlaw; the film sets the audience up to believe this as well. We see Ned framed by the doorway and his rifle when he tells Will he’ll come with him to Wyoming. He is confident when he says he can still “hit a bird in the eye flying.” He is able to easily mount his horse while Will hops around his circling horse and falls a couple times before finally mounting it. But, as we later learn, Ned is not the same man he was ten years ago. He has become the farmer and has let go of the outlaw part of him completely. He can’t shoot a cowboy even though he knows the man deserves it. Ned, unlike Will, has completely severed the violent, harmful, outlaw from his
Therefore, Ned had to learn from the ones that taught Ned to become a cattle thief and bush ranger. “As role models he had his uncle and cousin. If they taught anything, it wasn’t how to be an honest law abiding citizen. A dozen of his relative had criminal records.” (Wilkinson, 2002, p. 10). Just like what is expected Ned became a horse and cattle thief, but that didn’t last long. He was sent to prison for receiving a stolen horse that he didn’t know. After two years of hard life in prison, Ned decided to never go there again. Therefore Ned decided to get a job at a timber mill. Ned spent the last three years of hard work at his job, he was a trusted worker and overseer. Even so every time a horse or cattle went missing, the police would always blame it on Ned or his family. Some might’ve been true, but most of them were fake, yet regardless of true or false Ned still had to take the consequence. Nothing will change if he lived his life being harass. For this reason, he became a
In “The Thematic Paradigm,” University of Florida professor of film studies, Robert Ray, defines two types of heroes pervading American films, the outlaw hero and the official hero. Often the two types are merged in a reconciliatory pattern, he argues. In fact, this
My analysis begins, as it will end, where most cowboy movies begin and end, with the landscape.Western heroes are essentially synedoches for that landscape, and are identifiable by three primary traits: first, they represent one side of an opposition between the supposed purity of the frontier and the degeneracy of the city, and so are separated even alienated from civilization; second, they insist on conducting themselves according to a personal code, to which they stubbornly cling despite all opposition or hardship to themselves or others; and third, they seek to shape their psyches and even their bodies in imitation of the leanness, sparseness, hardness, infinite calm and merciless majesty of the western landscape in which their narratives unfold.All of these three traits are present in the figures of Rob Roy and William Wallace--especially their insistence on conducting themselves according to a purely personal definition of honor--which would seem to suggest that the films built around them and their exploits could be read as transplanted westerns.However, the transplantation is the problem for, while the protagonists of these films want to be figures from a classic western, the landscape with which they are surrounded is so demonstrably not western that it forces their narratives into shapes which in fact resist and finally contradict key heroic tropes of the classic western.
I believe that the film does indeed conform to a certain type of narrative structure expected by other films of this style. This film, through and through, is a Western, even starring one of biggest names in Hollywood Westerns, John Wayne. We’re thrown into a world of sturdy, rugged men riding around on horses, decked out in cowboy hats and belt buckles. Wayne portrays the archetypal man, honorable, reliable and
Westerns have been around for many years. Some would consider westerns to be American classics because they describe early life in a mostly undiscovered America. In class two western films were watched and discussed. These two westerns were High Noon and Shane. On the surface, these movies are categorized as the same genre and look very similar but after further inspection it can be determined that the movies have a lot of differences. Of course, both movies share the same central theme of law versus social order, but the way each movie portrays this central theme is very different. This universal theme between the two movies can be investigated through, setting, violence, view of family, how women perceive guns/violence, and the choice of
The Stagecoach, a critically acclaimed film, which follows the adventures of a group of unlikely and unfortunate passengers escaping from the brutality of Geronimo’s Apache warriors, established the precedent of the classic Western movie, containing crucial Western archetypical elements such as Ringo the Kid that has hardly changed today. Furthermore, Stagecoach espoused social issues of the time by including passengers of varied social status and standing and emphasizing on such interactions that cross the rigidly defined and impermeable social divides at the time. The iconic movie was produced during the transition between silent films and films with spoken dialogue, and the remnants of the former film style are conspicuous throughout the film. Although explicit and spoken plot was crucial for the storyline, non-verbal communication offered implicit cues to attentive audience members. Dallas was coerced onto the stagecoach, shamed and disgraced as a prostitute, which immediately put her underneath the likes of Ms. Mallory.
Somewhere out in the Old West wind kicks up dust off a lone road through a lawless town, a road once dominated by men with gun belts attached at the hip, boots upon their feet and spurs that clanged as they traversed the dusty road. The gunslinger hero, a man with a violent past and present, a man who eventually would succumb to the progress of the frontier, he is the embodiment of the values of freedom and the land the he defends with his gun. Inseparable is the iconography of the West in the imagination of Americans, the figure of the gunslinger is part of this iconography, his law was through the gun and his boots with spurs signaled his arrival, commanding order by way of violent intentions. The Western also had other iconic figures that populated the Old West, the lawman, in contrast to the gunslinger, had a different weapon to yield, the law. In the frontier, his belief in law and order as well as knowledge and education, brought civility to the untamed frontier. The Western was and still is the “essential American film genre, the cornerstone of American identity.” (Holtz p. 111) There is a strong link between America’s past and the Western film genre, documenting and reflecting the nations changes through conflict in the construction of an expanding nation. Taking the genres classical conventions, such as the gunslinger, and interpret them into the ideology of America. Thus The Western’s classical gunslinger, the personification of America’s violent past to protect the freedoms of a nation, the Modernist takes the familiar convention and buries him to signify that societies attitude has change towards the use of diplomacy, by way of outmoding the gunslinger in favor of the lawman, taming the frontier with civility.
"Fed Up (Soechtig, 2014)." narrated by Katie Couric, focuses on the growing link between sugar consumption and the obesity epidemic. The film aggressively attacks the food industry, advertising, and the government who, it claims, all contribute to the U.S. sugar-dependent, obesity problem. The film sets out to prove the government, and food industry is knowingly causing an increase in the amount of obese children. It reserves its most critical comments for government advisory panels who make and enforce food and health policy, and its failure to properly regulate the food industry. They claim lobbyists for the sugar board have been instrumental in the removal of negative statistics from research papers worldwide. Instead
Cinema Du Parc is a reportery theatre that showcases independent films, whether it be arthouse or international cinema. It is located on Parc Avenue in Downtown Montreal, specifically inside a plaza filled with institutions such as cofee shops, grocery and clothing stores...
In the documentary “Fed Up,” sugar is responsible for Americas rising obesity rate, which is happening even with the great stress that is set on exercise and portion control for those who are overweight. Fed Up is a film directed by Stephanie Soechtig, with Executive Producers Katie Couric and Laurie David. The filmmaker’s intent is mainly to inform people of the dangers of too much sugar, but it also talks about the fat’s in our diets and the food corporation shadiness. The filmmaker wants to educate the country on the effects of a poor diet and to open eyes to the obesity catastrophe in the United States. The main debate used is that sugar is the direct matter of obesity. Overall, I don’t believe the filmmaker’s debate was successful.
Westerns are split down into sub genres for example classical westerns like "The Great Train Robbery" but there are also other western genres like revisionist westerns. Revisionist westerns occurred after the early 1960's, American film-makers began to change many traditional elements of Westerns. One major change was the increasingly positive representation of Native Americans who had been treated as "savages" in earlier films. Another example is Spaghetti westerns, Spaghetti westerns first came during the 1960's and 1970's, The changes were a new European, larger-than-life visual style, a harsher, more violent depiction of frontier life, choreographed gunfights and wide-screen close-ups.
Few Hollywood film makers have captured America’s Wild West history as depicted in the movies, Rio Bravo and El Dorado. Most Western movies had fairly simple but very similar plots, including personal conflicts, land rights, crimes and of course, failed romances that typically led to drinking more alcoholic beverages than could respectfully be consumed by any one person, as they attempted to drown their sorrows away. The 1958 Rio Bravo and 1967 El Dorado Western movies directed by Howard Hawks, and starring John Wayne have a similar theme and plot. They tell the story of a sheriff and three of his deputies, as they stand alone against adversity in the name of the law. Western movies like these two have forever left a memorable and lasting impressions in the memory of every viewer, with its gunfighters, action filled saloons and sardonic showdowns all in the name of masculinity, revenge and unlawful aggressive behavior. Featuring some of the most famous backdrops in the world ranging from the rustic Red Rock Mountains of Monument Valley in Utah, to the jagged snow capped Mountain tops of the Teton Range in Wyoming, gun-slinging cowboys out in search of mischief and most often at their own misfortune traveled far and wide, seeking one dangerous encounter after another, and unfortunately, ending in their own demise.
In “The Thematic Paradigm,” Robert Ray explains how there are two vastly different heroes: the outlaw hero and the official hero. The official hero has common values and traditional beliefs. The outlaw hero has a clear view of right and wrong but unlike the official hero, works above the law. Ray explains how the role of an outlaw hero has many traits. The morals of these heroes can be compared clearly. Films that contain official heroes and outlaw heroes are effective because they promise viewer’s strength, power, intelligence, and authority whether you are above the law or below it.
Quentin Taratinos’ Django Unchained (2012), is a bloody, eccentric, and revenge filled western, which exploits the abdominal chapters in American history. A pre-civil war western that explores what slavery might have been like during the mid-1800. The movie is partially based on the films Django (1966) and Mandingo (1975). But Taratino incorporates his own style, with excruciating gore, action, wit, cinematography and eccentric characters. Incorporating it all into a solid plot makes the movie believable and makes it the most unique western every made.
The image created for the outlaw hero is the “natural man.” They are adventurous but also wanderers, and loners. Outlaw heroes are more likely to commit a crime, use weapons and carry guns. The outlaw hero represents self-determination and freedom from conflicts. On the other hand, the official hero is portrayed to be “the civilized” man. He often follows the norms of society, and has typical roles such as a lawyer, teacher, and family man.