Westerns from Hollywood In looking at the Westerns from Hollywood, it represents and propagates the American Manifest Destiny to the West. (1998, American Exceptionalism) The classic of these movies provide a glorification of the history where people settle in the west, and bring peace to the new land. Heroes were set in place, using violence against villains: Indians or corrupted westerners, to bring peace and order in the new land. I would like to focus on talking about the violence in westerns here. In light of the westward expansion of America, many immigrants, as well as outlaws, were encouraged to move or forced to the west for settlement. The land could hardly be legally claimed in the early stage of settlement, and there were not enough resources to keep law and order, to protect property rights. It is easy to conclude that violence was an easy out in the wild west at that time. The westerns usually romanticize the use of violence against the villains, and justify the use of violence in demonizing the enemies, in return bring peace to the west. According to Madsen (1998, American Exceptionalism), through fighting off the villains, liberty of the new land will be secured. Using Stagecoach as an example of classic westerns, Ringo Kid bravely fought the Indians and protected the fellow passenger to safety. Using Shanghai Noon as an example of revisionist westerns, Chon Wang and Roy had also fought off the villains who kidnappers and the evil manager of the Chinese immigrants. The romance of using violence against the villains in resolving problems is a particular strong idea in all the westerns, of course in other action-packed movies, yet the westerns intensively and constantly target a certain group of people to demonize, so as to justify the use of violence is a must. In classic westerns, Indians in particular is demonized as an obstacle to freedom and safety in the west.
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.
Many westerns contain some of the same elements. For instance, almost every western ever made involves a sheriff. He is usually the peace-keeper of a small town overrun by outlaws and cowboys, which he eventually chases out of town or kills. Another element of westerns is a gunslinger. A gunslinger is usually a young man who makes his living shooting other men in showdowns, a classic example is Billy the Kid. Railroads are also a recurring image in westerns. Since the railroad was the major mode of transportation in the old west, it is always present in westerns. Finally, westerns always have a villain. The villain, usually a man, dresses very slick and will stop at nothing in his quest for power. In addition, the villain usually has a gang to carry out his dastardly deeds. The gang is usually full of incompetent, but loyal thugs, who would love to destroy a small town just for the pleasure of wanton destruction. The elements of a western are very simple, but easily manipulated into a very interesting plot.
Bernstein, Matthew. “The Classical Hollywood Western Par Excellence.” Film Analysis: A Norton Reader. Eds. Jeffrey Geiger and R.L. Rutsky. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2nd edition, 2013. 298-318.
The Alamo was one of the most astounding and critical battles of our country. Its men were ruthless in their bravery and love of their country. Their mission for independence lives on in the hearts of all American’s today. Their legacy lives on forever and their courageous souls are still in the heart of the people of the lone star state. This is the story of bravery, love, tyranny, and liberty. This is the story of the Alamo
Minstrel shows were developed in the 1840's and reached its peak after the Civil War. They managed to remain popular into the early 1900s. The Minstrel shows were shows in which white performers would paint their faces black and act the role of an African American. This was called black facing. The minstrel show evolved from two types of entertainment popular in America before 1830: the impersonation of blacks given by white actors between acts of plays or during circuses, and the performances of black musicians who sang, with banjo accompaniment, in city streets. The 'father of American minstrelsy' was Thomas Dartmouth 'Daddy' Rice, who between 1828 and 1831 developed a song-and-dance routine in which he impersonated an old, crippled black slave, dubbed Jim Crow. Jim Crow was a fool who just spent his whole day slacking off, dancing the day away with an occasional mischievous prank such as stealing a watermelon from a farm. Most of the skits performed on the Minstrel shows symbolized the life of the African American plantations slaves. This routine achieved immediate popularity, and Rice performed it with great success in the United States and Britain, where he introduced it in 1836. Throughout the 1830s, up to the founding of the minstrel show proper, Rice had many imitators.
In the genre of western films, the hero plays a key role. Humanity portrays civilization overcoming the hostile country (Miller 66). In many films the American civil war is over, and people have turned their attention to more constructive pursuits. Battling nature to progress America's future, rather than each other. In between this wild country, fraught with danger and corruption lies the role of the hero. A hero is an individual with exceptional skills and through his abilities is able to rid a stricken town of the corrupt elements within. In many cases however, the hero's skills are not enough. His relationship with the community can define how successful his help can be.
The Taming of the West: Age of the Gunfighter: Men and Weapons of the Frontier 1840-1900.
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.
To escape the reality of this undeniably complicated world, would be something so distant to even consider, yet it would not be impossible to. The film “Where the Wild Things Are” unconsciously portrays an attempt at this escape through the leading role, Max and his fellow Wild Things. Max’s Journey could be considered a quest for sanity and morality in the sense that his everyday life initiated him to escape this reality and experience a much preferable life in which would be considered his safe space, where he was unknowingly faced with his own deepest aspects of himself through the personalities and conflicts of others leading him to further learn his place in the world.
A variety of films were created during the Great Depression era. For the most part, the films created between 1929 and 1940 featured a better life. Although the Great Depression took a huge toll on many other industries, the film industry still managed to make large profits compared to other businesses. All these films were produced during the same time period however, they all provide different details about life during this time period; specifically, they provide a different look on how women were treated in the 1930s. Such movies include Room Service, Modern Times, and The Public Enemy. Every film is different from the next, though many have several similarities. Modern Times and Public Enemy are similar to each other because of how they feature women, while Room Service is completely different. In Room Service, women were portrayed as equal to man; while in Modern Times, no women were featured as workers in the factory.
Brower, Sue. ""They'd Kill Us If They Knew": Transgression and the Western." Journal of Film and Video 62.4 (2010): 47-57. Web.
Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise’s West Side Story (USA, 1961), a classic American film, and Mira Nair’s The Namesake (USA, 2006), a more contemporary film, both tell the story of young adults seeking out the American Dream. In both West Side Story and The Namesake, we see young people taking chances at love, while living out their lives and the American Dream. We experience the challenges that come with interracial relationships and the cultural influences that sadly put an end to the relationships. Both movies capture the lives of two different ethnic groups, Puerto Ricans and Bengalis, shining a light on issues of diversity such as race, interracial relationships, and cultural assimilation. While telling the stories of American immigrants, West Side Story and The Namesake touch upon the most pressing issues affecting immigrant groups at two very different times in American history. From the highflying musical numbers of West Side Story to the heartfelt moments in The Namesake, each film has a unique way of canvasing the issues of diversity immigrants face on their quest for the American Dream.
Throughout the years, the violence has decreased, but still exists. “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” is relevant in modern day America due to the many issues regarding the Native-American population. The story uses deep symbolic meanings to represent a bigger picture, as well as the title itself. Most importantly, it demonstrates the struggling relationship between Native-Americans and white mainstream America, while depicting racism and prejudice on both ends. “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” is a well-written commentary on the occasional issues that arise in the United States with the Native-American
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.
A NOT-SO-ACCURATE prophet once wrote, "As recently as 1972, there were a tremendous number of quality Westerns being made . . . and since there seems to be a ten-year cycle in Western movie making, I'd say we'll see more in about 1982." 1 In 1982 only two Westerns were released, and neither was exactly a major success. Barbarosa, starring Willie Nelson, drew some respectable reviews–and some very damaging ones–but nobody went to see the film. The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez appeared first on PBS television, then later went into general release. Today the Western seems to be deader than the California Med-fly. Critics and aficionados of the form can only hear, as with Arnold's sea of faith, its long receding roar.