Clint Eastwood first made a name for himself in Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns in the 1960’s. Eastwood iconic Man with No Name in the “Dollar Trilogies” made him an international star, and it is only fitting that he would resurrect his career in a film of this genre. “Unforgiven” was directed, produced, and stared in by Clint Eastwood and received an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Picture in 1993. It is often credited as the best western made in the last twenty years, and for reinvigorating the western genre. Clint Eastwood wanted to bring us a film with a fresh perspective on the classical western, and directed in classical terms. Clint Eastwood is a straight shooting director who insists on tight budgets, filming on location; his films often portray authority figures as fascists, the hero is often morally handicapped, with strong female roles. In “Unforgiven” he accomplishes his goal through simple camera work, a well written script by David Webb Peoples, and using the natural landscape and lighting.
The screenplay was written by David Webb Peoples in 1976 originally named “The William Munny Killings”. Mr. Eastwood held on to the script in for almost thirty years before beginning production; mainly because he wanted to wait until he was old enough to star as William Munny and as his final western film. (Tanitch) Eastwood would state that “I thought it was time to do a film where violence not only can be painful, but has consequences for the perpetrators as well as the victims. Usually in westerns violence is glorified and romanticized.” (Tanitch) The film, although violent and gritty, all the perpetrators, and victims are tormented. The film shows the dark side of the violence and...
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...ns to Old Whiskey to avenge the murder of Ned. Eastwood uses rain and darkness as Munny rides up to the saloon. Munny is fuming mad, unforgiving, and unforgiven as he walks into the room. In the saloon, it is dark with only the lanterns lighting the room. The only thing we can focus on is the dark cold eyes of the once reformed man because the light and camera draws us into them.
In past westerns, the audience was intrigued by the outlaw. Eastwood changes the perspective of the audience by showing the dark side violence with a well written script by David Webb Peoples, natural landscape and lighting. We are saddened that Munny relapsed to his violent behavior and he is unforgiven, by showing his guilt ridden soul and heart. Eastwood reignited his career and western genre by revisiting the cold-blooded violent westerns of his past and creating a dark perspective.
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
Director Jim Jarmusch’s film Deadman displays many of the accepted conventions for Western genre films, but manipulated in such a way as to create a revisionist, rather than a classical, western. The most obvious example of this manipulation are the characterizations of the hero, William Blake, and his Native American partner, Nobody. Blake is an awkward easterner who travels westward unaware of the different rules governing western life, instead of the rugged, knowledgeable outdoorsman who “does what he has to do” to defend justice and honor. Nobody’s character is unusually independent, educated, and kind towards Blake, instead of the traditional Western genre’s violent, unintelligent Indian.
When one thinks of a gangster they may think of speakeasies and classy cars or maybe drive-bys, but they will always imagine a man who is not afraid to get his hands dirty to grasp for a higher place on the social ladder. They will think of a man portrayed in a genre of cinema more American than any other, the gangster film. This genre began in the early thirties and has been re-adapted each decade to fit a new time. Although gangster films may mold themselves to fit into a certain cultural era, they still stay deeply tied to the foundations of the genre and its historical relevance to the american dream. This is apparent when comparing the differences and similarities between The Public Enemy and American Gangster. To better understand this comparison one needs to understand the origination of some of the classic conventions of the gangster film genre.
In her book, Limerick describes the “idea of innocence” that permeated the American West (36). According to the author, the underlying motive for every action was pure (even when it really was not). According to Western American folklore, early settlers did intend to victimize Indians and trespass on their land, but instead came to America to pursue new opportunities and improve their lives (Limerick 36). The same ideological theory may be applied to the motivations of the sensationalized outlaws from the time. For example, in her book Limerick details the life of John Wesley Hardin, an outlaw, who began his violent life of crime at the age of fifteen (36). According to the story, Hardin shot and killed a black man (Limerick 36). However, idolized as the son of a preacher, Hardin hid his crimes behind the veils of “bravery” and “honor” (Limerick 36). He claimed that he actually shot the man --...
As Ethan rides towards his brother’s homestead, he is greeted by awestruck stares. He rides with the brutal desert behind him, sun glaring at his eyes while his brother’s family is framed in shadow of their own home. A hopeful tune plays in the background as he approaches. In this opening scene of The Searchers John Ford establishes Ethan—played by none other than John Wayne—as the rugged individualist, the one who tames the wilderness. This cowboy is integral to the “Myth of the United States,” he is the one who tames the savage wilderness its residents (Durham). However as the film unfolds, Ford explores Ethan’s tortured psyche, his motivations, his neuroticism, even the Indians and their motivations in order to deconstruct deconstructing the myth in order to show that the cowboy is a relic of the Old West.
In Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man, he pays homage to the classic style of western films while taking his own eccentric take that puts the film in a league of its own. With a combination of elements related to the western genre and a genre Jarmusch creates all on his own, the viewer can begin to explore and appreciate the unique film, Dead Man.
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.
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.
In the article “The Thematic Paradigm” exerted from his book, A Certain Tendency of the Hollywood Cinema, Robert Ray provides a description of the two types of heroes depicted in American film: the outlaw hero and the official hero. Although the outlaw hero is more risky and lonely, he cherishes liberty and sovereignty. The official hero on the other hand, generally poses the role of an average ordinary person, claiming an image of a “civilized person.” While the outlaw hero creates an image of a rough-cut person likely to commit a crime, the official hero has a legend perception. In this essay, I will reflect on Ray’s work, along with demonstrating where I observe ideologies and themes.
The reclusive film director Terrence Malick has to date, only directed a small number of films. His twenty year hiatus between directing Days of Heaven (1978) and The Thin Red Line (1998), may provide the explanation for such a sparse back catalogue. Malick’s refusal to talk with the media, has led to hearsay, as to how he occupied his time during the hiatus. Malick’s directing debut Badlands (1973) is a collection of concepts, all carefully moulded together to create one iconic piece of film. This process draws in and also alienates the audience. Malick’s style is positively noted by critics to be influenced by European philosophy. This is clearly due to Malick’s study of philosophy at Harvard and Magdalen College Oxford. There is no given explanation to the mindless violence featured within the film, mainly due to the films resistance to the straight forward approach. The familiar and the unknown are carefully merged together. The only way of gaining an understanding into the hidden meanings within Badlands is by breaking down the film, by looking at the characters, the use of sound, the visual setting and the films genre. The illusionary effect of Malick’s style means that all is not as it seems.
Generally forgotten by critics, and classified as alternately a cult classic and a B-movie (in reference to both its budget and its reception), Monte Hellman's The Shooting is a film worth revisiting. At a remote camp in the middle of the desert, a Woman With No Name arrives to hire two men to lead her to the town of Kingsley, days after one of the camp members was shot dead and another ran away. On their descent into the scorching desert, it becomes apparent that the Woman has misled her employees as a hired gun joins their party and they continue their journey, it would seem, to execute somebody. The Woman from time to time physically leads the pack, and is always deliberately in control of their actions. She is granted much agency in terms of both plot, and cinematic structure, frequently, for instance, holding a position in the frame physically over the men in order to deliver a command. She enacts the ability to do, without being done to, resorting to a performance of femininity/desirability at times to do her bidding. A textual analysis of the scene in which the childlike Coley is ordered by the Woman With No Name to stay behind in the blistering sun reveals a unique style with which Hellman plays with the conventions of the Western and the utilization of the gaze to question gender roles and authority.
Machuco, Antonio. "Violence and Truth in Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino." Anthropoetics. 16.2 (2011): n. page. Web. 23 Feb. 2012.