History 4120

The Myth of the West

 [John Gast Painting]In this painting, America is depicted as an angelic woman, who floats gracefully away from the cities in the east. She heads toward new lands in the west, carrying a book in her right arm, possibly symbolic of literature and culture, and gently lays the wire of the telegraph as she advances. The communication between lines will bind the nation. Following her footsteps are railroads expanding westward and farmers pushing the cultivating of new land with oxen and plows. The transportation of goods and services will strengthen the nation. Leading the pack are adventurers and hunters searching for new game, as well as caravans of settlers and wagons seeking new opportunities. The aspiring people will develop the nation. It is evident that wild animals, buffalo, and Indians are fleeing America’s approach, heading toward the mountainous, stormy region of the pacific. Nothing stands in the nation’s way as it continues to fulfill its fate of spanning two oceans.  John Gast's  American Progress  (1872)was engraved and widely distributed to the masses to promote expansionism. There is no doubt that such an image was very appealing to citizens looking for new opportunities and ones seeking to achieve the American dream. Such visual propaganda, in conjunction with promises from politicians for cheap land, was inspiration for a mass exodus to the untamed lands of the west.

Readings:

Stagecoach

Stagecoach (1939) is a classic Western from film auteur John Ford. This film - his first sound Western - was a return to his most-acclaimed film genre after a thirteen year absence following Fox's Three Bad Men (1926) (and The Iron Horse (1924)). In the meantime, he had produced the superb, Oscar-winning drama about Irish republicanism, RKO's The Informer (1935).

This film debuted John Ford's favorite setting - the majestic Monument Valley of the Southwest - the first of seven films he made in the famed western valley, followed by My Darling Clementine (1946), Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Searchers (1956), Sergeant Rutledge (1960), and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).

Ford's reputation was elevated considerably by this film - it was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Black and White Cinematography, Best Interior Decoration, and Best Film Editing, and won two awards for Best Supporting Actor (Thomas Mitchell) and Best Score (for its compilation of 17 American folk tunes of the 1880s).

 

Red River

Red River (1948) is a classic and complex western (and considered by many critics to be one of the ten best westerns ever made). It is a sweeping, epic story about a cattle drive (historically based on the opening of the Chisholm Trail in 1867) and a film of rivalry and rebellion, spanning a time period of fifteen years. Red River was Howard Hawks' first western, a story often compared to its parallel epic on the high seas, Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). Later westerns he directed included The Big Sky (1952), Rio Bravo (1952), El Dorado (1967), and Rio Lobo (1970).
 

High Noon

High Noon (1952) is possibly the all-time best Western film ever made - a successful box-office production by Stanley Kramer and director Fred Zinnemann (who also directed From Here to Eternity (1953) and A Man For All Seasons (1966)). The Western genre was employed to tell an uncharacteristic social problem tale about civic responsibility, without much of the typical frontier violence, panoramic landscapes, or tribes of marauding Indians.

The film's screenplay by Carl Foreman [this was his last Hollywood film before blacklist exile to London, soon after his work on Home of the Brave (1949), Champion (1949), and The Men (1950)], written during a politically-oppressive atmosphere in the early 1950s when McCarthyism and political persecution were rampant, was loosely adapted from a Collier's Magazine story The Tin Star (by John W. Cunningham) published in December 1947. In fact, the film's story has often been interpreted as a morality play or parable, or as a metaphor for the threatened Hollywood blacklisted artists (one of whom was screenwriter Foreman) who faced political persecution from the HUAC during the McCarthy era due to actual or imagined connections to the Communist Party, and made life-altering decisions to stand their ground and defend moral principles according to their consciences.

Shane

Shane (1953) is a timeless, classic western tale - a very familiar and highly regarded seminal western and the most successful Western of the 1950s. The film's rich color cinematography captures the beautiful environment of the legendary frontier (filmed on location in Jackson Hole, Wyoming) with its gray-blue Grand Tetons as a backdrop.

The screenplay was based on Jack Schaefer's successful 1949 book of the same name. The film received six Academy Awards nominations: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Brandon de Wilde), Best Supporting Actor (Jack Palance), Best Director, Best Screenplay (by A. B. Guthrie, Jr.), and Best Color Cinematography, and won its sole Oscar award for photographer Loyal Griggs.

The Searchers

The Searchers (1956) is considered by many to be a true American masterpiece of filmmaking, and the best, most influential, and perhaps most-admired film of director John Ford. It was his 115th feature film, and he was already a four-time Best Director Oscar winner (The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952)) - all for his pictures of social comment rather than his quintessential westerns. The film's complex, deeply-nuanced themes included racism, individuality, the American character, and the opposition between civilization (exemplified by homes, caves, and other domestic interiors) and the untamed frontier wilderness.

With dazzling on-location, gorgeous VistaVision cinematography (including the stunning red sandstone rock formations of Monument Valley) by Winton C. Hoch in Ford's most beloved locale, the film handsomely captures the beauty and isolating danger of the frontier. However, at its time, the sophisticated, modern, visually-striking film was unappreciated, misunderstood, and unrecognized by critics. It did not receive a single Academy Award nomination, and was overwhelmed by the all-star power and glamour of the Best Picture winner of the year, Around the World in 80 Days (1956).

The film's screenplay was adapted by Frank S. Nugent (director Ford's son-in-law) from Alan Le May's 1954 novel of the same name, that was first serialized as a short story in late fall 1954 issues of the Saturday Evening Post, and first titled The Avenging Texans. Various similarities existed between the film's script and an actual Comanche kidnapping of a young white girl in Texas in 1936.

Response paper: Tompkins is trying to "understand the Western as a narrative speaking to and for American culture." I am interested in your understanding how the Western obscures and confuses us in trying to understand the twentieth century West. Write a paper which demonstrates your understanding of  Tomkins' analysis of the Western. Why are they a significant American genre? What issues of manhood, of American culture are expressed in these texts? Use specifics from the 3 films you watched to support/explore/challenge Tompkins' characterizations of the Western.

A GUIDE FOR ANALYZING FILM

  1. How is this film a Western? What themes of the western are being expressed?
  2. What cinematic strategies are used to reinforce particular themes or messages? (e.g., lighting, montages, creative “cuts”, etc.)
  3. What images or symbols are employed in the film?  Are these symbols presented strategically?  If so, how?
  4. Is there a narrator?  What is the narrator’s primary function in the film?
  5. Who are the major characters in the film? Are women visible in the film?
  6. Might stereotypes be challenged or reinforced in the film?