REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Consider and respond to the following:
1. Which aspect(s) of the course content so far (Weeks 1 to 5) have you personally found the most interesting and/or surprising and why?
2.Having viewed the film clips and trailers presented in the lecture on Women in the Western (Week 5), which film would you most likely want to see in its entirety and why?
Entry 250 to 300 words.
A History of the Western – Components (Week 2) LESSON OBJECTIVES - Upon completion of this lesson, students should be able to recognize plot-lines of a Western film, to recognize character-types and components of the Western genre and to understand changes in the components of the Western over time. VIDEO CLIPS: Students can view the embedded video or press “CTRL” and left-click on the provided link to view on the host website. NOTE: The document may need to be viewed in “enable editing” mode to view the clips. Note: After viewing a clip, students may need to manually use the mouse to move the document via the right-hand scrolling bar or re-click their mouse within the document. Optional Reading – Week 2: The Rough Guide to Westerns, pp. 19-47, 193-218 INTRODUCTION The Western film spans the decades from the early 20th century to the present. Each film within a given era displays a particular approach to the Western that can also reflect the political and social framework for that time. Subject matter can reveal North American cultural attitudes at the time of a film’s production. The era that a Western was made also reflects the production capabilities available in that time period. Significant Westerns introduced new approaches to storylines and characters – the 1950s saw many such Westerns. This lesson will discuss the basic components of a Western in terms of plot-line, characters and components. It will also examine a decade known as the “Golden Age” of the Western – the 1950s. A HISTORY OF THE WESTERN – PLOT-LINES Recognition of a Western film is a learned visual and aural (sound) vocabulary of such parts as plot-line, character-type and genre-specific components. As noted in Paul Simpson’s The Rough Guide to Westerns (2006), writer Frank Gruber (1904-1969) argued that there are seven basic plots for Westerns: the railway (or transportation) story the ranch story the cattle empire story (i.e. the ranch story on an epic scale) the revenge story the cavalry vs. Indigenous peoples story the outlaw story & the marshal (or law and order) story. 1 Gruber’s list does not contain all the variations of the genre that can develop - it is also important to note that he does not list further plot categories such as the woman’s story or the Indigenous peoples’ story. The plot-lines of many Westerns are drawn from the specific historical and cultural settings of the 19th and early 20th century North American Old West discussed in Lecture 1. Geography remains important – Western plot lines do not, for example, involve the expansion of a cattle ranch into the urban industrialized East. Pushing at the boundaries of the genre and exploring lesser-known aspects of the Old West can create new types of plot-lines. This lesson will now examine examples of various Western plot-lines. The Railway Story – Union Pacific (1939) Union Pacific (1939), directed by Cecil B. DeMille, is a portrayal of the construction of the first inter-continental railroad across the United States in the 19th century. The film displays the building of the railway as a patriotic act that only the corrupt – represented by greedy businessmen – or Native Americans would oppose. Screenshot - Union Pacific (1939) http://annyas.com/screenshots/images/1939/union-pacific-movie-title.jpg The film assumes that “progress” – as represented by the railroad – supersedes any Indigenous objections to the presence of a railway in their traditional territories. Union Pacific glamorizes the building of rail lines and is symbolic of the expansionist America agenda idealized in many Westerns. The Revenge & Outlaw Story The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) http://images.moviepostershop.com/the-outlaw-josey-wales-movie-poster-1976-1020694208.jpg The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, can be viewed as both a revenge and outlaw Western. For Josey Wales, played by Eastwood, it will be his path of revenge that makes him an outlaw. Wales is a Missouri farmer at the time of the US Civil War whose wife and son are murdered by pro-Union guerrillas –known as “redlegs” - from Kansas. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en9rfsUGDkc The interesting approach of Eastwood’s film is to have the lead character hunted while simultaneously seeking revenge – Wales is chased by those that he would kill. The Railway & Revenge Story Hell on Wheels (2011 to Present) First launched in November of 2011 by AMC, Hell on Wheels is a dramatic Westerns TV series with aspects of both the railway and revenge story. It is set within the framework of the construction of the Union Pacific transcontinental railroad in the post-Civil War West. The lead character, former Confederate soldier Cullen Bohannon (played by Anson Mount), began the series seeking revenge for the murder of his family by a Union gang during the Civil War. Anson Mount as Cullen Bohannon in Hell on Wheels http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/hell-on-wheels-anson-mount-amc-325.jpg The series explores a number of themes that include American expansionism, race relations between white workers and former African-American slaves hired by the railway, Indigenous territorial rights and social class. The Week 9 lecture will take an in-depth look at the making of this series. Hell on Wheels Series Trailer – Season 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN2y6l51Sqo CHARACTERS AND COMPONENTS IN THE WESTERN There are a number of characters and components that appear on the screen that signify a Western. The character types of Westerns are drawn from the specific historical and cultural settings of the 19th and early 20th century (North) American Old West. Paul Simpson, in The Rough Guide to Westerns (2006), lists a number of character-types and components (pp. 193-218). That list includes cattle barons, cattle, bounty hunters, buffalo, cavalry and horses. This section of the lecture will examine archetypes (i.e. models) for the cowboy and the gunfight. COWBOYS The myth of the cowboy developed for a growing urbanized and mechanized society that by its own nature was marginalizing the very figure it celebrated. The open range cowboy had become a hired hand for fenced-in ranches by the 1890s. In an era before the rise of workers’ rights and unions, the factory owners and industrialists were dominant forces that limited personal freedom for city workers. The idea of an independent cowboy who roamed great tracts of open prairies and stood up to the powerful in the name of justice would be popular to an audience that felt oppressed. As discussed in Lecture 1, the fictionalized version of the cowboy would focus on a typically Anglo-Saxon male, even though many cowboys in the Old West were also of African-American or Hispanic descent. The mythological cowboy as a brave, skilled and mysterious loner who rides across the West and deals with trouble as he meets it remains a key archetype – or model – within Westerns. JOHN WAYNE http://www.allposters.com/IMAGES/MMPH-C/T274131.jpg John Wayne (1907-1979) was born Marion Robert in Iowa. Wayne began work in local film studios as a prop man. He soon got a few “bit parts” (background roles) and met the director that would help to shape his Western career – John Ford (1894-1973). By 1930, Duke Morrison had adopted the film screen name of John Wayne. Wayne’s breakthrough role came with Ford’s Stagecoach in 1939 – that Western made Wayne a star. John Wayne brought a distinctive style to his portrayals of cowboy-heroes. He developed a singular way of speaking and walking. He created a strongly masculine and action-oriented persona on-screen with his height and physical presence – as demonstrated in this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hmIMcWy3hQ One of Wayne’s most complex performances was in The Searchers (1956), also directed by John Ford. In The Searchers, Wayne played a racist Civil War veteran, Ethan Edwards, who sets out after the Comanche that have raided his brother’s home and taken two nieces. The film does share reasons for the Comanche attack – i.e. that the Comanche community itself had been assaulted by Euro-Americans. Among the group searching for family members is an older adopted nephew of Ethan’s named Martin (Jeffery Hunter) who is of mixed ancestry (Indigenous and white). The character of Martin is a flashpoint for the racism of Ethan toward Indigenous peoples. Martin represents a literal mixing of the two bloodlines which is something that Ethan cannot personally abide. The underlying motive for Ethan to find his abducted nieces is to kill them – he carries the racist perspective that they will have been "contaminated" by their time with Indigenous people. Ethan travels with Martin throughout the film and thus tension is created between Ethan's racism and his acceptance of help from his adopted nephew. At the conclusion of the film, Ethan faces his own racism when he does finally find one of his nieces still alive. The Searchers (1956) trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYOp3l9wL1k GARY COOPER http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llpxfgxuK51qe7jrko1_500.jpg Gary Cooper (1901-1961) is also one of the iconic actors of the Western genre. Though he played many non-Western roles for which he is also famous, his association with Westerns helped to create one of the models for portraying the cowboy-hero - stoic, individualistic and fundamentally good. The future Gary Cooper was born Frank James Cooper in Helena, Montana, the son of two English-born parents. Cooper began work as an actor in Los Angeles in 1925, typically cast as a cowboy extra. By 1926 he was able to gain a long-term contract with Paramount Pictures and had changed his first name to Gary in 1925 – a casting director thought it lent a “tough” quality to the actor’s screen name. Cooper would become a major star with The Virginian in 1929, directed by Victor Fleming. The film is based on the Owen Wister novel of 1902. While Cooper is often automatically associated with the laconic – or concise - speaking style of his character in The Virginian, he in fact took lessons in diction from fellow Western actor Randolph Scott in order to perfect a Virginian accent. Cooper’s public image as a Western actor characterized him as the strong, quiet hero that relied on the “yup” and “nope” responses used – actually quite minimally – in The Virginian. The Virginian (1929) clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSFJdbqYiTc GUNFIGHTS One of the images key to the Western for many viewers is the “showdown” – two armed cowboys facing each other across the deserted main street of a Western town. Skill with a gun in a Western is based on the real abilities of those who lived during the historical Old West. Men such as Will Bill Hickok (1837-1876), Wyatt Earp (1848-1929) and Doc Holliday (1851-1887) became famous in their own time as “pistoleers”. While the frequency of shoot-outs and showdowns has been exaggerated by Western literature and films, it is important to note that such events did occur. Law-enforcement took time to develop in the Old West and that slow process gave greater freedom for gunfights to happen. The defining characteristic of the gunfighter was skill with a gun. In