Westerns

I

Introduction

Westerns, American film genre that deals with frontier life in the United States in the second half of the 19th century.

II

Typical Western Themes

In The Man who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), directed by John Ford, the alcoholic editor of the Shinbone Star newspaper addresses a public meeting. In a few sentences, he has outlined the history of the American West, from the period of the tomahawk and the bow and arrow, to the times of the pioneer, the cattlemen, and the law of the hired gun. Now the town is looking for Statehood, which means protection for its farms, schools for its children, and progress towards the future with railways and roads. In essence, all Westerns, from early primitive stories such as Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery (1903) to the more recent Dances with Wolves (1990, directed by Kevin Costner), and Unforgiven (1992, directed by Clint Eastwood), explore these themes and examine American history in the light of current attitudes. They offer a combination of fact, mythology, and the restatement of basic truths.

The overriding concern of many Western films is the settlement of the unconquered territories of the United States. Such films as James Cruze’s The Covered Wagon (1923) and Ford’s Wagon Master (1950), emphasize the pioneering spirit of a people trying to find a new land and a new beginning.The Iron Horse (1924, directed by Ford), covering a later period, looks at the way in which the introduction of the railroad opens a fresh vision for a developing nation. An early example in the sound period is Cimarron (1931, directed by Wesley Ruggles), from the Edna Ferber novel, the first Western to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Although it had been done before, notably by W. S. Hart in Tumbleweeds (1925), the Oklahoma Land-Rush episodes, with settlers careering across the open spaces to stake out their claims, remains one of the most visually memorable sequences in the history of the Western. The sweeping narrative, linking generations and landscape—a major feature of the American popular novel of self-examination—appears again in such films as Union Pacific (1939), which features Barbara Stanwyck and Joel McCrea in a characteristically complex Cecil B. DeMille tale set around the development of the railroad. Its mythological qualities are reinforced by elements of authenticity; in this case, the Union Pacific Railroad provided DeMille with original documents and research assistance on the railroad construction.

III

Variations

While the potential range and flexibility of the Western has led to numerous sub-genres and parodies, it has also been used as a vehicle for social and political comment. Although some “shoot-em-ups” have simply been audience fodder from the second-feature Poverty Row studios, others have resonated with the United States’ internal debates about its values and its morality. Sometimes political concerns, such as those of the McCarthy period or the Vietnam War, are displaced on to the pliable subject material. Carl Foreman, the screenwriter of High Noon (1952, directed by Fred Zinnemann), the first so-called “adult Western”, claims it as a political allegory, and Variety noted about Soldier Blue (1970), that it appears “obvious that director Ralph Nelson is trying to correlate this allegedly historical incident with more cotemporous (sic) events”. Frequently, inside the historic sweep of the Western, other debates take place. The Tin Star (1957) by Anthony Mann, for example, has some similarities with High Noon: a community appoints an inexperienced and weak sheriff (Anthony Perkins), no match for the local bully boy who is quick to take the law into his own hands. As with High Noon, decent citizens do not want to get involved. Only an outsider, a sheriff turned bounty hunter (Henry Fonda), who has experienced it all before, recognizes the dangers of undisciplined law enforcement, and supports the sheriff until he learns to assert his authority. The Tin Star is an example of the way in which a Western that is seemingly conventional can engage in wider debates, for the issue of racism, which lies at the centre of the film, motivates most of its action.

Anthony Mann described the Western as “a primitive form”, not governed by rule; he said “it is legend—and legend makes the best cinema ...”. He argued that the form can approach that of Greek tragedy and described his own heroic tale, El Cid (1961), as “really a Spanish Western” and his The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) as “even more than that”. The preoccupations of the Western can extend into other genres and there can be considerable cross-fertilization: Giant (1956), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), and even The Deer Hunter (1978), although set outside the period of the classic Western, are imbued with its feeling and sentiment. Others, such as Pursued (1947, directed by Raoul Walsh), Johnny Guitar (1954, directed by Nicholas Ray), and One-Eyed Jacks (1961, directed by Marlon Brando), with their brooding characterizations and moody atmosphere, are informed by psychoanalysis.

IV

General Development

Some directors and actors have been strongly associated with Westerns. The silent period featured action Westerners such as “Bronco Billy” Anderson, Tom Mix, Tim McCoy, Hoot Gibson, Buck Jones, and Ken Maynard, although the most important of them, William S. Hart, brought less gun-slinging than characterization and authentic detail to stories. His feature-length films, such as Hell’s Hinges, The Aryan (both 1916), and The Toll Gate (1920), strongly influenced the genre’s development. By the end of the silent period, Hart’s career had ended and those of the others, if not over, were in decline.

The first important sound Western, In Old Arizona (1929, directed by Raoul Walsh and Irving Cummings) strode the fence of authenticity and fantasy. On the one hand, it emphasized realism through atmosphere and the careful use of sound effects: fires crackled, the wind howled, and visual space was made three-dimensional by slowly fading the sound of horses as they disappeared into the distance. On the other, Warner Baxter, as the Cisco Kid, played “the singing bandit” and paved the way for such B-Western cowboys as Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Tex Ritter, in whose films guitars were as important as guns. The “authentic” Western survived both the musical Western and excellent parodies such as Destry Rides Again (1939, directed by George Marshall) and Blazing Saddles (1974, directed by Mel Brooks). In the former, which starred James Stewart as the gun-free sheriff, a spirited Marlene Dietrich revived her career with a sleazy variation of her earlier roles as a cabaret singer. In the latter, one of the highest-grossing Westerns in film history, the Dietrich of Destry is parodied and the orchestra, usually a feature of the soundtrack alone, appears on screen, in the middle of the desert.

The commercial value of spectacle and mythology was confirmed with The Plainsman (1936, directed by Cecil B. DeMille), which starred Gary Cooper as Wild Bill Hickok and Jean Arthur as Calamity Jane. DeMille intended it as stylish hokum, shooting most of it on the Paramount lot, glamorizing the subject, and exploiting his own skills at interweaving complex plot-lines. On its heels came John Ford’s first sound Western, Stagecoach (1939), which established John Wayne as the archetypal, monosyllabic Western hero, and Monument Valley as his natural habitat.