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.