Westerns 2

Redman, N. (2005). A simple adventure story: Sam Peckinpah, Mexico and The Wild Bunch. Excerpts from a documentary in which Redman and some friends revisit the locations near Parras, Mexico where the film was shot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv0JH7pt7H0

Jones, L. Q. (2008). L. Q. Jones on Sam Peckinpah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uayweIIDG2Q

Fandor. (2018). A closer look at Unforgiven: A history of violence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfEwzHCnlA8

Suggestions for further reading:

Slotkin, R. (1992). Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century America. A masterwork about the representation of the history of the American West in fictional books and films.

Limerick, P. N. (1987). The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West. A scholar’s attempt to correct misinformation about the history of the West.

Wright, W. (1975). Sixguns and Society: A Structural Study of the Western. Wright’s four basic Western plots.

Meuel, D. (2015). The Noir Western: Darkness on the Range, 1943-1962.

McBride, J. (2001). Searching for John Ford: A Life. The definitive Ford biography.

Weddle, D. (1994). “If They Move . . . Shoot ‘Em!”: The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah.

Andrews, G. (2004). The Films of Nicholas Ray: The Poet of Nightfall (2nd ed.).

Kitses, J. (2007). Horizons West: Directing the Western from John Ford to Clint Eastwood. 2nd ed. In addition to Ford and Eastwood, Kitses discusses the Westerns of Anthony Mann, Budd Boetticher, Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone.

Stratton, W. K. (2019). The Wild Bunch: Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary Film. Just published. An excellent source of information.

Bliss, M. (Ed.) (1994). Doing It Right: The Best Criticism on Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch.

Two of our films are the subject of short paperbacks in the British Film Institute’s Film Classics series:

Liandrat-Guignes, S. (2000). Red River.

Buscombe, E. (2004). Unforgiven.

Introduction: About the Course

A Western is a film set in the Western US between the end of the Civil War and about the turn of the 20^th century. However, its characters, settings and plot are quite different from historical reality. Westerns are typically more about public attitudes and concerns at the time of their production than a realistic portrayal of the era in which they are set.

Early Western directors such as John Ford, at least initially, saw their movies as illustrations of American history. They typically subscribed to: (1) the frontier myth—that American character was formed through confrontation with hardships in the wilderness; and (2) manifest destiny—the claim that the white race had a right, even a duty, to expand into lands to the Pacific coast, lands which, inconveniently, were already occupied by native or Latino people. These myths were increasingly called question during the post-WWII era, even by John Ford himself.

If Hollywood wanted to capture the emotional center of Western history, its movies would be about real estate. John Wayne would have been neither a gunfighter nor a sheriff, but a surveyor, speculator or claims lawyer. The showdowns would occur in the land office or the courtroom; weapons would be deeds and lawsuits, not six-guns. Movie makers would have to find some cinematic way in which proliferating lines on a map could keep the audience rapt. (Limerick, 1987)

Basic American Western Plots (Will Wright, 1975–Six Guns and Society)

Wright’s typology is based on a content analysis of the 64 Westerns released between 1930-1972 that grossed over $4 million in 1975 dollars.

Classical—an outsider who is a skilled fighter enters a community that is helpless against stronger villains; he reluctantly intervenes, defeats the villains, and rides away.
Vengeance variation—similar to classical but the hero has an additional motive: the villains have harmed him too; he fights for revenge rather than altruism.
Transition theme—the hero defends the community, but is rejected (betrayed, persecuted) by it; he must fight society as well as the villains.
Professionals—a group of skilled fighters are hired to defend society against its enemies; they fight for money rather than principle.

These plots occur in rough chronological order, although there is considerable overlap between them. The popularity of these plots is related to societal concerns at the time of their production. This coincides with the gradual shift from a market economy (where individualism is required for success) to a managed or planned economy (where teamwork is valued and the individual is expected to find satisfaction through identification with a corporation).

As Hollywood progressed through the four themes, the hero gradually became more alienated from the society, and the plots became more cynical, and some would say, more realistic.

This session, we will be watching revisionist Westerns—films that call into question some aspects of the frontier myth or manifest destiny. This does not mean we are going to see “the truth,” but only that these films may be less false than those that went before.

The noir Western (Meuel, 2015)

Our first four films frequently appear on lists of noir Westerns, and The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) is usually said to be the first noir Western.

Film noir refers to any of about 300 black and white crime films released in the US between 1940 and 1960. Film noir literally means “black film,” but “dark film” is a better translation. Film noir as a genre can be defined by its setting, plot, characters, mood and visual style. In a noir film, the protagonist makes a mistake or behaves badly. This involves him (or her) in a web of misadventures, typically ending unhappily. The mood is pessimistic and cynical.

In a noir Western, the protagonist is a more complex and troubled character than previous cowboy heros. He is typically unhappy, sometimes due to a past psychological trauma. He experiences loneliness or a feeling of not belonging. There is often a desire to resolve these past issues, so that he can start a new life.

The visual style of films noir shows traces of expressionism. One way of classifying schools of filmmaking is realism vs. expressionism. Realism is an attempt to capture the subject objectively, while expressionism focuses on the power of filmmakers to manipulate reality. Noir Westerns often feature dark shadows and offbeat camera angles. Even in color, Western terrain, i.e., rock formations, can be captured expressionistically; for example in ways that enclose or overwhelm the characters.

Either Westerns were influenced by film noir, or films noir and noir Westerns were simultaneous products of post-war social forces and technical developments in the film industry, such as the ability to film under low light conditions.

Here is a list of additional noir Westerns that I recommend.

Pursued (1947; d. Raoul Walsh)

Ramrod (1947; d. Andre de Toth)

Directed by Henry King:

The Gunfighter (1950)

The Bravados (1958)

Directed by Anthony Mann:

The Devil’s Doorway (1950)

The Furies (1950)

Winchester 73 (1950)

Bend of the River (1952)

The Naked Spur (1953)

The Far Country (1954)

The Man From Laramie (1955)

Man of the West (1958)

Directed by Budd Boetticher:

Seven Men From Now (1956)

The Tall T (1957)

Decision at Sundown (1958)

Buchanan Rides Alone (1959)

Ride Lonesome (1959)

Comanche Station (1960)

Italian (“Spaghetti”) Westerns

493 Italian Westerns were released between 1960 and 1980. They introduced several new plot themes (to be discussed later). The Wild Bunch and Unforgiven would probably not have been made without the spaghetti Western. The success of Sergio Leone’s “dollars trilogy” created the economic climate for financing of The Wild Bunch. They made Clint Eastwood a film star. Italian Westerns influenced the content of both films.

March 6–The Ox-Bow Incident

William A. Wellman (1896-1975)

Director William Wellman came from an upper middle class New England family, and was delinquent as a teenager. During World War I, he joined the Air Corps and became known as a daredevil pilot. He shot down several German airplanes (three kills, five probables). He was shot down and seriously injured, which left him with a permanent limp. The nickname “Wild Bill” followed him for the rest of his life.

Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. helped him to get started in films in 1919 as an actor. He shifted to production, and became a director of silent films. In all, he directed about 80 films between 1923 and 1958. Wellman is known for his versatility. Although he is usually identified with adventure stories, his films encompass all genres, including comedies and musicals.

His big break came in 1927, when he used his aviation experience to direct the WW I film Wings, which included scenes of dogfights shot from airplanes. It won the first Academy Award for Best Picture. He was nominated three times as best director, but his only Academy Award was as co-writer of the first A Star is Born (1937). He directed six Westerns, including Yellow Sky (1948).

Wellman was a right-wing reactionary and a militant anti-Communist, said to be filled with anger at Democrat presidents. During the Cold War he directed The Iron Curtain (1948), an anti-Communist spy drama, and The Next Voice You Hear (1950), a bizarre film in which people are lectured in right-wing values by the voice of God (seriously!) coming over the radio.

Walter Van Tilburg Clark (1909-1971)

Lamar Trotti (1900-1952)

The film was based on a best-selling 1940 novel by Walter Van Tilburg Clark set in Nevada in 1885. It appealed to Wellman’s ideas about justice, which serves as a reminder not to stereotype conservatives as indifferent to the suffering of victims of injustice. Screenwriter Lamar Trotti simplified the novel, focusing on the incident itself and eliminating most of the back story.

Wellman and producer Darryl Zanuck knew the film would fail commercially, so they made a deal in which Wellman also agreed to direct two other films—Thunderbirds and Buffalo Bill (both 1944). They were right, it lost money and the other two films were popular hits.

Henry Fonda (1905-1982)

Like many of his generation, Fonda started on Broadway and moved to Hollywood in 1935 with The Farmer Takes a Wife. He appeared in slightly under 100 films of all genres, including Fritz Lang’s important early film noir, You Only Live Once (1937). He made six films (three of them Westerns) with director John Ford.

Unlike most of his friends, Fonda was a liberal, and intermittently appeared in “message” pictures such as The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Wrong Man (1956), Twelve Angry Men (1957), and Fail Safe (1964). His career took an unexpected turn when he starred in two Sergio Leone Westerns, Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and My Name is Nobody (1973).

He was nominated as best actor for The Grapes of Wrath (he lost), and he won for his final film, On Golden Pond (1981).

Dana Andrews (1909-1992)

He was born in Mississippi and moved to Los Angeles in 1931 to pursue a career as a singer. He signed with 20^th Century Fox in 1940. He was a major star in the ’40s, appearing in Laura (1944), A Walk in the Sun (1945) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).

In the 1950s, his alcoholism began to take a toll on his career. He made two films noir for Fritz Lang in 1956—While the City Sleeps and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. He finished up his career playing leads in low budget films, supporting roles in bigger budget films, and appearing on TV.

Anthony Quinn (1915-2001)

Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca was born in Chihuahua, Mexico to a Mexican mother and an Irish father who was said to have ridden with Panco Villa during the Mexican Revolution. He grew up in El Paso and Los Angeles. He began playing small parts in movies in 1936, and by 1950, he had appeared in over 50 films as a Mexican, and Indian or some other ethnic minority, usually as a villain.

His breakthrough came in 1952, when Elia Kazan hired him to play Emiliano Zapata’s in Viva Zapata, for which he won the Academy Award as best supporting actor. He won the supporting actor award again in 1956 as Paul Gauguin in Lust for Life.

From that point, he played mostly leading roles in big budget films. A career highlight was his starring role in La Strada (1954) for Federico Fellini. He was nominated as best actor for Zorba the Greek (1964), but lost.

Henry/Harry Morgan (1915-2011)

Morgan appeared in supporting roles in over 100 movies between 1942 and 1999, and many more TV programs. Many of his early appearances were in films noir. Originally billed as Henry, he changed his name to Harry to avoid confusion with a TV comedian. He is probably best remembered for continuing roles in Dragnet in the 1960s and M*A*S*H in the 1970s.

Expressionism

In addition to its downbeat subject matter, The Ox-Bow Incident is known for its expressionist visual style. To save money, much of the film was shot in simulated outdoor set, actually constructed on an indoor sound stage. The trees and foliage are very stylized and shot in high contrast black and white, presumably explained by the presence of a full moon.

The film vs. the book

While the film presents arguments against lynching from some community members, they are dismissed. Concern for justice is criticized as effeminate. The film seems to argue that, in the real world, thoughtful, virtuous people do not prevail. Clark said he wrote the book in part as a comment on the rise of Naziism in Europe, arguing that it can happen here as well.

Wellman and screenwriter Lamar Trotti made several substantive changes to the book:

In the book, Gil and Art—while they have doubts—vote in favor of the hanging. Presumably, Wellman wanted to portray Henry Fonda as a hero, even in a losing cause.

In the book, when the sheriff arrives and sees what happened, he conspires with the perpetrators to cover it up. The film implies that there will be legal consequences. (In the real world, how often were members of a lynch mob brought to justice?)

In the book, the Martin’s letter is never read; it is given to a minor character to bring to his wife. Wellman has Fonda read the letter and take it to the wife. The letter in the film was actually written by Trotti. It is strangely didactic, repeating arguments against lynching, but with only a one sentence personal message from Martin to his wife and children.

The net effect of these changes is to make the film less dark and more optimistic than the book.

Lynching

Lynching refers to extrajudicial murder; the victim did not necessarily have to be hanged. According to the Tuskegee Institute, 4743 people were lynched in the US between 1882 and 1968, peaking in 1892. 3446 (73%) of victims were African Americans. 73% of lynchings occurred in the South.

A NY Times article (3/3/19) presents research claiming that lynching was also prevalent in the Southwest, and that “thousands” of people of Mexican descent were killed. This article calls the Tuskegee data into question. In the film, one of the three victims is a Mexican.

More lynchings occurred in Texas than any other state. Many were carried out by Texas Rangers, who, while they are portrayed favorably in many movies, may be more realistically seen as a private army controlled by the owners of large ranches. During the Johnson County War in Wyoming (1889-1893), ranchers also hired mercenaries to lynch small farmers.

Lynching was far from a thing of the past in when The Ox-Bow Incident was written in 1940. The highly publicized lynching of the murderers of department store heir Brooke Hart occurred in San Jose, CA in 1933. Photographs of the bodies of the two (white) men hanging naked were widely circulated. California governor James Rolph publicly approved of the lynching and intervened to prevent leaders of the lynch mob from being prosecuted.

How is lynching typically portrayed in movies? When an innocent person is threatened with lynching, someone or something usually intervenes to prevent it. When a lynching occurs, it is clear that the victims are guilty, making it seem less abhorrent. Can anyone think of an American film in which a clearly innocent person is lynched—or executed legally?

How does this film fit into Wright’s typology? Wright didn’t classify it because it didn’t make enough money to meet his inclusion criterion. However, it seems to be a clear case of the transition theme: The heroes fight against the townspeople, who are presented as an irrational lynch mob. This is embarrassing for Wright’s theory, since he claimed that the transition theme did not appear in films until the 1950s.

Aftermath

While the film was a flop at the box office, it was praised by critics and was nominated for the Academy Award for best picture of 1943. It lost to Casablanca. Several directors of Westerns, including Sam Peckinpah and Clint Eastwood, have cited it as an important influence.

March 13–Red River

Red River is, in part, a celebration of man’s conquest of nature. It was a monumental achievement since, to dramatize the first cattle drive from Texas to Kansas, the filmmakers had to repeat parts of the long, difficult journey. The film went way over schedule, and nearly doubled its original budget of $500,000.

Historical background:

Red River is an example of a film whose makers saw it as an illustration of American history. It affirms their belief in the frontier myth and manifest destiny. Early in the film, one of the heroes, Tom Dunson, murders a Mexican man, steals his employer’s land, and starts the largest ranch in Texas. One critic said: “It is a film about empire. It is a film about the territorial expansion of one society by the usurpation of land from others.”

Fourteen years later (1865), the ranch is successful, but Dunson is unable to get a fair price for his cattle. This problem is attributed to post-Civil War “carpetbaggers.” Like many American Westerns, the film was made by conservatives who sympathized with the South in the Civil War. Dunson decides to drive his cattle to the railroad terminal in Kansas City, MO, where he can get a fairer price. This has never been done successfully before. Along the way, they hear rumors that the railroad has been extended to Abilene, KS. By driving the cattle to Abilene, they open the Chisholm Trail.

Borden Chase (1900-1971)

Borden Chase was a novelist and screenwriter known primarily for his Westerns. Red River was based on his novel Blazing Guns on the Chisholm Trail, serialized in the Saturday Evening Post in 1946 and published in 1947. Chase acknowledged that his story was loosely based on Mutiny on the Bounty. Chase wrote the first draft of the screenplay, but it was revised by Charles Schnee. Chase disliked the changes that Schnee and director Howard Hawks made. He wrote about 20 other screenplays, including such classics as Winchester 73 (1950) and Vera Cruz (1954).

Howard Hawks (1896-1977)

Hawks was described by one film historian as “the greatest American director who is not a household name.” He was a prolific director, making 46 films between 1926 and 1970. His films cut across genres, including war films (Sergeant York, 1941), crime dramas (Scarface, 1932), screwball comedies (Bringing Up Baby, 1938), film noir (The Big Sleep, 1946), and science fiction (The Thing, 1951). Red River was his first Western. He directed four others: The Big Sky (1952), Rio Bravo (1959), El Dorado (1966) and Rio Lobo (1970).

Many of his films were about male bonding in groups carrying out difficult tasks. He was also known for his natural-sounding (overlapping) dialogue and his portrayal of women in assertive roles. He once said that a good movie has “three great scenes and no bad ones.”

John Wayne (1907-1979)

Born Marion Morrison in Iowa, his family moved to Glendale, CA when he was 8. He went to USC on a football scholarship, but dropped out when he failed to make the first team. John Ford noticed Wayne while he was working in Hollywood as a prop man, and gave him parts in two films. Director Raoul Walsh cast him in lead of The Big Trail (1930). It was filmed on location using an expensive wide screen process and it lost a lot of money. As a result, the studios declined to make big budget Westerns for nine years. Wayne spent the 1930s making B-Westerns and learning his craft.

His breakthrough came when John Ford cast him as the lead in Stagecoach (1939). After that, he became a leading man in larger budget films. He is said to have been in 142 films. Red River showed his willingness to play other than purely heroic roles. After seeing it, Ford said, “I didn’t know the son of a bitch could act.”

Montgomery Clift (1920-1966)

Clift began his career on the NY stage and studied at the Actors’ Studio with Lee Strasburg and Elia Kazan. He was one of the first method actors in Hollywood, and was followed by Marlon Brando and James Dean. Red River was the first of his 18 films, almost all of which were popular, big budget movies. He was nominated as best actor three times [The Search (1948), A Place in the Sun (1951), From Here to Eternity (1953)] and as best supporting actor once [Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)].

Clift was injured in an auto accident in 1956, suffering a broken jaw and nose, and facial lacerations. This changed his appearance and reduced his facial mobility. It also caused him chronic pain, which contributed to his addictions to drugs and alcohol. By the end of his life, he was unemployable. His death at age 46 was attributed to a heart attack, caused indirectly by addiction to pain-killing drugs.

Method actors were not popular with veteran Hollywood directors. During the filming of Red River, he did not get along with either Hawks, Wayne or Walter Brennan; he disagreed with them on almost everything. Wayne referred to him as “an arrogant little bastard.” Hawks felt he had to restrain Clift from overacting, sometimes instructing him to partially cover his face with his hand or bury it in a coffee cup.

Walter Brennan (1894-1974)

Brennan was born in Lynn, MA, served in WWI, began playing bit parts in silent films, and worked his way up. His number of film appearances is unknown, but is probably about 200. He received three Oscars for best supporting actor: [Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky (1938) and The Westerner (1940)]. Over time he developed his persona as the hero’s sidekick, a cranky old man who was used to insert comedy into the film. He ended his career on a TV sitcom, The Real McCoys (1957-1963).

Two versions of this film:

The prerelease version is slightly longer than the theatrical version. There are two main differences: In the theatrical version, written titles are replaced by a narration spoken by Walter Brennan—an improvement, and the final scene is shortened slightly—not an improvement. Hawks preferred the theatrical version.

Changes from the book:

The 1851 romance between Dunson and Fen was invented for the film, and with it, the serpent bracelet. This change helps to make Red River a film noir. Dunson, the noir protagonist, made a huge mistake which hovers over the rest of his life, and accounts for his determination and bitterness.

The principle character in the book is Matthew Garth; his falling out with Dunson occurs earlier in the journey. Tess Millais is a prostitute; she and Matt had met in St. Louis on his way home from the Civil War. When Dunson meets Tess, he proposes marriage and she accepts, not because she is attracted to him, but in the expectation that he will die soon and she will inherit his wealth.

The ending

The book ends like this: Before Dunson catches up with Matt, he has a gunfight with Cherry Valance. He kills Cherry but is seriously wounded. By the time he meets Matt, he is barely able to stand. Matt refuses to shoot him. Dunson shoots wildly, then collapses. Matt and Tess put him in a wagon and take him home. He dies right after they cross the Red River into Texas.

The problems with the book version are that John Wayne is only a supporting actor, and he dies at the end—both assumed to be unacceptable to the audience. But the audience is led to expect a violent confrontation in which one of the two protagonists will be killed. Is there a credible ending in which both Dunson and Matt survive and are reconciled?

Hawks’s solution seems like the ending of a comedy. He retains Dunson’s injury from his fight with Cherry, and Matt’s refusal to fire on him. The scene devolves into a fistfight, and Tess intervenes, telling them to stop being silly. They smile and make up, and the conflict fizzles into laughter. According to one critic, “What is amazing is that the film retains so much power despite the weak ending.”

The ending was further compromiseded by a dispute with Howard Hughes, producer of The Outlaw (1943). Hughes claimed that the ending of Red River plagiarized a scene from The Outlaw, a scene which Hawks himself had directed before quitting the project. To settle this dispute, they had to shorten the ending and make it even less coherent.

Leadership styles

One interpretation of the film is that it is about the clash between two different styles of leadership, called authoritarian vs. democratic, or task-oriented vs. relationship-oriented. The authoritarian leader (Dunson) has the men sign a binding contract in which they agree to follow his orders without question. He then behaves like a tyrant. The democratic leader (Garth) is more of a mediator; he listens to the group members, takes their opinions into account, and compromises with them. Dunson associates this style with a lack of masculinity. This may be another example of how a Western was influenced by societal concerns at the time of production.

Incidentals:

Hawks rationalized Dunson’s murder of the Mexican by having him claim that he could tell when the Mexican was going to draw by looking in his eyes. Dunson then drew first. This is a classic example of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A good deal of frank sexual talk among the cowboys was removed from the script by the censors, but one scene slipped past them: the gay subtext between Matt and Cherry (“That’s a good looking gun; can I see it?” “Maybe you’d like to see mine.”)

This was the first film of Harry Carey, Jr., and the last film of Harry Carey. Carey (Sr.) was a star of silent Westerns and early talkies, many directed by John Ford. He was a personal hero and mentor to John Wayne. Carey, Jr., went on to become a member of Ford’s stock company.

Red River was financially successful; it had the third-highest box office receipts of 1948. It received only two Academy Award nominations: Best story (Borden Chase) and best editing (Christian Nyby).

March 20–Johnny Guitar

Johnny Guitar is a open text; it can read be in a variety of ways. It has been called a noir Western, a feminist Western, a psychological or psychoanalytic Western, an existential Western, a fairy tale (by Francois Truffaut), flamboyantly stylized, and a political Western, more specifically, an allegory of American politics during the McCarthy period. (An allegory is a story that when analyzed can be seen to have a hidden meaning.)

The Communist Scare and the Hollywood Blacklist

A substantial number of American actors, writers and directors were involved in left-wing political activities during the pre- and post-WWII period; some were members of the Communist Party (CP). Most of them aligned themselves with the CP because it was the most liberal of the organized parties at that time. They advocated reform, not overthrow of the US government. Most of them had little knowledge of events in the Soviet Union (although maybe they should have paid more attention). It’s important to remember that the Soviet Union was our ally during WWII.

After WWII, CP membership was retroactively redefined as disloyalty to the US, and an attempt was made by conservative politicians to eliminate former Communists from government, college and universities, and the entertainment field. This effort was headed by Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI), and by the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC), which held hearings on alleged Communist influence on movies beginning in 1947.

Two problems with the HUAC investigations are:

Only a minority of Hollywood films of the late 1940s had a liberal message (so-called “social problem” films). They pointed out problems but seldom suggested solutions.
HUAC held an unsophisticated theory of media influence which stated that movies were “brainwashing” the public with socialist propaganda. They greatly overestimated the effect of the mass media on public attitudes.

At the HUAC hearings, people were called before the Committee and asked whether they had ever been a member of the Communist Party. If yes, they were asked to name names, placing them in a profound ethical dilemma. If they refused to testify, they could go to jail—and some did (the “Hollywood ten”). If they did name names, they betrayed their friends, and might be blacklisted anyway.

HUAC’s motive was not to get names, most of which were already known to them. These were more like show trials, designed to advance their own political careers. They also hoped to eliminate liberals from positions of influence in Hollywood.

The blacklist was a list of actors, directors and writers that the studios and TV networks would not hire because they had been associated with the CP or other liberal organizations. If you refused to testify, you would certainly be blacklisted. If you cooperated, you might be.

Nicholas Ray (1911-1979)

Born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle, Jr., in LaCross, WI, Ray was by all accounts a brilliant man, but also self-destructive—a heavy drinker and gambler and a bisexual who was married four times.

His acquaintances read like a who’s who of left-wing academic and entertainment figures. At the University of Chicago, he was a student of playwright Thornton Wilder. He was an apprentice to architect Frank Lloyd Wright. He moved to New York in 1935 and joined two left-wing theatre groups, first as an actor and later a director. His mentors there included producer John Houseman and director Elia Kazan. (It was during this period that he joined the Communist Party.) He also worked for Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA), specializing in folklore studies. He was a research assistant to Alan Lomax, who traveled around the country recording blues and folk singers. He directed a series of radio programs, “Back Where I Come From,” featuring folk music by Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, and others. He also directed a Broadway play, Beggar’s Opera, with music by Duke Ellington.

He moved to Hollywood in 1944, where he was the assistant director to Elia Kazan on Kazan’s first film, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. His first chance to direct came when John Houseman hired him to direct They Live By Night (1948)—a film noir about a young bank robber and his girlfriend on the run from the police, based on the novel Thieves Like Us (1937) by Edward Anderson.

He directed two other highly regarded films noir, In a Lonely Place (1950) and On Dangerous Ground (1952). Johnny Guitar (1954) was the first of his three Westerns. His biggest success was Rebel Without a Cause (1955) starring James Dean. He also directed Bigger Than Life (1956), about a middle class teacher addicted to pain killing drugs. His career tailed off in the 1960s, when his health began to fail.

Ray lived in constant fear of being blacklisted, but he never was. One theory is that, because he was under contract to RKO, studio head Howard Hughes protected him. The most important theme running through Ray’s films was sympathy for and identification with outsiders and non-conformists.

Joan Crawford (1904-1977)

Crawford was born Lucille LeSeuer in San Antonio, the daughter of a laborer. She claimed she was born in 1908. After dropping out of college, she became a dancer and a chorus girl. She was signed by M-G-M in 1924 and moved to Warner Brothers in 1943. She made about 90 films in all.

Her breakthrough came in Grand Hotel (1932), with John Barrymore and Greta Garbo. She specialized in portraying “working girls”—women of humble origins who became successful by sleeping around. She famously said, “If you want to see the girl next door, go next door.” She was notoriously temperamental, and was disliked by many of her directors and fellow actors.

Her career slumped in the late ’30s, but she made a comeback in 1945 in the film noir Mildred Pierce, for which she won the Academy Award for best actress. She was nominated two other times, for Possessed (1947) and Sudden Fear (1952). When she made Johnny Guitar, she was 50, and her career was in decline. After the mid-50s, her only hit was What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).

She was married five times; her last marriage was to Alfred Steele, CEO of Pepsi Cola, and she became a Pepsi spokesperson. She adopted five children, the two oldest being Christina and Christopher. In 1978, Christina Crawford wrote Mommie Dearest, in which she accused her mother of physical and verbal abuse. Because of this book and subsequent film, many people’s lasting image of Joan Crawford is of her beating her daughter with wire clothes hangers.

Sterling Hayden (1916-1986)

Hayden was a high school dropout who became a seaman and eventually a ship’s captain. He was a WWII hero, working undercover in Europe, coordinating the activities of Communist partisans for the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, later to become the CIA). He became an actor when someone spotted his picture in a magazine.

He joined the CP briefly in 1946. He was called before HUAC, named names, and by his own account, hated himself for the rest of his life for what he had done. He was not blacklisted, but may have been “gray-listed.” He played mostly in Westerns and films noir. He worked mainly for directors who sympathized with his political problems. He was the lead in two highly regarded films noir, John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and Stanley Kubrick’s The Killers (1955). He played important supporting roles in Dr. Stangelove (1964), The Godfather (1972), and 1900 (1976).

Mercedes McCambridge (1916-2004)

McCambridge was a successful actress on stage and on the radio. She started her film career by winning the Academy Award for best supporting actress in All the King’s Men (1949). She also appeared in Giant (1956) and Suddenly Last Summer (1959). Her career declined in the 1960s, possibly because she was an alcoholic and did not appear in likable roles. In 1973, she dubbed the voice of the devil possessing Linda Blair in The Exorcist.

Ward Bond (1903-1960)

Bond was a reliable supporting actor in over 200 films, many of them Westerns. He was a member of John Ford’s stock company, and a close friend of John Wayne. He was known for his political conservatism, and served as president of the MPA (Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals), Hollywood’s pro-blacklist organization, from 1949-1953.

Ben Maddow (1909-1992)

Maddow was a screenwriter and a documentary filmmaker. He was nominated for an Academy Award for The Asphalt Jungle (1950). Shortly after that, he was blacklisted. Johnny Guitar was credited to Philip Yordan, a screenwriter who sometimes served as a front for blacklisted writers. Later in life, both Maddow and Yordan claimed to have written the film, but its themes are much more typical of Maddow.

Republic Pictures

Republic was the largest of the independent studios; it made mostly “B-movies” and serials, especially Westerns featuring John Wayne, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. At the time, company president Herbert Yates was starting to make bigger budget films, i.e., The Quiet Man (1952), for which earned John Ford an Academy Award for best director. Although most of their films were in black-and-white, Republic’s color films used a process called Trucolor, which was cheaper than Technicolor. Its colors are sometimes called more subtle, but some think they looks “washed out.” Outdoor scenes emphasized light blue and pink shades.

The making of the film

Nick Ray called it “an unhappy experience.” As a condition of making the film, Joan Crawford is said to have demanded a role originally intended for a man. (“Johnny Guitar” was originally intended to be a girl singer.) True to form, Joan Crawford walked out while the film was in progress. The catalyst was apparently professional jealousy over McCambridge’s performance. As a condition of her return, she demanded five more scenes and a change of title to “Vienna.”

Visual style

Johnny Guitar was filmed in Sedona, AZ, known for its red rock formations, which enclose much of the film. Nick Ray’s training with Frank Lloyd Wright can be seen in the design of Vienna’s casino, which is built into the side of a Sedona rock. The film uses vertical space to signify dominance and power; both Vienna’s casino and the Dancing Kid’s hideout have steep stairs. Many find significance in the choice of colors, especially in the costumes, i.e., Ray contrives to have the lynch mob dressed in black, while Vienna wears a white dress.

The dominant allegory

The posse/lynch mob may, in Ray’s and Maddow’s mind, have represented the anti-Communist crusaders of HUAC. They are presented as xenophobic—intolerant and suspicious of outsiders and people who are different. Although she committed no crime, Vienna is judged guilty by association. Turkey is promised he will go free if he will implicate Vienna (“name names”) but he is betrayed (blacklisted) anyway.

The film illustrates the psychology of the outsider. People who are falsely suspected of criminal or deviant behavior often wind up doing what they are falsely suspected of, a self-fulfilling prophecy. As the Dancing Kid said, what did they have to lose?

The lynch mob represents a convergence of interests that actually recognized or predicted (in 1954!) the dominant political alliance of the next 75 years. The lynch mob is headed by a wealthy rancher and a banker, Vienna’s economic rivals for the expected profits of the railroad. But their argument to the rest of the community is not economic but moral. They label Vienna as a former prostitute who encourages drinking and gambling and who consorts with outsiders and criminals. This predicts the political coalition between the US ruling class and religious fundamentalists. The Right’s campaigns emphasize “social issues” like abortion and immigration, but when they are elected, they deliver tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.

Another motive for Emma Small’s behavior is her jealousy of Vienna. Emma is portrayed as a sexually repressed woman who sublimates her desire (she loves the Dancing Kid, who loves Vienna) into anger, most apparent when she burns down Vienna’s casino. The bank robbery becomes an excuse to persecute Vienna. The truth doesn’t matter.

These messages can be attributed to the facts that the film’s writer was blacklisted; its director was under constant threat of being blacklisted, and one of the co-stars was coming off a terrible experience with HUAC. In addition, there was a type-casting coup. Ward Bond, president of the MPA, plays the wealthy rancher who heads the lynch mob. It is not known how aware Bond was of the film’s message.

A feminist Western?

1954 New York Herald Tribune review begins: “Feminism has gone too far . . .” Vienna’s employee states: “(I’ve) Never seen a woman who was more like a man; she thinks like one, acts like one, and sometimes makes me feel like I’m not.”

Vienna and Emma are the primary agents whose behavior drives the action, culminating in a shootout between two women. “Johnny Guitar” is not your average Western hero; he is presented as a peacemaker, initially unarmed, who openly questions masculine values. His response to the bank robbery is completely passive (“I’m a stranger here myself”).

Other examples of “feminist” Westerns include Anthony Mann’s The Furies (1950) and Samuel Fuller’s Forty Guns (1957), both starring Barbara Stanwyck. The basic premise—a woman (a former prostitute) in possession of valuable land along a projected railroad line; attempts by wealthy people to take it away—is repeated in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).

A fairy tale?

Truffaut’s claim that Johnny Guitar is like a fair tale is supported by several observations. The names of some of the characters (Johnny Guitar, the Dancing Kid, Emma Small) are more like mythical figures. The Dancing Kid’s hideout is hidden behind secret passage through a waterfall (“through the looking-glass”). Vienna’s rescue from lynching by Johnny is highly improbable. The mob is led to the hideout by a horse (as in Lassie films?). One of the gang members likes to read books (!).

My favorite scene, when Vienna descends the stairs to join Johnny, wearing a purple nightgown:

JG: Tell me something nice.

V: Sure, what do you want to hear?

JG: Lie to me. Tell me all these years you’ve waited.

V: All these years I’ve waited.

Etc. The dialogue resembles that of Samuel Becket or Harold Pinter. (“existentialist” playwrights).

Wright’s typology

Wright didn’t analyze The Ox-Bow Incident because it didn’t meet his box office criterion, but it is an obvious example of transition theme. The townspeople are the protagonist’s main problem. Wright’s three main cases of the transition theme are Broken Arrow (1950), High Noon (1952), and Johnny Guitar. Wright classified Red River as an example of the vengeance variation; although it has other themes.

Unlike The Ox-Bow Incident, Johnny Guitar features a typical Hollywood lynch mob. Turkey is lynched, but that’s O.K. since he is guilty. Vienna is innocent, so she escapes.

Aftermath

The film opened to primarily negative reviews. Martin Scorsese suggests that people didn’t know what to make of it, so they either ignored it or laughed at it. However, it was not a money loser. It grossed about $2.5 million in the first year; it was #27 at the box office in 1954. Much of its current reputation is due to the testimony of directors and film critics, especially French ones such as Truffaut.

March 27–The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

In 1962, three good films were made about the closing of the American frontier and passing of the old West. The other two were Ride the High Country (directed by Sam Peckinpah) and Lonely Are the Brave (directed by David Miller).

John Ford (1894-1973)

John Ford was born John Martin Feeney near Portland, Maine, the youngest of 11 children. Both his parents were Irish immigrants. His father owned a tavern. As a high school fullback, he was nicknamed “Bull” Feeney. However, he was also artistic.. He drew landscapes, some copied from photographs and paintings of the West by Frederick Remington.

In 1914, he dropped out of art studies at the University of Maine in 1914, and moved to Hollywood to join his elder brother Frank (Francis Ford), an established actor and director of silent films. Both used the name Ford because “Feeney” sounded Irish, and they feared discrimination against Irish Americans. He worked as an actor, a stuntman, and assistant director to Frank. The first feature he directed was The Tornado (1917). During the silent era, he directed many serials and low budget Westerns, 16 of which starred Harry Carey.

While the exact number of films directed by Ford is unknown, one source puts it at 147 feature films, 54 of which were Westerns. Many of his non-Westerns have an Irish theme. He received four Academy Awards for best director: The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941), and The Quiet Man (1952), all non-Westerns.

Ford’s behavior on the set was autocratic. He insulted and bullied his actors and sometimes used deception to achieve the performances he wanted. In spite of that, he had a “stock company” of loyal friends who appeared in many of his films and called him “Pappy.” They included John Wayne, Ward Bond, Victor McLaglen, Maureen O’Hara, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey, Jr., etc. Many of these actors owed their careers to Ford.

Ford was unhappily married and had poor relationships with his two children. He had many affairs, but as a Catholic, never sought a divorce. When not filming, he spent much of his time with pals on his yacht the Araner. Ford was a heavy consumer of alcohol, although he was usually able to control his drinking while filming.

Prior to World War II, Ford was a New Deal Democrat. His “populist quartet” of films included Stagecoach (1939), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), and The Grapes of Wrath (1940). Ford had a distinguished war record. He was a Commander in the US Navy, heading the photographic unit for the Office of Strategic Services, which eventually became the CIA. He directed award-winning documentaries about the war. While filming The Battle of Midway, he was wounded and received a Purple Heart.

After the war, his personal politics became more conservative. During the McCarthy era, he joined MPA (Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals) along with his friends John Wayne and Ward Bond, and strongly supported the blacklist. However, this conservatism was not always reflected in his later films. Rather than Ford’s films becoming more liberal or conservative, it might be more accurate to say that they became more pessimistic.

John Wayne (1907-1979) [see discussion of Red River]

John Wayne spent 25 years on the list of top 10 Hollywood money makers, more than any other actor. He produced and directed The Alamo (1961), which was nominated for best picture. It’s hard to separate his acting career from his extreme conservatism. He also directed The Green Berets (1968), which supported the Vietnam War long after the war had become unpopular. He finally won a best actor Oscar for True Grit (1969).

James Stewart (1908-1997)

James Stewart was born and raised in Indiana, PA. He became interested in drama as a student at Princeton. He performed in summer stock and on Broadway. In 1935, he followed the lead of his close friend Henry Fonda and went to Hollywood. Although he struggled at first, his career breakthrough came in Frank Capra’s comedy You Can’t Take It With You (1938).

He acted in 92 films of almost all genres between 1935 and 1991. Although his early successes were comedies, he remade his image to that of a serious actor in the 1950s. He was nominated for five best actor Academy Awards, winning for The Philadelphia Story (1940). The others were Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Harvey (1950) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959). He made four films with Alfred Hitchcock: Rope (1948), Rear Window (1954), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) and Vertigo (1958).

Like Ford, he served with distinction during World War II. He was a bomber pilot who few many missions over Europe.

Vera Miles (1929 – )

Vera Miles was a beauty contest winner who moved to LA, started in small roles and moved up. Although she made many films, she is best known for her work with two directors. She was signed by Alfred Hitchcock to a personal contract; he intended her to be “the new Grace Kelly.” She played the female lead in The Wrong Man (1956) and was one of the principals in Psycho (1960). Hitchcock wanted her to star in Vertigo, but she got pregnant. Her other important films were the two Westerns she made with John Ford—The Searchers (1956) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Lee Marvin (1924-1987)

Lee Marvin spent the 1950s and early 1960s playing villains in films like The Big Heat (1953) and Bad Day at Black Rock (1955). He played a cop on the TV series M Squad (1957-60). His breakthrough came when he won a surprise best actor Academy Award for the Western comedy Cat Ballou (1965). His role as the over-the-top villain Liberty Valance is a precursor to the comic villain Kid Shaleen in Cat Ballou. After 1965, he played leads in adventure films (The Dirty Dozen, 1967)) and neo-noirs (Point Blank, 1967). His other Westerns include The Professionals (1966) and Monte Walsh (1970).

The making of the film

The film was based on a 1949 Cosmopolitan short story by Dorothy M. Johnson, who specialized in Westerns. She also wrote A Man Called Horse (1950) and The Hanging Tree (1957). The screenplay was by James Warner Bellah, who wrote three other Ford Westerns, and Willis Goldbeck.

Of Liberty Valance, Woody Strode (Pompey) said, “What a miserable film to make.” He blamed it mostly on Ford, who needled John Wayne about his failure as a football player (in contrast to Strode), and his evasion of military service in World War II (in contrast to Stewart). Wayne accepted it because he owed his career to Ford.

Ford’s salary for the film was $150,000. Stewart received $300,000 and Wayne $750,000.

Black and white

The film was shot in black-and-white in 1962, when the majority of films, especially Westerns, were in color. Ford said the reason was that the shootout between Rance Stoddard and Liberty Valance would not have worked in color. The lighting demands of color photography would have made it less credible that Stoddard did not see Tom Doniphon. Another reason may have been to cut costs, since the studio was not confident of the film’s financial success. Finally, Wayne and Stewart were 54 and 53, but were playing men supposedly in their 20s or 30s. It might have been harder to hide their age with makeup in a color film.

Why did Tom Doniphon shoot Liberty Valance?

The short answer is that he did it because Hallie asked him to. (Many of the important decisions in the film were made by Hallie.) In the struggle between statehood vs. the open range, individualism vs. the social order, you might have expected Doniphon to be on the same side as Valance. Was he won over by Stoddard’s arguments for law and order? Did he foresee the consequences of his act, i.e., the loss of Hallie?

He could not tell people that Stoddard was a fraud, and that he shot Liberty Valance. Although he was unlikely to have been charged with murder, his reputation would have been damaged. Thus he became the hero of the film, a martyr to the cause of civilization.

Famous quote: “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Does Ford himself endorse that sentiment?

Fort Apache (1948) had a similar ending. Henry Fonda plays a cavalry officer patterned after Gen. George Custer. John Wayne was second in command. Throughout the film, Wayne tried to restrain Fonda’s arrogant behavior, such as breaking treaties with the Indians, and cautioned him not to underestimate the Indians’ strength. Fonda ignored this, and he and most of his men are killed.

In an interview with reporters, Wayne praised Fonda as a great hero, and made no mention of his faults. Ford appears to endorse the military tendency not to criticize fellow officers regardless of how much you disapprove of their behavior. Ford could be saying the same thing here: It’s important to preserve legends even if they’re not true. The public is ultimately better off by being fooled.

This interpretation also suggests that Ford was defending his previous films from the criticism that they were not historically accurate.

On the other hand, as Peter Bogdanovich has noted, “Ford prints the fact.” That is, the film gives us all the information we need to deconstruct the legend. Maybe he’s telling us not to believe everything we read, and warning us about behind-the-scenes manipulation of history and the democratic process.

One sign of a good film is that it’s subject to multiple interpretations. Another interpretation is that Ford meant to say that the legend has become fact. That is, Stoddard, with his willingness to face Liberty Valance, his career in public service, and his truthful confession that he didn’t shoot Valance, has shown himself to be and man of courage and integrity. Therefore, he is a second hero of the film.

What exactly is the legend that is being debunked?

Recall the classical Western plot: An outsider who is a skilled fighter enters a community that is helpless against stronger villains; he reluctantly intervenes, defeats the villains, and either rides away or gives up his guns and settles in the community. While this does not describe either Stoddard or Doniphon individually, it describes them collectively. However, the classical plot implies that the heroes defeat the villain in a fair fight. In reality, fair duels were rare and most outlaws were murdered, i.e., Jesse James, Billy the Kid. Ford may be saying that this is the kind of violence that was actually required to civilize America.

Other issues

Based on this film, Ford appears to have a paternalistic view of race relations. The film seems to endorse the myth of the “happy slave,” devoted to his master. This was backward even in 1962.

Much of the film is blatantly “old-fashioned,” with overacting that borders on stereotyping. Ford may have wanted to establish connections with his earlier films, or he may have simply been incapable of making a “modern” Western.

The film’s ending is pessimistic. Twenty-five years later, Hallie appeared to have regretted her choice to marry Stoddard rather than Doniphon. Stoddard was doomed to spend the rest of his life with a false image. Hallie cynically observes from the train, “Look at it. Once it was a wildnerness. Now it’s a garden. Aren’t you proud?”

Aftermath

Liberty Valance was a commercial and critical success. Made for $3.2 million, it grossed $8 million, and was the 16^th highest-grossing film of 1962. Critics were generally positive. However, it was nominated for only one Academy Award (Edith Head for best costume design). Today, the film typically makes lists of the all-time greatest Westerns, along with Stagecoach and The Searchers.

April 3–The Wild Bunch

Between 1962 and 1969, the international success of Italian Westerns brought changes to the American western. There was a new realism in the appearance of the actors, their clothing, and the built environment. Spaghetti Westerns also had a higher body count, although, for the most part, the violence was still depicted as unrealistically bloodless. In The Wild Bunch, director Sam Peckinpah insisted on a realistic portrayal of violent outcomes. He took filmed violence to a new level of explicit carnage.

The Wild Bunch

In the 1890s, there was a group of bank and train robbers, headed by Butch Cassidy (Robert Leroy Parker) and the Sundance Kid (Harry Longabaugh) known as “the wild bunch.” Pursued by the Pinkerton Agency, they eventually fled to Bolivia, where they died in 1908. They were depicted in a 1969 Western comedy, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The events of The Wild Bunch are not based on their careers.

The Mexican Revolution

The film is set in 1913, at the height of the Mexican Revolution. The fictitious General Mapache is the local head of pro-government troops loyal to the real General Huerta, a military dictator supported by American business interests. The rebel Pancho Villa is in the neighborhood, and at one point attacks Mapache. U. S. troops intervened on behalf of the Mexican government in 1916. Both Villa and fellow revolutionary Emiliano Zapata were assassinated. About 1.5 million Mexicans, out of a population of 15 million, died during the Revolution, and in the end, the Mexicans wound up with an autocratic government that was quite similar to the one they had before.

Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984)

Sam Peckinpah came from a well-to-do Northern California Family. His one grandfather was the founder of the Peckinpah Lumber Co., near Fresno, in the High Sierra mountain range. The other, Denver Church, was a U. S. Congressman. His father was a lawyer and a Superior court judge.

Sam’s personal problems began in childhood. His mother suffered from psychosomatic illness and demanded a lot of attention from family members. Sam spent summers and weekends riding, hunting and fishing at the family’s ranch, but since he was smaller than other family members and interested in reading, he was under pressure to prove his masculinity. His pattern of heavy drinking began in high school.

After the end of World War II, he served in the Marines in China, where he witnessed a lot of brutality. While at Cal State—Fresno, he became interested in theatre, first as an actor, then a director. He earned a Master’s degree in Theatre at the University of Southern CA. He was an assistant to director Don Siegel on five films, including Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).

He was first a screenwriter, then a director of episodes of several TV Western series, including Gunsmoke, Have Gun, Will Travel and The Rifleman. He created a TV series, The Westerner, starring Brian Keith, which was critically praised but cancelled after 13 episodes. While working in TV, he began a lifelong pattern of arguing with producers, who he felt were dumbing down his scripts and ruthlessly cutting his budgets. His opportunity to direct a feature film came when Brian Keith requested him as his director for The Deadly Companions (1961). He had no input into the screenplay or the final cut and did not consider it “his” film. Ride the High Country (1962), although it did not make much money, was his first critical success.

Peckinpah is the second best-known Western director after John Ford. His films were as follows (the Westerns are italicized).

The Deadly Companions (1961)

Ride the High Country (1962)

Major Dundee (1965)

The Wild Bunch (1969)

The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)

Straw Dogs (1971)

Junior Bonner (1971)

The Getaway (1972)

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)

The Killer Elite (1975)

Cross of Iron (1977)

Convoy (1978)

The Osterman Weekend (1983)

Peckinpah was a man of many contradictions. He had an extraordinary mastery of the mechanics of film-making. He had an unsurpassed work ethic. He could tell a complicated story visually, with a minimum of dialogue. He had an undying personal loyalty to old friends, who reciprocated that loyalty—the Peckinpah “stock company,” some of whom are seen in this film (Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Strother Martin, L. Q. Jones).

Unfortunately, like far too many talented directors, he was notoriously self-destructive, addicted to alcohol, drugs and sexuality. He is often described as temperamental, due to his frequent bitter clashes with producers and studio heads, whom he frequently accused of ruining his films (including this one). These disagreements seriously hampered his career.

In 1979, Sam and Warren Oates (Lyle Gorch) bought 700 acres of land and built a cabin the the high country of Montana. They didn’t get much chance to use it. Oates died of a heart attack in 1982 at age 53. Sam also died of heart failure in 1984 at age 59. Heavy drinking probably played a role in both of their early deaths.

William Holden (1918-1981)

William Holden was one of Hollywood’s most talented and successful actors of the ’40s and ’50s. His first starring role was in Golden Boy (1939), recreating a role he played on Broadway. He was nominated as best actor for Sunset Boulevard (1950) and won the Oscar for Stalag 17 (1953). Among his other successful films were Sabrina (1954), Picnic (1955) and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957).

He was also a alcoholic, whose career was on a downward slide when he made The Wild Bunch. In 1966, he had killed another driver in a drunk driving incident in Italy. It is impossible to ignore the similarities between his personal life and his role as Pike Bishop. After The Wild Bunch, his only other significant role was in Network (1976), for which he was also nominated as best actor. He died, drunk and alone; he fell, hit his head on a table and bled to death.

Ernest Borgnine (1917-2012)

Ernest Borgnine (real name: Borgnino) was the son of Italian immigrants from Connecticut. He served in the Navy during World War II. He spent most of his early career playing villains, his breakthrough coming as the man who beat Frank Sinatra to death in From Here to Eternity (1954). He won the Academy Award for best actor in the atypical role of Marty (1955), a shy butcher dating for the first time. He spent the rest of his career playing mainly supporting roles in adventure films. Unfortunately, many people will remember him from the TV series McHale’s Navy (1962-66).

Robert Ryan (1909-1973)

Robert Ryan probably appeared in more films noir than any other actor, usually playing a villain. His most important role was as the anti-Semitic murderer in Crossfire (1947), for which he was nominated for a supporting actor Academy Award. Although he often played bigots [On Dangerous Ground (1951), Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), Odds Against Tomorrow (1959)], ironically, he was one of Hollywood’s more liberal actors. He appeared in some other excellent westerns, including The Naked Spur (1952) and The Professionals (1966).

Edmond O’Brien (1915-1985)

Edmond O’Brien appeared in more than 100 films. He spent the late ’40s and 50s alternating between leads and supporting roles, often in films noir, i.e, The Killers (1946), D.O.A. (1950), The Hitchhiker (1953). In the ’60s, he settled into character parts, sometimes playing men who were older than he was. He played the newspaper editor Dutton Peabody in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

The Film

The screenplay was by Walon Green, based on a story by Roy Sickner. The dialogue was extensively revised by Peckinpah, so much so that Green insisted he be given co-writing credit. The film was shot in and around Parras, Mexico in 81 days.

The film came at a critical time in Peckinpah’s career; he had been out of work for 4 years, due to his vocal protests about the way his previous film (Major Dundee) had been cut by the studio. He felt he had to come back with something outstanding. He carefully prepared to shoot the film, with meticulous attention to detail. The costumes and buildings were based on contemporary photographs. The cinematography by Lucien Ballard included many layered backgrounds and foregrounds.

The film, edited by Lou Lombardo, included 3642 cuts. The editing was influenced by the Japanese samurai films of Akira Kurosawa, especially Seven Samurai (1954). Action scenes were shot by several cameras at different speeds, and edited to form a montage that seamlessly combined both slow motion and real time action. The effect is to heighten the impact of the action.

Violence

Peckinpah said:

The point of the film is to take this facade of movie violence and open it up, get people involved in it so that they are starting to go in the Hollywood television predictable reaction syndrome, and then twist it so that it’s not fun any more, just a wave of sickness in the gut. . . It’s ugly, brutalizing and blood fucking awful. It’s not fun and games and cowboys and Indians. It’s a terrible, ugly thing. And yet there’s a certain response that you get from it, an excitement because we’re all violent people.

Peckinpah was a believer in theories of man’s innate violence, which were then and are now contested within psychology. He also believed in catharsis—that this film would help people to get the violence out of their systems, and this would discourage violence in future films. That didn’t work out; future films imitated his depiction of violence, but in more superficial contexts.

The allegory: The ants and the scorpion

The scene was suggested by actor Emilio Fernandez (General Mapache), as something he and his childhood friends did for amusement. It is echoed in both the opening (bank robbery) and closing (massacre at Agua Verde) scenes, in which victims are trapped in enclosed spaces. It illustrates Peckinpah’s belief in children’s innate tendency toward violence.

The film was shot during the Vietnam War; in fact, the My Lai massacre occurred on March 16, 1968, while The Wild Bunch was being filmed. One interpretation is that the scorpion represents American troops, the ants represent the Vietnamese people, and the fire is the American air power that ultimately destroyed much of the country.

The film depicts the consequences of war for civilian populations. It is unclear whether the Wild Bunch liberated Agua Verde, or were just an additional group of oppressors.

Themes

Honor: Throughout the film, Pike Bishop repeats cliches about friendship, honor and loyalty: “Once you side with a man, you have to stick with him.” He is genuinely respected by the other men. But as the film progresses, incidents occur, and he is reminded of past incidents, in which he has fallen short of his own ideals. He has articulated a code, but failed to live up to it. He feels increasingly guilty. Dutch also feels guilty about his betrayal of Angel. At the end, they face up to their failure. The only thing left to do is live up to the code, even if it is a suicide mission. The others share Pike’s sentiments. “Let’s go!” (No need to explain where or why.)

Mutual respect between Thornton and Bishop: In the bank robbery scene, each has an opportunity to shoot the other; declines. At the conclusion, Thornton takes Bishop’s gun as a souvenir.

Passing of the Old West: “We’ve get to start thinking beyond our guns.”

Group dynamics: The group is together; then they argue, and break apart; then they come together again, accompanied by laughter. Dutch is the peacemaker. Angel is the conscience of the group.

Different versions

190 min. first cut, never intended to be shown.
145 min. version approved by Peckinpah, shown in New York, LA and Europe.
135 min. version trimmed by the producer without his knowledge or approval, which most Americans saw.

What was deleted? Villa’s attack on General Mapache, which showed how badly Mapache needed the guns, was cut. More importantly, the producers deleted all the flashbacks. Peckinpah was furious about the removal of this backstory, which he felt was necessary to understand the characters. Removing a scene often has echoes later in the film. For example, the death of Bishop’s only serious girlfriend was meant to be compared and contrasted with his liason with the young Mexican woman just before he decides to rescue Angel.

Aftermath:

The film polarized both audiences and critics. Among test audiences, only about 20% claimed to like the film and some people walked out. Critical reviews were also mixed, with many criticizing it for excessive violence. However, it did reasonaby well, grossing $10.5 million after costing $6 million to make. It was the 17^th highest grossing film of 1969. Now that more people have seen the 145 min. version, it usually scores near the top of lists of best American Westerns.

April 10–Unforgiven

Hollywood’s output of Westerns dropped sharply from the 1950s to the 1960s, but the spaghetti Western fad led to a revival from 1968-1975, of whichThe Wild Bunch (1969) was a part. The recovery was short-lived; from 1975-1992, the only actor reliably making Westerns every few years was Clint Eastwood.

Clint Eastwood (1930 – )

Clint Eastwood is one of the last examples of an era in which a young person could become a movie star on the basis of physical appearance. He was noticed by an agent while working as a lifeguard. He was signed to a contract with Universal in 1954, where he received acting lessons and bit parts in 11 Universal films and several TV shows. He landed a role as second lead in the Western series Rawhide (1959-65).

In 1963, he flew to Italy to make a Western with an unknown director, Sergio Leone. The result was a starring role in A Fistful of Dollars (1964) a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s samurai film Yojimbo (1961). Eastwood said he did not even expect the film to be released in the US, but it was a huge international hit. It cost $200,000 to make and grossed $4.6 million in Italy and $3.5 million in the US. He followed up with by starring for Leone in For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967). Based on the success of this “Dollars Trilogy,” his next American film was a starring role in Hang ‘Em High (1968).

He formed a production company (Malpaso) and produced most of his remaining films. Five of them were directed by Don Siegel, including Dirty Harry (1971), which made him a superstar and led to a number of right-wing vigilante films. 1971 was also the year he directed his first film, Play Misty For Me. Eastwood has appeared in 63 films, and directed 38 films. In addition to Unforgiven, he won the Academy Award for best director for Million Dollar Baby (2004), and was nominated for his direction of Mystic River (2003).

His direction is known for its efficiency and frugality. He works fast, often prints the first take of a scene, and usually comes in under budget. He has worked in many genres and has no particular directorial style, with the one exception of preferring to work with low lighting. The key to his success is his ability to find good scripts, and to hire excellent technicians. Although his conservative views are well-known, only a couple of his films have a strong political bias. He often includes plot points known to appeal to liberals, such as assertive women and greedy corporations.

He has only directed four Westerns: High Plains Drifter (1973), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Pale Rider (1985)–a remake of Shane (1953)—and Unforgiven (1992)

Gene Hackman (1930 – )

Gene Hackman played supporting roles until he broke through and won the Academy Award for best supporting cctor in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). He won the best actor award for The French Connection (1971), and a second supporting actor award for Unforgiven. He retired in 2004.

Morgan Freeman (1937 – )

Morgan Freeman spent many years on TV and movies playing the only roles that were available to young Black actors, deliquents and gangsters. One of these street gang roles led to a supporting actor nomination for Street Smart (1987). He was nominated for best actor for Driving Miss Daisy (1989) and best supporting actor for The Shawshank Redemption (1994). He finally won as best supporting actor for Million Dollar Baby (2004). He lives near Clarksdale, MS, where he owns and operates the Ground Zero blues club.

Richard Harris (1930-2002)

Richard Harris was born in Limerick, Ireland, and started his career on the London stage. His film breakthrough came when he was nominated as best actor for This Sporting Life (1963). He was also nominated as best actor for The Field (1990). His best known Western was A Man Called Horse (1970). His final role was in the Harry Potter series.

The film

The screenplay was written by David Webb Peoples, who had previously written the documentary The Day After Trinity (1980) and co-written The Blade Runner (1982) screenplay. He wrote “The Cut-Whore Killings” in 1976. Eastwood optioned it in 1985, but held onto it, he said, until he was old enough to play the role. (He was 62.) He changed the title to Unforgiven, but made almost no changes to the script; only the language was toned down slightly. According to film critic Richard Schickel, who was present during the making of the film, Eastwood took more time and care directing Unforgiven than he typically does.

Visual style

One of the few stylistic traits of an Eastwood film is his preference to shoot in relative darkness. Several explanations have been offered for this, including the fact that it allows him to save money on set decoration. This style was developed by his previous director of photography Bruce Surtees, known as “the Prince of Darkness.” The tradition was carried on in this film by Jack Green.

The film was shot in Alberta, Canada, in the middle of nowhere. Building the town of Big Whiskey on a hilltop, resulted in beautiful scenic backgrounds.

Themes

Is Unforgiven an anti-violence film?

Several people involved in the film claimed the film was intended to condemn violence. Morgan Freeman said the moral is anti-violence: “Nothing good comes of it ultimately. It does damage to the soul.”

Gene Hackman said: “I like to believe that he set out to make an anti-violence, pro-woman picture.”

Eastwood himself said: “I’m not doing penance for all the characters in action films I’ve portrayed up till now. But I’ve reached a stage of my life, and we’ve reached a stage in our history, where I said to myself that violence shouldn’t be a source of humor or attraction. We had a chance here to deal with the moral implications of violence.”

Consistent with this claim, Unforgiven emphasizes both the difficulty and seriousness of killing. [“It’s a hell of a thing killing a man. You take away all he’s got and all he’s ever gonna have.”] Up to the last act, Eastwood appeared to be developing a critique of violence, and of the way it is portrayed in Western movies. This is represented by Ned’s refusal to kill, and by the growth shown by the Schofield Kid.

But the final act appears to contradict everything he’s said up to that point, and gives us a typical Western ending. Munny lets himself down and betrays his wife’s legacy. The audience is encouraged to take pleasure in the death of the villains. Film scholar Edward Buscombe: “If ever a film had its cake and ate it too, this is it.”

Richard Schickel defends Eastwood, claiming that the final shoot-out is consistent with the rest of the film. Rather than being ambiguous, he says the film is “morally acute,” since it makes a distinction between unnecessary violence (the killing of the two cowboys) and necessary violence (revenge for the killing of a friend).

I have a problem with this explanation. At least one of the two cowboys deserved some punishment for cutting the girl’s face. Furthermore, only Little Bill was responsible for Ned’s death. Yet Munny kills all the deputies (who were only accessories) and even Skinny, who did not harm Ned at all. Then Eastwood tops it off by showing Munny exiting town with an American flag over his shoulder.

I would argue that Eastwood is not only conservative politically, but also financially. An unambiguously anti-violence film might have angered his base and the film would not have made money.

Discrepancy between what people deserve and what they get.

The film refutes the just world hypothesis that is implicit in many Westerns. [“Deserve’s got nothin’ to do with it.”] The one cowboy is killed even though he did nothing wrong, and tried to atone for his friend’s misbehavior. Ned is the only one of the three hired guns who refused to kill the cowboys, yet he died while the others survived.

The film contains some Marxist cynicism: After Delilah’s disfigurement, Little Bill decides that justice is best served not by compensating the victim, but Skinny, the owner of the means of production, who has lost most of the value of his investment.

Little Bill

In some ways Little Bill quite likable; he has a good sense of humor. However, if he senses a threat to law and order (as he defines it), he becomes not just a bully, but a psychopath. Hackman said that Eastwood asked him to try to channel Los Angeles police chief Darryl Gates. The Rodney King beating took place in March 1991, just a few months before shooting began. This suggests that one of the subtexts of the film is the corrupting nature of police power.

Will Munny

Will Munny insisted that he had reformed. [“I’m not like that any more.”] But he seemed to be protesting too much, suggesting that his reformation didn’t quite take. He may have repressed his interests in drinking and violence, but the impulses were still there, waiting to break through in the final scene.

Ned Logan

Ned is the audience surrogate—a likable, reasonable man, who actually had renounced violence and become a farmer. What are we to make of the fact that Munny’s best friend was a black man? In reality, there were many more Black men in the old West than in Western movies. Ned’s race is never mentioned in the film. Yet it’s impossible to watch Ned being whipped to death without thinking of slavery. Eastwood appears to be implicitly commenting on interracial violence.

Print the legend

Eastwood spends a lot of time recycling the theme of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance—the discrepancy between media presentations of Western heroism (represented by Beauchamp’s dime novels) and the truth, which Little Bill thoroughly exposes.

Aftermath

Unforgiven was a triumph for Eastwood. Critically, he received the best reviews that he had ever received up to that point. The film cost $14.4 million. It grossed over $101 million in the US, and another $58 million internationally. It won four Academy Awards: Best picture, best director, best supporting actor (Hackman) and best editing (Joel Cox). Eastwood was nominated for best actor, but lost to Al Pacino. The film was also nominated for best screenplay, cinematography, sound and art direction. It was only the third Western to win best picture, the two previous being Cimarron (1930) and Dances With Wolves (1990).

There was a Japanese remake in 2013, also titled Unforgiven, directed by Lee Sang-il and starring Ken Watanabe as an aging samurai who comes out of retirement to take one last job for money.

The very last line of the credits (which almost nobody ever stays to watch) is Eastwood’s dedication of the film: “For Don and Sergio.” These are the two directors who had the greatest influence on his career, but Don Siegel had a greater influence on his directorial style.

Thinking Slowly

A blog about social science and politics

Westerns 2

American Western Films 2 (Winter 2019) Class ID: 2733

March 6–The Ox-Bow Incident

March 13–Red River

March 20–Johnny Guitar

March 27–The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

April 3–The Wild Bunch

April 10–Unforgiven