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Westerns

            
             Out across the desert they see a man approaching. The sun is bright and makes it hard for them to make out who it is. In the opening scene of The Searchers, the Edwards family is gathered together on the porch as Ethan rides in alone. He has been gone for years. His explanation of where he has been is vague, and he seems as rugged as the terrain he rode in from. At first glance the beautiful vast landscapes of the western may seem like nothing more than a backdrop or location for the action of the film; however, each specific setting serves as a reflection of the feelings or the mood of the characters.
             In the opening scene, Ethan is getting reacquainted with the family. The ceiling boards in the house are just above Ethan's head. This makes him appear to be too big for the house, as if he doesn't belong there with the rest of the family. This gives the audience the impression that he won't remain there for too long. Not long after Ethan's arrival some of the neighbor's cattle are stolen. Ethan rides out with the rangers the next morning to find the stolen cattle. It was a long ride across the vast terrain. When the rangers come upon the dead cattle, they can't figure out why the Indians killed them. Ethan knows that they have been lured out, leaving their homes defenseless to the Indians. Ethan is more in tune with the ways of the desert life. The vast land once seemed beautiful, but is now a burden because the rangers will never make it back in time to stop the Indian attacks. The scene where the Indians attack the family happens just before dark, as they are settling into the house. This is where a family should feel safe but end up being killed and the two girls being abducted. When Martha was killed, Ethan's only link to the civilized world was cut off. Over several long years and snowy winters Ethan turns obsessive and more brutal. They are isolated from divination in their search. The only resolution that Ethan sees is to kill Scar, the Indian who abducted the girls, and his niece because she can no longer return to civilization after becoming Scar's squaw.


Essays Related to Westerns

1. How Sergio Leone Change the West

... categories, the Modern and Classical. The Modern, or revisionist Western are films made after 1964 (Dollars Trilogy (1964-66), The Wild Bunch (1969), Unforgiven (1992)), and Classical would be those Westerns made in American prior to 1964 (Stagecoach (1939), The Searchers (1956), Shane (1953)). Although Spaghetti Western became a popular title for films associated with Leone, we will be focusing on how ... , the characters, and the stories themselves. The first aspect we will examine are the characters that populate this Modern Western. Characters Prior to the introduction of the Modern ...

  • Word Count: 2622
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. The Revisionist Western

... , and Dead Man; Two of which were created during the movement, and three of which were create more recently. In order to analyze these revisionist westerns, we must be able to compare them to the classic western. The classic western has certain attributes which allow them to be classified as a classic western ... brave, honorable, and valiant. Violence: Violence was a large theme in the classic western. Glorified gunfights were present in almost all of the original westerns. It seemed the only way to solve conflict in these movies was to out-shoot the enemy. Gunfights were not exactly rea...

  • Word Count: 1538
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Timecop: The New Western

... and longing. In the end, he settles down in his perfectly normal home. This "new western- then transgresses boundaries of a major theme in traditional westerns--exclusion from civilization (most often self-diagnosed.) Wyatt Earp for instance, in My Darling Clementine, at the finale leaves the town and the girl behind ... western hero that is bumbling, lucky and meek. Anyway, in creating Timecop, the writer had to find a similar fantastic location (that as said modern westerns ridicule) to place those vicious hooligans running amuck. Cleverly, instead of this place being located in the pas...

  • Word Count: 2306
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Masculinity in Batman: The Dark Knight Rises

... be analyzing at the symbolism of the Wild West used throughout this graphic novel, and I will also be talking about its relationship to masculinity. Westerns, in general, involve strong men overcoming and battling weaker men and even nature to prove their prowess. This can come in the form of ... guns and rides in on a majestic metal Batmobile, he puts those aside and fights in hand-to-hand combat which is common in westerns. Looking at the image above, there are definite similarities between these two iconic visual representations of masculinity. Taking a look at the general ... has m...

  • Word Count: 2609
  • Approx Pages: 10
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. French New Wave Cinema

... be understood as a response to anticommunist hysteria and the blacklist on the one hand and to the advent of economic divestiture on the other (pg. 387). " Therefore, genres such as Westerns, musical comedies, gangster films and genre-oriented films were beginning to dominate the industry. These genre films were uncontroversial in subject matter, and had already adapted the newly developed widescreen ... the final print (p. 388). " This was one the genre which seemed to survive the widescreen transformation where the landscape which provided a very natural component to film. In films ot...

  • Word Count: 2765
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6. Defining the American West

... fantasy brought forth by literature, artwork, television, and perhaps most of all, Hollywood. The concept of the "Wild West" glorifies free, white, alpha-dominant males as the heroes in Hollywood Westerns. The greatest myth about the American West is concept that it was a land that had to be tamed. Hollywood likes to create an exaggerated, grandiose image of the West as ... following: independence, courage, integrity, confidence, ruggedness, bullheadedness, and overly-exaggerated masculinity. There is always bound to be some sort of conflict resulting in shootout or bloodshed. Other pop...

  • Word Count: 1077
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Research paper---- The Sacrificial Egg

... folklore is a kind of superstition. He is careless of the warning sign that traditional native people tell him, and he has a frightening experience. Before the Westerns came, Nkwo was a quiet, clean and small market. The Westerns carry the business and dirt to the market. The smallpox and fear come following one after the other. The story shows the differences between viewpoints of ... Nigerians in common life, along with the goods and riches. There is a very important difference between Chinua and Western writers. Western writers might describe some culture or belief conflicts between ...

  • Word Count: 1436
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Analysis of The Magnificent Seven

... settler / lawman. The basic conflict of good vs evil that permeates the western is often ones good side confronting the evil side. Typical elements in westerns include hostile elements such as Native Americans, gunfights, train robberies, hold ups and bank robberies. The typical western hero is usually the local law ... and audience. It was the most commercially successful film of the pre-nickelodeon era. With the coming of sound in the late 1920's, westerns like Victor Flemming's The Virginian and John Fords Stagecoach would set the elements and typify the straightforward heroic tales ...

  • Word Count: 3147
  • Approx Pages: 13
  • Grade Level: High School

9. three rogues

... same week), western shows generally focused on fantasy characters such as the Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy, holdovers from movie and radio serials. Gunsmoke was one of the earliest "adult westerns," centering around the exploits of Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness) in the frontier town of Dodge City, Kansas in 1873. His kindly companion was Doc Adams (Milburn Stone), the town ... physician who spent many hours chugging beers at the Long Branch Saloon, owned and operated by the shapely Kitty Russell. Gunsmoke started a longtime trend for TV westerns. At one point there were 30 of th...

  • Word Count: 786
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

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