The movie is by far the most famous work of Sergio Leone's and probably his best movie. Not only because it has become a part of our culture, but it also created its own sub-genre the spaghetti western. Despite the film’s western roots, the movie is free of any western clichés as any western themes are given either a unique twist or are removed by Leone's unique way of storytelling. The movie is constantly taking the cowboy hero approach that most westerns take and twisting it in new ways. For example, making the main hero morally grey, almost a scumbag anti-hero of sorts. He forgoes making the main hero an Everyman heroic cowboy who saves everyone gets the girl and ride off into the sunset like most westerns. Instead Leone goes for a more …show more content…
The movie takes a small look at a few individuals and takes a more personal but also satirical look at the old west. The film shows the truth of the old west, that it was a place where violent, uncomplicated men were the ones who built the culture and towns. The director just likes his main hero also took a morally grey approach to creating his movie. Where he emphasis how war and violence created some of the cultures of the American West. The movie really goes deep into the lifestyle of cowboys focusing on the greed and violence that can sometimes accompany such a lifestyle while also using the Civil War as a backdrop. Although panned by critics during its initial release today the films remain universally loved and is considered one of the greatest western movies of all time. I think this is because it takes a realistic and satirical approach to both cowboys and the western Civil War time period. Despite its shortcomings during its release and the limitation due to the technology of the time. The film over the years has managed to become a western classic that is surprisingly smart and witty, while also managing to keep its message
I believe that the film does indeed conform to a certain type of narrative structure expected by other films of this style. This film, through and through, is a Western, even starring one of biggest names in Hollywood Westerns, John Wayne. We’re thrown into a world of sturdy, rugged men riding around on horses, decked out in cowboy hats and belt buckles. Wayne portrays the archetypal man, honorable, reliable and
...oung American men had to endure from the time that they had joined back in their boot camp days, and the brutality of war that showed them no mercy. To me the importance of the movie was to show what truly went on over in Vietnam through the eyes of a soldiers eyes of what happened, as the film created a very disturbing yet a real picture of The Vietnam War.
In most of Ford’s western films, they are about principles, patriotism, and the interrelationships his characters have as they have to deal with while living in the outskirts of civilization during the great American Frontier movement of the 1800s. Ford was able to transport his filmgoing audiences into another realm and time period by picturesque images, staging actors in static poses, noble tough characters with morals, and designing worlds dominated by the western lifestyle. Truly a great film and by a director who knew how to translate a time in American history like no
Somewhere out in the Old West wind kicks up dust off a lone road through a lawless town, a road once dominated by men with gun belts attached at the hip, boots upon their feet and spurs that clanged as they traversed the dusty road. The gunslinger hero, a man with a violent past and present, a man who eventually would succumb to the progress of the frontier, he is the embodiment of the values of freedom and the land the he defends with his gun. Inseparable is the iconography of the West in the imagination of Americans, the figure of the gunslinger is part of this iconography, his law was through the gun and his boots with spurs signaled his arrival, commanding order by way of violent intentions. The Western also had other iconic figures that populated the Old West, the lawman, in contrast to the gunslinger, had a different weapon to yield, the law. In the frontier, his belief in law and order as well as knowledge and education, brought civility to the untamed frontier. The Western was and still is the “essential American film genre, the cornerstone of American identity.” (Holtz p. 111) There is a strong link between America’s past and the Western film genre, documenting and reflecting the nations changes through conflict in the construction of an expanding nation. Taking the genres classical conventions, such as the gunslinger, and interpret them into the ideology of America. Thus The Western’s classical gunslinger, the personification of America’s violent past to protect the freedoms of a nation, the Modernist takes the familiar convention and buries him to signify that societies attitude has change towards the use of diplomacy, by way of outmoding the gunslinger in favor of the lawman, taming the frontier with civility.
The enduring cultural expressions of the frontier were adapted into unique narrative traditions known as the “Western”. The Western genre portrays a story of conquest, competing visions of the land, and the quintessential American frontier hero who is usually a gunfighter or a cowboy. These Western archetypes can be observed in, The Outlaw Josey Wales, a film that employs revenge motifs that lead into and extended chase across the West and touches on the social and cultural issues of the American frontier.
A more modern outlook on the film recognizes the film's flaws but gives it, it’s credit as the last fully realized work of one of the most important directors in American cinema history. Ford understood that an audience's recollections of older, less complex Westerns would add a layer of expressiveness to the viewing experience. The black-and-white structure helps him achieve this. Ford’s decision to shoot the film in black and white in 1962 produced a dark, anachronistic look, while the unconcealed soundstage effects of the film’s opening scene reinforced Ford’s vision of a wilderness, interiored Western frontier. Just as Ford intended, many of the flashback scenes are masked in darkness, whereas the frame tale is immersed in light. This con...
An Analysis on the lives of the Upper, Middle, and Lower classes during the Industrial Revolution
The development of the Western genre originally had its beginnings in biographies of frontiersmen and novels written about the western frontier in the late 1800’s based on myth and Manifest Destiny. When the film industry decided to turn its lenses onto the cowboy in 1903 with The Great Train Robbery there was a plethora of literature on the subject both in non-fiction and fiction. The Western also found roots in the ‘Wild West’ stage productions and rodeos of the time. Within the early areas of American literature and stage productions the legend and fear of the west being a savage untamed wilderness was set in the minds of the American people. The productions and rodeos added action and frivolity to the Western film genre.
The film stays in line with classic noir in many ways. The usage of dark sets and high contrast lighting, which creates heavy shadows on the actors faces, makes the movie feel like it all happens at night and in dark alley ways. The story focuses on the inhumane parts of human nature. Each of the main characters experiences some kind of tragedy. For Vargas his tragedy was in dealing with Quinlin who has set out to frame him and his wife. For Quinlin his entire life represented a man consumed with darkness who lives his life with a “Touch of Evil.” Menzies was a hopeful man who looked up to Quinlin but was let down. For the viewer, film noir represents truth, even if it is not a truth that all people would like to hear.
Few Hollywood film makers have captured America’s Wild West history as depicted in the movies, Rio Bravo and El Dorado. Most Western movies had fairly simple but very similar plots, including personal conflicts, land rights, crimes and of course, failed romances that typically led to drinking more alcoholic beverages than could respectfully be consumed by any one person, as they attempted to drown their sorrows away. The 1958 Rio Bravo and 1967 El Dorado Western movies directed by Howard Hawks, and starring John Wayne have a similar theme and plot. They tell the story of a sheriff and three of his deputies, as they stand alone against adversity in the name of the law. Western movies like these two have forever left a memorable and lasting impressions in the memory of every viewer, with its gunfighters, action filled saloons and sardonic showdowns all in the name of masculinity, revenge and unlawful aggressive behavior. Featuring some of the most famous backdrops in the world ranging from the rustic Red Rock Mountains of Monument Valley in Utah, to the jagged snow capped Mountain tops of the Teton Range in Wyoming, gun-slinging cowboys out in search of mischief and most often at their own misfortune traveled far and wide, seeking one dangerous encounter after another, and unfortunately, ending in their own demise.
The Wild West was a period of great change in North America. After 1775, the American Colonies began to expand westward in search of more land. This expansion was led mostly by cattle ranchers in need of new pastures for their herds. Over time, people gradually left their homes and friends on the East coast, and moved into little townships in the west. This would be a very difficult decision for them, since they generally didn’t know whether they would be able to support themselves at their new place. Many Wild West movies are set in the latter half of the 1900s.
“THE GOAL” by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox is about Alex Rogo, who’s not only battling family issues at home but as being a manager over a plant, has also noticed that their profits have been declining over the last few months. Alex then was told he had months to help the company to get back on track or the company will shut down. Alex then reunites with an old physics instructor from college names Jonah, who helps him realize his future goals for the company and the measures that need to be implicated, in order to save the company.
This movie is a wonderful production starting from 1960 and ending in 1969 covering all the different things that occurred during this unbelievable decade. The movie takes place in many different areas starring two main families; a very suburban, white family who were excepting of blacks, and a very positive black family trying to push black rights in Mississippi. The movie portrayed many historical events while also including the families and how the two were intertwined. These families were very different, yet so much alike, they both portrayed what to me the whole ‘message’ of the movie was. Although everyone was so different they all faced such drastic decisions and issues that affected everyone in so many different ways. It wasn’t like one person’s pain was easier to handle than another is that’s like saying Vietnam was harder on those men than on the men that stood for black rights or vice versa, everyone faced these equally hard issues. So it seemed everyone was very emotionally involved. In fact our whole country was very involved in president elections and campaigns against the war, it seemed everyone really cared.
One of the most interesting scenes in the movie is when Billy and Dime meet with the owner of the Cowboys, Oglesby, who cut their deal for the movie adaptation of the story for 5,500 from the originally agreed upon 100,000. This was a huge setback but it truly did portray how America’s institutions of power function, in a way, against these war heroes. In this scene, Oglesby really does come off as a villain in this movie, among others too. The interesting thing about this is also that this is a movie (isn’t based on a true story but on a deeply
...director did not limit the film to its historical context but extended the same to romance and fantasy. From a different angle of view, the director made use of the theme to communicate with the viewers and the fictional characters can be considered as his tools. Besides, ample importance is given to historical and fictional characters. In short, the amalgamation of history, fantasy and romance constituted much to the film’s importance as a historical/fictional masterpiece.