An early scene in George Roy Hill’s film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) shows illustrious bandit Butch Cassidy walking into a bank and observing a series of security upgrades (e.g. an alarm system, a safe, and several different locks). As Butch Cassidy exits the establishment, he asks the security guard, “What happened to the old bank?” The guard responds, “People kept robbing it.” Butch remarks, “Small price to pay for beauty.” Although Butch Cassidy’s disappointed assertion may have been rooted in disappointment for the loss of a heist rather than the loss of architectural merit, it leads one to question: To what extent are cultural attributes lost at the expense of new technology? I will consider this question as I examine the ways in which Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid highlights the …show more content…
Frederick Jackson Turner was largely influential in determining Americans’ perceptions of the West. While tracing the history of the American frontier from white settlement to a gradual disappearance in his essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893), Turner extolled the American West as a hearth for democracy and other “forces dominating American character” (3). He supports this view by hyperbolically describing the frontier’s effects on settlers, “immigrants were Americanized, liberated, and fused into a mixed race, English in neither nationality nor characteristics” (23). Notably, Turner wrote his essay as a response to the 1890 census’ declaration that the western frontier had become settled land. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is set in the late 19th century after the publication of Turner’s essay. The film shows the final stages of the romanticized West’s disappearance evidenced by the two thieves, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance kid, struggling to find places for themselves in the modernizing
Turner fails to realize the extent to which Native Americans existed in the ‘Wilderness’ of the Americas before the frontier began to advance. Turner’s thesis relies on the idea that “easterners … in moving to the wild unsettled lands of the frontier, shed the trappings of civilization … and by reinfused themselves with a vigor, an independence, and a creativity that the source of American democracy and national character.” (Cronon) While this idea seems like a satisfying theory of why Americans are unique, it relies on the notion that the Frontier was “an area of free land,” which is not the case, undermining the the...
In the article “The Thematic Paradigm” exerted from his book, A Certain Tendency of the Hollywood Cinema, Robert Ray provides a description of the two types of heroes depicted in American film: the outlaw hero and the official hero. Although the outlaw hero is more risky and lonely, he cherishes liberty and sovereignty. The official hero on the other hand, generally poses the role of an average ordinary person, claiming an image of a “civilized person.” While the outlaw hero creates an image of a rough-cut person likely to commit a crime, the official hero has a legend perception. In this essay, I will reflect on Ray’s work, along with demonstrating where I observe ideologies and themes.
According to the thesis of Fredrick Jackson Turner, the frontier changed America. Americans, from the earliest settlement, were always on the frontier, for they were always expanding to the west. It was Manifest Destiny; spreading American culture westward was so apparent and so powerful that it couldn’t be stopped. Turner’s Frontier Theory says that this continuous exposure to the frontier has shaped the American character. The frontier made the American settlers revert back to the primitive, stripping them from their European culture. They then created something brand new; it’s what we know today as the American character. Turner argues that we, as a culture, are a product of the frontier. The uniquely American personality includes such traits as individualism, futuristic, democratic, aggressiveness, inquisitiveness, materialistic, expedite, pragmatic, and optimistic. And perhaps what exemplifies this American personality the most is the story of the Donner Party.
Turner pointed out several key areas in his thesis that he indicated were absolutes do to the frontier. The first of these was “composite nationality” , which by definition according to Turner’s understanding was, “he (Turner) saw the Native American as a line of savagery…Assimilation could not, according to logic, cope with the presence of the Native American whose customs, were too alien, too different, to become merged into the American self. This implies that the Native American had no other choice than to give in to the demands of the American government or face the consequences if the failed to comply. Hine and Faragher show that the Native American Indian was forced from their homes more than once during the early part of the 19th century because of “manifest destiny”. Those in the United States government who enforced these rules demanded that the country be turned over to the Americans without question because of their supposed superiority over them. David Nichols points out in his article. Civilization Over Savage: Frederick Jackson Turner and The Indian, that Turner’s reference’s the Indians as “public domain” and the disposition of that them by the first frontier. The conclusions that the Native American Indians were nothing more than public domain that needed to be done away with makes me question his bias towards the American Indians as
The Alamo portrays the historical battle between Santa Anna controlling the Mexican Army and the Texan Defenders who are defending The Alamo, a mission located in San Antonio, Texas. The film is heavily concentrated on the year 1836, specifically the months February and March, and the year 1835. The film stars Dennis Quaid as Sam Houston, Billy Bob Thornton as David Crockett, Jason Patric as Jim Bowie, and Patrick Wilson as William Travis. The Alamo is a historically accurate movie that involves history, war, and immense amounts of drama.
...to Americans: if their prospects in the East were poor, then they could perhaps start over in the West as a farmer, rancher, or even miner. The frontier was also romanticized not only for its various opportunities but also for its greatly diverse landscape, seen in the work of different art schools, like the “Rocky Mountain School” and Hudson River School, and the literature of the Transcendentalists or those celebrating the cowboy. However, for all of this economic possibility and artistic growth, there was political turmoil that arose with the question of slavery in the West as seen with the Compromise of 1850 and Kansas-Nebraska Act. As Frederick Jackson Turner wrote in his paper “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” to the American Historical Association, “the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history.”
...uggles between the savagery and civility, he and Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin), are men threatening, as well as standing, in the way of the progress and later the stability of the soon to be established “recognized territory.” There are two very different characteristics of these men though, Tom is full aware what is happing to in the New West and eventually succumbs. Meanwhile Liberty knows this is happing too, but he will do, as he must to keep the frontier open, for purely selfish reasons. This is the swan song of the boots, the gun belt and the spurs, the inevitable end of freedom that was once known since its inception at the establishment of the United States of America, but the Western was and still is today, a vast frontier of compelling stories, classic American narratives and themes that will continue to capture the imagination of all freedom loving people.
Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in fact, A Century of Dishonor.” The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American psyche of democracy and republicanism by compelling Americans to conquer and to settle new areas. This thesis gives a somewhat quixotic explanation of expansion, as opposed to Helen Hunt Jackson’s book, A Century of Dishonor, which truly portrays the settlement of the west as a pattern of cruelty and conceit. Thus, the frontier thesis, offered first in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, is, in fact, false, like the myth of the west. Many historians, however, have attempted to debunk the mythology of the west. Specifically, these historians have refuted the common beliefs that cattle ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that cattle herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.
Unique to the United States, the Old West wields a powerful influence on the American imagination that can still be seen in numerous aspects of the nation’s culture, such as clothing lines and movies. Unfortunately, as is the case with most other periods, historic acknowledgement of African Americans’ contributions to the West is still not complete. Only recently, within the last few decades, have American scholars and the film industry earnestly begun to correct this period in regards to African Americans. In 2005, the Idaho Black History Museum (IBHM) in Boise assembled a display that incorporated the black cowboy into it.
The cowboys of the frontier have long captured the imagination of the American public. Americans, faced with the reality of an increasingly industrialized society, love the image of a man living out in the wilderness fending for himself against the dangers of the unknown. By the end of the 19th century there were few renegade Indians left in the country and the vast expanse of open land to the west of the Mississippi was rapidly filling with settlers.
Western movies such as Rio Bravo and El Dorado illustrate America’s rugged and picturesque scenery explaining life as it was in the wide open country, at a time when few laws were in place to safeguard the public. These two films tell the story of four men who arrest and
When people read a book that they like they cant wait to see the movie that is based on the book. Many people criticize the movie or are not satisfied. While you watch this movie it is visually breathtaking and easily relatable. Chris McCandless is played by Emile Hirsch who does an outstanding job of portraying McCandless. McCandless’s parents are Walt and Billie McCandless. In the book they are portrayed as a little stuck up and snobbish. Sean Penn is a screenwriter and director for the movie adaptation of Into the Wild by John Krakauer. Sean Penn portrays Chris’s parents in a negative way in order to show that they were essentially responsible for him breaking away from society.
Stoddard and his struggle with morality and justice. The film opens with Stoddard and his wife Hallie returning to Shinbone, a small town in the west, for Tom Doniphon’s funeral. In a flashback that spans most of the film, Stoddard recounts how Doniphon, a relatively unknown man, became so important to him, a famous, well respected senator. 25 years ago, Stoddard was beaten up and left by the road by Liberty Valance, leader of a notorious gang. Doniphon found Stoddard and brought him back to Shinbone, explaining that Stoddard’s position as a lawyer meant nothing if he couldn’t handle a gun. Throughout the film, Stoddard struggled with this Western lifestyle, and
Based on a true story, the movie ‘Lone Survivor’ features four Navy SEALs that set out on a mission to Afghanistan with orders to capture and kill Taliban leader Ahmad Shah. The Navy SEALS are detected by villagers and the mission was compromised. Ultimately, the mission had been discovered and the men found themselves surrounded by dozens of Taliban soldiers. One of the Navy SEAL soldiers managed to dispatch to base and retrieve assistance but the Taliban shoot down the helicopter. During battle, three of the Navy SEAL soldiers were killed leaving one still alive.
[00:00:02] Years ago there was a movie called Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid. STUART NEWMAN And Richard they were a pair of lovable rascals who went out in a blaze of glory. Bolivia Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid. They had a particular calling. They rob trains they rob banks they stole horses in the 90s in the wild west. And these characters were true they were immortalized in the movie that I mentioned. They were known for their Flinter and Their Daring not their violence their gang was called The Wild Bunch. But with their success came a consequence came detectives and bounty in particular a Wells Fargo detective was relentless he wouldn't give up. Eventually following them to South America and each time they got that they'd escaped