The Good, The Bad, and the Stereotypes
Cowboys. To many they are the noble warriors in an untamed land, the men of justice, and the greatest legends that the Wild West has to offer. But in the quest for riches, many a film has overlooked their true nature; to such an extent that society has forgotten truth and accepted fiction. Now, this isn’t the only case of the bending of the truth and reality to fill the public hunger for heroism (and the coffers of Hollywood), and as long as humans continue to exist, it won’t be the last. In fact, this happens just as much in today’s society. But to focus on it all would need a lot more paper.
First of all, cowboys were not violent gunslingers, bent on justice and redemption: They were merely, as the name
…show more content…
suggests, herders, who went about on ranches, usually working for superiors. They were normally poorly paid (not exactly legendary). Guns were used, as they still are across the U.S.A, but their primary use was not to shoot up any pesky neighbourhood posses. Instead, they were used more frequently as a way of protecting cattle from the dangers of the wilds, like wolves, or fending off the occasional cattle thief. In the movies, especially the older westerns, the heroes are the white American, the only man with enough bravery and wit to stand up to the thugs plaguing the local community.
Many major flaws can be seen in this set up. Firstly, it’s a complete wonder that the white man from California is the first to stand up and know what to do better than the experienced locals. If that were true, every white man on a horse with a hat could make a career out of going from town to town, unifying the locals, forming an uprising, unseating the long-time thug-lord from his local villa, and then going for a shot of whisky at the local saloon in the evening to celebrate a job well …show more content…
done. This was due to most of the audience being white American. People always like to see their own people be the best at everything. This seeming bias is seen throughout cultures and history, and the U.S.A is no exception. During 2013, 17% of the top 100 films in the U.S.A featured no black cast. 15 films only portray blacks as 2.2% to 5.9% of the cast. This is much less than the actual population statistics of the U.S.A with around 12% of the population being African-American. Hispanics fare even worse, with only 4.9% of characters in the 100 most popular films of 2013 being Hispanic, despite 15% of the U.S populous being of that group. However, when a film was directed by an African-American, on average 46% of speaking roles were taken by Black actors. It seems as though people have a bias towards their own race. This could possibly be an ancient instinct, or fallout from the years of segregation, or it could be from many factors. But what is clear is that the problem persists. It’s ironic that the tradition itself came from the Hispanics, who were just about one of the least common races to be found on U.S television sets. the tradition can be traced back to the Islamic empire of the moors, who spread it into Spain, who in turn brought it to Mexico (it’s about the least harmful thing the Spanish took with them into the new world), with the tradition eventually making its way to the southern states like California and Texas. It is estimated that around 15% of the Cowboys were Hispanic. The same number was black, and there were even some Native Americans (even the classic cowboy movie enemy could be a cowboy). This diversity is never seen in many westerns, or indeed in many films. Cowboys weren’t even unique to the Wild West.
Many similar jobs could be found across the Americas. For instance, in Chile, they were known as huasos and in Argentina as gauchos. Many cowboys could be found in the most unlikely places like Hungary, where they were called csikos (you can decide how to pronounce it). But the grand prize for best alternative name for a cowboy has to go to the Australian name for a trainee cowboy, or stockman Down Under: a Jackaroo. This completely debunks the idea that cowboys were unique to the Wild West. In fact, it seems as though they were in more places than they weren’t!
Many people would say that the Wild West still had its heroes and villains, and that just because the cowboy didn’t engage in these activities doesn’t mean that others didn’t. This, to an extent, is true. I’m not denying the existence of Billy the Kid, or sheriffs, or even cowboys. But I am denying that fiction is fact. The media can over-dramatize, especially on the legacy and character of individuals. I doubt that William Wallace ran into battle with blue paint smeared over his face as if Mel Gibson had ran out of the makeup tent shouting “FREEDOM!” before the other half of his face could be
covered. The same idea can be applied to movies such as of course Westerns like Blazing Saddles, A fistful of Dollars and The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. I mean, do you really believe that Clint Eastwood could kill a man by shooting him into a conveniently dug grave, before shooting his hat and gun without aiming into his new resting place? You would have more luck finding a needle in a haystack, before trying to throw it at the gunslinger, hoping it would hit one in such a way that his bullet fires at the other gu…em, you get the idea. Just remember, treat The Good, The Bad and the Ugly as a mythical tale, and not a Documentary. Word Count: 980 Conor Haggerty
In “The Thematic Paradigm,” University of Florida professor of film studies, Robert Ray, defines two types of heroes pervading American films, the outlaw hero and the official hero. Often the two types are merged in a reconciliatory pattern, he argues. In fact, this
"Relocating the Cowboy: American Privilege in "All the Pretty Horses"" Pepperdine University: Global Tides Seaver Journal of Arts and Sciences. Maia Y. Rodriguez, 2014. Web. 2 May 2016. . The Western typically illustrates the journey of a man, usually a horse riding cowboy, into the Western frontier where he must conquer nature "in the name of civilization or [confiscate] the territorial rights of the original inhabitants... Native Americans" (Newman 150). What this brand of mythology promotes is precisely the values of American culture: rugged individualism, achievement and success, activtity and work, democracy and enterprise, and--most importantly--
Because of the outlaw hero’s definitive elements, society more so identifies with this myth. Ray said, “…the scarcity of mature heroes in American...
The setting of the essay is Los Angeles in the 1800’s during the Wild West era, and the protagonist of the story is the brave Don Antonio. One example of LA’s Wild West portrayal is that LA has “soft, rolling, treeless hills and valleys, between which the Los Angeles River now takes its shilly-shallying course seaward, were forest slopes and meadows, with lakes great and small. This abundance of trees, with shining waters playing among them, added to the limitless bloom of the plains and the splendor of the snow-topped mountains, must have made the whole region indeed a paradise” (Jackson 2). In the 1800’s, LA is not the same developed city as today. LA is an undeveloped land with impressive scenery that provides Wild West imagery. One characteristic of the Wild West is the sheer commotion and imagery of this is provided on “the first breaking out of hostilities between California and the United States, Don Antonio took command of a company of Los Angeles volunteers to repel the intruders” (15). This sheer commotion is one of methods of Wild West imagery Jackson
In “The Thematic Paradigm,” Robert Ray explains how there are two vastly different heroes: the outlaw hero and the official hero. The official hero has common values and traditional beliefs. The outlaw hero has a clear view of right and wrong but unlike the official hero, works above the law. Ray explains how the role of an outlaw hero has many traits. The morals of these heroes can be compared clearly. Films that contain official heroes and outlaw heroes are effective because they promise viewer’s strength, power, intelligence, and authority whether you are above the law or below it.
As history cascades through an hourglass, the changing, developmental hands of time are shrouded throughout American history. This ever-changing hourglass of time is reflected in the process of maturation undertaken by western America in the late nineteenth century. Change, as defined by Oxford’s Dictionary, is “To make or become different through alteration or modification.” The notion of change is essential when attempting to unwind the economic make-up of Kansas in the 1880’s and 1890’s. Popular culture often reveres the American cowboy, which has led him to become the predominate figure in America’s “westering” experience (Savage, p3). However, by 1880 the cowboy had become a mythical figure rather than a presence in western life. The era of the cowboy roaming the Great Plains had past and farmers now sought to become the culturally dominant figure and force in the American West. Unlike the cowboys, farmers were able to evolved, organizing and establishing the Populist Party. The farmers’ newly formed political organization provided them with a voice, which mandated western reform. Furthermore, the populist ideas spread quickly and dominated western thought in the 1880’s and 1890’s. The period of the 1880’s and 1890’s marked the end of the American cowboy and gave farmers a political stronghold that would forever impact the modernization of the West.
Gunfights were common and took place regularly. The earliest gunfighters, or gunslingers, were born in the early 1800’s, and most men got recognition as slingers in the 1850’s. The founder of gunfighting was “Old Man Clanton”, or N. H. Clanton. In 1816, Newman Haynes "Old Man" Clanton was born in Davidson County, Tennessee. On January 5, 1840 Newman Clanton married Mariah Sexton Kelso in Callaway County, Missouri and together they had five boys and two daughters. John Wesley, Joseph Isaac, Phineas Fay, William Harrison, Alonzo Peter, Mary Elise and Ester Ann made up the Clanton Gang. He did not participate in many gunfights though he instigated many of them. Old Man Clanton took care of business swiftly. If he did not like somebody, he would simply point them out, and one of his sons would provoke an argument and shoot the man down in “self defense”. Old Man Clanton had formed a “cowboy party” which consisted of some of the deadliest men in the West. Curley Bill, John Ringo, Tim and Frank McLaury, Joe Hill, Pony Deal, Jim Hughes, Frank Stillwell and many other lieutenants, who had over four hundred frontier outcast under them, formed this group. He stole over $100,000 from ranchers in the south, and anyone who opposed was quickly exterminated. Old Man Clanton’s final days ended with a stolen-cattle drive. While he was passing through Guadeloupe Canyon, he and six other men were ambushed and shot dead out of their saddles. "Old Man" Clanton was buried where he fell in Guadalupe Canyon, New Mexico.
While the western frontier was still new and untamed, the western hero often took on the role of a vigilante. The vigilante’s role in the frontier was that of extralegal verve which was used to restrain criminal threats to the civil peace and opulence of a local community. Vigilantism was typical to the settler-state societies of the western frontier where the structures and powers of government were at first very feeble and weak. The typical cowboy hero had a willingness to use this extralegal verve. The Virginian demonstrated this throughout with his interactions with Trampas, most notably in the interactions leading up to the shoot out and during the shoot-out itself. “Others struggled with Trampas, and his bullet smashed the ceiling before they could drag the pistol from him… Yet the Virginian stood quiet by the...
Rednecks have been around for centuries, but what is a redneck? In today’s terminology, redneck is used as an insult towards many southerners. Originally, redneck was used to describe someone who has been outside working all day, and has developed sunburn on their neck. Due to modern day stereotypes, the word redneck has become an insult rather than a way to describe a hard worker. Through research and personal accounts, the history of the word redneck can be examined, the comparison of the “modern day” redneck and the old meaning, and the way it impacts certain groups, can be used to demolish modern day stereotypes. The word redneck should return to its original form and should not be used as an insult toward southerners.
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.
For many Americans, the image of the cowboy evokes pleasant nostalgia of a time gone by, when cowboys roamed free. The Cowboy is, to many Americans, the ideal American, who was quick to the draw, well skilled in his profession, and yet minded his own business. Regardless of whether the mental picture that the word cowboy evokes is a correct or incorrect view of the vocation, one seldom views cowboys as being black. The first cowboy I met was from Texas and was black. After he told me that he was a cowboy, I told him that he had to be kidding. Unfortunately, I was not totally to blame for my inability to recognize that color has nothing to do with the cowboy profession; most if not all popular famous images of cowboys are white. In general, even today, blacks are excluded from the popular depiction of famous Westerners. Black cowboys were unheard of for almost a century after they made their mark on the cattle herding trade, not because they were insignificant, but because history fell victim to prejudice, and forgot peoples of color in popular depictions of the West and Western history.
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.
While both Walt Longmire and Vonnie are sitting at the local bar they begin to talk about the mounted Antelope behind the bar.“Pop used to speak in biblical terms, but what he said was that the brutes of the field don’t feel pain like humans. That’s the price we pay for thinking.” (Johnson 23) She is saying that because they are animals they don't feel the normal guilt that humans do everyday. The boys that were found guilty might have felt invincible at the time but as time went on they began to figure out that because of the crime that they committed it began to tear their families apart and almost immediately destroyed their reputation.Custer had the same problem when he lost his battle to the Native Americans. But instead of everybody knowing about his failure as an American Army Colonel little was ever really spread about the fact that he lost to Native Americans. “Even today, most Americans are familiar with the fact that our army once went down to a devastating defeat at the hands of wild indians. Beyond that , little is actually know about Custers debacle by the average citizen.” (Henry VII) It not only damaged Custers reputation as an American Colonel because of the massive underestimation he made about the Native Americans but it would have damaged the reputation of the rest of the American Army so they described the Indians as “wild” and “savage” making it look as Custer's battalion was incredibly overmatched so it didn't damage their reputation as the greatest military power in the world. Now Cody and Jacobs reputation wasn't covered up what so ever as they were being judged by the community that knew them and where the crime had happened, but at the time of Custer’s debacle there was no one around at the time for his reputation to be as incredibly slashed because there was no community to judge him other than his fellow comrades he died
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.
Although it is a short piece, the text “Happy Trails” by Sherman Alexie is a multilayered and fascinating representation of Native American Indian history and culture. Early in the work, after introducing his relative Hector in its first paragraph, the narrator reflects on the man and then makes a general statement about the nature of all Indian men that alludes to the overall meaning of the entire text. He states, “Indian men live wild-horse lives, running beautiful and dangerous, until some outside force—some metaphorical cowboy—breaks them” (Alexie 1). Because it appears early in the text it would be easy as readers to miss the importance of this statement, but this moment signifies a notion being illustrated and alluded to throughout the entire work.