mister matthew said:
hmmmm... there is a degree of truth to this but i think even the uber canonical westerns of ford, mann etc are more complex and nuanced than that sort of simple black and white morality...
things like man who shot liberty valance ending on a totally downbeat beat note... tom dies uncelebrated, unremembered, 'print the myth', a not entirely favourable examination of the western myth
the searchers .. ethan wrestling with his emotions/racism re: Debbie, does the right thing but still ends up shut out and forgotten at the end
even mega pop romp western magnificent 7 ends with the line "we always lose", referring to the hired gun characters.
i like westerns inthe way which luka describes, beautiful films creating a mythic space in which to explore moral tales etc.
Thats not quite the point though is it? I agree that there are a huge range of variatons on the Western themes, and Ford is probably the one 'classic' Western director who attempted to document and challenge the racism of the genre, but take your example of the Magnificent 7... A band of American heroes riding in to a Mexican village to save them from a gang of Mexican bandits?? Considering the film is is set after the Mexican/American war (In which the US invaded and annexed about 50% of Mexico), the whole premise is historically ridiculous... Imagine a fim about Soviet gunslingers protecting a Polish town from Polish 'bandits' during the cold war, or Israeli heroes protecting a helpless Palestinian village from Palestinian 'terrorists', and dying valiently in the attempt... Im sure such films could be filled with moral nuances and laudable subtleties , but the fact is, anyone from outside those respective Political cultures would reject their premise as propaganda, no matter how well told the story is.
Westerns are mythic politically as well as symbolically. As a genre they generally project a false historical reality where the suffering and betrayal of millions of Indians is almost universally ignored, or where white setlers came to 'a land without a people', and through their own bravery and fortitude, clear the unworthy savages (Mexcians/Native Americans) and form a new (and the greatest in the world I might add) civilisation. in that sense (with notable exceptions), they are almost all politically conservative, in that they reinforce the official foundation myth of the state, and by omitting the real facts, wipe away the 'original sin' of Genocide from American history - a genocide which Hitler took as inspiration when he planned the clearing of the East of 'primitive and subhuman Slavs' to create Lebensraum for racially superior teutonic settlers btw.
Doesnt mean you cant enjoy them for what they are I might add...