Westerns
The way the west was fun
The 80th annual Academy Awards winners have ridden off into the sunset. A contemplation rises from the year's Best Picture winner, "No Country for Old Men." In a post-modern age, this bleak, ultra-violent tale of uncontainable criminality almost serves as a western.
The moral landscape of the western, a staple in the tradition of movie making, has changed. It's not the same since Gary Cooper stood up to the bad guys in "High Noon" (1952). The lawman in "No Country for Old Men" barely rises above quaintness and weary wisdom.
Careful, though. The tradition of western films is not simpleminded stories about good guys triumphing over bad guys. The hero in "Shane" (1953) finally stands up to the bullies but plays a weary gunfighter who wishes he could put his vocation behind him.
The western first matured with John Ford's "Stagecoach" (1939). John Wayne plays an outlaw who handles what the Wild West dishes out with courage and good heartedness. "Stagecoach" catapulted Wayne's career, and no actor touches him as the quintessential western individual (which often is not the same as a hero). He finally won an Oscar for "True Grit" (1969). As a trigger-happy U.S. marshall, one-third of his quintessence was whiskey, and at least another third was making up his own rules.
In "The Searchers" (1956) - another of Wayne's 14 films with director John Ford - Wayne's individualism mixes, larger than life, with racism. The western, so emblematic of American character, is more about rugged individualism than it is about good versus bad.
Even when the individuals team up, as they do in "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), it's a loose consortium mounting its gunfighter ethic in a pre-modern mega test. This smart film is action-filled fun and not quite as strategically shallow as this sweeping review of a genre.
"No Country for Old Men" is only fun according to a severely twisted definition. It's not even new. "The Wild Bunch" (1969) contains far more blatant blood lust, regardless of any message. "Unforgiven" (1992) ain't no fun neither. Clint Eastwood's Oscar winning Western, however, is more ambitious than "No Country for Old Men."
The cinematic antidote to the triumph that is "No Country for Old Men" is "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969). Butch and Sundance - they're outlaws. They're bad guys. They die horrible deaths, Lord love 'em. But it's all in good fun.
To end this name dropping of some of the most noteworthy films from the western genre, I leave you with my favorite, "Destry Rides Again" (1939). This classic western is laced with Hollywood's cornball best. Jimmy Stewart is a lawman who doesn't carry a gun. There's still violence aplenty (the fun ol' kind) in a law-starved town, and yes, it's plain who the good guys are, who the bad guys are and how you get to happily ever after.
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