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    Production Assignment 1

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    This document summarizes the evolution of the postwar Western hero from the 1940s to the 1960s. In the early postwar era, the Western hero embodied the noble protector who defended the weak against evil. By the 1950s, the hero began to shift towards defending themselves rather than others, as seen in films like "Winchester '73" and "High Noon." By the 1960s, the Western hero in films like "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" looked out only for themselves and their own survival, with no concern for protecting others or finding redemption.

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    Production Assignment 1

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    This document summarizes the evolution of the postwar Western hero from the 1940s to the 1960s. In the early postwar era, the Western hero embodied the noble protector who defended the weak against evil. By the 1950s, the hero began to shift towards defending themselves rather than others, as seen in films like "Winchester '73" and "High Noon." By the 1960s, the Western hero in films like "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" looked out only for themselves and their own survival, with no concern for protecting others or finding redemption.

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    This document summarizes the evolution of the postwar Western hero from the 1940s to the 1960s. In the early postwar era, the Western hero embodied the noble protector who defended the weak against evil. By the 1950s, the hero began to shift towards defending themselves rather than others, as seen in films like "Winchester '73" and "High Noon." By the 1960s, the Western hero in films like "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" looked out only for themselves and their own survival, with no concern for protecting others or finding redemption.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    17 views3 pages

    Production Assignment 1

    Uploaded by

    psyborg_42
    This document summarizes the evolution of the postwar Western hero from the 1940s to the 1960s. In the early postwar era, the Western hero embodied the noble protector who defended the weak against evil. By the 1950s, the hero began to shift towards defending themselves rather than others, as seen in films like "Winchester '73" and "High Noon." By the 1960s, the Western hero in films like "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" looked out only for themselves and their own survival, with no concern for protecting others or finding redemption.

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    Jon Phillips

    10/7/2010

    The Evolution of the Postwar Western Hero

    The Western genre has always acted as a sort of a barometer to the current state of America. As

    Raymond Durgnat and Scott Simmon state in the opening to Six Creeds that Won the Western, “Thus

    Westerns, far from being apolitical and nonhistorical, are myths in the sense of being saturated with

    ideologies and assumptions. Indeed the genre is quite conscious- often pompously conscious- of

    representing America's essence.” So too has the Western hero been a similar device, allowing one to

    glean the national mood and concepts of heroism. Prior to World War II, the Western hero typically

    embodied the role of the “white hat”, protecting the weak and fighting evil nobly. Less than a decade

    after the war's end, however, we see an interesting change take place. The source of the hero's strength

    begins to shift from the defense of others to the defense of themselves.

    Here we see a still from the 1950 Jimmy Stewart vehicle “Winchester '73”, released just 5 years

    after the end of World War II. In this scene we see him helping out in a Cavalry/Indian fight.

    The circumstances here lend themselves to any other “white hat” sort of fight- though he ends up stuck
    in the middle of it, Jimmy Stewart's character Lin McAdam (or his partner-in-wandering, Frankie

    Wilson 'High-Spade', as portrayed by Millard Mitchell) could in all probability have slipped away

    without getting involved in a high stakes shootout. However, the chivalry and nobility still maintains a

    grasp- a woman is among the group; Lin gives her a gun to protect herself with and takes the role of

    protector. Both prior to the battle and afterwords, Lin is welcomed with open arms and treated as the

    hero he is acting as. He is down among the troops as a fully equal member of their 'society'.

    This shot from Fred Zinnemann's “High Noon”, released in 1952, typifies the midstage of the

    metamorphosis that the Western hero undergoes. Gary Cooper's Will Kane stands alone, still attempting

    to fight for what is right and defend the townpeople, but unable to get any of them to join him.

    (Perhaps a better example of his disillusionment might have been the still of the marshal's star in the

    dirt at the end of the film, but that's not as striking of an image so I maintain that this one is a better

    choice) Here he is still attempting to protect others, including his wife, Amy Kane (Grace Kelly)- but it

    is hard to imagine with the expulsion from the society he experiences towards the end of the film that

    he would have stuck around to help had it not been too late for him to leave.
    Here we see Clint Eastwood's “Blondie” from “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”, being put at

    disadvantage by his former partner-in-crime (quite literally) Tuco. Far from a lawman or even a decent

    man, Blondie cohorts with criminals and abandons them by whichever way the wind blows. In the

    aforementioned “Six Creeds that Won The Western”, the authors state “A Westerner's possessive power

    comes from his survival of a Social Darwinist world through laissez-faire means.”- in short, the

    Western hero is the “fittest” in “survival of the fittest”. The Western hero of Sergio Leone's 1966 film

    looks out only for himself, the needs of others be damned. The plot of the film isn't driven by Blondie's

    search for redemption or justice, but instead by a lust for gold and through the “hero” being hunted

    much like the outlaws of the prewar Westerns.

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