Observations on Westerns

Red River

I’ve been watching a lot of Westerns recently and a few things have come to my attention.

In the old west there were only two beverages that anyone ever consumed: whiskey and coffee. On the trail, cowboys, gunslingers and lawmen were forever pouring what must have been really bad coffee. There was no French Roast or lattes on the open range. Nor certainly any half and half or oat milk to splash into the cup. They would drink the coffee anytime of day including just before bed which leads one to believe there wasn’t a lot of caffeine in it (were they all serving decaf?). Tea was never offered as an alternative. Because it’s the movies, recipients received barely a third of a cup (it’s the same on TV).

Once in town heroes and villains alike drank whiskey. Indeed they never seemed to have to specify what they wanted suggesting that whiskey was the only beverage on offer. No martinis, no gin and tonics no tequila sunrises and no frickin’ ice in drinks, no water or soda to cut it either and no beer back. Straight whiskey and you often got a whole bottle. Some people drank copious amounts without slurring words, wobbling or otherwise indicating that they’d gotten so much as a buzz. Yet there was often a town drunk around either for comic purposes or to provide a pitiable figure. Sometimes the drunk was an otherwise respectable figure, like Thomas Mitchell in Stagecoach (1939) Ford. Fun but flawed.

Another thing one notices in westerns is the reliance on horses. This was true in most of the U.S. until a decade or two into the 20th century. Horses were ubiquitous and absolutely necessary to anyone who wanted even the slightest bit of independence in their comings and going. Of course in films real horses are used and one gets a sense of the tremendous burden placed on these animals. Those horses got a helluva work out. Only in some movies do characters acknowledge that horses need food, water and rest.

Another feature of the Western is the bad guy. My goodness they could be really damned bad. Some of the cruelest, most sadistic villains on screen are in Westerns. Cutthroats, cheaters, rapists, sadists, cold-blooded killers. Surely such unpleasant characters roamed the west but one assumes they were not nearly so ubiquitous. An occasional flaw in Westerns is how one-dimensional villains are. They’re rotten through and through and that’s about all there is to them. 

Native Americans are of course standard fare in westerns. This is often sad, reflecting as it does the racism that permeated not only those times depicted but the racism extant when the film was made. Mostly Indians are portrayed as murderous savages — “hostiles” — who for unfathomable reasons seem to want to kill every white person they see. They are also shown to be extremely stupid in battle, exposing themselves to gunfire as they wildly charge their well-armed and often fortified defenders. (In realty, most native warriors were adept fighters who did not stupidly march straight into gunfire). 

Some Westerns have sympathetic Indians, although a few are sell-outs betraying another tribe to serve their own purposes. But other films have the proverbial cowboys and Indians getting along companionably or at least forming alliance against more warlike tribes such as the Apaches or Comanches.

Little Big Man (1970 Penn and Dances With Wolves (1990) Costner were two films that flipped the script and made whites the bad guys and the Natives heroes. It was long, long overdue and arguably a case of too little too late.

The manner in which Native Americans are depicted in films can be a deal breaker for people considering watching a Western and I can understand that. As a life-long student of U.S. history I have the advantage of knowing a fuller truth about the treatment of Native tribes (it was just this side of genocide) and armed with the truth can appreciate films for what they are. I was always hesitant about showing my children Westerns and when I did made sure they understood the reality of the situation. 

One thing I like about Westerns is they generally extoll the common man (and the more independent sorts among them) while vilifying the rich and powerful. See again John Ford’s Stagecoach — perhaps the quintessential Western — in which the real bad guy is the wealthy banker who absconds with the payroll. My oh, oh my you should hear this self righteous, bloviating, pompous swindler go on. He complains about taxes. He complains about government regulations. He insists on this and demands that. He looks down on drunks, whores, Indians and Mexicans and anyone else not up to his lofty standards. All the while there's a bag full of ill-gotten loot sitting on his lap.

He gets his comeuppance as the moneyed class often does in Westerns.

Westerns also recognize that some lawmen are corrupt, cruel or incompetent. (In other words no one is spared in Westerns). Usually they get their just desserts from the hero of the story.

Women are treated surprisingly well in Westerns. While men, of course, do the overwhelming majority of the fighting, dying, killing and are the bosses, there are many an independent woman in such films unhesitant about holding a rifle and even pointing it in the right direction. In Red River (1948) Hawks Joanne Dru stands up to two stubborn men and makes the two chuckleheads see reason. Simply put she doesn’t put up with any bullshit.

Westerns also feature an inordinate share of brawls with participants exchanging punch after punch, breaking chairs over one another and tossing opponents through windows. After the dust has cleared the fighters seem little worse for the wear, usually a small stream of blood pouring out of the side of a mouth and a torn shirt. If you bother to think about it, it’s damn silly. Brawls and fistfight, primarily because of their lack of realism, are usually my least favorite part of the story.

So why do I love a good Western? The simple answer is that I like any movie, regardless of genre, that is well-made. Westerns often are gorgeous to look at. The wide open spaces, the canyons, mountains, forests, deserts make for compelling backdrops and can even be part of the story itself. Westerns also can be good at exploring the human psyche. While it is true that villains can be one-dimensional characters, many Western protagonists are complex characters whose motives are conflicted. See for example Jimmy Stewart in the Naked Spur (1953) Mann and John Wayne in The Searchers (1956) Ford. In Budd Boetticher’s string of Westerns Randolph Scott stars and his outwardly simple leading man often betrays a more nuanced character. Red River is rich in interesting characters, beyond the already-mentioned leads (Wayne and Montgomery Clift). 

Westerns also evoke a romantic time in American history when the frontier was not yet closed. Possibilities seemed endless for the enterprising pioneer whether an individualist or part of a collective. But danger lurked. There were the ever-present criminal element, natural hazards, and in the parlance of the time — the untamed savages.

Many characters in Westerns have big dreams. They're going to settle down, get married. Maybe start ranching or farming. They want to get away from their past and live in some place new. In The Gunfighter (1950) King, Gregory Peck's Jimmy Ringo wants to settle in California or the Pacific Northwest or hell, even Mexico, just so long as he can get away from lawmen and young gunslingers who want to test his reputation. Like so many Western characters he longs for a fresh start. Of course such characters face obstacles. Fate will intercede. 

A good Western has engaging characters placed in difficult situations, that’s a simple recipe for a good story and one you’ve got settings like Monument  Valley in the background you’re all set.