When thinking about the western film genre, immediately images of outlaws and sheriffs, cowboys, hostile elements, gun fights, horses, trains, and open landscapes is what comes to mind. A genre is built from a particular visual language, as tropes and images are used again and again it begins to take on a collective and socially accepted definition that can be used by the audience to quickly gather information about the setting, characters, narratives, plot points, and costume design. The history of cinema and western genre are quite intertwined as the first American film that was able to utilize all elements of the medium [moving pictures] to tell a complex narrative, was a film called “Train Robbery” made in 1903. A silent film that offered many elements that would be used to recognize the western genre as movie making was being explored. Throughout years of tossing around old tropes and re-working them, a new form of the american western formed when John Ford began creating many silent westerns around 1917. After a few tries, Ford came out with “Stagecoach” in 1939 which combined historical facts and fiction of true American western life. Thomas Schatz calls Stagecoach “a singular pre war Western with one foot planted in U.S. history and the other in American mythology. The symbiosis of fact and legend is the very essence of the film’s enduring appeal and its tremendous influence on the regenerate A-Western form." Much of the information about life in the old American west was fabricated by illustrators and novelists in which were then used for decades without any real evidence of such events occurring, such as cowboys getting into as much violence as they did. John Ford's hit western film, revolves around an assorted group of passengers aboard the Overland stagecoach bound for Lordsburg, New Mexico, set in the 1880s. Each character has their own trope and developed thoroughly from the beginning narrative introductions to the visual aspects of their characters behavior. From the perspectives of white folks including an alcoholic doctor, a prostitute, an embezzlement banker, a whiskey salesman, a pregnant young bride, and the stage coach the travelers who must contend with an escaped outlaw, the Ringo Kid, played by John Wayne, along with the threat of an Apache attack as they make their way across the wild west. In “Stagecoach: Defining the Western”, David Punch writes, “What sets Stagecoach apart from the previous decade’s westerns, though, was Ford’s focus on characters with depth and social commentary, things that the genre had been lacking. Despite their popularity, silent westerns were seen as little more than innocuous entertainment and relegated to B-List status.” Each character is put in a different social class where they are forced to communicate and come up with a solution in order to stay safe on their journey. Ford brought westerns back to life not only through complex character development of social and political views but also through the clear and deliberate scenes that left no room for confusion. Throughout the film the impending doom of an attack is pending, from the first scene to the moment of the chase. Building the mood throughout small details like urgent telegraph messages the chase from the Native Americans utilizes wide shots to establish the chaotic setting surrounding as well as intertwining close ups of each character's emotions through facial and body movement. David Cairns points out, “Ford’s technique is to erect a Wild West of the imagination, governed only by the laws of storytelling, and then go into it as an explorer, insisting on its reality by recording convincing details (like the stray colt running behind the stagecoach when it first appears)—an ethnographer of an unreal world.” In other words, through Ford’s use of complex characters and how they interact within their individual cultures brought the western genre to a new level, in relation to silent films that were made before. The visual perspective of the passengers seems follows the generic western trope of the battle between the Native Americans and the white settlers on the land. This is communicated through the wide focal shots of traveling through the wild west. Everything in the frame is deliberate for the suspenseful mood of travelling through an empty landscape while on the watch for possible attacks. Although Ford does not follow the 180 degree rule, which states that two characters in a scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If you don't follow the 180 Degree Rule, or break it intentionally, it disrupts the scene and disorients the audience. David Cairns points out that “since Ford ignores it [180 degree rule] during the Indian attack, showing coach and horses crossing the screen left to right, then right to left. But since the layout of the chase is so simple, we’re not fooled into believing they’ve switched direction, and the chaotic shot changes add to the frenzy of the pursuit.” Somehow working for Ford and being barely noticeable while being focused on what will happen next. Sources: https://www.filmsite.org/westernfilms.html https://medium.com/@DavidA.Punch/stagecoach-defining-the-western-1a330b451d19 https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/1472-stagecoach-taking-the-stage Meek's Cutoff [2010]Based on a true story, Meeks Cutoff follows six settlers and their guide during the 1840s in Oregon as they are caught in a dangerous situation. They are lost with limited supplies left and the surrounding desert threatens to claim them all. Meanwhile, their guide, Stephen Meek, refuses to acknowledge that they may be several weeks off-course deciding the path with the men leaving the women outside conversations. When a Native American walking alone is captured by the group, Meek wants to kill him but one of the settlers, Emily Tetherow, stands in between Meek's wrath and ultimately saves his life in which he offers to lead the group to water in return, leaving Meek to go along for the ride. Through a thorough montage of the character’s lives before any spoken dialogue, Rechardt introduces these characters visually rather than through narrative unlike John Ford in his western, “StageCoach”. Through slow scenes and minimal dialogue the film introduces a new perspective of westerns and the life of the women that followed, or in this case took control and ultimately saved themselves. One of the most valuable and empowering ways Reichardt transforms the western genre is by giving power to female characters, such as Emily. Eric kohn writes in an article titled, The New Old West: Kelly Reichardt’s “Meek’s Cutoff”, stating that this film is “Shifting the focus from the rampant masculinity associated with most westerns to the isolation of the women in the group, Reichardt crafts a highly textured narrative that both invokes the mythology of the American frontier and cleverly transcends it.” Ironically led by a man named, Meek, the women now must protect what little they can to survive. In many ways, the film is much more femine and gentle following with stress rather than chaos. In each situation where there would have been a gun showdown, it is subverted to a non violent type of western. From the Last Detail, Brian Brem writes that “Reichardt's film deliberately engages with what has been a predominantly male genre, it demonstrates how genre conventions can create dominant impressions of gender roles (among other things) over time. Her treatment of The Indian (who also may be lost) is also an interesting response to the way directors like Ford (especially early in his career) treated Native Americans on screen.” Throughout the following scene, Stephen Meek is stating his opinion on the difference between men and women after being confronted by a woman that they are lost. Meek’s description is a clear message about the way men may have viewed women in that time. Meeks describes women as chaos in creation while men are the destructive ones. This scene is important to the film as a whole because in many westerns, gun disputes are a driving trope for the genre. Reichardt subverts this trope by only having two gunshots in the entire film. Both are Emily sending warning shots into the sky at the sight of a Native American wandering alone. in a standoff that for once doesn’t result in a gunshot. Unlike most westerns where violence is rampant, Meek’s Cutoff doesn’t need amplified action and chaos. The slow scenes create a steady but intriguing sequence in which contain feminist ideas in both style and content. Leaving an ambiguous ending to which the audience must imagine where the journey continued, Director Kelly Reichardt elaborates on this, saying "Maybe I’m suspicious of absolutes. I mean, yes, there is something satisfying about watching an old film when the music rises up and the words come at you – The End. But it would seem absurd to do that at the end of one of my films. It would just make them feel lopsided, because they’re all so short, they cover so little time. We don’t know where these people were before. We spent a week with them and then on they went." Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Reichardt http://www.indiewire.com/2011/04/review-the-new-old-west-kelly-reichardts-meeks-cutoff-243108/ http://thelastdetailfilm.weebly.com/meeks-cutoff-2010.html
7 Comments
Tymoteusz Szylak
4/25/2021 09:59:40 am
You did a great job explaining the Western genre and how Ford made a hit with the cast and the genre. I liked the 180 degree rule you added in the end with the chase scene when the camera shots were changing but we as the audience weren't thrown off by how it changed.
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Haya Fahim
4/25/2021 12:33:05 pm
Ford only shows the Native's when the attack was declared and It was surprising. He allows the natives to be presented as the enemies.
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Ryan Lefever
4/25/2021 07:20:31 pm
i thought you provided great examples with how each film was different for the western Genre. Stagecoach was realistic with its unique shots and characters. Meeks Cutoff was from Women's Perspective and showed Natives are not enemy's.
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Kayla Tomaszkiewicz
4/25/2021 07:32:39 pm
You did a great job with explaining both films. I like how you gave some good examples relating to the western Genre. In both films they took the same approach but oen of the main differences was natives became allies and not enemies.
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Ngoc Ngo
4/25/2021 08:17:20 pm
your posts are always amazing, details and a pleasure to ready.
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Aidan Geoffroy
4/25/2021 09:45:20 pm
I really enjoyed reading your blogpost for the week. I really liked reading how you talked about film's genres and how genres really relate to movies and the audience. I really liked how you mentioned the 180 degree rule. I liked how you explained the flaws in what Ford did but how these flaws didn't actually affect the film in any way.
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