I recently read that Phil Collins, the rock star, donated his collection of Texas revolution artifacts to The Alamo. Collins is thought to have the largest private collection of such artifacts in the world. Not H.L. Hunt. Not Jerry Jones (too busy spending his money on mediocre linebackers). Not Ross Perot. His collection includes items thought to have been owned by Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett, as well as a receipt signed by Alamo commander William Barret Travis for “30 heads of beeves” (whatever they are) to feed his men. Collins’ obsession started while watching the Davy Crockett TV show as a kid. When he became rich enough to indulge this obsession, he began to amass his collection.
Around the same time, I was reading a memoir by the Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, “Walking with Ghosts”. He reminisces about growing in Dublin, where one of his indulgences was going to the cinema to watch American westerns. He has a vivid memory of going to a local theater where Roy Rogers appeared live on stage, with Trigger! He even remembers Rogers lassoing a kid in the front row.
Then last night I watched an interview with Akira Kurosawa. He talked about how much he admired Hollywood westerns, and especially the films of John Ford. That was no surprise since the influences back and forth between Westerns and Samurai films are as obvious as the screwdriver Tommy Pickles has “hidden”. (Sorry, I’ve been watching Rugrats reruns lately).
All of this synchronicity made me reflect on the incredible influence that the Western has had on world culture. Up until the 1970’s Westerns were considered to be the quintessential American statement of identity. A host of movies, TV shows and books depicted the American west as an unbounded frontier, where men (and I do mean men – a topic for another post) could define themselves. You either wore the white hat, and stood alone, if necessary, in support of what you believed in and those you loved (Gary Cooper, High Noon; John Wayne, Stagecoach), or you wore the black hat, and were just out for yourself, with no regard for those who stood in your way (Walter Brennan, My Darling Clementine; John Dierkes, Shane).
I think it was that sense of freedom from constraint, for either good or bad, that so mesmerized people worldwide for decades. Here was a place that not only was so different from the well-defined boundaries of Europe or Japan, but actually existed. A young Phil Collins could dream about going to Texas. And even though he knew that what he would find wouldn’t match the films he saw, or the books he read, there was still a sense that this wasn’t the ancient past. Traces of that Western ethos were there to be found.
In this country we were happy to embrace that myth. Yes, we told the world, we are those rugged, independent good guys who stand tall and are always looking off to the horizon for the next challenge. Yes, there are still untamed lands for us to conquer. Yes, we will use our freedom for truth and justice, because that’s the American way.
By the end of the 1960’s that mythos had pretty much faded, and it was reflected in the movies of that era. Those Westerns were much grittier (Once Upon a Time in the West), celebrated the “bad guys” (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) or bemoaned the death of the old west (The Wild Bunch). Many of those Westerns were shot outside the United States, with the best being the Sergio Leone films like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Ironically (or not) one of best of those films, A Fistful of Dollars, was based on the Kurosawa Samurai film, Yojimbo.
By the early 1970’s the gangster film, starting with The Godfather in 1972, seems to have displaced the western as the archetypical American genre (at least until Star Wars came along). However, those gangster films never defined America the way that Westerns did. It is unlikely that little kids in London, Dublin or Tokyo were thinking “I would like to grow up, move to America, and join La Costa Nostra”.
While we still are the largest exporter of entertainment in the world, I don’t see any aspect of that entertainment as so prominent that people across the globe look at it as emblematic of this country. We are as diverse as the hip hop music, superhero movies, cop shows and internet videos that we send across the globe. In fact, that diversity may be what defines us now.
While the world no longer equates America with the mythical values of the old west, I’m not so sure that we have left those myths behind. Too many of us still see this country as wide-open, ours to conquer, tame and use as we see fit (e.g., the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge siege). Too many of us still see the United States as the last bastion of freedom, which gives us carte blanche to run roughshod over those who get in our way (e.g., Iraq). Too many of use still see the world in simplistic terms of good and evil, with America always wearing the write hat (e.g., Bush’s Axis of Evil speech).
The myth of the Old West was a beautiful and stirring myth. I can’t watch True Grit or Red River without being attracted to the rugged individualism and the sense of freedom. I know why a London or Dublin boy would want to claim a part of that myth for themselves. Hopefully, people still want to sit down for a Jimmy Stewart Western marathon now and then, and enjoy those movies for the wonderful legends they spin. Just so long as we don’t confuse those fantasies with reality then, or now.
So well put. I used to watch all of those shows, and just yesterday I said to my childhood self — remember when you used to think that it was so good that guns were no longer ubiquitous?(no, my five year old self did not use that word). Wow! Was I wrong! When someone who is clearly paranoid, if not schizophrenic, can walk into a gun store and buy an AK 47…. This writing really provoked good memories for me though of watching those shows with my dad (or visiting elderly clients who had MeTV on with The Virginian playing). So well put!
Thanks Lyn. I agree with you.
Just watched The Searchers the other night – there’s also this sense of aloneness in many of these pictures – breaking away from the density of the cities – plus of course the power of the gun which sadly still pervades our culture
The Searchers is a great movie. John Wayne’s character is such a typical Western hero, yet you see all of his flaws, and, as you say, how alone he is. These hero’s never could fit into the community. I probably should have referenced the lure of the gun. You’re right. Its definitely another holdover from the myth of the Westerns.
I have an autographed picture of Roy and Trigger and a autographed pic of the Lone Ranger
I love that Roy Rogers picture with Trigger rearing up. Also, the Lone Ranger was a go to Halloween costume for me growing up.
Tom – Westerns are definitely a cultural reference point and shaped our perceptions of what the settlement of the “west” was about.
You and your readers might consider the following book about John Wayne and Evangelicals https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-John-Wayne-Evangelicals-Corrupted/dp/1631495739 – but please purchase from your local independent book store
Also read The Forgotten Founders : Rethinking the History of the Old West by Stewart L. Udall. From the perspective of the Spanish colonial influence that started over a century before Plymouth and Jamestown.
Thanks for the book suggestions Mike.
Fun to watch the dream world of original Western cinema. Yeah, OK, it was sappy and we later learn our hero’s, in really person, we’re lacking. The glorification of the ‘the bad guy’ really troubled me on a societal level, you mean Jesse James was cool? Uh oh. Let’s be Jesse James ! Ooo. Let’s make Mafia romantic.
Our John Wayne-ness takes into kick butt scenarios with ease but we never learned what to do with the town folk once we cleared out the bad guys. Too bad we never figgered that one out.
Once again, cool thought provoker Tom
Good point on the glorification of bad guys. It’s just so much easier to make a bad guy interesting it seems. I almost put something in along the lines of your John Wayne point. It is interesting how the Western heroes really struggle to settle down and become part of a community. Best examples I can think of is The Searchers and The Man who Shot Liberty Valance, where John Wayne saves the day, but then just heads off into the sunset and isn’t part of the building that happens next.
Captain Kirk is Roy Rogers…but for the fact that Roy Rogers never cheated like Captain Kirk did on the Kobayashi Maru. After Sputnik (and I did see it fly overhead), I think we were forced to trade frontiers and, as we aged, preferred flawed heroes, so that they are not so different from us after all. Yet, in this woke period, we now insist that others be without flaws, because imperfection in other human beings is not acceptable, and forgiveness is no longer an option. If we did find someone who was without flaw, we would probably find a way to get rid of them, because they would make us feel uncomfortable.
Star Trek was sold as a space western, but there is very little of family man Roy Rogers in Kirk. Maybe Wyatt Earp, with his brothers and Doc Holliday at his side. Wearing the badge, but certainly no choir boy. As for your other comments, I disagree that we are any less forgiving than we ever have been, or that we ever have been comfortable with those who had no obvious flaws. I actually have been formulating a post on so-called cancel culture to set out my thoughts on that. Something for you t look forward to.
Enjoyed your spin on the Western hero myth. It would arouse pleasant nostalgia if it wasn’t such a nagging flaw in our collective perception of what it means to be an American. Indi ividualism, self-regard, go it alone with minimal social reponsibility, all part of the myth made real of American exceptionalm. You reference The Searchers as one of your touchstone films. Ford played on the persona of John Wayne to deconstruct the myth of the loner, the powerful hero. But Ford tried to correct the myth that he spent much of his life to create. The last incredible moving image is of a reunited family closing the door on the now anti- hero. He has no place in the civilized community. He has been useful at the fringe of the frontier but it is the family and the community that will settle and tame the West. How different we would be as a nation if we had incorporated that lesson from our past.
Really good point about the Western hero really not fitting in to the civilized community.