Reclaiming the Heroes and Heroic Attitudes of Classic Westerns: Open Range (2003)

This chapter discusses the way in which the cinematography in Open Range (2003) reveres and mythologises both the rolling prairie landscape and the cowboy on horseback. What is on offer is the American idyll, the environmental embodiment of the quintessence of Americanism, a mythic space offering the promise of individual fulfilment guaranteed to U.S. citizens within the country’s shared national identity. Open Range is an attempt to return to the surface certainties of Westerns made prior to heavy U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. When the idyll is threatened good men – and one man in particular who understands the necessity of the unavoidable brutality required in these situations – need to step up to restore order and re-establish a space within which civilised values can be restored.

Affect and the Immersive Experience of Bodily Excess: The Revenant (2015)

This chapter considers the way in which The Revenant (2015) allows the spectator to confront themselves with extreme bodily experiences within a safe, virtual space. In the expression of ‘body spectacle’ the film presents episodes that might be described as either ‘gross’ or ‘excessive’. In the abuse of human bodies that is displayed the film becomes, on one level, a Western offered as a festival of gore. This is ‘pain porn’ packed with relevance to the post-9/11 American experience. Brutality against the body can be seen, for example, in relation to battlefield trauma. Here the story of a legendary frontiersman is being re-packaged within the context of the early 21st century in such a way as to express American exceptionalism for a contemporary audience. However, for the audience the physicality of the images means the primary experience is one of bodily ‘affect’.

Updating the Escapism of the Western: The Lone Ranger (2013)

This chapter views The Lone Ranger (2013) as being on one level an attempt simply to provide the audience with a thrilling escapist experience. To this extent the film can be seen as a theme park ride that allows for an intense bodily experience subjecting the spectator’s senses to precipitous combinations of speed and suddenness of movement, and volume and pitch of sound, together with kaleidoscopic changes of shape and colour, a feeling of affect. However, at the same time, the spectator is thrown into uncertainty as to where to position themselves in relation to the material they are being shown. This is postmodernism in action: fact and fiction collide in such a way as to suggest the impossibility of the existence of realism as a genuine field of cultural possibility. And yet, in contradiction to this, the film cannot draw back from taking a definite position on the presence of evil in the world and on how it should be dealt with.

Restoring the Western Hero and Reclaiming the Classic Hollywood Experience: True Grit (2010)

This chapter views the core issue for True Grit (2010) as being the unavoidable need for ‘good’ ultimately to confront ‘evil’ in physical combat, and for good to win in such a way as to safeguard the future of a shared cultural community. The film becomes a restatement of the crucial role of the (flawed) American hero in guaranteeing the future of American values and national identity. In extremis the system of law and order is shown to be left wanting. At this point what is required is the strong individual, such as ‘Rooster’ Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) who is prepared to step beyond the normal bounds of civilised behaviour in the service of a higher concept of justice.

Employing Religious Concepts to Address the Political Situation Post-9/11: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)

This chapter considers The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005) in relation to its use of the key Christian concepts of forgiveness of sins and redemption. The central focus of Three Burials is seen as being its recourse to Christian ideas, not only in relation to eternal spiritual questions regarding the relationship of human beings to an all-powerful deity but also in relation to the contemporary historical/political moment. This chapter considers two types of detachment from the world: one in which the individual lives their life in a state of indifference and the other in which the individual exists within a space of thoughtful contemplation. The film moves away from the more normal Hollywood consideration of the world as a space for the contest between good and evil to encourage viewers to question the way in which the Mexican ‘Other’ is (and, by extension, all ‘Others’ are) viewed within the U.S. and represented within the media. Ultimately, however, it is argued the film neglects to consider the economics that underpins the contemporary political situation.

Introduction

This chapter examines the concept of ‘American values’ in the light of presidential speeches by George W. Bush, considering ideas such as ‘freedom’ and ‘justice,’ concepts such as ‘home’ and ‘family,’ and notions of ‘good’ and ‘evil.’ The resulting evocation of a very particular vision of the ‘nation’ is then viewed in relation the types of narrative to be found in a range of contemporary, post-9/11 Westerns. In summary, it is suggested that in the films under consideration in this book, the nature of the world as a place of confrontation between good and evil, and within which soft liberal values simply will not be sufficient for good to win out over evil, is constantly brought home, both to characters and to the audience. The suggestion is that as part of American culture these films reflect the current ideological context of the United States.

Conclusion

This chapter suggests this book puts forward no more than the idea that films reflect the ideological contestations of the time and place of their inception, or that they reflect the anxieties of the periods in which they have been made. The films under consideration have been shown to reinforce the myth of America, endorse the use of extreme force in dealing with enemies, highlight the importance of defending the homeland, provide exhilarating escapist entertainment, deliver a virtual experience of visceral body abuse, immerse audiences within an ahistorical postmodern space, foreground religious concepts of forgiveness and redemption, and contribute towards a contemporary western culture of fear. It is argued that what we have on offer are ‘War on Terror’ Westerns.

Living in a World of Fear and Inexplicable Evil: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)1

This chapter focuses on the idea that we now live within a fear culture. Within this largely media-controlled space, we become obsessed with the idea of evil as inexplicable other than be recourse to concepts of religion and mysticism and see it as lurking everywhere within society. The chapter explores confused way in which Jesse James is seen in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) as on the one hand Christ-like and on the other as the embodiment of evil. It is argued that the spectator is confronted by a confused (and, for the viewer, confusing) text. This film is the product of a media and a society that is generally unwilling to accept the role social conditions play in the formation of individual character. The crucial implication of the representation of Jesse James we have in this film is that people should be seen as being born as they are, rather than as being created out of the circumstances of their experience of life.

The Anchorless Postmodern Experience within an Ahistorical Filmic Space: Django Unchained (2012)

This chapter considers the way in which Django Unchained (2012) is specifically positioned by the director within a well-defined historical period but is then constructed very clearly as a cinematic fantasy. It is argued that this film, despite genuine concerns on the part of those involved in its making for the ramifications of slavery, does not look to exist in relation to a real space and time but instead within an intense matrix of film references. The relationship of this film to Hollywood classics, such as Gone with the Wind (1939), as well as to spaghetti Westerns and blaxploitation (and sexploitation) movies is examined with reference to specific details from the films. The intense background historical research undertaken by Tarantino is acknowledged. Ultimately, however, the film is seen as a postmodernist text, which because of its ahistorical form is able to escape the need to fully address historical reality.

Defending Home, Defending Homeland: Jane Got a Gun (2016)

In Jane Got a Gun (2016) the home, both as the embodiment of dominant American values and as an image for the homeland, is a place under threat and in need of resolute defence post-9/11. This film operates as a post-9/11 expression of that traditional Western trope of the need to defend the home and all it stands for in American national mythology. However, there is an ambivalence over how the central character should be presented. To some extent she is the girl-power female who is able to defend her own home, but at the same time as a woman she has to be shown to be in need of male protection. As with both Open Range and True Grit there is a need for an army veteran who knows how to deploy extreme violence when the home/homeland is under intense threat.