Annotated Bibliography: Western Films

Bromley, Roger. "Dead Man Tells Tale: Tongues and Guns In Narratives Of The West." European Journal Of American Culture, vol. 20 no. 1, 2001, pp. 50. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 May 2013. 

Bromley's analysis of the film Dead Man argues that the narrative told in the film offers insight into the various themes present in American culture and thus reflected in the Western genre. Focusing on how the film “offers a critique of the cult of the Western” and shows “the cartographies of violence in the American (and Western capitalist) imaginary” and “narrates against the historical, political, economic, and symbolic erasure of Native Americans”, Bromley maintains that American society represents many of its unspoken themes through the medium of film. Throughout the film, the idea that the West represents the land of opportunity and escape is paramount; the protagonist, fatally wounded in a gun battle, heads west with his Native American wise-man in order to complete a spiritual journey of renewal enabling him to die peacefully. Bromley argues that this narrative is symbolic of the impact the Western genre has had on American culture—by reflecting and embracing the idea of the West as an open paradise, Dead Man further reinforces and solidifies the quintessentially American concept of finding oneself by heading West, into the sun. 

Etulain, Richard W. "Meeting Places, Intersections, Crossroads, And Borders: Toward A Complex Western Cultural History." Historian, vol. 66 no. 3, 2004, pp. 509-516. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 May 2013. 

Etulain argues that the view held of the history of the West by American society and culture has changed drastically across the years. Here, Western films offer critique and insight into the changing view of American culture in the West and, in return, help show how those films create change in the narrative of American history. Maintaining that the cultural history of the West is a product of intepretation, Etulain holds the view that the complex interplay of “sociocultural interactions” seen in Western films help the viewer appreciate the complexity of the culture of the time. As viewers are exposed to these particular views that change over time, the films of the genre affect American culture and society in subtle, yet significant ways. Moreover, as the cultural history of America shows, the shifting nature and portrayal of the West through film is a method by which future filmmakers and scholars can view current trends of Western history and subsequently modify their own work in response to past interpretations. 

Gaberscek, Carlo. "Zapata Westerns: The Short Life Of A Subgenre (1966-1972)." Bilingual Review, vol. 29 no. 2, 2008, pp. 45-58. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 May 2013. 

Focusing his discussion on a particular sub-genre of Western knows known as Zapata Westerns, Gaberscek argues that these Zapata Western films are, unlike their Western counterparts, entirely political in tone and offer political critique and insight into sociopolitical themes of the time, namely the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Maintaining that the advent of spaghetti western films in American cinematic history marked the beginning of an era by which low budget, archetypal-driven films would dominate and gain strong traction in American society, the Zapata Westerns impacted the larger Western genre by focusing on political overtones and themes of rebellion, social justice, and the nature of man's relationship to government. By fashioning a historical narrative out of Zapata Westerns, directors such as Giulio Petroni and Orson Welles helped to establish a genre of film dedicated to addressing new themes in American culture.

Hoffman, Donald. "Whose Home On The Range? Finding Room For Native Americans, African Americans, And Latino.." Melus , vol. 22 no. 2, 1997, pp. 45. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 May 2013.

This article by Donald Hoffman discusses the core narrative of American culture as reflected in the Western genre of films. Specifically, he addresses how early Western filmmaker John Ford utilized the medium of film to promote a message to American society about the, at the time of Ford's films, upcoming war against Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. Having written a “mythic multicultural America in order to persuade a somewhat reluctant populace to unite in the war against the Axis”, Ford's famous 1939 film Drums Along the Mohawk is the key element by which Hoffman argues that American films can and do have a substantial impact on American culture and society. Creating a picture of the United States that functions as a multiethnic mixture of various cultures united in a common cause, Hoffman argues that Ford's establishment of a idealistic United States played directly into the idea of creating an “us vs them” mentality for the coming war against the Nazis. 

Jensen, Kelly. "“Back In My Day, Son”: Dialogical Constructions Of The Cowboy Code Of Justice." Journal Of Popular Culture, vol. 42 no. 1, 2009, pp. 90-102. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 May 2013. 

Jensen argues that Western films have impacted American culture and society. Through a process called “cultural conditioning”, Jensen maintains that the “memorable cinematic portrayal” of the cowboy character conditions the viewer to imagine that particular archetype in a very specific way. Using The Virginian  and High Noon as examples of this, argues that the “mythographic images [of the cowboy] leave imprints on cultural memory, so that it is not the actual historical cowboy that we remember, but rather his mythic ?lm counterpart”. Thus, though the actual cowboy is a character that likely did not act as the sole provider of honest justice in the West as cinema make make the viewer believe, that character archetype nonetheless has become ingrained into American society and culture. Moreover, the stereotype of the cowboy has, thanks to its prolific portrayal in American film, greatly changed the way society views the nature of good and evil in the classic West, as the “lone gunslinger” character has essentially monopolized the effective use of justice in American society. 

Keeton, Barton. "Shooting Cowboys And Indians: Silent Western Films, American Culture, And The Birth Of Hollywood." American Literature, vol. 78 no. 2, 2006, pp. 395-397. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 May 2013. 

Keeton argues how and why early Western films in the form of silent films helped to establish one of the single most significant cultural achievements of the United States—the creation of Hollywood and the modern cinema industry. Keeton maintains that American cinematic tastes developed as a response to and evolution from silent Western films and helped to elevate the American film industry to the world's center for film-driven content. Arguing that Western films are the “folklore of industrial society”, Keeton states that the “cultural mythology” behind Western films will continue to attract further attention from filmmakers and cultural leaders, as they reflect many underlying themes of American society. In particular, Keeton argues that the time period in which the film was made determines many of the principal narratives—Cold War-era Westerns focus on imperialism, for example. Much like the literary work, Thinly Veiled, conveys.

Schwarz, Maureen Trudelle. "Collective Guilt, Conservation, And Other Postmodern Messages In Contemporary Westerns: "Last Of The Dogmen" And "Grey Owl.." American Indian Culture & Research Journal, vol. 26 no.1, 2002, pp. 83-105. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 May 2013. 

Schwarz delves into how and why Western films have impacted American culture, particularly in the ways in which that particular genre of films embody core American traditions and myths regarding the myth of the West and the entrepreneurial and exploratory nature of the American nationality. As “the Western genre encapsulates the myth of the frontier […] which are premised on the belief that land-starved Europeans 'discovered' an uninhabited wilderness, which they quickly pioneered”, these films reflect a broad underlying pioneering nature present in American culture. Schwarz argues that such a nature is both a result and a cause of the proliferation of American Western films and uses the two classic films Last of the Dogmen and Grey Owl to support her argument that filmmakers use the Western genre to “appeal to American audiences” with themes of colonialism, ecological concerns about environmental degradation, and what she refers to as “collective guilt” regarding the actions of white Americans throughout their cultural history.