"Frayling Chases Spaghetti Westerns"

Hollywood eventually got over the Western movies that used to be so popular, and when confronted about it by Leone, many directors told him that the Western was dead. Sergio Leone "revived the genre" (NPR) by creating a brutal west in his movies where it was more often than not a kill-or-be-killed kind of story. The "Freudian Westerns" (NPR) that contained subtle psychological themes were excluded from Sergio's depiction of the memory of the American Western because he didn't like them, which I find annoying. I don't like that he made the Western genre all guns and horses and no complex motives or detailed reasoning behind why the borderline-psychotic cowboy just shot down 57 Native Americans in a desert.

In fact, the repetitive, shallow storyline in the Western movies of the time disengaged the viewers brain, and that is why I don't like to watch Western movies. The pattern of analysis and prediction that makes a great storyline so much fun to read or experience is nonexistent all too often. When there is some kind of background explanation or expressed reasoning, it's never hard to figure out, which destroys the wonderful chances that the authors would have for deeper character development. I will most likely zone out and stop actually watching the movie unless I have some other reason for watching it (Like my grades!). The Instant Hollywood Brain-Musher seems to dull the senses and can also desensitize the viewer from things like murder, theft and alcoholism, too, since you see a ton of drinking, shooting, and looting in pretty much every single Western film.

To give Leone some credit, I should definitely say that he did his homework. It was said during this podcast that his physical appearances for the people that lived in the western movies was closer to the actual photographs of the actual Western people that lived during the time than any other movie depiction thus far. Despite the typical good guy physical appearance, Leone gave his protagonists gray hats and a dirty look to neutralize their appearance and make the characters seem more believable.

Frayling Chases Spaghetti Westerns. NPR 2005. Podcast. 24 Feb. 2010.  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5506405

First Essay Ideas

I have one or two things that I may want to write about. My first thought was to talk about how old western stories frequently turn the protagonist and the antagonist appear to be superhuman, as I observed while reading "Jesse James, The Outlaw". I was going to talk about how the villain has to be larger than life and that they protagonist has to rise up to match the level of the villain to tear the villain down again and bring them to justice. This also brings up the omnipresent battle of good and evil, which would also be a great essay topic, as I could write about why the ones who were depicted to be the bad guys are all Native American and Outlaws.

A Third essay topic would be about the cowboy and how many of them are either borderline psychotic or just an actor in spurs. I don't really want to get too deep into this one right now because I don't think that I can just lump all cowboys into two groups like that and retain political correctness, but maybe with some further thought, I could make this presentable.

Handout?

I don't remember getting a handout for this blog assignment on Wednesday and Dr. Griffiths wasn't there on Friday to hand it to us. When it is either revealed that I have in fact received it already or that I have come to class and gotten a copy, I will do the blog for today. Sorry.

John Wayne Playboy Interview

After reading this interview, I feel as though I was reading about a celebrity, not a cowboy. I have a lot of personal biases about this due to bad experiences, but it truly shocked me that John Wayne was a heavy drinker. Not only that, but the man did pot and opium, too! That, more than anything, totally knocked me off my horse (pun intended >_<"). This idea that cowboys are more entertainers than heroes really reverberates here, since Playboy normally does celebrity interviews and they got one with John Wayne. They eventually got through all of the major topics that they would have gotten through while interviewing a normal celebrity, too. Things like "How do you feel about this?" and "How are the addictions going?" that many celebrities avoid answering to protect their image. John Wayne just came out with a bunch of this stuff, though, as if he had no interest in defending his own image. I found that to be interesting, too. Finally, just as a funny note, did anybody else think that it was hilarious when Playboy asked John Wayne what he thought was perverted? I just felt it to be ironic, that's all.

How to Play Indian: A Manual for the Native American Suicide

WHAT was this guy thinking? This is almost comical! Who would do this, in a movie or in real life? Nobody has ever...well, maybe that one time in that Western movie, but not always...then again, I do remember that one scene where the Indian...Okay, so this is actually pretty accurate for movies. You see these kinds of dumbed-down Native American behaviors all of the time. Why, though, did this guy have to degrade the Native American population by even writing this? Well, Eco Umberto, the author of this checklist, could have been trying to reveal an interesting truth about the typical Western movie and how almost all of them are racist and biogotted. Back in the times where these movies were common, the white man had yet to realize the racism involved. It wasn't until around the time of the African American Equal Rights Movement that people started to think about how what they had done to the Native Americans might have been wrong and biased. The worst part of it all is that there are still people that think this way.

If this piece of work had another purpose, it may have been to say that even with this kind of treatment, Native Americans were desperate for work and would subject themselves to this kind of treatment to be able to afford the necessities of life. Nobody would hire an Indian just as nobody would hire a woman or an African American. People were really racist and sexist, so whenever the opportunity to work presented itself, what other choice would a Native American man have to find work? In some ways, were you to consider the level of innate racism towards the Native Americans since we got here hundreds of years ago, it may be considered lucky to even find that job, despite the lack or respect. I am glad that things are better now, but still fully understand that we have a lot of work left to do. Hopefully we get there.

John Wayne? Who's that?

Sorry that this will be short due to my lack of knowledge, but I have no clue who John Wayne is. I've most likely never seen any of his movies, either, since I've just seen a picture of him and still didn't recognize him. I'm guessing that I'm going to be hearing about him in class, though.