The American Western has been described as many things. Chuck Connors probably came closer than anybody when he described it as the American Epic, like the Iliad or the Chanson de Roland. When it worked, as it often did, it reminded the world of what America was and American children, boys especially, of what they were expected to be.
What's most intriguing is that it captured the imagination of not only this country, but of the world because it captured the character of America.
Along with the war epic, the Western was about seeing the far horizon, understanding the country was more than the sum of its parts. When Errol Flynn kissed Olivia de Havilland one last time and told her, "Walking through life with you, madam, has been a very gracious thing", both knew he wasn't coming back. They both face it bravely, Olivia holding back the tears and keeping her composure until he has swept out of the room as the bugles blow Assembly.
The gunfighters in the Magnificent Seven face the same problem. Ride on or go back to save the village. They know the odds are lousy, but they go anyway. Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie face the same issue when Travis draws his famous line in the sand. As Gene Autry put it in his Cowboy Code, "The cowboy is a patriot". Courage is saddlin' up when you're scared to death.
"Mr. Meacham, you're a blackguard, a liar, a hypocrite, and a stench in the nostrils of honest men. If it were in my power, I'd hang you from the nearest tree, leave your carcass for the buzzards".
Integrity. Some things simply cannot be borne.
The lone figure, standing for right, is probably the oldest Western there is, going back to The Virginian, but the archtype is the Lone Ranger. Sole survivor of a troop of Texas Rangers, watched over by an Indian friend he rescued when they were boys, John Reid makes a decision that the lawless new land can't grow without justice. His brother, as well as his brother's family, murdered by the Cavendish gang, left for dead he has no other path but that of the law. Not revenge, which is another theme, but justice. He will use silver bullets as a symbol of justice by law.
Many an actor has made his career with the words, "Now just a doggone minute here". Jimmy Stewart, Glenn Ford, Gary Cooper have all played the quiet-spoken man who will not be pushed, and the bigger the odds, the sooner he will make his stand.
But it's also drawing the line. When Trampas has a chance to let the old friend who's become a hired gun remove the tycoon who's winning over the girl he loves, he can't do it. He faces off against his old friend after even the Virginian has had to break up fights between the rivals..
"Nobody hands me my gun and tells me to ride on. Nobody!"
Pride of professionalism. The Code of the West.
One young cowboy was picked to lead a herd across a swollen river. He allowed as how he couldn't swim, "But I am a hired hand and will not shirk my duty". Men (and women) of every way of life lived and many times died by that ethos. Working on the railroad was almost considered a death sentence, but men took pride in it. When Britt makes his stand, he's doing so not out of vanity, but the fact that, as JB Books puts it,
“I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them”.
"I've been offered a lot for my work, but never everything"
The helping hand. A chance to hit a lick for what's right.
Yul Brynner's quiet admiration for the Mexican farmers who have had enough is the catalyst to the Magnificent Seven. These aren't poor peons, but men who bear the responsibility of providing for their village, as Charlie Bronson so eloquently stated. In one of his last pictures, the Duke holds back from stopping a lynching until one of the lynchers shoves a little Mexican boy.
And that's another theme. The strong have a duty to lend a hand. Not to hand out a living, but to give help when it's clearly needed. In Dodge City, when a boy is dragged to death because the team he was driving is spooked by a gunfight, Errol Flynn can only say, "Little children".
Revenge, of course, plays its part. In a land where there is no law, revenge may sometimes serve the law. The Ringo Kid faces off against the Plummer brothers because the murdered his father and brother, but the vendetta is always destructive. Wyatt Earp goes after the Clantons after they murder one of his brothers and cripple another, but it also destroys his life. His days as a peace officer are through and it takes the life of his best friend, but it's Doc who understands, "Make no mistake, it's not revenge he's after, it's a reckoning".
.
"I'm looking at a tin star with a drunk pinned to it".
Friendship. Loyalty. Family.
In the second season closer, after the Virginian and Steve have finished off the bad guys, one of whom is Randy's half-brother, the Virginian says, "You have to make a choice. Who's your real family". And that is an important part of the Western appeal. The West was, in fact, won by brothers; the Custer brothers, the Masterson brothers, the North brothers, and many more. Louis L'Amour's famous Sackett family is made up of brothers, uncles, cousins, even sisters who come riding along when there's trouble.
Not just blood, but the ties of hard-fought experience. When the Duke confronts Christopher George in the Train Robbers, it's not as a boss, but as a friend, ""I was so busy trying to catch you, I'm the one that let 'em get away". Respect, for a good man. Truth, even though it's embarrassing.
As John T Chance and Cole Thornton, the Duke can't let his best friend destroy himself over a faithless woman. Even though he has gotten away clean from the Indians in Garden Of Evil, Gary Cooper can't leave Richard Widmark to his fate. "He's a little better in every way than I thought. I have to go back there. I have to tell him".
"It just so happens we be Texicans. Texican is nothin' but a human man way out on a limb, this year and next. Maybe for a hundred more. But I don't think it'll be forever. Some day, this country's gonna be a fine good place to be. Maybe it needs our bones in the ground before that time can come".
A woman's place.
Though Olive Carey in The Searchers and Olivia de Havilland in They Died With Their Boots On are light years apart in social standing, both know their first duty is to their family. Their home. Their man. That requires a steadfastness unfashionable today. When all is collapsing, endure. When he's at the edge, smile. When he needs your strength, give him all. As Geraldine Page put it, "A man can afford to have noble sentiments and poses, but a woman only has the man she married. That's her truth. And if he's no good, that's still her truth."
John Ford got it. Most directors didn't; Howard Hawks couldn't understand a woman who didn't want to go hunting and fishing, but Ford got it. The women they left behind at Fort Apache are right out of the history books. So is Dallas, the hooker who dreams of a better life. She's the embodiment of the soiled dove who was made an honest woman. They were the lucky ones. The rest died of laudanum, pneumonia, gunshot wounds, VD.
Women in the West had to ride and shoot as well as a man. When Pa went off to sell the herd, sometimes it was Mom and the girls who kept the place together, just like their grandmothers in the French and Indian War.
That was the bargain. Yes, I will warm your lonely nights, bear your children, cook your meals, mend your clothes, nurse your wounds, but for all this I demand churches and schools, law and order, the end of gunfights in the street, and no more saloons on every corner. I want the gambling halls and the houses of ill repute (especially) closed down.
The men may have won the West, but the women made a nation.
Well, I'll be damned.
Redemption. A chance to set things right.
In its third season opener, the Virginian introduced Emmett Ryker, hired gun, gambler, bounty hunter, sometime lawman (based on the Honey Wiggin character in the book). Ryker is offered a job murdering a rancher and he turns it down. When Ryker's old partner, Sam Lake, is offered the job of killing Ryker, Sam hesitates. Ryker sees the chance to give Sam a shot at a better life and offers to split the half of a ranch he's come into. As Chris said in Mexico, "We're the ones who always lose". Why not go out a winner? Have something that's your own. Sam goes for it and ends up taking a bullet. "Was kinda nice, bein' respectable. Bein' on the winning side".
Louis L'Amour defined a bad man as one who was bad to tangle with. Jim Bowie, Bat Masterson, Bill Hickok, Bill Tighman were all such men. But, for the most part, are remembered as heroes. Britt, Bernardo, Harry, and Lee were laid to rest as honored men by the village they fought to save.
That theme of redemption is the heart of the Western. The bad man who was saved by a good woman. Angel and the Badman. The bad man who finally gave up his rough ways for a good plain woman. Hondo.
The bad man who thought he was beyond redemption. Harry Luck.
As Chris Adams put it, "I doubt that".
And this country is still based on those values.
This is for Troop.
