American Western Movies

The continuing presence of death in the Western is evident in the plots centering on gunfights, hangings, saloon violence, Indian wars, and other sequences in which men both defy and court death at one and the same time. Tompkins states that the plot turns on "external conflicts in which men prove their courage to themselves and to the world by facing their own annihilation" (Tompkins 31). The struggle over life and death becomes the central issue and trivializes all else. Tompkins believes that this derives from the West's rejection of Christianity, and she sees the Western as part of a larger effort "to get rid of Christianity's enormous cultural weight" (Tompkins 32).

What Tompkins says seems to hold more weight if we view the history of the Western through this cen

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.K. Corral, which is historically inaccurate but effective dramatically in the film. Ford directs in a series of medium and long shots for the most part, except when he is trying to increase tension in the gunfight with a series of closeups. He sets the camera back and presents the scene as if it were a tableau so that the viewer stands as a spectator. We see this when the settlers are dancing. We watch Wyatt Earp sitting on the sidewalk before the jail and balancing himself on a chair because he is bored. The gunfight becomes a wide shot so every participant can be seen at once. The town itself stands in the middle of the desert like an oasis. Ford views the characters as they behave in the setting he has created. Ford creates an image of the West that is reassuring in spite of the tensions in that world, the dangers at every turn, and the outlaws seeking to take what other people have built. Ford has a soft spot for those who built America and finds them in places like Tombstone in the late nineteenth century. He uses their music, their dance, their speech patterns, and the tools of their trade to recreate their life on a screen. In the end, his film is an affirmation of that life, an affirmation made possible, as n
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Wyatt Earp, OK Corral, Ford's Stagecoach, American Western, Wild Bunch, America Tombstone, Josey Wales, Zinnemann's Noon, Christianity Western, Tompkins West, christian community, tompkins cites, history western, wyatt earp, christian community tompkins, death western, language women, landscape horses, horse stands, cited tompkins, society depicted,
Approximate Word count = 2053
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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