by Tanner Hittesdorf
[“Once Upon a Time in the West” © Paramount (1969)]
Part 1:
Origins of the Western
1893-1938
When one thinks of the Western, it is a reminder of what once was a bygone era of cowboys and Indians, sheriffs versus criminals, and morally ambiguous gunslingers dueling it out in the middle of town at high Noon. The Western, however, was more than just that; for a time, it was the embodiment of the American ideology. It was Manifest Destiny realized on film. The Wild West, or rather the myth of the Wild West, is believed to have manifested between 1850 (at the height of the California Gold Rush and Great American Migration) and ended approximately in 1920 with the urbanization of key cities West of the Mississippi.
The myth of the American Frontier is based mostly on the theory of American historian Frederick Jackson Turner. Turner’s 1983 thesis, otherwise known as American Frontierism, or Frontier Theory, essentially pushes forth the idea that the American wilderness was a crucial tenet in the separation of American Democracy from European political establishment. Americans were formed by the environment of the harsh American wilderness and thus the “Spirit of America” was molded by the settling of the West, from a wild land “filled with savagery and violence, lacking in civilization” into the American country we thought it to be in the proceeding time following the 1920’s (arguably considered the true end of the “Wild West” era).
(“The Great Train Robbery” Edison Manufacturing Company (1903))
The first true Western film was created by Edison Manufacturing Company (yes, that Edison, Thomas). It was known as “The Great Train Robbery”, and is considered heavily influential in formulating narrative and cinematographic devices that would become staples of cinema, and in particular, the Western genre as a whole. Wide angle shots of scenic terrain, matte photography, and simple, understated action scenes. Thus the Western genre was born. The genre itself, however, was a toddler; it was undeveloped, without much of the tropes that made it more memorable with the public American consciousness. Several films born of the Western mold would follow “The Great Train Robbery”, but perhaps none would become as influential as a little movie directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, the 1939 epic “Stagecoach”.
(“Stagecoach” © 20th Century Fox (1939))
“Stagecoach” is considered the seminal Western film. The basic premise is that a stagecoach holding several strangers travels through the dangerous desert territory of the Native American tribe Apache towards their destination in Lordsburg, New Mexico. “Stagecoach” was among the very first films to utilize the incredible imagery of Monument Valley, well considered one of the most beautiful places ever put to film. “Stagecoach” was monumentally (pun intended) important in codifying several aspects of the myth of the American West in the public consciousness. Wild frontiers, dangers lurking around every corner, and perhaps most controversial of all (in today’s society, at least) was the negative depiction of Native American peoples.
With the release of “Stagecoach”, the Western had taken hold of America. Within 20 years, over a fifth of all motion pictures and television programs would be Westerns. Thus begins the height of the “Classical Western” genre. Tune in the next time when I return to this series as the Classical Western evolves and earns several new tropes.