ID Main Points of Matheson

In her article "The West-Hardboiled: Adaptations of Film Noir Elements, Existentialism, and Ethics in John Wayne's Westerns," Sue Matheson makes a compelling argument to explain how certain elements of Wayne's films are metaphorical of things in the character's head, or a direct attack on events of the time when the film was shot. As she put it, "In the hardboiled tradition, the connection between characters and milieu is extremely important because states of the inner world, the mind and emotions, are transmitted by expressionist techniques of exaggerated or distorted representations of the outer world" (2). In particular, she deals with capitalism, and virtue.

"Appearance, one of the many conventions found in the traditional Western, is carefully receded in Wayne's Westerns" (2, 3). Matheson points out that while it was typical for the Western hero to be dirty and dusty, they were not greasy and always had a clean shave. Villains in Wayne’s west typically had dirt layered on, and were never cleanly shaven. “In Wayne’s movies, cleanliness and dirt register how normal or abnormal a character’s psychology is” (3). To expand upon this, Matheson points out that fine dress, which are the typical symbols of American capitalism, are symbolic of evil and psychopaths in the Western. Well dressed characters are often obsessed with making money, and almost repel dirt. This shows how the Western was rather critical of capitalism in an era when expansion and wealth were becoming widely held goals.

Matheson also addresses the topic of men becoming their own center of morality, and turning vice into virtue. “Thus, character traits generally considered elsewhere to be vices become virtues. Lying, for example, is a virtue on the frontier” (6). Matheson goes on to explain how in Hondo Wayne points out how a man must lie in order to make a life easier for someone else. However, this changing of vice into virtue, and taking control of one’s own moral behavior can also create tragedy. Men who act in good faith often create more problems for themselves because they help others instead of getting what they want. This leads the hero to sometimes need saving. As Matheson puts it, “In Wayne’s Westerns, John Wayne appears to be as much in need of redemption as the sociopaths he brings to justice” (9).

However, the one quotation in the entire article that can sum up just what Matheson was thinking has to be: “In final analysis, John Wayne, generally considered ideologically reactionary and politically conservative, produced and starred in Westerns that critique capitalism and anticipate the revision of frontier American history that began with Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. In these movies, white settlers are not portrayed as heroic figures, but as predators and social misfits” (9).