MP Main Points of Matheson Article

Sue Matheson persuasively writes on the topic of John Wayne being the ideal cowboy over time. Her article The West-Hardboiled: Adaptations of Film Noir Elements, Existentialism and Ethics in John Wayne Westerns discusses how Wayne, “modernizes-and in some cases radically revises-the Westerns with which he is popularly identified. As a result, the Westerns in which he appears transmit cultural information that calls for an understanding of that popular and radical art form, film noir.” John Wayne is not only the man to be when it comes to Westerns and cowboys but he also revolutionized the way culture was seen through his movies.

Through noir films, the main characters feelings are expressed through the environment around them instead of through what they say or how they act. They are, “transmitted by expressionist techniques of exaggerated or distorted representations of the outer world.” The movie, The Searchers, is talked about a lot by Sue Matheson while she points out the landscape and how it represents how the characters feel throughout the movie in their quest to get revenge and find the little girl they care for.

Matheson brings up the point of deontology or duty-based ethics in Western films as well. In this way of life, “individuals are expected to regulate their desires by conforming to fixed standards of behavior. On the frontier where vices become virtues, however, it is not surprising that proponents of a duty-based system often find that their virtues have turned into liabilities.” To the cowboy, virtue becomes a duty, something that they are required to do for their existence.

The last point Matheson argued is that John Wayne does not usually play the heroic cowboy but rather the antihero in his film roles. “Hardboiled” is an often used word by Matheson to describe Wayne’s characteristics in his roles, “Wayne’s hardboiled nature challenges the traditional perception that Americans hold of the ideal American as a redeemer.” She points out that John Wayne is a perfect example for the begging question, “Do the means used to satisfy one’s desires or to regulate the desires of others ever really justify their ends?”