NL Main Points of Sue Matheson (The West--Hardboiled...)

I think Sue Matheson's major perspective of the Western noir film, as she supports in The West-Hardboiled: Adaptations of Film Noir Elements, Existentialism, and Ethics in John Wayne's Westerns, is that the Wayne films reflect the time they were shot in American history more than the times they portray in American history. "[F]rom Western films we can learn precious little about the historic American West, but often a great deal about the time and attitudes when a particluar film was made" (894).

The middle Wayne films of the late 40's to early 60's, according to Matheson, "[F]urnish their audiences with a revised vision of the American West, one that reflects the postwar disillusionment and realism characteristic of the twentieth century" (891). She notes further that the films made in this era of postwar disillusionment, after Hiroshima, present a loss of American innocence and include "pervasive corruption" as main themes. Furthermore, in the 1950s, as she puts it, "[E]xistentialist thinking, which became popularized in America... underpins much of the characterization and the action in Wayne's West" (895). The existentialist thinking, concerned with the individual's own thinking and individualism, is clearly a theme in many Wayne Westerns.

Matheson furthers her support for the films reflecting their audience's time to then presenting the fact that, as opposed to the disillusionment films focused on a loss of innocence and corruption, those made during the Great Depression of the 30's, "[P]resent scathing portrayals of obese capitalists engaged in perpetuating social injustice and economical exploitation" (893). In these such films, "[H]is characters challenge and defeat 'City Hall', ending the economic exploitation legitimized by the legal system" (894).

One final addition she makes to this claim is the final analysis in the shift of perspective with regards to Indians. Later in films, "[W]hite settlers are not portrayed as heroic figures, but as predators and social misfits. Native Americans are not presented as unenlightened savages, but as the dispossessed" (906).

Another major point that Matheson presents is the paradox of virtue versus duty. According to Matheson, the two ideologies of throughout are, "[R]epresented in a battle of the sexes in which men [one may consider them modern individualists, the 'unfettered selves'] live according to virtue-ethics, and women [representing a rather Victorian 'community of selves'] think deontologically" (902). Through Westerns, the American man is made into a figure that values virtues and individuality, with a lesser balance of duty and "collective conscience". The individuality that the American male is fed by Westerns culminate in movies such as El Dorado where males are taught to "regulate his desires via the importance of self control, foresight, and humility" (904) on a regular basis.