JP "High Noon/Little Jo"

The audience of the two western films, High Noon by Fred Zinnemann and The Ballad of Little Jo by Maggie Greenwald, examine women characters in a different spotlight than most classic Western films have portrayed. In the previous films we have watched, the alpha male cowboy is the silent type that holds individual communities trust and faith in protecting them. However in these two Westerns, two specific women take on leading roles with strong voices eager to be heard. In Jane Tompkins novel, West of Everything, readers witness her argument on the relationship between language and the Western culture; “Westerns distrust language. Time and again they set up situations whose message is that words are week and misleading, only actions count…” (49). In both films, the women speak often, Western women trust language. They see it has their opportunity to communicate and get their message out.

Specifically, in the film of High Noon, one of the opening scenes is the wedding of the Will and Amy Kane. Amy is a Quaker who is very much in love with Will and can’t wait to get away with him. Three cowboys get in the way and it forces Will, as the town Marshall, to decide if he will take care of the situation at hand or take off with Amy. In the beginning we are able to watch the respect male characters have for women, in a way we have yet to see in previous western films. In the past, women are found to be inferior and shut out of the film's main storyline; simply portrayed as accessories. However, Will shows a glimpse of how he cares what Amy thinks and feels. In the end, Will does choose his alpha male instincts over Amy’s feelings. However, Will can’t help but follow the lead of the rule of the gun and have the desire to take care of business the true western way. “For a man to speak of his inner feelings not only admits parity with the person he is talking to, but it jeopardizes his status as potent being, for talk dissipates presence, takes away the mystery of an ineffable self which silence preserves,” (60) Western men do not like or trust language, they rather trust in the action and just "do". This is hard for Amy to understand. Being a Quaker, Amy does not believe in anything her new husband has ever represented, the western life of actions and cruel violence. In the end of the movie, Amy loses the battle against her morals, and ends up not getting on the train and winds up shooting one of the bad cowboys, essentially saving her husband. Essentially, Amy Kane plays a leading role as a women and acts just as one should. She is logical and uses her words to get her point across; something that is found new to the Western film culture.

In the film of The Ballard of Little Jo, the audience observes a smaller shift of status and attitude toward the character of women. Josephine is the main character who has an illegitimate child and ends up getting kicked out of her house in disgrace. Josephine leaves her son behind and travels Westward, while traveling she is forced to dress like a man (Jo). Prior to this, Jo was getting taken advantage of by being sold for promiscuous behavior, inevitably forcing her to make this change. Jo has to keep her secret to herself and can identify with Tompkins argument first hand, “the Western itself is the language of men, what they do vicariously, instead of speaking,” (65). Jo acts like a man because it is the only way she knows where she will be respected. We see the change of the women character status through Jo being a true woman behind the masculine clothing. The strong, determined and heroic behavior that has been shown through the qualities of the alpha male cowboy in so many Western films is exhibited through Josephine; a female character who simply just wants to live her life with respect from others.