Andre Detoth's film, Day of the Outlaw, which was released in the late 1950s, has a different portrayal of women as the "others" compared other films such as The Ballad of Little Jo and High Noon. We witnessed that women were starting to have the qualities of the alpha male cowboy in the films we have watched above. However, in Day of the Outlaw, we can see that women were characterized more as objects that were used to play around with. They play a feminine role where Bruhn and his gang see them as objects, while the townspeople see them as housewives. This definitely shows that the role of women was pretty much insignificant since they had no influence or power in the town.
Within the film, Helen Crane, who is Hal Crane's wife, offers her body to Blaise (ex-lover) in order to save Hal. This shows how she lowers herself and puts her in the category of women during the time when they had no influence or power. Men (outlaws) come into town to seek for pleasure, and it is shown that the saloon girls are shown to be one of the pleasures men desire. The film shows that women are borrowed by the outlaws to play with. Even though Helen follows orders by the men, she tries to get out of the situation she has been drived into, but she is ignored by the men which is how women in general were portrayed during the time.
Ernine, a quiet and reserved girl, is another female character who is Vic's (store owner's) daughter, and is shown to be the only unmarried woman introduced in the film. Unlike the other female characters, she is not seen as an object because Gene, who is a member of Bruhn's gang, starts to actually love her. Gene looks at her differently and even decides to leave the gang so that he can fulfull his desires of being with the woman he loves.
The release of the movie during 1959 was a time before the second wave of feminism was about to take place. The later years showed women hungry for equality and so they began to push more for their rights. Day of the Outlaw seems to look at women like they were portrayed in the 1950s, where they were merely seen as housewives.
Andre Detoth's film, Day of the Outlaw, which was released in the late 1950s, has a different portrayal of women as “the others" compared to other films such as The Ballad of Little Jo and High Noon. It is evident that women started to have the qualities of the alpha male cowboy in the films we watched above. However, in Day of the Outlaw, we can see that women were characterized more as objects that were used to play around with. They play a feminine role where Bruhn and his gang see them as objects, while the townspeople see them as housewives. This definitely shows that the role of women was pretty much insignificant since they had no influence or power in the town.
ReplyDeleteWithin the film, Helen Crane, who is Hal Crane's wife, offers her body to Blaise (ex-lover) in order to save Hal. This shows how she degrades herself and puts herself in the category of women during the time when they had no influence or power. Men (outlaws) come into town to seek for pleasure, and it is shown that the saloon girls are shown to be one of the pleasures men desire. The film shows that women are borrowed by the outlaws to play with. Even though Helen follows orders by the men, she tries to get out of the situation she has been driven into, but she is ignored by the men which is how women in general were portrayed during the time.
Ernine, a quiet and reserved girl, is another female character who is Vic's (store owner's) daughter, and is shown to be the only unmarried woman introduced in the film. Unlike the other female characters, she is not seen as an object because Gene, who is a member of Bruhn's gang, starts to actually love her. Gene looks at her differently and even decides to leave the gang so that he can fulfill his desires of being with the woman he loves.
The release of the movie during 1959 was a time before the second wave of feminism was about to take place. The later years show how women were hungry for equality and so they began to push more for their rights. Day of the Outlaw seems to look at women like they were portrayed in the 1950s, where they were merely seen as housewives.