The European films Navajo Joe and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly are clearly not American-made Westerns. There are several notable differences that reflect the difference in attitudes among the Americans and Europeans concerning the West in these films. As a result of the difference in attitudes about the American West, the European products feature an alternate-reality of the duty-driven, hard working, tough, white, alpha male cowboy that America adores. Instead, his world is replaced with violence, greed and an obvious play upon the inequality in America.
Americans have an obsession with violence; the Western film highlights the extent to which Americans have become desensitized to violence. In the European play upon this, there was significantly more ruthless violence and outright gore; the main characters of each of the films had no reserves to the use of force. Furthermore, the motives that the Europeans drew upon was not the duty that Americans were proud of in their Western: it was greed. American capitalism was something that in the 1966 global community, had already become an icon of almost ruthless greed and power. While the American Western focused on an almost manifest destiny version of expansion, the Europeans plotted it into what it really was: outright greed.
Furthermore, the European play on the Western really highlighted some of the inequality of the Western film. In no right would an Indian every be the alpha male cowboy of a Western. In America, the Indian is not the power of the West, but just a troublesome nuisance that the alpha male cowboy overcomes. The film Navajo Joe really twisted this: making an Indian the focus. Yet at the same time, there is still a reflection on the annihilation that takes place, as the Indian village is pillaged.
The European films Navajo Joe and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly are clearly not American-made Westerns. There are several notable differences that reflect the difference in attitudes among the Americans and Europeans concerning the West in these films. As a result of the difference in attitudes about the American West, the European products feature an alternate-reality of the duty-driven, hard working, tough, white, alpha male cowboy that America adores. Instead, his world is replaced with violence, greed and an obvious play upon the inequality in America.
ReplyDeleteAmericans have an obsession with violence; the Western film highlights the extent to which Americans have become desensitized to violence. In the European play upon this, there was significantly more ruthless violence and outright gore; the main characters of each of the films had no reserves to the use of force. Both the films featured gruesome violence that presented quite a striking difference to American-made Westerns. In The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, there was seemingly meaningless violence whenever the cowboys felt the whim to kill; this does not follow the American duty that resulted in violence in American made films. Furthermore, the motives that the Europeans drew upon was not the duty that Americans were proud of in their Western: it was greed. American capitalism was something that in the 1966 global community, had already become an icon of almost ruthless greed and power. While the American Western focused on an almost manifest destiny version of expansion, the Europeans plotted it into what it really was: outright greed.
Furthermore, the European play on the Western really highlighted some of the inequality of the Western film. In no right would an Indian every be the alpha male cowboy of a Western. In America, the Indian is not the power of the West, but just a troublesome nuisance that the alpha male cowboy overcomes. The film Navajo Joe really twisted this: making an Indian the focus. Yet at the same time, there is still a reflection on the annihilation that takes place, as the Indian village is pillaged. These aspects of race in the film directly challenge American race-relations.