the quint: an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 1 Editorial Advisory Board the quint volume thirteen issue three Moshen Ashtiany, Columbia University an interdisciplinary quarterly from Brenda Austin-Smith, University of Manitoba Keith Batterbe. University of Turku the north Donald Beecher, Carleton University Khani Begum, Bowling Green State University ISSN 1920-1028 Melanie Belmore, University College of the North guest editor Gerald Bowler, Independent Scholar Khani Begum Robert Budde, University Northern British Columbia editor John Butler, Independent Scholar Sue Matheson David Carpenter, Professor Emeritus, University of Saskatchewan the quint welcomes submissions. See our guidelines Terrence Craig, Mount Allison University or contact us at: film review editor Lynn Echevarria, Yukon College Antonio Sanna the quint Erwin Erdhardt, III, University of Cincinnati University College of the North P.O. Box 3000 Peter Falconer, University of Bristol The Pas, Manitoba Peter Geller, University of the Fraser Valley Canada R9A 1K7 Susan Gold, University of Windsor We cannot be held responsible for unsolicited Peter Gordon, Independent Scholar material Jim Gough, Athabasca University John George Hansen, University of Saskatchewan Richard Harris, University of Saskatchewan Stella Hockenhull, University of Wolverhampton Didi Hutchins, University of Alaska (Anchorage) cover photo: Sue Matheson Deborah Lynn Kitchen Døderlein, University of Oslo Ying Kong, University College of the North A quarterly journal, the quint is housed by the Faculty of Arts, Business and Science at the University Martin Kuester, University of Marburg of the North. The encouragement and support of this project by the Vice President Academic of the Ronald Marken, Professor Emeritus, University of Saskatchewan University College of the North is deeply appreciated. Camille McCutcheon, University of South Carolina Upstate Copyright 2021© the quint for the contributors. No part of this publication may be reproduced. 2 Vol. 13.3 (June 2021) the quint: an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 3 Lorraine Meyer, Brandon University Ray Merlock, University of South Carolina Upstate contents Antonia Mills, Professor Emeritus, University of Northern British Columbia Ikuko Mizunoe, Professor Emeritus, Kyoritsu Women’s University West of Us All Avis Mysyk, Cape Breton University Hisam Nakamura, Tenri University by Sue Matheson.....................................................................................................7 Andrew Patrick Nelson, University of Montana Julie Pelletier, University of Winnipeg Vincent Pitturo, Denver University Introduction: 'Westering' into the East: From Alternate and Spaghetti Westerns to Frances Pheasant-Kelly, University of Wolverhampton Asian Cowboys and Gangsters Christian Riegel, University of Regina Steve Roe, Northern Lights College by Khani Begum.....................................................................................................8 Dan Smith, University College of the North Robert Spindler, University of Innsbruck Nicholas Tyrras, Independent Scholar 'He’s bad, he’s beautiful, he’s crazy … he’s The Man With No Name': George Darrell Varga, NSCAD Miller’s Mad Max Franchise in Conversation with Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Gene Walz, University of Manitoba Westerns Robin Waugh, Wilfred Laurier University by Haley Shipley..................................................................................................33 David Williams, University of Manitoba 'The Best There Is at What He Does': Weirding the Western and the Superhero in James Mangold’s Logan by Bryan Bove................................................................................................. .....54 ‘Trudging Through the Ruins and the Relics’: Spring Breakers, Midnight Cowboy and the Expansive Spirit of the Western Under Capitalist Realism by Joe Neary..........................................................................................................78 4 Vol. 13.3 (June 2021) the quint: an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 5 Agency and the Capitalist Entrapment of Cowboys in Once Upon a Time in the of Us All Sue Matheson West West and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid by Olayinka Oladosu...........................................................................................102 No More Mr. Tough Guy: Cowboy Masculinity Redefined from 'Hollow Masculine Icons' to a new 'Anguished Taciturnity' by Marshall Hoovler............................................................................................119 Slashing Genre Lines: Viewing the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Films as Weird Westerns by Shane Hesketh................................................................................................141 So Far West, it’s East: Asia and the West(ern) by Robyn Perry....................................................................................................166 CONTRIBUTORS........................................................................................... ..188 SUBMISSION...................................................................................... ..............192 GUIDELINES......................................................................................... ...........192 CALL FOR PAPERS................................................................................. ..........192 6 Vol. 13.3 (June 2021) the quint: an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 7 attributable to its long history of ‘westering,’”2 recognizes that historical facts are “not planted on the solid ground of fixed conditions” and instead, are “part of the changing INTRODUCTION currents, the complex and interacting influences of the time.” While Turner’s frontier thesis about the American frontier and history is famously interpreted as ‘monocausal,’ Turner himself insisted on the ‘multi-causal’ model of history because he realized how the ‘Westering’ into the East: From Alternate & Spaghetti interaction of politics, culture, economics, and geography impacted the making of history. The same can be said of the developing history of the Western genre in film which emerges Westerns to Asian Cowboys and Gangsters in Hollywood from the early1900s to the 1960s under the political, economic, cultural, and geographical contexts of its own times even as it sets out to document (and celebrate) the experience of the frontier spirit, freedom and ideals of pioneering immigrants who Those who insist that history is simply the effort to tell the thing exactly as it ventured Westward to “civilize” and tame the new land and its indigenous inhabitants was, to state the facts, are confronted with the difficulty that the fact which they would represent is not planted on the solid ground of fixed conditions; over a century before. it is in the midst and is itself a part of the changing currents, the complex and interacting influences of the time, deriving its significance as a fact The articles comprising this Special Issue of the quint on “Alternate and Global from its relations to the deeper-seated movements of the age, movements Westerns,” draw on this idea of “changing currents” and “complex and interacting so gradual that often only the passing years can reveal the truth about the influences of the time,” to explore how the genre of Western films (considered specifically fact and its right to a place on the historian’s page. an American one) evolves, expands, and incorporates the tenor of its times from alternative, —Frederick Jackson Turner1 innovative, and cross cultural perspectives within the United States and from around the world. The films analyzed in these articles from the early 1950s to the present often frame Frederick Jackson Turner, the American historian best known for the “frontier thesis,” the American West as a space for audiences to think through social, political, economic, that the Encyclopedia Britannica considers “[t]he single most influential interpretation racial, and environmental issues of their contemporaneous times. Despite the genre’s of the American past, [for] it proposed that the distinctiveness of the United States was malleable representations of life in the West over different decades, most audiences of 1. http://sunnycv.com/steve/text/civ/turner.html 2. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-Jackson-Turner 8 Vol. 13.3 (June 2021) the quint: an interdisciplinary quarterly from the north 9 Hollywood Westerns still perceive tropes of frontier expansionism, cowboy masculinity, the Western genre, these articles unpack its fusion with subgenres of Superhero, Horror, etc. as true American Western ideas that are fixed and enduring. In reality Western films, Wuxia, Science Fiction, and Bollywood films and their embodiment of the “spirit of the however, have been crossing new frontiers both within the United States and across Western” regardless of whether made or set in the United States, Europe, or Asia. cultures since their earliest iterations and continue their territorial expansion into new Westerns that offer alternate perspectives to the traditional or typical Western areas with each decade. In recent years, these forays have resulted in new scholarship reflect the changing political and economic landscape of America. While some regret on Alternate, Weird, Post, Neo, International, Global, Eastern, and Mid-East Westerns. the passing of a simpler era, they are not necessarily invested in nostalgic longing for the These areas of study have evolved in the wake of film productions that broke ground