Masculinities in American Western Films, 1950-1972: a Hyper-Linear History
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Masculinities in American Western films, 1950-1972: A Hyper-Linear History Emma Louise Hamilton (BA Hons I) Candidate in the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2013 The University of Newcastle Australia The thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. I give consent to the final version of my thesis being made available worldwide when deposited in the University’s Digital Repository**, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. **Unless an Embargo has been approved for a determined period. 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to dedicate this doctoral dissertation to Mark Hamilton who inspired this thesis, perhaps in unintended and unexpected ways. The opportunity to study and produce this work has only been facilitated by the enormous amount of support I have received by those kind enough to indulge me. This dissertation is a joint achievement and ‘thank you’ seems hardly adequate. I hope all of those people whose support is priceless know who they are and know they are appreciated beyond words. I wish to acknowledge the enormous contribution of my family in all of its forms. I wish to acknowledge the support of the family of my birth, in particular Maree Hamilton, whose loving support and trusted ear is a constant and who first exposed me to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. I wish to acknowledge the family I have gathered along the trail, in particular Gavin Fogarty. They certainly give life a great deal of colour. I wish to acknowledge my family at the University of Newcastle’s School of Humanities and Social Science. The support of fellow Research Higher Degree ‘soul brothers’ (especially Troy Saxby who read the early chapters of this thesis) is invaluable and has been given to me selflessly. Teaching staff at this University tirelessly demonstrate to their students not only their depth of insight but the value of giving one’s time, attention and care to others. In so doing they not only grant students a world-class education but also shape them as people. In particular I wish to acknowledge the contribution of Dr Josephine May who, over the course of eight years, has helped to equip me with the tools to better understand my own lived experiences. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 5 Chapter 1 Introduction 6 On the Interdisciplinary Trail, Heading West 11 The Interdisciplinary Trail Divides 15 Hyper-linearity: Theoretical Understandings of History on Film 19 Chapter 2 Gender, History and the West: Hyper-linear Theory and Method 27 Methodological Underpinnings 29 Hyper-Linearity: Practical understandings of the link between past and present 31 Conclusion 54 Chapter 3 “He’s Not a Man! He’s a Sack of Money!” Corporatism and the Male Breadwinner 56 “Money Splits Better Two Ways Instead of Three”: Economic Disenfranchisement in The Naked Spur 58 Contextualising the Emasculated Western Protagonist in the Capitalist Arena 67 “Won’t Ya Do Me?” White men competing with women and minorities 75 Conclusion 78 Chapter 4 “Back Home They Think I’m Very Strange. I’m a Feminist”: Re-Evaluating the Feminine ‘Other’ 80 Women’s roles in real West and reel West 82 The women of High Noon 93 Conclusion 103 Chapter 5 “Ain’t Nothing But a Red Hide Nigger”: Representing Native American-White Stereotypes in the ‘Pro Indian’ Western Cycle 105 Interpreting the Pro-Indian Western Cycle 106 3 “Say Something Pretty: Representing Stereotypes and Race Relations in The Unforgiven and Soldier Blue 109 “Since Cain slew his brother”: Situating Stereotypes within Historical Contexts 129 Conclusion 135 Chapter 6 “A Pistol Don’t Make a Man”: Technology and Masculine Gender Performance 137 Gun Technology, Gender Performance and Hyper-linearity 144 Gun Technology, Masculine Gender Performance and The Wild Bunch 158 Conclusion 165 Chapter 7 “Who Are Those Guys?” Understanding American Intervention in the ‘South of the Border’ Western 167 “A Little Short of Brotherly Love” on the Home Front 171 American men dying bloody in Bolivia 185 Conclusion 192 Chapter 8 “As Unmarked As Their Place in History”: Black Westerns, An Alternative History of Masculinities? 195 “They’re gonna give us nothin’”: Constructing black history in Buck and the Preacher 201 “I’ve got my reputation to think about”: Production context, stereotype and a resurging masculinity in Buck and the Preacher 211 Conclusion 224 Chapter 9 Conclusions 227 Bibliography 238 Primary sources 238 Secondary sources 243 Books Journal articles, chapters in edited collections and published papers Newspapers and magazines Appendix A 265 4 Abstract This thesis puts forward a unique paradigm for understanding the nature of history on film: hyper-linear history. Whilst previous conceptualisations of history on film have tended to emphasise either the possibility for film to represent the past ‘as it was’ or the capacity for film to only represent contemporary concerns this thesis proposes an alternative. This alternative is hyper-linearity, whereby films construct historical connections between the represented past and the period of the filmic release for the purpose of illuminating historical relationships between the two temporalities. Thus, just as historical revisionism in other mediums reflects an attempt to understand the past in a way that is tempered by the present context of the historian, a hyper-linear understanding impresses the capacity of film to construct meaningful historical relationships that privilege both the past and the present. A hyper-linear paradigm creates the possibility of seeing film as a vehicle that makes the significance of the past immediately explicit and relevant, rendering historical understandings complex. This sits at odds with an understanding of the filmic past as removed from historical ‘reality’. Hyper-linear history is explored in this thesis through an analysis of American Western films released between 1950 and 1972. Specifically, it is argued that hyper- linear history is communicated not only through explicit historical cues that locate films in a distinct place and time but, more importantly, through the conceptualisation of masculine gender performance as a distinctly historical category. In Westerns masculinity is conceived as both a form of personal identity and a manifestation of national forms of identity; as both a mediator of an individual’s access to power and as reflective of broader patriarchal institutional power relationships; and, thus, as a historical connection between past attitudes, identities and modes of being and then- contemporary concerns regarding hegemonic masculinity and its manifestation in national values. The thesis argues that examining hyper-linearity through the prism of gender allows distinct connections to be made between the represented post-Civil War past and the then-contemporary Civil Rights movement present; particularly that each period presented white American men, and associated patriarchal institutions, with a gendered crisis that caused enormous fissures in men’s personal identities and left tears in the national fabric. This hyper-linear history on film thus provides insight into the ways in which masculinities are performed and gender crises expressed, explored, and ultimately resolved to meet patriarchal ends. 5 Chapter 1 Introduction No historian can fail to acknowledge the enormous and transformative potential modern audio-visual media may have on the conceptualization and communication of historical ideas. Nor can historians ignore that film raises important, perhaps discipline re-defining questions, regarding what history is and how it is validly transmitted. Indeed, the way in which the filmic medium is approached by historians today will directly impact on the histories we write tomorrow and the continued relevance of the discipline beyond the academic sphere. Certainly, central in the debate over the uses of film in telling history are pedagogical concerns regarding the increasing use of film as an educational tool. This debate critiques the capacity of cinema to carry an adequate information load, to prioritize historical content, and to engage skills of critical analysis in classrooms where time, expertise and individualized attention may be lacking. For some, it can be disturbing that not only do historical films feature as popular adult entertainment that doubles as historical education but, more importantly, that the future guardians of the past, children, are increasingly educated about history through the use of film.1 The historical film clearly cuts very close to the bone for historians; practically, theoretically, emotionally. I began to grapple with the implications historical film has on our ideas of history while conducting a study of the iconic Western, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969), a film which won four Oscars and enjoyed enormous box-office success. The film, based on actual characters and events, follows the two bandits of the title, Butch (Paul Newman), the brains, and gunslinger, Sundance Kid (Robert Redford), through their bumbling criminal career, which culminates in their exile in Bolivia. The film finishes with the pair captured freeze- framed, guns drawn against the certain death of the surrounding police force. Although ostensibly a case study of the ways in which gender is historicised in Western films, concepts of historical time became critical to the analysis. How is history constructed in the Western? How is it connected to the present? What role does the gendered representation of the iconic cowboy have in communicating 1 Scott Alan Metzger, “Pedagogy and the Historical Feature Film: Toward Historical Literacy,” Film & History 37 (2007): 67-68. 6 historical ideas? What happens when the lights go down and we are left alone with these images on the screen? This thesis undertakes a two-fold analysis inspired by these questions and concerns.