”Where´s The Posse?”
I2Q February 2015 editorial

Cowboy films or spaghetti westerns have become scarce in the past few years. Of course there are the classics from decades past with larger than life actors like Yul Brenner, Gary Cooper and Clint Eastwood among others. But what about today? I have three classics in mind from decades past that people should see. They are “High Noon”, “The magnificent Seven” and “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”. These are three action-packed westerns with great actors and even better scripts. They are also classics in the genre.

A good western will have several themes and archetypes. Firstly, it will not portray Native Americans as savages to be exterminated by the civilized Europeans. That stereotype insults our intelligence and destroys the credibility of the hero.

Next are the themes of the cowboy(s) bringing law and/ or justice to a corrupt town. Very often in the story you have a group of bandits or corrupt officials who hold the town hostage in some way and only a skilled gunslinger can set them free. The cowboy is usually a drifter with a past and a clear sense of right and wrong. Often he/she is underestimated and lured into conflict which ultimately results in the downfall of the wicked.

There is also the theme of the cowboy living a life of action and skirting the boundaries of the law and sometimes crossing that line and being an outlaw. Whether it´s hunting for treasure, being a bounty hunter or robbing banks, peril is a way of life for the protagonists in westerns. He/she lives life on a razor´s edge.

The protagonist in westerns can be a drifter looking for work, sheriff, bounty hunter, hired gun or cattle hand. They need only be courageous with a sense of justice or a need for revenge. They also need to be good with a pistol, in some cases preternaturally good, and have a sharp mind.

The truth about the real wild-west is a lot less fantastic than in the movies. Most gunfights ended quickly with one gunslinger shooting his adversary in the back or ambushing them. Also gun battles didn´t last very long with the same pistol because the metal would heat up and the barrel would start to warp. Corruption was rampant and justice was fickle. Many were hanged for suspicion of a crime, like cattle rustling, without the benefit of a fair trial.

Land theft was also very common. One of the biggest cases of land theft in US history (by an individual) was the case of James Bowie, who ended up fighting and dying at the Alamo. He called himself a “land speculator” but what he was really doing was stealing property titles of large territories of land. The famous Bowie knife was named after him.

Western films are like a variation of the action film genre. Some are really well-done and are worth seeing. I hope some of the great storytellers decide to make a few more westerns for this generation of readers and movie-goers.

(Commentary by www.ink2quill.com )
I2Q

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