Western movies and their cultural significance

¶ … Western films, "Shane," made in 1953 and directed by George Stevens, and "Unforgiven," made in 1992 and directed by Clint Eastwood. Specifically, it will analyze the two films, and discuss their importance in the genre of Western films. Today, the classic Western is a film gone out of style, but these two films live on as classics, generally because they deviate from the classic Western model, by showing the characters three dimensionally, and the violence as real and devastating.

TWO WESTERN FILMS

"Shane" does not rely on elaborate sets and costuming to get its message across to viewers. One reviewer called the sets "spartan" and the language of the film "laconic." The characters of this Western make the film the classic that it has become. Shane is a man of few words, but much action, and he firmly stands behind his beliefs. From the opening scene, when he rides down into a valley with a huge chain of mountains behind him, the viewer understands that his character is larger than life, and it is right that he came down from the "mountaintops" to save the struggling family in the valley. He is larger than life to the small son (Brandon de Wilde), and he is larger than life to the settlers he is trying to protect. This makes him the ultimate hero, and the ultimate "good guy" of the Western.

The plot of the film is straight good vs. evil. The settlers are battling the evil ranchers, who want to run them off the land so they can graze their cattle. Shane helps the settlers stand up to the ranchers, and hold on to their land, the only thing they have of any value. Director Stevens later said he hoped to show the extreme violence in the film for what it was, and hoped people would stop glorifying it. "And it was a time, I remember, when kids had gone very Western. There were Western chaps and hats and cap guns everywhere . . . . We wanted to put the six-gun in its place, visually, in a period, as a dangerous weapon. And we did" (Sitton). The ending scene is heartbreaking, with Shane leaving the family he has come to love, and has come to love him, because of the violence he has brought with him.

Joey: Why, Shane?

Shane: A man has to be what he is, Joey. You can't break the mold. I tried it and it didn't work for me.

Joey: We want you, Shane.

Shane: Joey, there's no living with, with a killing. There's no going back from it. Right or wrong, it's a brand, a brand that sticks. There's no going back. Now you run on home to your mother and tell her, tell her everything's alright, and there aren't any more guns in the valley (Shane).

"Unforgiven" is another classic Western film, made at a time when Westerns were not the most popular genre for the film going public. With Clint Eastwood as star and director however, viewers knew they would get a violence-packed view of the West, and they were not disappointed. Eastwood chose to make his film dark and brooding, just like the character he plays, Munny, a gunfighter who settled down and turned soft.

The film was commercially successful at the time of its release and its acting was universally praised - it helped to revive the reputation of Westerns, becoming only the third Western ever to win the Best Picture Academy Award - two years earlier, another Western film Dances With Wolves (1990) took the top honor (Dirks).

Munny decides to take on one last job to earn money for his family. His wife is dead, and the viewer understands she is the one who made him into a real man, one who did not need to use guns to solve his problems. Now, he had forgotten how to shoot and ride, and he is getting older. He realizes violence is not the way to live.

Ain't the same, Ned. Claudia - she straightened me up, cleared me of drinkin' whiskey and all. Just cause we're goin' on this killing, that don't mean I'm gonna go back to bein' the way I was. I just need the money, get a new start for them youngsters...Ned, you remember that drover I shot through the mouth and his teeth came out the back of his head?...I think about him now and again. He didn't do anything to deserve to get shot, at least nothin' I could remember when I sobered up....Yeah, no one liked me. Mountain boys all thought I was gonna shoot 'em out of pure meanness (Unforgiven).

Although Munny resorts to violence for vengeance at the end of the movie, the viewer understands it will be the last time he uses a gun. He takes his family to San Francisco, and changes his life.

Both films use violence as part of the plot and theme, while speaking out against it. Each director tried to get their point across by making their characters real, with real flaws and real strengths, just like all people. Shane was a hero to those around him, but not to himself. Munny had a reputation as a "mean son of a bitch," which he cultivated until he retired, but he was really a kind man in his soul, who loved his wife and children, and hated injustice. Shane hated injustice too. He fought against evil; it was the only thing that seemed to make the violence worth it. That same theme fills "Unforgiven," too. Munny uses violence because it is his nature, and how he survived before, but afterwards, he leaves the area, and makes a new life with his children.