Introduction
It is hard for some people to consider Western movies as good sources of information, successful explanations of ethical and philosophical issues, and powerful examples of a true life because of a number of shooting scenes, blood, and speed offered in such movies. However, it is necessary to underline that Western movies contain a list of interesting dialogues and monologs that help to comprehend the characters and situations better. Besides, directors try to use specific techniques, personal evaluations, sound effects, and even light in order to demonstrate the true potential of Western movies and the role of actors and their characters in the film industry. As a rule, there are certain common narrative conventions in Westerns including characters, which usually include a hero, a villain or several villains, a victim or several victims at the same time, a setting that is usually a desert or a small town close to a desert, a simple storyline that tells about a hero who comes to a new place in order to save or help people or ask for justice, and a conflict that makes people take some actions and change their lives.
In this paper, two powerful movies, The Searchers and McCabe & Mrs. Miller will be investigated and examined in terms of their shots, sequences, and uses of sound in order to comprehend how Westerns could depict human nature and explain human behavior in an American mid-west remote town and a desert where a close interrelation of such concepts as love, sex, guns, betrayal, loyalty, transiency, and purposefulness confuse and inspire people of both genders and all ages. The two movies were introduced by different directors in the middle of the 1900s and became the examples of true American revisionist Westerns where the heroes such as Ethan Edwards from The Searchers and John McCabe from McCabe & Mrs. Miller could demonstrate their cold killer attitudes and warm, humanistic natures at the same time.
Classic Western Peculiarities
There is no doubt that the history of Wild West is the history of the majority of Americans. Many ordinary people like to compare themselves with cowboys or other heroes they could observe on screens. Besides, young people find it interesting to copy some smart phrases of the main characters or pay attention to the behavioral peculiarities. It is also impossible to avoid the fact that all Westerns describe the symbolic conflict between good and evil. There is always one good guy or even a team of good guys who have to fight against a villain.
In both shots, the director wants to underline the connection between people and nature. On the one hand, there are two good guys who want to save a girl and promote justice. They are as strong as the rocks behind them. They could protect other people and could be helpless in case someone decides to destroy them. However, the rocks, as well as the characters of The Searchers, are ready to use all their opportunities and powers to protect themselves and stand till the end. On the other hand, in the shot with an antagonist, it is introduced in front of the sky that symbolizes freedom, power, and the inability to be caught. At the same time, though people could not make the wind stop, they could always resist it. Rocks seem to be a good option to rely on and create the required portion of the defense. Therefore, the symbolic comparison of the two shots proves how attentive to the details the director of the movie, John Ford, is.
In the majority of Westerns, it is expected that good has to gain a tremendous triumph over evil, many Westerns’ directors and writers neglect this fact and introduce the ending scenes that are far from being good and justified. Antagonists and protagonists could die unexpectedly, and the morality of stories could be distorted or misunderstood. Revisionist Westerns break all rules and depict the stories that cannot be accepted by a person who wants to believe in fair justice, love, and happiness.
The Searchers and McCabe & Mrs. Miller are claimed to be the best representatives of revisionist Westerns. Still, it is wrong to believe that these two movies could be compared in order to define their weaknesses and strengths. The Searchers is the movie of the late 1950s when the idea of revisionist Western was not properly understood and accepted. Though people believe that a new style should introduce new opportunities and establish some new boundaries, the characteristics of a revisionist Western are not as perfectly identified in The Searchers as they are in McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Still, such comparison should not mean that The Searchers is a better or a worse than McCabe & Mrs. Miller. It is enough to say that these movies are different in regards to the main characters and their principles supported by the protagonists and antagonists.
A revisionist Western is a reaction to the Westerns of the 1950s. It is an attempt to change the traditions and use the same moves, ideas, and talents to describe another side of a human life. This type of movie differs from other styles by its dark visual elements, the presence of a cynical tone in dialogues, and the inability to underline the importance of romanticism when numerous realistic aspects are in favor. In comparison to classic Westerns where the conflicts between Native Americans and cowboys are developed on a desert land, revisionist Westerns do not focus on such conflicts but underline the necessity to kill or be killed in order to prove the chosen position. Anyway, all Westerns have to deal with human lives and the intentions to find out the truth even if it does not correspond to well-known principles and social norms.
True Western Heroes in The Searchers and McCabe & Mrs. Miller
With no doubts, McCabe & Mrs. Miller is one of the best examples of how a successful revisionist Western could look like: negligence, dust, smog, and boundaries.
The main character, John McCabe, demonstrates all important characteristics of a revisionist Western including a massive bowler hat that replaces an ordinary cowboy hat, a beard of a protagonist, a white shirt with a tie, and the attempts to do business without guns. The image of John McCabe does not look like the image of cowboys people used to see. Regarding all that mud the characters have to live in McCabe tries to look stylish and clean. For example, in the shot from the casino, McCabe wants to demonstrate his intentions to win and become some kind of the best representative in the society he has to exist. People around look ordinary: no beards, clean shirts, and even cigars. McCabe, in his turn, does not find appropriate to put his elbows on the table or keep his face open and available to everyone. It seems like he is expecting for something he could not control fully. Therefore, he wants to stay prepared and cautious because he is doing business here (McCabe & Mrs. Miller). Even the sounds chosen by the director make the character distinguishing from others: his speech is short and clear, and his tone is confident.
At first glance, the character of Warren Beatty, John McCabe, has nothing in common with the character Ethan Edwards, introduced by John Wayne in The Searchers. Two different styles of life are described. Two different methods of negotiations are offered. Two stories have absolutely different endings. Ethan Edwards is a true cowboy with a big hat, big gun, and big hopes to find out justice. He seems not to care about his look and style. However, there are no shortages in his look. He knows how and when to use the gun. He does not want to make a mistake, and he understands that his actions, words, and decisions could attract one group of people and startle another group of people. Ethan is confident and goal-oriented. Still, he cannot neglect the power of a gun. Therefore, he tries to combine his emotions and abilities in order to make the correct decisions.
Ford’s and Altman’s Attempts to Update the Western Idea
In the discussions of the attempts made by Ford and Altman, who are the directors of the two movies chosen for the analysis, in order to alter or update the peculiar features of a classic Western, it is necessary to pay attention to the years of their creation. The Searchers is the movie created in 1956 when the idea of the revisionist Western was not fully introduced, and McCabe & Mrs. Miller is the movie introduced in 1971 when the revisionist Western concepts were already used by a number of other directors. Therefore, the experiences demonstrated by Ford and Altman could not be compared with each other. Still, they could be compared in terms of the possibilities of the directors and the expectations of viewers. The center topic of The Searchers is racism and the necessity to develop safe and normal relations between the representatives of different race. White settlers could not find agreements with Native Americans, and Native Americans could accept the fact that they had to divide their land and find alternatives.
Therefore, Native Americans tried to use all their powers and cruelty in order to prove their ideas. In the shot with the antagonist of the movie, it is evident that the director compares the qualities of Scar with nature. It is not enough to mention that Native Americans could be uncontrolled. It is important to explain why such control is impossible. Wind, as well as Scar, cannot be caught or stopped. It could not be destroyed or neglected. At the same time, it is a part of the world, and white people, regardless their true intentions and justice, have to accept it with its own rules. Another example is observed in the ending scene of the movie when all characters enter the dark room in order to continue living their lives, and Ethan chooses to stay outside and be as free as the desert outside. Therefore, it is possible to believe that the peculiar feature of The Searchers lies in the intentions of the director to improve the connection between a human and nature in a Western. Ford updates the visual aspect of the classic Western.
In McCabe & Mrs. Miller, there are many details that distinguish this work from other American Westerns. First of all, the title of the movie attracts the attention. The creators of the movie decide to make a female as one of the protagonists and even include her name in the title.
It was a new tactic to make a married woman a center of a Western story in the middle of the 1900s. However, it is not the only peculiar feature. McCabe & Mrs. Miller is full of scratchy looks and flashes that make the movie unusual. However, one of the most influential changed made by Altman in his work is the attention to the conversations of the characters. Instead of making the actors talk line by line, Altman decides to use naturalistic conversations and overlapping dialogues. There are many background voices in almost every shot. Such decision makes the movie real. In the real world, people do not speak line by line and wait their turn to say something important. They usually like to interrupt and stammer, cry and keep silence, say out loud and whisper. Therefore, it could be said that the communicative aspect of classic Westerns is successfully updated by Altman.
The Searchers: Conflict between the Cavalry and the Native Americans in Westerns
The role of each character in the movie is crucial indeed. As a rule, the directors take responsibility for the actors chosen, and the actors have to do their best to introduce and disclose the characters. John Wayne introduces Ethan in its best possible way. He is a strong and confident man that follows its principles and tries to achieve the goals. He is under the power of his two beginnings: a kind humanistic nature and a cruel cowboy responsibility. He cannot leave his personal contradictions as they are. Therefore, he has to solve his personal conflicts in order to be ready to find the solution for the conflicts that exist between the Cavalry and Native Americans. Unfortunately, there is no other way to be used in Native Americans-Cavalry relations except the necessity to kill or be killed. It is not a difficult task for Ethan to take someone’s life. However, there should be a serious reason and an explanation for why murder is the only way out. Besides, the character of Wayne is one of those who is ready to kill a young woman even if she is a relative just because she cannot accept some other way of living except the easiest (The Searchers).
McCabe & Mrs. Miller: New Hollywood Western and the Possibility to Break the Boundaries
The characters of McCabe & Mrs. Miller could also be introduced as true heroes in their own sense. Though McCabe does not save people, and Mrs. Miller does not become an example of a kind and loyal woman, these two characters help to understand that personal demands and opportunities cannot be appropriate to the current living conditions and available resources. Altman does not want to create the heroes. What he tries to do is to introduce a real world from a Western point of view and point out the place of a man and the place of a woman in this world. The results turn out to be depressive still realistic. If a man comes to the world that does not belong him, his numerous attempts to conquer it could result in nothing but death. A woman, in her turn, cannot exist without a right man and be under a threat of being forgotten or mingled with the crowd.
Revisionist Westerns Movement and Its Critical Impulses
In the 1960s, a number of American Westerns contained various revisionist themes including the respect to real activities and challenges, the inability to avoid death, and the necessity to accept the truth but not to expect that a good ending comes. Revisionist Westerns turn out to be the movies where the critique of American society and the establishment of new values play an important role. Though the cinematography is not perfect in both movies, it seems like the creators want it to be this way. Sepia tinting and the usage of muddy rustic settings in the movies are the main technological characteristics of the short-lived movement under consideration. In the movie like The Searchers, there is no need to search for some high-technological aspects and moves. Much attention is paid to mise-en-scene and the abilities to tell a story. An actor has to take the required position, and a director has to check the work of a cameraman in order to make sure that enough light is used, and enough backgrounds are offered. The viewer does not get a chance to learn the intention of the director of Westerns. People usually enjoy the already offered piece of work and use their imagination to understand why a certain decision should be made.
Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a part of a New Hollywood Western. Still, the decisions made by the director could not be understood by a number of critics and fans. Altman does not find it necessary to correct the mistakes and choose the techniques and specialized effects that could improve the picture and remove all unnecessary sounds. McCabe & Mrs. Miller is the movie where the shortages of an ordinary human life still matter. Such decision could be approved by the intentions of the director to stay as realistic as possible.
Conclusion
In general, such movies as The Searchers and McCabe & Mrs. Miller help to understand one simple truth that there are no similar Westerns. Each American Western is a new possibility to look at the same issues under another angle. People could use their guns to solve their problems, and they could kill each other accidentally or on purpose. However, they cannot avoid the fact that all their lives and actions should have a meaning. Ford offers to find out the meaning in the unification of a person with nature and the creation of the symbols that could fulfill a human life. Altman introduces a new reality of Western movies and proves that background sound and voices, as well as mud and uncertainty, cannot be neglected in movies because they are the crucial elements in life.
Works Cited
McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Directed by Robert Altman, performances by Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, Warner Brothers, 1971.
The Searchers. Directed by John Ford, performances by John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, and Vera Miles, Warner Brothers, 1956.