West- Hardboiled- ER

In “The West-Hardboiled: Adaptations of Film Noir Elements, Existentialism, and Ethics in John Wayne’s Westerns”, Sue Matheson discusses the underlying things that an audience can learn from a John Wayne Western. Matheson states that in film noir, the scenery often reflects the thoughts and emotions of the lead role. She then uses The Searchers as an example of film noir by explaining how the rocks and sand were a bloody red color that interprets the bloody nature of vengeance.

Landscape plays an important role in Westerns but clothing also plays an important role. A character’s cleanliness can reveal their true nature. Martin Pumphrey states that heroes are not “stained, grimy, or disheveled in the style of the rough, unmannered villains. Heroes may be dusty but not dirty. Their clothes may be worn but not greasy. They seldom sweat. Above all, they have always just shaved” (53).  Generally, the level of filthiness a character has usually portrays how dark his/her heart is. The same could be said of extreme cleanliness in Westerns. When a male character is too clean in the West, it “marks a male as weak, aberrant, [and] narcissistic” (55,56). Matheson further explains that the men who are obsessively clean usually wear costumes. These characters never change their clothing because their identity never changes. Therefore,  there is no room for personal growth.