John Wayne, long after his death, remains one of the most beloved figures in American cinema. His portrayal of the American cowboy has left an everlasting impact on the image of the western frontier in the United States. Sue Matheson, in her article "The West-Hardboiled," disects Wayne's films and characters to reveal that although the portrayals in the films seem simple, they are more complex than initially thought.
Matheson first discusses the importance that landscape plays in western films. "Dominating the frames, Monument Valley fills as mush as two thirds of the camera shots." (890) The American cowboy and the western frontier share a unqique bond with one another that is ever present in western films. She points out that the land gives a freedom to the cowboys that modern society would not allow them. This allows the cowboy to live in a society based on their own rules and regulations without any regard to the written law of society. "Only the fittest, the strongest, and the most ruthless survive in the noir frontier." (891)
This freedom, Matheson points out, allows for Wayne's characters to become partially corrupt according to "civilized" codes while still being an ethical and virtuous human being. She states, "In Wayne's Westerns, the American frontiers is a violent broad spectrum of misfits, amound them misogynists, misandrists, and murderers." (891) Many times, characters in western films are forced to carry out criminal acts for the greater good. In the film, The Searchers, the alpha male cowboy, Ethan, was close to killing his neice for reasons he considered to be virtuous. This "double bind" that Ethan found himself in is extremely common in western films, as the characters try to find themselves through trial after trial that a harsh society and frontier present them with.
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