There is nothing more ostensibly American than apple pie, baseball, and ‘cowboys versus Indians’. Over the ever-changing course of the American Western film genre, two codes have remained center— the depiction of the cowboy and that of its rival, the Native Americans. Though center, these two codes do not remain stagnant with the genre, but rather change in conjunction with the genre’s willingness to promote American ideals; “Among Hollywood genres, the Western is far and away the most comfortable propounding ideas about American historical and political life” (Simmon 103).
The classic characterization of ‘cowboys versus Indians’ in films is a visual metaphor meant to perpetuate American’s then current viewpoints regarding heroism and otherness, which changes alongside history. Particularly, from the genre’s transformation from Post-Classical Westerns into modern Revisionist Westerns, the transformation of the portrayal of the cowboys and indigenous peoples is made evident in the paralleling of then current historical events. Surrounding the release of John Ford’s Rio Grande in 1950, the nation was in the post-World War II transformation era, also beginning the Cold War with Communist Russia. In progression, the 1970’s America had seen major changes in human rights, yet was also experiencing the Vietnam War, reflected in Ralph Nelson’s Solider Blue (Chafe).
As the Western genre moved from Post-Classical to Modernism, the depiction of ‘cowboys and Indians” molded around American ideals of the day, the cowboys being used to visually represent the American way and the Native Americans acting as America’s real-world antagonist, the genre being affected by the political and social events that afflicted American citizens.
Classically, Western films tend to follow a fairly similar and easily identifiable pattern, revolving around the opposing ideals of civility and savageness, shown in an adventure-like style that is set on the American frontier. These Classical Westerns tend to emphasize the primitive and violent nature of the indigenous peoples in contrast to the noble cowboy, drawing a heavy distinction between the two groups. Yet, as the 1950’s approached, the Classical Western transitioned into the Post-Classical period, which meant it the genre began to question its own myths and traditions.
Following the Post-Classical came more introspective Westerns, being a part of the Modernist period. Within this Modernist period came about Revisionist Westerns which depict the codes and tropes of the Classical and Post Classical Western in such a way that draws criticism to these traditions. Whereas a movie like Rio Grande, which is in the Post-Classical categorization, still somewhat idealizes the classic ‘Old West’, perpetuating America’s obsession with expansion and a hero on the frontier, the Revisionist Western, like Soldier Blue, points out the flaws within such a dream, being typically darker and more reflective (Lusted).
In relation to historical context, Post-Classical Westerns and Revisionist Westerns arose out of very different Americas. Post-Classical Westerns were prevalent from the late 1940’s up unto the 1960’s, a time when America was experiencing the tensions of the Cold War, President Truman expressing it to be “a battle between good and evil” (Chafe). The effects of the strained relations between the Americans and Communists were seen not only abroad in the American’s policy of ‘containment’, meant to thwart the spread of Communist ideals overseas, but also at the home-front, with McCarthyism. During the 1970’s, when the Revisionist Western took off, Americans had just witnessed the Civil Rights Movement and had entered into the Vietnam War (Chafe).
In conjunction with the Vietnam War was the televising of American brutality towards the Vietnamese, the war being referenced to as “the First Television War” (Kratz). This coverage broke down the American idolization of war through revealing the harsher realities of forced unification and the atrocities that American men were committing for an ignoble cause (Kratz). These historical events, which showed direct confrontation between American ideals against an ‘other’, were vital in shaping and reshaping the depictions of Western’s cowboys and Native Americans.
As exemplified through Ford’s Rio Grande, the cowboys of Post-Classical Westerns were that of morally upright men whom were wary of the use of violence and aware of their duty. Firstly, relating to the films’s bloodshed, many Post-Classical Westerns “dwell explicitly on whether violence is an appropriate means of resolving the various crises defined in their plots” (Corkin 95), some of this being attributed to Americans being worn of the horrors and violence that occurred in World War II. Ford makes these ideals evident though his portrayal of the ‘cowboy’, Lieutenant Colonel Yorke, a man who would rather maintain the established boundaries and diplomatic relations with the surrounding nations/groups before even having to think of exercising force.
Furthermore, this decreased interest in violence lends itself to an upheld morality by those in power. Yorke’s fairly unwavering moral compass is seen in his apprehension in crossing into Apache territory, his offering of medical supplies to the Mexican calvary, as well as his upstanding treatment of his estranged wife, showing authority to not just be a harsh hand punishing crime, but a fair and just diplomat. Ford also reveals the ‘cowboy’s’ heightened awareness towards duty; “It’s a life of suffering and of hardship and uncompromising devotion to your oath and your duty” (Rio Grande). The Post-Classical Western still somewhat idealized the hero of the West, but it morphed these heroes into being less of rustic gunslingers and, in Ford’s case, men of the American Calvary.
The highlighting of the Post-Classical Western’s ‘cowboy’s’ strengthened morality, his decreased desire for bloodshed, and sense of duty is meant to symbolize America’s role as the superior moral and ideological authority in the Cold War, having a duty towards stopping the spread of communist ideals whilst also reflecting upon the public’s apprehension towards violence post-WWII.
In contest to the Post-Classical cowboy is the Post-Classical Native Americans, which were often portrayed as being in-between humanness and savageness, being passionate in battle, and being in contention with white society. In Rio Grande, Ford makes a clear distinction between the ‘savage’ Apaches, those that targeted a caravan of women and children, versus those that work as scouts for the calvary, emphasizing this in-between status of human and ‘other’. Also, the Native Americans are depicted as being the instigators of the conflict between the cowboys and indigenous peoples, the Apache performing surprise attacks without motive.
Also, Ford makes sure to show the tension between the Native Americans and the cowboys through not only outward differences, but those of conflicting culture, such as when the Apache were performing a ritual at the creek in their native tongue, yet were told to stop by Sergeant Major Quincannon out of fear of not knowing what their ritual meant. The indigenous peoples’s blurred status as both human and ‘savage’, alongside their passion in fighting and contention with the dominant society, made them out to be viewed as uncivilized, only understanding outcomes from violence; “I’m tired of hit-and-run. I’m sick of diplomatic hide-and-seek” (Rio Grande).
The Post-Classical depiction of Native Americans paralleled American’s views of the Soviets, being ruthless and beyond diplomatic reasoning; “portraying the Indians as people who ‘fight so fierce for their country’, the comparisons is made with another Red Menace interested in a hostile takeover” (Herzberg 144).
Over the course of twenty years, the Post-Classical view of cowboys drastically changed with the Revisionist Western, morphing that of an upright, honorable man of duty to one that is barbaric, ignorant, and a ‘savage’. Nelson’s depiction of Honus Grant, an American calvary officer, alongside his calvary group, in Solider Blue helps to showcase the more reflectively modernist view of the cowboy. With regards to ignorance, Grant often acts as though he knows better, is more educated, for he is not only a white man, but a private, yet Cresta makes clear his naive tendencies. He is unaware of the actual Cheyenne ways of life and customs as well as is blind to the white man’s unprecedented brutality against a peaceful people.
Prior to Cresta, Grant believed what his calvary group and socialization brought him up to believe; that the ‘other’, the indigenous people, were ruthless and inhumane, deserving of the force used against them. Yet, this common viewpoint is flipped as the barbaric nature of the modernist cowboy is seen in the end battle between the Cheyenne and the calvary, for the cowboys acted sadistically in their firing at the Cheyenne chief whilst he approached in peace, their raping and mutilation of the native women, as well as the heartless murdering of innocent children.
This mix of ignorance and barbarism mirrored American’s feelings towards their own national ideals at the time, the cowboy becoming a stand-in for societal values that were used to prohibit liberalized progress in civil rights, both at the home-front as well as in Vietnam. Revisionist cowboys reveal the trend in the genre to see “glory more compellingly as a matter of the U.S. past and not of its future” (Corkin 206) for many citizens during the Vietnam War got “a more realistic glimpse into the lives of their soldiers, and they didn’t like what they saw” (Kratz). Like television screen, like movie screen; their Americans’s solider fighting the Viet Cong were cast in a negative light, therefore so were their cowboys.
With the Revisionist cowboy taking on the more ruthless role, the Native Americans in the Modernist period were able to be portrayed in a more humane and civilized manner, no longer being emphasized as “misguided Indians” (Corkin 239). Cresta in Solider Blue is key to seeing the humanity in the Cheyenne for she relentlessly defends, them not only verbally, but physically during the movie’s ending raid and massacre. She speaks of how they embraced her as a part of their tribe, treating her with respect and kindness, instead of Grant’s assumption that she was tortured and raped by them. Also, Nelson makes clear that not only are the Cheyenne human, but civilized enough to have a distinct and respectable culture, evident in Cresta learning and communicating with them in their native tongue.
The Cheyenne’s humanity is too seen in the chief saying “we want no war”(Rio Grande) and choosing to greet the calvary in peace, seen in his riding towards them with their flag and medallion of friendship as clear signs of order and diplomacy. This more progressive portrayal of the Native Americans is meant to provoke sympathy for those in Vietnam that the American soldiers were ruthlessly murdering; “the American Indian of the movies fought a misguided American military policy onscreen” (Herzberg 193). The Cheyenne were meant to be the symbolic counter piece to the barbaric military, being peoples misrepresented by the dominant culture, resulting in their civilization’s demise, similar to how Americans saw their effects in Vietnam.
Through the quite varying depictions of the ‘cowboys and Indians’ in Rio Grande and Soldier Blue, one is better able to see the growth of the Western genre in conjunction to common tropes of the periods and the socio-political atmosphere of the day. The Post-Classical period cowboy was one that American’s could be proud of, only choosing violence to fight off peoples made out to be worthy of a violent response. This characterization and dynamic is one that focuses upon identification with the ‘cowboys’ which creates a storyline built for some sort awe towards the nation, being fairly typically of Post-Classical Westerns.
Also, the relation between the indigenous peoples and calvary leaves little grey area, there being a distinct difference between an ostensibly universal good versus that of a bad, being too how Americans viewed Communism. In comparison to the Revisionist Western, the roles are seemingly reversed with the Native Americans having the honor and civilization of the Post-Classical ‘cowboy’ whereas the Modernist ‘cowboy’ has the barbarism associated typically with the ‘savage Indian’. This period of genre tended to be more reflective, which is made evident in this role reversal, as well as the ruthless transgressions against obvious cries for peace.
The qualities of Revisionist Westerns stray so far from the norm of what is considered a “Western” that they critique the genre and how the audience views its situations and characters, in particular bringing into focus the misrepresentation of indigenous peoples as violent and uncivilized as well as the misrepresentation of ‘cowboys’ as being moral and dutiful. This self questioning mirrored its viewer’s self questioning regarding seeing the deplorable actions of the American soldiers in Vietnam.
Across periods, the Western genre works in that it gives American’s a view of themselves in conjunction with the time. Its evolution alongside major American events, both international and domestic, allow its audience to self identify with one of its two main character groups, the ‘cowboys and Indians’, whilst simultaneously also getting to purge their hatred for one of the groups. In the Post-Classical Western, one could identify with the honor and morality of the ‘cowboy’ and experience too the hatred of the uncivilized and violent Apache, mirroring Americans’s self view of superiority in the Cold War versus undiplomatic and ruthless Soviets. Twenty years later, this system still worked, though slightly different, as American audiences could see their sadistic nature against other cultures and choose then too hate themselves.
So, even though the characterization has changed in presentation in Westerns over the course of filmic periods in order to mirror historical and political traits of the day, its purpose has still stayed the same; to give the audience real world analogies to root for and another against— the Western genre still working through its classic ‘cowboys versus Indians’.
