Dream West: Politics and Religion in Cowboy MoviesDouglasBrode. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013.

Abstract

Dream West: Politics and Religion in Cowboy Movies Douglas Brode. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013.The Western genre has almost disappeared from the silver screen, but, in Dream West, Douglas Brode, a novelist, screenwriter, journalist, and professor at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications, argues that the genre continues to cast a giant shadow over American politics. Employing the current media tendency to characterize states as blue, liberal, and Democratic, or red, conservative, and Republican, he suggests that contemporary politicians tend to misinterpret the historical West as well as the imagined Flollywood West in an effort to justify ideological positions. Challenging the conventional wisdom of the film as embracing conservative values, Brode maintains that a close reading of the Western genre suggests a more liberal interpretation of Hollywood's Western film.To support this argument, Brode demonstrates an impressive grasp of Hollywood Westerns from the silent era into the twenty-first century. For example, in cinematic depictions of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral between the Earp and Clanton clans, Brode points out that one of the background reasons for the conflict was the attempt of the Earps, representing the legal establishment, to disarm the rebellious cowboys. Thus, films such as John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946), which tells the story from the perspective of the Earps, actually end up supporting more liberal policies such as gun control.Expanding upon his thesis, Brode also looks at BWesterns from the 1930s starring Gene Autry and often featuring greedy capitalists as villains threatening the Western environment. These films are not anticapitalist per se but are critical of business interests which are focused only upon profits and display no concern for the larger community. By and large, in these Autry films, the federal government is perceived as a benevolent force bringing civilization, order, and scientific progress to the West.Violence is, of course, a key theme in the Western genre, but Brode observes that, unlike the war-happy cowboy diplomacy with which liberals characterized the foreign policy of President George W. Bush, the Hollywood Western usually fails to embrace the idea of regeneration through violence. Thus, in more epic Westerns such as Duel in the Sun (1947) and Sea of Grass (1947), patriarchs who employ violence to resist federal policies are depicted as reactionaries. And when violence is necessary to tame evil, in such films as Shane (1953) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (1962), the protagonist who has employed violence to save the community is tainted with blood and, in a feminization of the West, is unable to enjoy the benefits of civilization. Violence is also often associated with vengeance, and Brode argues that the Hollywood Western suggests that heroes must follow the legal order rather than personal vengeance. For example, in Raoul Walsh's The Big Trail (1930), the hero must first honor his commitment to the community and wagon train before pursuing those who murdered his family.Religion is also often associated with the red state values of American exceptionalism and manifest destiny. But again, Brode cautions against reading the Hollywood Western as being unconditionally supportive of American expansionism and subduing the environment. He insists that romanticism exerts considerable influence upon the Western genre, encouraging an appreciation for nature and indigenous people who live in greater harmony with the earth. …