Ride the Frontier: Exploring the Myth of the American West on Screen

253 Pages·2021·5.891 MB·English

by  Flavia Brizio-Skov

Ride the Frontier

Ride the Frontier
Exploring the Myth
of the American West on Screen
Flavia B rizio-Skov
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
This book has undergone peer review.
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Brizio-Skov, Flavia, author.
Title: Ride the frontier : exploring the myth of the American West
on screen / Flavia Brizio-Skov.
Description: Jefferson, North Carolina : McFarland & Company, Inc.,
Publishers, 2021 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020051550 | ISBN 9781476683065
♾
(paperback : acid free paper)
ISBN 9781476641911 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Western films—History and criticism. | West (U.S.)—
In motion pictures.
Classification: LCC PN1995.9.W4 .B75 2021 | DDC 791.43/65878—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020051550
British Library cataloguing data are available
ISBN (print) 978-1-4766-8306-5
ISBN (ebook) 978-1-4766-4191-1
© 2021 Flavia Brizio-Skov. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Front cover image © 2021 Shutterstock/Silky
Printed in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
A David
e Esmeralda
A mio padre, mia madre, e a Vico in memoriam

Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Why the Western? 1
1. Transnational Adaptation, Transculturation and
Indigenization: Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest,
Carlo Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters,
Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo and Sergio Leone’s
A Fistful of Dollars 13
Prologue 13
The National 16
The Origins: Local and Translocal 22
The Transnational 26
Conclusion 42
2. Celluloid Indians, 1950s Westerns and the Termination Act:
Broken Arrow, White Feather, The Battle of Apache Pass,
Devil’s Doorway, The Last Wagon and The Last Hunt 45
Prologue 45
Broken Arrow (1950) 52
White Feather (1955) and The Battle of Apache Pass (1952) 57
Devil’s Doorway (1950) 59
The Last Wagon (1956) 67
The Last Hunt (1956) 74
Conclusion 79
3. Heroines in Western Films? Mikhail Bakhtin’s “Dialogic
Imagination” in Shane, High Noon and Westward the Women 84
Monoglossia: The Submissive Woman and Shane (1953) 89
Heteroglossia: The Transgressive Woman and High Noon
(1952) 93
X-glossia: Transformational Women and Westward the Women
(1951) 100
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Table of Contents
4. Hybridity and (De)Construction of Femininity
and Masculinity in Rancho Notorious, Johnny Guitar
and Duel in the Sun 109
Rancho Notorious: The Filmic Text (1952) 111
Johnny Guitar: Paratext 121
Johnny Guitar: Peritext and the Novel (1953) 123
Johnny Guitar: The Filmic Text (1954) 127
Duel in the Sun (1946): Paratext 136
Duel in the Sun: The Novel (1944) 139
Duel in the Sun: The Filmic Text (1946) 141
Patriarchy and Failed Masculinities 143
Patriarchy and Failed Femininities 146
Capitalism and Patriotism 149
5. New Paths of the Western in the Third Millennium:
The Lone Ranger, Yesterday and Today 152
The Western Genre Today 152
Enter The Lone Ranger: Prologue 155
The Lone Ranger Yesterday or How the West Was Conquered 156
The Lone Ranger (2013): Paratext 161
The Lone Ranger Today or How the West Was Lost 164
Chapter Notes 177
Bibliography 225
Index 233
viii
Acknowledgments
I am indebted to the College of Arts and Science of the University
of Tennessee for giving me the opportunity to commit two academic
years to writing while serving as a Resident Fellow at the University
of Tennessee Humanities Center. The fellowship was a rich and
productive time that allowed me to dedicate myself entirely to my
research and to bring my project to fruition. The opportunities
afforded by the fellowships of the Humanities Center are truly cen-
tral to the goals of the University Regents to elevate the University
of Tennessee system into one of the top 25 public university systems
in the country. I would like to acknowledge the importance that such
research opportunities provide for faculty members to complete large
projects.
Huge thanks are also due to my colleagues who have read, com-
mented, and discussed my writings with acumen and understanding,
sharing with me their knowledge and scholarship. I have cherished their
comments. They are friends and scholars from all over the world, united
by the same love for literature, cinema, and writing. I want to specif-
ically acknowledge Tom Heffernan, Frank Burke, Flavia Laviosa, Mark
Pietralunga, Anthony Tamburri, Ben Lawton, Paolo Russo, Susanna
Delfino, Fernando Fasce, Maria José de Lancastre, and Rocco Morano.
To them, and to many others not mentioned here, you have my personal
and professional gratitude.
I want to express my thanks to my husband, David, an engineer
in the Diplomatic Corps, who has a wonderful command of English
and always commented on my writing with incredible insight and
intelligence.
Last, but assuredly, not least, I thank, Gary Mitchem, senior editor
at McFarland, who, based on my experience with the editorial universe
acquired through many book projects, stands out as a rare exception.
ix