The Western Film I chose to watch was Once Upon a Time in the West.  This movie was made in 1968, and it is set in a made up-town somewhere in Utah called “Flagstone.” It was filmed in a studio in Italy and in the Spanish desert. The overall theme of this film adheres to what most, if not all of America, believes to be stereotypical of the American West. We drew many of these same themes on the back of our maps in class on Monday. The idea of the American West was created to glorify the American people, especially white American men.  And most of these ideas have made their way into popular icons and themes created by the media through film.

First, I want to discuss the setting. The movie poster really does say it all. The movie is set in the frontier. The land is barren, harsh, and the town of Flagstone is very much isolated. It is equipped with all of the fantastic structures and furnishings that popular culture believes the west should have such as saloons, train stations, and old dusty wooden houses. The setting describes the life of the American Frontier. There are horses, railroads, covered wagons, and dirt roads. Everything that we believe to be “the west.”  The American West is dirty and wild, and in order to survive Americans had to adapt to the wilderness, or die, which makes us a strong and powerful people (maybe/maybe not).

Next, I want to discuss the characters. The characters of this western exhibit certain roles and icons of the “American West” including the role of men, women, and Indians. There are four main characters: three men and one woman. First, there’s Frank, played by Henry Fonda. Frank is a notorious murdering, gang-leading cowboy. Frank is the villain. Then there are the two hero figures, Cheyenne (Jason Robards) and Harmonica (Charles Bronson). Cheyenne is a bandit who has been wrongly accused of committing Frank’s crimes, and of course, he wants Frank dead. Harmonica is a mysterious, sharp shooting, stranger who speaks little and frequently plays sad songs on the harmonica. He also wants Frank dead. The lives of the men in this movie are quite glorified and fantastic.

Then there’s Jill or Mrs. McBain (Claudia Cardinale) who is the only female role in the film. Unsurprisingly, she is a beautiful buxom ex-prostitute who married one of her clients for his money. She plays a helpless role in the film. She ends up getting taken advantage of by Frank, and the only reason she’s alive is because Cheyenne and Harmonica protect her from harm. Remarkably, throughout the movie there are also African American and Native American slaves as well.

This brings me to my point of the idea of the American West being the ideal world for white American men. The idea of the American West avoids all of the contradictory parts of history such as Native American enslavement (driving them out of their lands) and Women’s rights. In this film, and many other western films, the Native Americans and the women are more than happy to be slaves to white men, and everyone seems pretty ok with it.

Much like Betsy Ross, I think the idea of the American West is kept alive because it is made to seem simple, easy, and entertaining.  The idea of good vs. evil, cowboys vs. Indians, and the “final frontier” is entertaining to America, and to the world. I think the reasoning behind the idea of the West makes sense, because although it isn’t really historically accurate, it seems to make America…well… American. In avoiding certain parts of history that make us look bad, through the media and through movies like Once Upon a Time in the West we can bring the image of the America we want everyone in the world to have, which I think is the idea of a durable, adaptable, and capable people.