Yoshie writes:
> I'd say then that The Searchers was the
beginning of the end. Thriller, Film Noir,
Sci-fi, Horror, Action, etc. have survived the
civil rights movement and the sexual
revolution better than the Western did.
As far as the sexual revolution goes, these other genres were always more sexual than the Western. As I commented to an LBOster in an offlist email, films noirs contiue to thrive since they are based on the destabilization of the male through the presence/action of women, IN A LONELY PLACE by Nicholas Ray being a good example (though DELMER DAVES' DARK PASSAGE from the same time reverses the conceit).
The Western was mostly concerned with the destabilization of the male through confrontation with the Other.
> There have been attempts to do the Western
from a perspective other than the white guy's:
Posse; The Ballad of Little Jo; etc. But they
remain on the edge of the genre (or at odds with
its narrative conventions), rather than revitalizing
it by spawning more Black Westerns, more
feminist Westerns, etc.
But the Western has also migrated: THREE KINGS; ALIENS; OUTLAND are in many ways Westerns set in other landscapes.
> I'll be interested in seeing Brokeback Mountain --
the first (and last?) gay Western (where same-sex
love won't be the subtext but the text)?
Looked like a Lifetime movie explaining gays to straights to me. Though Ang Lee is admired by some, I find his work tedious. What we do not need right now is a movie showing the impossibility of queer love, but shows like NOAH'S ARK. We will get the endless reams of praise straights shower on themselves when they tackle queer issues, though those involved will always be sure to point out their heterosexual bonafides. Though I will admit that both boys are hunky, I can do witout Homo on the Range.
> The Searchers looms large because it basically
broke the genre.
It bent the genre, but didn't break it. You seem to have fallen under the spell of Fordism and all its excesses. Edwards still delivers his niece safely home and the ways of Native Americans are still sources of humor (though the problem here may be compounded by a Max Steiner score Ford had no control over).
> In what other Western would the protagonist declare
something like this: "I figure a man's only good for
one oath at a time. I took mine to the Confederate
States of America"?
Bending the genre, not breaking. Ford would go on to have Confederate characters in later Westerns. And in terms of visual/formal elements, THE SEARCHERS is nothing new.
Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister