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For many of us, the image of the cowboy hero facing off against the villain dominates our memories of the movies. Peter French examines the world of the western, one in which death is annihilation, the culmination of life, and there is nothing else. In that world he finds alternatives to Judeo-Christian traditions that dominate our ethical theories, alternatives that also attack the views of the most prominent ethicists of the past three centuries. More than just a meditation on the portrayal of the good, the bad, and the ugly on the big screen, Frenchs work identifies an attitude toward life that he claims is one of the most distinctive and enduring elements of American culture.
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ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham Boulder New York Oxford
Page iv
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ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC.
Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Maryland 20706
12 Hid's Copse Road Cummor Hill, Oxford OX2 9JJ, England
Copyright 1997 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
British Cataloging in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
French, Peter A. Cowboy metaphysics: ethics and death in westerns / Peter A. French p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8476-8670-1 (cloth: alk. paper). ISBN 0-8476-8671-X (paper: alk. paper) 1. Western filmsMoral and ethical aspects. PN1995.9.W4F69 1997 791.43/6278' 21dc20 97-036097 CIP
ISBN 0-8476-8670-1 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 0-8476-8671-X (pbk.: alk. paper)
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Page v
For SANDRA
Page vii
Contents
Preface
ix
1 A Clash of Cares
1
2 The Mount and the Mountains
13
3 The Shadow of Death
47
4 Tragedy, Grace, and Pride
75
5 Aristotle Contemplating the Dying Duke
107
6 The Death of Death
135
Afterword
151
Bibliography
153
Index
159
About the Author
163
Page ix
Preface
For as far back as I can remember, I have enjoyed watching Westerns. I used to go to a shabby little neighborhood movie theater, pay fourteen cents, and watch a double bill where at least one of the features was a Western. When a major Western such as Red River, High Noon, or Shane was released, I thought nothing of skipping school and riding the streetcar downtown to watch the film in one of the opulent theaters. My first experience with a television set was in the late 1940s, and the first images I saw on the tube were that of Sunset Carson and his horse galloping along the sagebrush trail. I was in high school and then college in the period of the Western's greatest cultural impact, the fifties, so I could hardly escape its influence. In short, I grew up with Westerns, grew old with them, and hope the relationship ends there.
I find the Western film genre ethically intriguing both within the cultural context in which it appears and has enjoyed popularity, because it so thoroughly rejects the world view of that culture, and within itself. This book is my attempt to philosophically examine some of the underlying positions on which the ethics of the Western are constructed. I am especially interested in what lessons might be learned from these movies about the relationship between one's conception of death and the moral position one adopts. This book is definitely not intended as film criticism. I have little or no interest in contrasting the films with each other or with attacking or defending this or that director's use of characters, images, and basic plotlines. The films, for me, are a place of departure in the process of trying to construct what might eventually become an alternative to the standard view of what it is ethical to do and not do. I do not pretend for a minute that the way I will be "reading" the films captures the intent of their creators. In fact, I could not care less.
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The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American