March 16, 1999

Announcements:  There will be two review sessions after spring break.  The first is Tuesday, March 16 from 7 - 8:30.  The
                           second is Friday, March 19 from 1 - 2:30.  They are both in 113 Carnegie.  The second exam is March 23.
                            Review sheets were handed out.
Lecture Notes:

I.  The Frontier Thesis:  Crisis in American Identity

• Frederick Jackson Turner
• He claimed that the disappearance of free land in the West led to a crisis in American identity
• Americans identify with freedom and once all of the free land was bought they would have an identity crisis
• At Turner's frontier, fact meets fiction
• Thomas Jefferson said that the American character was built on a respect of freedom
• American character was shaped by process of Western migration
• Most films centered around the natural life of the West vs. the pervasive natural life of the city
• An early western:  Buffalo Bill's Wild West
• Buffalo Bill was the typical cowboy - guardian of freedom
• However, he would go around doing tricks for people - he became a sort of entertainment

II.  Leatherstocking:  Frontier Archetype

• Leatherstocking was a character in a novel, The Leatherstocking Tales
• He was a product of the wilderness, noble savage, and trailblazer for the western advancement of civilization
• The American cowboy is drawn from this archetype
• The cowboy advances beyond the edge of civilization and lives among the wilderness

III.  History vs. Mythology in the Western

• Westerns most popular in the late '30s to early '50s
• The values of individual freedom were being challenged by a modern, industrial order
• The Western treats history as mythological
• Great Train Robbery:  first Western film to contain accurate history
• The Western was a lens through which contemporary concerns were addressed
• Westerns were always set in the time period between the Civil War and the turn of the century
• This was a time of progress:
• People were going into banking and real estate
• Land was bought in the West to turn into mining
• This all improved the standard of living
• It was also a time of conquest:
• Indians were stripped of their land
• Nature and culture were transformed at the border
• In  The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, the eastern lawyer has to adapt to the ways of the West, and the Westerners have to learn the rules and laws that the Easterner is used to

IV.  Early Western:  Stagecoach

• The passengers within the stagecoach deal with the conflicts within their own democratic community and also deal with the conflicts with the Indians outside
• The movie shows that civilization and nature still live in harmony
• The cowboy and the Eastern woman get married and have a child:  this shows that they are capable of maintaining a balance between civilization and nature in order to raise the child

MOVIE:  THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE

    John Wayne
    James Stewart
 

    A train pulls into a Western town, Shinbone.  The Town Marshall, Link, is there to meet Senator Ransom Stoddard and his wife, Hallie.  A newspaper reporter finds out that the Senator is in town and runs to call his editor, Maxwell Scott.  Ransom agrees to an interview because he knows Scott.  Hallie and Link reflect on how the town has changed over the years due to the railroad.  They ride out to an abandoned house of someone they once knew to look at the cactus roses.  Ransom tells the reporters he's in town for the funeral of Tom Donovan, whom they have never heard of.  He begins telling them the story of who Tom is.
 

    Fresh out of law school, he headed west seeking fame and fortune.  Along the way, his stagecoach was robbed and he was beat, whipped, and left for dead.  A man, Tom, picked him up and took him to Hallie's restaurant/home.  Tom tells Ransom the person who beat him up was Liberty Valance.  Ransom wants to put Liberty in jail, but Tom says he should get a gun to take care of him.  The Marshall tries to tell Ransom he has no jurisdiction to arrest Liberty.  The Marshall is really just scared of him.

    Hallie offers her home to Ransom, and he helps out in the restaurant waiting tables and washing dishes.  He finds out that Hallie can't read or write and offers to teach her.  One of the cooks, Nora, can't speak English very well so he will teach her also.  Liberty and his friends burst into the restuarant and bully a few men out of their table.  He has a few words with Tom and leaves.  He throws a bottle of alcohol through the window on his way out.

    Ransom begins teaching a class to many of the townspeople.  During one of the classes, Tom comes in and tells Pompei (a laborer/slave/friend), to get back to work. He says that Liberty is coming to town on election day.  Hallie is concerned once she finds out that Ransom has been learning to shoot.  Tom takes Ransom back to his house to show him the room he is building on to his house.  The room is supposed to be for Hallie, because he thinks he is going to marry her.  he is concerned that Hallie likes Ransom, though.  Tom begins to teach Ransom how to shoot.

    Ransom organizes an election for the townspeople to choose two delegates to Capitol City.  Liberty shows up during the meeting and says that he wants to be a delegate.  Ransom and Mr. Peabody, the newspaper editor end up being chosen.  Later that night, Liberty and his friends trash the office of the Shinbone Star and beat up Mr. Peabody really bad.  Ransom is so enraged that he agrees to meet Liberty in the street.  When he does, Liberty shoots him in the arm first.  Ransom shoots back and kills Liberty.  Tom gets really drunk that night and sets fire to his house.

    Mr. Peabody and Ransom go to Capitol City for a delegates meeting.  Peabody nominates Ransom for Congress.  Other members are opposed because he has killed a man.  Ransom sneaks out of the meeting while everyone else is fighting over him.  He runs into Tom outside and tells him he is going back East.  Tom tells Ransom that he didn't kill Liberty.  Tom was standing in a back alley and shot Liberty from there.  Ransom goes back into the meeting and is chosen for Congress.