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Lecture 7: Lecture 7: How are Latinos/as How are Latinos/as

Represented in the Western?Represented in the Western?

Professor Daniel Bernardi /

Professor Michelle Martinez

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In the last lecture…In the last lecture…

• Genre & the Social Problem Film

• Bordertown (1933) & Assimilation Narrative

• Salt of the Earth (1954) & Resistance

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In this lecture…In this lecture…

You can pause the lecture at any point, click on one of the hyperlinks (text that is underlined) to visit a site or view a clip, and then return to the same point in the lecture when you’re ready.

• John Ford - Irish American Auteur

• Ford’s Western Types

• Fort Apache (1948)

John Ford

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John Ford:John Ford:Irish American AuteurIrish American Auteur

Lecture 7: Part 1

John Ford (center) with actors Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne on the set of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1961)

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What is an “auteur?”What is an “auteur?”

• Theory Describing and Explaining “Style” Associated with a Particular Filmmaker

– Filmmaker Possesses “Personal” Style– Style Demonstrated Across a Range of

Filmmaker’s Work– Filmmaker Retains Creative Control

• Filmmaker’s “Style” is Identifiable– Cinematography, Editing, etc.– Genre Preferences – Themes and Motifs– Iconography

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Auteur TheoryAuteur Theory

“… a film (or a body of work) by a director reflects the personal vision and preoccupations of that director,

as if he or she were the work's primary "author" (auteur). The auteur theory has had a major impact on

film criticism worldwide ever since it was first advocated by François Truffaut in 1954. "Auteurism" is the method of analyzing films based on this theory (or, alternately, the characteristics of a director's work

that makes him an auteur). Both the Auteur Theory and the auteurism method of film analysis are

frequently associated with the French New Wave and the film critics who wrote for the Cahiers du cinéma.”

- Wikipedia

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Some ExamplesSome Examples• Classical Hollywood

– Charlie Chaplin – Howard Hawks – Alfred Hitchcock – Orson Welles

• Contemporary Hollywood– Woody Allen– Martin Scorsese – Spike Lee – John Woo

Alfred Hitchcock

Spike Lee

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John Ford is Classic AuteurJohn Ford is Classic Auteur

• Emphasis on Frontier Communities– Filled with Ethnics / Disenfranchised Outsiders

• Pluralistic Multiculturalism– Native Americans, Mexicans, Mexican

Americans, African Americans, Slavs and Poles, Frenchmen and Italian, Swedes and Germans, poor Whites and Southerners

• Themes Involve Healthy Suspicion of Assimilation Rhetorical

• Panoramic Vista / Extreme Long Shots & Internal Framing

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Ford’s “Ethnic” StyleFord’s “Ethnic” Style

“…Ford regarded cultures not as autonomous, static, or fixed states, but rather as fluid,

evolving, and organic ones that were inextricably intertwined.”

“Ford’s skepticism about assimilation was part of his generally contradictory attitude toward

America, which led him to critique the American mainstream even as he periodically

celebrates the nation as a whole.”

– Charles Ramírez Berg

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Traced to his EthnicityTraced to his Ethnicity

“Remembering that he was the son of Irish immigrants, surely something

he never forgets, one begins to appreciate the fact that his films emanate from the position of that

oppressed ethnic minority and that his stories typically focused on

marginalized outcasts.”

– Charles Ramírez Berg

Roddy McDowall in Ford’s

How Green Was My Valley (1941)

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DiscriminationDiscrimination

“While the psychological degradation of the Irish was certainly no worse than that to which blacks

have been subjected, it must also be said that from 1850 to 1950 there were no dissenting voices being raised on the subject of the American Irish; no one

praised any aspect of their culture, no one suggested that Irish might be beautiful, no one argued that their treatment was both unjust and

bigoted.”

– Andrew Greeley

Suggested Supplemental Reading:

How the Irish Became White by Noel Ignatievr

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The Big PointThe Big Point

“...Ford’s films centered not on the dominant mainstream but on the immigrant, working-class, socially and geographically isolated margin. And just as most Hollywood cinema used people of color to prop up its WASP self, Ford’s films –

especially his Westerns – used them to promote immigrant ethnicity over the eastern Anglo elite.”

Shot from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (1962)

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How?How?

• Motifs– Drunken Brawling, Singing and Dancing, and

Militarism Explore Ethnicity and Assimilation

• Subversive Representations of Native Americans, Mexicans, Mexican Americans

– Casting, Character, Music, Sound effects

• Well-Defined Cultural Sub-Plots– Sub-Plots Explored Nature of Ethnicity

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Ford’s Western TypesFord’s Western Types

Lecture 7: Part 2

Shot from Stagecoach (1939)

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Remember Definition of GenreRemember Definition of Genre

“Stated simply, genre movies are those commercial feature films which, through repetition and variation, tell

familiar stories with familiar characters in familiar situations. They

also encourage expectations and experiences similar to those of similar

films we have already seen.”

- Berry Keith Grant

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Key Questions to AskKey Questions to Ask

• What are the visual features/motifs?

• What are the narrative features/discourses?

• What are audience expectations/Triangles?

Shot from Two-Fisted Sheriff (1937)

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The TypesThe Types

• WASP Mainstream

• Ethnic Margin

• The Native

• African Americans

• Mexicans & Mexican Americans Scar (Henry Brandon) from

The Searchers (1956)

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WASP MainstreamWASP Mainstream

• Rigid, Hypocritical, and Intolerant

• Selflessly Convinced of Social, Moral, and Racial Superiority

• Figured as Handful of Arrogant Colonizers– Henry Fonda’s Lieutenant Colonel Thursday in

Fort Apache (1948) – Law and Order League in Stagecoach (1939)

drive prostitute heroine out of town.

Click Here to See Scene from Stagecoach (1939)

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What’s wrong with the mainstream?What’s wrong with the mainstream?

“The money, power and influence of the mainstream are corrupting forces rather than civilizing ones.”

“In short, if ethnics and minorities are sometimes stereotyped in Ford’s films, the WASP mainstream

always is, with its members, consistently depicted as heartless, oppressive, and intolerant.”

– Charles Ramírez Berg.

Lt. Col. Thursday (Henry Fonda) in Fort Apache (1948)

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Ethnic Margin: Ethnic Margin: Betwixt and BetweenBetwixt and Between

• Refugees from European Societies– Mormons’ Exile in Wagon Master (1940)

• Immigrants Ethnics Banished to Frontier– Doc and Prostitute in Stagecoach (1939)

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Two Critical PointsTwo Critical Points“Besides escaping intolerance, Ford’s margin ethnics leave the cultural center for two other

reasons: first, to increase their opportunity; and second, to find a space where they can openly

practice their ethnicity, which is impossible within the tightly constrained, ethnically cleansed mainstream.”

– Charles Ramírez Berg

Shot from The Searchers (1954)

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The Native: The Native: Great UnknownGreat Unknown

• Enigmatic; Define Ethnic Margin– Noble Savage Stereotype

• Peaceful Native Defines Margin’s Morality– The Natives and the Mormons in

The Wagon Master (1950)

• Savage Native Defines Danger of Frontier– Scar in The Searchers (1954)

Click Here to See Scene #2 from The Searchers (1954)

Click Here to See Scene #1 from The Searchers (1954)

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Characterization ChartCharacterization Chart

Mainstream:

WASP Establishment elite; represented in the West by colonizers and assimilated Westerners

Margin:

European immigrants, especially the Irish (pioneers, settlers, soldiers at the frontier)

Native:

Native Americans

Shot from The Searchers (1954)

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African Americans: African Americans: Marginalized of the MarginMarginalized of the Margin

• Exist Only in Segregated Outskirts of Margin of Society

• Faithful Servants (Uncle Tom & Mammy)– Daisy in Drums along the Mohawk (1939)– Lukey in The Horse Soldiers (1959)– Pompey (Woody Strode) in

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Click Here to See Scene from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

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Mexicans and Mexican Americans: Mexicans and Mexican Americans: Hybrid RaceHybrid Race

• Mexicans in Mexico: Light-skinned, Upper-Class, Educated

• Mexicans in the US: Darker-skinned; In-habit the Margin’s Fringes

– Conflated w/ Native Americans

• Stereotypes as Sneaky and Untrustworthy– Chihuahua in My Darling Clementine (1946)

Click Here to See Scene from My Darling Clementine (1946)

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The MotifsThe Motifs

• Brawling & Carousing– Freewheeling Joy of Life– Loose & Fun

• Singing & Dancing– Celebrate Ethnic Community– Demonstrate Self-Expression

• Marching & Parading– Level Playing Field– Demonstrate Patriotism

Shot from Fort Apache (1948)

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Fort ApacheFort Apache (1948) (1948)

Lecture 7: Part 3

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CreditsCredits

• Released in 1948

• Directed by John Ford

• Stars John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Shirley Temple, Pedro Armendáriz

• Addresses Genocide of Native Americans

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Plot SummaryPlot Summary“In John Ford's sombre exploration of THE

FETTERMAN MASSACRE OF 1866 mythologising of American heroes, he slowly reveals the character of

Owen Thursday, who sees his new posting to the desolate Fort Apache as a chance to claim the

military honour which he believes is rightfully his. Arrogant, obsessed with military form and ultimately self-destructive, Thursday attempts to destroy the Indian warrior Cochise after luring him across the

border from Mexico.”

Summary written by Bernard Keane

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RamRamírez Berg’s Thesisrez Berg’s Thesis

• Ford Uses Basic Cinematic Components to Demonstrate Cultural Sensitivity

– Casting– Language– Character Development– Music– Sound Effects

• “Sociologically honest filmmaking seldom seen in Hollywood cinema, before or since.”

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The Native and Latino CharactersThe Native and Latino Characters

• Dark-Skinned Mestizo (Mexican Indio) Miguel Inclán to Play Cochise

– Speaks Historically Correct Spanish and Native American Language

• Pedro Armendáriz to Play Sergeant Beaufort, a Mexican American Army Officer

– Accepted as Equal– Experienced and Tempered

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Characters are DefinedCharacters are Defined

• Natives are Fleshed Out / Sympathetic / Well Developed / “Authentic”

• Mexican American is Fleshed Out / Respectable / Sturdy / Reliable

• White Mainstream is Genocidal / Cold / Indifferent / Lifeless / Inflexible

• Ethnic Margin is Heroic / Identifiable / Anti-Assimilation but Pro-Patriot

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The Big PointThe Big Point

“… Ford’s multiculturalism was driven to by an obsession with justice and tolerance, which, at its

best, offset his ethnocentrism. In his Westerns, this resulted in such counter hegemonic elements as his

persistent critique of the mainstream and his ubiquitous cultural subplot. Moreover, as his career

progressed, the cultural focus of Ford’s films widened beyond class and ethnic discrimination to

include racial prejudice.”

– Charles Ramírez Berg.

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End of Lecture 7End of Lecture 7

Next Lecture: Latino Urbanism: How can a cockroach

also be a shark?