Lucchese Boots

This is one design of the Lucchese cowboy boots brought up time and time again in No Country for Old Men. They go for about $600-$1300 a pair. They look like regular cowboy boots to me, but something must make the desired luxury of cowboys everywhere.

How the West Was Fun

You may have learned about how the west was won but have you ever wondered how the west was fun? If so let Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen tell you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_GlZ5yFbT4

Urban Cowboy

I happened to have stumbled upon the worst Western of all time. I was flipping around channels late on Friday night, and Urban Cowboy was just starting. I wish that I would've done the right thing and changed the channel, but I sat through and watched the entire film. John Travolta, at his ehh.., well at least he looks good, plays a troubled "cowboy" who has difficulty in the real world, because he wants to be a free bird. He marries his first love; they have an extremely abusive relationship. They fight about his life, their pastimes, a scandalous ex-con bull rider that Sissy starts seeing, and anything else imaginable. Everything about the movie screams forced "Western": stereotypical trailer homes, square dance night club equipped with a mechanical bull, bad fake accents, and the good guy vs. the bad guy relationship. For the majority of the film Sissy and Bud were hooking up with other people to get one another jealous. And of course, the movie resolves with Bud getting Sissy back when he beats the ex-con in a mechanical bull riding contest.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

I really liked this movie. I liked how they mixed in a lot of humor to a type of movie that normally would not have any. I also saw a lot of similarities to The Wild Bunch. The whole theme of outlaws sticking together, robbing trains, and fighting for each other was in both movies. There were also themes like justice in both, but if I was writing an essay on this movie I would mainly talk about theme of honor. This theme has really been in every Western movie I have seen. Butch and the Sundance Kid stuck together and cared more about each other and not just themselves. Overall though I enjoyed the movie.

David Allen Coe

If anyone knows David Allen Coe, they know he can do some questionable stuff, but this song is fantastic.

"The perfect country and western song", images of a modern west:

Well I was drunk the day my momma got out of prison
And I went to pick her up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in the pick-up truck
She got runned over by a damned old train.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEo8poVlQrM

Waylon, Willie and Bingham

National Day of the American Cowboy

After discussing the significance and symbolism of cowboys in our culture, I found out that there is a national holiday to honor the American cowboy celebrated on the fourth Saturday of every July!

"National Day of the American Cowboy"

This is a day we set out to give praise

To those who honor the Cowboy ways.

The American Cowboy is a true hero,

Who helped our nation to thrive and grow.

The cowboy was a true pioneer,

Who braved the wild western frontier.

Not only did he tame the American West,

He stood for the values which we think of as best:

He believes in hard work, and playing hard too,

And in honoring women in all that they do.

To be independent and stand up for what's right,

To be courageous and honest and not run from a fight.

To be brave and loyal, to ride for the brand,

And be a good steward of his livestock and land.

Those are timeless values that still hold true,

Still used every day in what modern cowboys do.

Now the U.S. Senate has voted to have a day

To honor the American Cowboy in this way.

We give thanks for all that cowboys and cowgirls do,

To keep the Cowboy way alive and true.

So we honor this legacy for the values it will employ,

As we celebrate the National Day of the American Cowboy.

by Ron Wilson, Poet Lariat

Final

The American West and the Historical Imagination Final
Spring 2010
Dennis Kuhnel

Instructions: Answer all four questions below in essay-format. Be sure not to exceed the page limit denoted for each question. This is an open book exam. You may consult all books assigned this semester and your notes, but you may NOT use the internet for reference. Your response to each individual question should be no longer than 1 typed page, Times New Roman font, double-spaced. Do not spend more than 3 hours completing this exam. The exam is due Friday May 14th at noon via email. Late exams will not be accepted.

1) The American Film Institute recently ranked Shane as one of the Top 100 films in the last 100 years of American cinema (in total six westerns made the list: The Searchers, High Noon, Shane, Unforgiven, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and The Wild Bunch). Analyze the major themes of Shane in the historical context of the Johnson County War and other events in the history of the American West. Do you think the film Shane was intended to speak to political realities in 1950s America? If so, why? Finally, how does Shane thematically compare with other creative imaginings of the American West, pre-1950s and afterwards?

2) Willa Cather’s novel, The Professor’s House (1925), presents the United States as a dangerously morally corrupt and money-fixated society. A complicated novel, Cather’s novel interweaves tales of modern suburban life in Chicago with the lives of cowboys and railroaders in New Mexico and the existence of a lost Indian civilization. How is the American West imagined and represented in the novel in contrast to these other settings? What are Cather’s views on indigenous America and why does she believe that their history is crucial to American cultural identity? Some critics have said that Cather’s novel lays out a vision of “Americanness.” Do you agree? If so, explain and comment on how history and the actual historical American West plays a role in this idea.

3) Sam Peckinpah’s film The Wild Bunch (1969) is often described as one of the most important westerns ever made. Cormac McCathy’s No Country for Old Men (2005), was widely acclaimed as a novel when it came out and quickly transformed by the Coen Brothers into an a film that was nominated for eight Academy Awards in 2008, winning four, including the most prestigious award of Best Picture. Book and movie critics of No Country for Old Men often noted the similarity between it and westerns made by Peckinpah. Do you agree with this comparison? Is the book, No Country for Old Men and the film, The Wild Bunch thematically and historically similar? Do they imagine the American West in similar ways, especially in how they differ in their view with earlier westerns? In your answer be sure to include historical analyses of the plot and specific discussions of the themes in each work.

4) Think back to the beginning of this semester in frigid January. Identify what, in your opinion, are the three most important and interesting ways, in which, the history of the American West has been imagined. Be sure to include in your answer books and films from the first and second half of the semester.

America the History of Us

http://www.history.com/shows/america-the-story-of-us/videos/gold-rush#gold-rush

I was watching an episode of America the History of Us last night and I thought a lot of the things that we talked about earlier in the semester related to what they are saying in this clip...this doesn't really have to do with current themes we are talking about but I still found a connection to our class.

Migrating to the West

After discussion on Tuesday, I realized that what I wrote about in my paper sort of goes with it. In the movie True Grit, there was an obvious problem for Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne) when lawyers moved into the area. In the late 1800s, there was a huge increase in the number of lawyers in the U.S. Most of these lawyers moved to work in the West, where the standards were lower and there was a "need" for them (if you want to say that.) Obviously there weren't many lawyers in the West, so the job market was open. Judges and federal marshals, who were presently in charge, were now having to explain their decisions and listen to both sides of the story. This bothered many people, as they would now have to answer to the things they had done.