3:10 to Yuma

Over the weekend, I watched 3:10 to Yuma for some participation points. Overall i thought that this movie was filled with action and it showed a perspective of the Old West. To start off, this movie was about a Rancher that was in need of money and in order to make extra money to keep his farm and support his family, the rancher needs to escort a criminal to the train station to send him to prison. This is a dangerous job, because the criminal that got captured is the leader and his crew are constantly trying to help him escape. This movie was filled with all kinds of themes and topics that we discussed in class. The first thing that came to my mind during this movie was the topic on social banditry. The criminal that is being sent to prison was a cold blooded murderer and a train robber. The crew of bandits stole for their own needs and they all thought that they were above the law. Another theme i noticed in the movie was the relationship between the Chinese and the whites. According to White, one of the main railroad workers were Chinese and this movie portrayed it perfectly. One scene took place in an area where a new road for trains was being built and it showed the Chinese building it, and it also showed that the Chinese were of lower status than the white man, since they worked for the wealthy Americans. Finally another topic that i came upon was the idea of the Code of the West. I do not want to ruin the ending, but the idea of the Code of the West was exemplified in the ending. The criminal being transferred showed his beliefs of the Code by doing what he did in the end. Overall this movie was exciting to watch and it connected to many themes we discussed in class.

Effigy Mounds

I thought that the trip was informative and fun. It was neat to see all the different mounds and memorials of Indians. I personally thought that it was cool how the mounds were in shapes of animals such as a bear. The trail itself was tedious and long, but it was a good experience. The stop points that showed the overview of the land was also cool to look at. Overall the trip was fun and it was a good time.

The Wild Bunch Pt. 1

I thought the movie started out with a lot of action and it grabbed my attention. It started out with a group of outlaws robbing a bank, and the railroad company hired convicts to stop the outlaws. There was a lot of gun shooting and many people died including civilians. Then the movie went on with less action and lots of talking. This first half of the movie reminded me of bandits and social bandits that we discussed in class. The thieves stole for their own reasons, such as for their own selfishness or to fight for their beliefs. This movie also gave me a perspective on how cowboys acted and what they were like. It showed that they liked to drink a lot, spend time and money on women, and they all had guns. It also seemed that some of the outlaws had a code of the West, for example, when the Mexican outlaw shot his lover because she was all over an officer. The outlaws could have just left him to be hung or shot, but he was a part of their team and they took care of him and did not leave him to die. Another example is when they are about to split the money they stole from the bank. A couple of the outlaws wanted to split the profit unevenly, but the leader was not having any of that, and he threatened to end the group if they did not split the profits evenly. I thought this first part of the movie clarified some of the social conflicts from the old West.

The West as a Myth

From the reading for today, I interpreted it as the West as a myth. Myths are used in order to help visualize and understand the West better. For example, myths of heroes help to understand the types of people that lived in the West and how they should act. Myths are not true statements, but they are stories that help us to visualize the history and of how our country came to be. I also realized that the West has been mainly about masculinity and men making history. The section on women was interesting because the book states that women were symbols of the West and they were there for men's entertainment. Women did not have much influence on the West because they were seen as nurturers and the West was more about violence than nurturing. This leads me to my final topic on violence and social conflict. I thought that the violence that occurred in the West had to do mainly with class, race, gender, and money. The West was not about individualism but violence among different groups of people. For example, the Americans had problems with the Indians, Chinese, and because of these problems, vigilantes and banditos started to rise up. There were also social bandits that committed crimes such as stealing, but were considered good because they helped out the community. Even though they helped out the society, the social bandits may have committed the crimes for individual reasons.

Deadwood Episode

I thought that Bullock's character in the episode was very dominant. He had the tough attitude and he got whatever he wanted accomplished. Bullock's first fight scene with the majesty was pretty intense. He ended up beating the life out of him to show his affection and toughness for a woman. Bullock ended up being rewarded by the woman which showed his way with women too. He also was intimidating when he pulled the Sheriff's badge off the original Sheriff and threw it in the mud. Bullock was not afraid of the Sheriff and thought he was a worthless man. He showed no fear, only dominance. His character could also be respected because it was in his blood to do the right thing. Bullock thought it was wrong when a Chinaman was murdered in Chinatown and there was no authority there to prevent it from happening. He also thought the Sheriff in town was pathetic because he was just a puppet for the rich men. In the end Bullock came up with a plan to make him the next Sheriff and that showed his authority. Overall I thought that Bullock played a badass in the Deadwood episode and I would like to see more of his character.

Bent's Fort vs Jeremiah Johnson

Overall I thought that the novel and the movie were both good. The book contained more details than the movie did, but the movie helped to clarify visuals from the book. For example, the book gave us many descriptions of the Indians painting their faces and the movie had many Indians with painted faces. The movie also gave a good idea of the habitat that the traders needed to travel through. I also wanted to discuss some of the similarities and differences that I picked up during our class discussion that might be helpful.

To begin, trading with the Indians was a similarity that the novel and book showed. The novel was mostly about trading with the Indians and how they managed to have a mutal partnership for trading. They were both reliant on each other for products. The movie portrayed trading when Jeremiah gave the Flathead Indians the scalps and mules of the Crow Indians. The leader of the Flatheads would have been insulted if he could not give a better gift, so he gave Jeremiah his daughter's hand in marriage. This leads me to the next similarity which is marrying an Indian woman. The book and the movie both show that it was okay for the whites to marry an Indian girl. The book showed some people to have more than one Indian wife, and this was a good idea, because now that tribe had your back. Another similarity was the idea of white people settling to the West. The white settlement in the West is one of the main reasons why Indians had problems with the white traders. Indians were used to roaming freely and now they were trying to be tamed and alcohol was also not a good factor to the Indian tribe. These were just some of the similarities.

There also were some differences from the book and the movie. The book was more about fur traders and how they manages to create a new passage for trading with the Mexicans and Indians. It also was more of political aspect of trading. The book also talked mostly about traders and the Indians that they had problems with or had an alliance with. The movie on the other hand was more about a mountain man who wants to be left alone. Jeremiah Johnson did not care for trading, he cared more about the natural environment and he wanted to live freely in the mountains. These were just some of the differences that I picked up from the book and movie.

Travelling to the West

I found some more background information on travelling to the West for Americans and I wanted to share it with the class. This website (at the end) clarified a few things from the readings such as what a Captain did on the journey to the West. The Captain was basically in charge of the whole journey and he usually made sure everyone was ready to go and decided when it was best to rest or camp out for the night. Another topic was about which wagons were used to go West. The best wagon to travel to the West was the Prairie Schooner. It required less animals to pull which made the cost overall less, but it could only contain 1600 pounds. It also gave some interesting facts such as the cost of a mule, which was $90 and an oxen was $60 in the 1840s. These were just some of the topics given on the website and the article was pretty short.

Website: http://americanhistory.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_wagon_train

Reference:
Dollman, Darla S. "The Wagon Train: Emigrant Travel in the American West." American History. 12 Mar. 2009. Web. 28 Jan. 2010. .