John Ford's Vision of the Closing West: From Optimism to Cynicism

Yawn and Beatty | John Ford's Vision of the Closing West: From Optimism to Cynicism Mike Yawn and Bob Beatty Arizona State University John Ford's Vision of the Closing West: From Optimism to Cynicism he existence of a frontier, according to Frederick Jackson Turner, defined the American experience. Turner ushered in a new approach to the study of American history, asserting that the "existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development" (27). It is to this frontier that the American character owes its most distinctive qualities. That coarseness and strength combined with acuteness and inquisitiveness; that practical, inventive turn of mind, quick to find expedients; that masterful grasp of material things, lacking in the artistic but powerful to effect great ends; that restless, nervous energy; that dominant individualism, working for good and for evil, and withal that buoyancy and exuberance which comes with freedom-these are the traits of the frontier (57). Although scholars have questioned the historical validity of the Turner thesis, the myth of the frontier endures in American popular culture. Indeed, the frontier, according to Fenin and Everson, is "the only mythological tissue available to this young nation" (56). The hero formed from this "mythological tissue" is the Western Hero, "the exemplar of American manhood, idealism, and courage" (Durham v). The experiences of the Western Hero, as related in novels, films, and stories, constitute the only form ofpopular art "that is uniquely American in its settings, conflicts, and resolutions " (Durham v). Myths must be transmitted to be perpetuated, and no medium is more apposite for transmission of the Western myth than motion pictures. Only on film, notes Will Wright, are the "mythical dimensions" ofthe West fully captured: "Although Western novels reach a large and faithful audience, it is through the movies that the myth has become part ofdie cultural language by which America understands itself" (33). Of the many who perpetuate the Western myth on film, none has ennobled our cultural language more than John Ford. In this essay we will examine two works ofJohn Ford: My Darling Clementine (1946) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), two films similar in storyline, yet different in tone. Both address Ford's vision of America's "dual mission, to civilize the wilderness, without removing the wilderness from civilization" (Stowell 97), but they reflect different attitudes about this mission. The "unbounded enthusiasm " that characterized My Darling Clementine "was slowly winding down...to a sort of hypnotic despair" (Tuska 515) by the time Ford made The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Our objective is to criticallyjuxtapose these films and illuminate the different visions Ford brought to the screen during his fifty-year career. Particular emphasis will be placed on the contrast between the optimism that charac6 I Film & History The American Frontier in Film | Special In-Depth Section terizes My Darling Clementine and the pessimism that pervades The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. My Darling Clementine (1946) By the end ofWorld War II, John Ford was riding a crest of optimism that is reflected in his movies. Even when Ford addresses issues of death and suffering , he suffuses the films with themes of solidarity , nobility, and a hope for the future. His last war-time movie, They Were Expendable, tells the story of the American soldiers left behind by General MacArthur in the Philippines. Explicit in this film is the theme of sacrifice, the notion that some must suffer so that others may be spared. "No other war film," argue McBride and Wilmington, "so subtly and movingly explored the idea of sacrifice" (76). This film, like other early Ford films, explores the notion ofwhat Peter Bogdanovich has called "glory in defeat" (83), the belief that American greatness will prevail despite temporary setbacks. This theme of optimism, so evident in Ford's early films (Ford 34), extends through his first postWorld War II film, My Darling Clementine. Just as the young American soldiers in They Were Expendable were fighting for American ideals and security, Ford portrays Wyatt Earp as a frontier Marshall fighting to bring American ideals and security to the West. According to Mark Siegel, Clementine seems...