In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Dennett | An Interview With Robert Toplin An Interview with Robert Toplin (FaII7 2000) by Bruce Dennett The American Western Last November, following the highly successful maiden conference of the Film and History League I travelled to North Carolina and visited Professor Robert Toplin at his home in Wilmington. Our discussion ranged over a number of issues. This account is an abridged version of our discussions, as they related to the Western film, theme of the next Film and History League Conference. I thought it might provoke some interest. The frontier and the outback are of significance in the history and the folklore of America and Australia. From the time Frederick Jackson Turner published his famous 'Frontier Thesis ' the West has been the focus of academic discussion. In Australia Russell Ward published his views on 'The Australian Legend' in 1958. Turner and Ward commented on the role of the frontier and the outback in moulding perceptions and in shaping national self concept. The world's first feature film was made in Australia in 1908. It was The Story ofthe Kelly Gang and it depicted the exploits of a legendary Bushranger. Hollywood found in the West tales of adventure and romance; it was a place forheroes and great deeds. The frontier and the outback served similar purposes for both countries. It helped to promulgate a distinctive national identity. The cowboy and the stockman are national icons for the US and Australia. I was therefore keen to discuss the Western with Professor Toplin. What follows is part of the interview. I started with a question about High Noon and the Western hero. Dennett : Talk to me about High Noon in terms of what America is and what America would like to be. Toplin : Well, there are so many levels of interest there. For film scholars it is often the hidden meanings; maybe this is a statement about the Hollywood Ten and for a film scholar its very exciting to think that the cowardice of the community represents the cowardice of motion picture people and congress people and the American people during that early Red Scare period. There is a statement there and the people who were making the movie were, in part, thinking about those problems. The sheriff is the one gutsy guy at the end who is willing to stand up to the evil, which could have been the anti communist extremists . Then you havejust the courage of the hero and his commitment to do what is right, even though things are dangerous. That is a wonderful legendary tale. Most people who see that movie have no idea about the Hollywood Ten. The Hollywood scheme for historical movies, for the old Western movies, is a very firm hero and vicious villains, the contrast is tremendous and it is built up so brilliantly in that film. Dennett : It's a morality tale then, just black and white ... Toplin : In its most simple form. It's the old Western. The argument of many scholars now is that the old Western concept doesn't work any more. By the time we got to the Vietnam War and some other developments, we no longer saw ourselves as decent and wholesome. Suddenly we were hurt by reality. A society that had to deal with racism, wrongs inVietnam and everything else meant that the Western story, the story of good people conquering the frontier, bad people, then cleaning it up making it civilisedjust didn't fly as well anymore. There was more cynicism in society by the sixties and seventies and that's why High Noon would not have worked. Now it works as a classic, but it wouldn't work as a story about the West. Dennett : In HighNoon you have an individual who makes a difference on behalf of the community, but at the end Will Cane throws the star in the dust and remains the individual and rides away. Toplin : Exactly. That is the Western story; it's the tradition of the Western. The hero has to go off and ride again, in some way. He has to be the individual who is separate from society , even though he is trying to help and protect...

pdf

Share