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  • Gunfight at the Eco-Corral: Western Cinema and the Environment by Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann
  • Glen Sample Ely
Gunfight at the Eco-Corral: Western Cinema and the Environment. By Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2012. Pp. 272. Illustrations, notes, filmography, works cited, index. ISBN 9780806142463, $24.95 paper.)

Thanks to the Western movie genre, over the last century an international audience has become enthralled with the rugged natural beauty of the American West. These iconic landscapes have served as captivating locales for many classic Westerns. Against such scenic backdrops, the typical Western film plot involves conflict, fights between the little guy (rancher or homesteader) and the big corporation, or struggles between civilization and the "savage," untamed frontier, as represented by the environment and stereotypical American Indians.

In Gunfight at the Eco-Corral: Western Cinema and the Environment, authors Robin [End Page 430] L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann argue that besides scenery and stereotypes, many Western movies also contain (either overtly or more subtly) a distinct environmental narrative. The authors point out that although many reviewers and the audience may overlook these embedded "eco-narratives," such stories nonetheless merit scholarly analysis. These plot subtexts provide a fascinating window through which one can view how the environment has influenced both Western movies and the history of the American West.

In building context and background for their book, Murray and Heumann, both professors affiliated with Eastern Illinois University, screened almost 200 Western movies dating from 1908 to 2011. This was no easy task, since many of these movies were formulaic and forgettable B movies from the 1930s and 1940s featuring Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes, Smiley Burnette, and John Wayne. Even in such movies with simplistic plots, however, the authors discerned a number of environmental undercurrents.

Viewing the movies through their "postmodern, eco-critical lens" (12-13), Murray and Heumann found that the environmental topics most often debated in Westerns included open range versus fenced ranching; the impact of mining, the oil industry, and the transcontinental railroad upon the West; individual versus corporate water rights; overgrazing; and depletion of natural resources. Seeking to cross-pollinate their findings with a spectrum of scholarly, interdisciplinary works, the authors consulted more than 200 studies dealing with the history of the United States, Native Americans, the environment, ranching, oil, movies, and the American West. In Gunfight at the Eco-Corral, postmodern and New Western history threads are prominent throughout the storyline, and the views of New Western historian Donald Worster are foremost amongst these.

For those interested in a Texas angle to the story, the book does contain some eco-critical analysis of Lone Star Westerns, in particular as they relate to water rights, ranching, and the oil industry. In the authors' discussion of Texas's oil industry historiography, they cast a somewhat critical eye upon Diana Davids Olien (now Hinton) and Roger M. Olien's 2002 classic reference work, Oil in Texas: The Gusher Age, 1895-1945 (Austin: University of Texas Press). Murray and Heumann criticize the Oliens for stressing the economic benefits of Texas's oil production while downplaying the industry's negative impact upon the environment. In fact, the Oliens squarely address these environmental issues in chapters three and seven of their book. In addition, Murray and Heumann take the Oliens to task for failing "to address the ramifications of oil leases on American Indian populations" (135). During the nineteenth century, Texas and the federal government forced most tribes to relocate outside the Lone Star State. Native American leasing problems in twentieth-century Texas, therefore, are essentially a non-issue in comparison with neighboring Oklahoma, which possessed a far greater Indian presence.

Despite such historiographical discrepancies and the occasional interpretive overreach, the authors largely succeed in making their case. Westerns remain relevant to the United States and the larger world not because of their memorable scenic backdrops, but because of what humanity's interaction with that environment says about our society and its values. [End Page 431]

Glen Sample Ely
Fort Worth, Texas
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