Format:
Online-Ressource (273 p)
ISBN:
9780806142463
Content:
Most film critics point to classic conflicts--good versus evil, right versus wrong, civilization versus savagery--as defining themes of the American Western. In this provocative examination of Westerns, Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann argue for a more expansive view that moves beyond traditional conflicts to encompass environmental themes and struggles. Beginning with an analysis of two iconic Westerns, Shane and The Searchers, Murray and Heumann identify the environmental dichotomies--previously overlooked by critics--that are broached in both films, and they clarify the history that lies behind the environmental debates in these films and many others. The conflicts these movies address grow out of differing views of progress, frequently in relation to technology. The authors show that such binary oppositions tend to blur when examined closely, demonstrating that environmental issues are often more complex than we realize
Content:
Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Information Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Don't Fence Me In: Ecology and Free-Range and Fenced Ranching in Shane and Sea of Grass -- Chapter 2. Mining Westerns: Seeking Sustainable Developmentin McCabe and Mrs. Miller -- Chapter 3. Is Water a Right?: The Ballad of Cable Hogue and Environmental Law -- Chapter 4. The Rush for Land, the Rush for Oil, the Rush for Progress: Spectacle in Cimarron, Tulsa, Comes a Horseman, and There Will Be Blood -- Chapter 5. Transcontinental Technologies: Telegraphs, Trains,and the Environment in Union Pacific, Jesse James, and The Last Hunt -- Chapter 6. Smoke Signals and American Indian Westerns: Narratives of Environmental Adaptation -- Chapter 7. A West and a Western that Works?: Contemporary Traditional Westerns, Riders of the Whistling Pines, and Silver City -- Notes -- Filmography -- Works Cited -- Index
Additional Edition:
Print version Gunfight at the Eco-Corral : Western Cinema and the Environment
Language:
English
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