University of North Texas Spring 2012

RTVF 4415.001: The Western

Mondays 12-2.20pm in RTVF Room 264. Screenings: RTVF 184: 2.30pm-4.20pm

Instructor: Dr. S. Larke-Walsh, Office M&P 229.

email:

Office Hours: Tues 11am-12.00 and weds 11am-12.00

Teaching Assistant:

Course Description

The Western is America’s longest serving and historically most popular genre. The focus of this course will delve much deeper than simply assessing the structure or traditional function of the genre. We will be deconstructing the genre to unveil its Eurocentric biases, the contradictions inherent in the Western as mythology, its visions of masculinities, the impulses behind the heroic ‘silent adventurer’, the roles of non-white races, the roles of women in the west and the function of the Western as an ever-evolving commentary on American society. We will also look at films outside of America to see how the genre has been re-appropriated by different cultures.

Course Objectives:

To interrogate the Western as a specific genre form and how that form has developed in ways that reflects American culture in the twentieth and twenty-first century

To provide an understanding of representations of race, class, sexuality and gender as they appear in the Western

To provide an understanding of how the Western genre has been borrowed and/or re-appropriated in World cinema

Required Reading:

Kitses, J & Rickman, G (eds). The Western Reader NY, Limelight Editions (1998)

McGee, P From Shane to Kill Bill: Rethinking the Western Malden, Blackwell Publising (2007)

There will be other readings on your required list. These will be photocopied and available on electronic reserve at Willis library. Course password: rtvf44152

Secondary Reading A wide selection of books and photocopies will be available on reserve in the Willis Library.

Your required work for this class includes:

One midterm examination (in class) 20%

One final examination (in class) 25%

One 8-10 page written assignment 35%

10 Response Papers 20%

Students expecting to do well in this class should read the assigned materials, attend and take notes on all components of the class, including discussions and screenings. You do not need to notify me if you miss class, but it is up to you to get the lecture notes from another student, and/or view the assigned film(s), (most of which will be available at the Chilton Media Center within a day or so after the class meeting). I can almost guarantee you will fail this class if you skip the assigned readings and/or continue to miss lectures and screenings.

Exams will be based on lectures, screenings, readings, and discussions. The final will not be cumulative. The Written Assignment will be a research paper on a related topic (8-10 pages). Details will follow in a separate hand-out. Late papers will be penalized 1 letter grade per class session. See class schedule for turn in and grading deadlines.

Your Final Grade will thus be based upon two in-class examinations, one written assignment and completion of the response papers. You must complete each of these components in order to pass the class. Any form of academic dishonesty will result in an F for this course.

The Student Evaluation of Teaching Effectiveness (SETE) is a requirement for all organized classes at UNT. This short survey will be made available to you at the end of the semester, providing you a chance to comment on how this class is taught. I am very interested in the feedback I get from students, as I work to continually improve my teaching. I consider the SETE to be an important part of your participation in this class.

NOTE: RTVF classes work with the Office of Disability Accommodation to make reasonable accommodations for qualified students. If you have special needs, please register with the ODA and present me with a written copy of your Accommodation Request as soon as possible.


BREAKDOWN BY WEEKS AND CLASS MEETINGS

Week One

Mon: Jan 16th: College Closed

Week Two

Mon: 23rd Jan: Introduction to the course incl. screening: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) dir. John Ford, 123 mins

Secondary Viewing: The Wild Bunch (1969, dir. Sam Peckinpah) or Tom Horn (1980) dir. William Wiard, 98 mins.

Req'd Reading

Kitses, J “Authorship and Genre: Notes on the Western” (Reader p.57-58)

Week Three

Mon: 30th Jan: Origins of the Western

SCREENING: Excerpts from Out West, The Western, Reel Injun and The Movie Massacre

Req’d: Reading:

McGee, P Chapter 2: The Political Origin of the Western (p.20-32)

Lusted, D “Where the Western Came From: Antecedents of the Western Film” in The Western pp.41-66 on electronic reserve (Willis Library).

Week Four

Mon: 6th Feb: The Classic Structure and Themes I

SCREENING: Stagecoach (1937) Dir. John Ford, 96 mins.

Req’d Reading:

McGee, P “Chapter 3 Crossing the Border “Jefferson’s Double-Cross” (p.40-50)

Secondary Viewing: Any John Ford Western – esp. My Darling Clementine, Fort Apache, Drums Along the Mohawk.

Week Five

Mon: 13th Feb: The Classic Structure and Themes II

SCREENING: Shane (1953) Dir. George Stevens, 118 mins.

Req’d Reading:

Warshow, R “Movie Chronicle: The Westerner” (Reader, p.35-48)

McGee, P Chapter 1, Why Shane Never Comes back (p.1-15)

Secondary Viewing: The Searchers (1954), Pale Rider (1985),

Week Six

Mon: 20th Feb: Psychological Western

SCREENING: Man From Laramie (1955) Dir. Anthony Mann, 104 mins.

Req’d Reading: Wicking & Pattison “Interview with Anthony Mann” (Reader, p201-208)

Willeman, P “Anthony Mann: Looking at the Male” (Reader, p209-212)

Kitses, J "Anthony Mann: the overreacher" in Horizons West (on electronic reserve in the library)

Secondary Viewing: Winchester 73 (1950), Man of the West (1958), Naked Spur (1953)

Week Seven

Mon: 27th Feb: Denying Native American Voices

SCREENING: Geronimo: An American Legend (1993) Dir. Walter Hill, 115 mins.

Req’d Reading:

Baird, R “Going Indian: Discovery, Adoption and Renaming Toward a ‘True American’, from Deerslayer to Dances With Wolves” (Reader, p277-292)

Secondary Viewing: Geronimo (1993, d. Alan Young), Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Little Big Man (1970)

Week Eight

Mon: 5th Mar: Women in the Western

SCREENING: Johnny Guitar (1954) Dir. Nicholas Ray, 110 mins.

Req’d Reading:

Cook, Pam “Women and the Western” (Reader, p.293-300)

Perterson, J “The Competing Tunes of Johnny Guitar: Liberalism, Sexuality and Masquerade” (Reader, p.321-340)

McGee, P Chapter 4: Revolutionary Hysteria “Notorious Ladies” (p. 59-68)

Secondary Viewing: Rancho Notorious (1952), Destry Rides Again (1939), Duel in the Sun (1946)

Week Nine

Mon: 12th Mar: MID TERM EXAMINATION

SPRING BREAK

Week Ten

Mon: 26th Mar: Masculinity and Male Groups

SCREENING: Rio Bravo (1959) Dir. Howard Hawks, 141 mins.

Req’d Reading:

Wood, R “Rio Bravo & Retrospect” (Reader, p173-194)

McGee, P Chapter 6 Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown “The Men Who Save John Wayne” (p.129-133)

Secondary Viewing: Red River (1948), Magnificent Seven (1960)

Week Eleven

Mon: 2nd Apr: Sergio Leone

SCREENING: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966) Dir. Sergio Leone, 161 mins.

Or Fistful of Dollars (1964) Dir. Sergio Leone, 100 mins.

Req’d Reading:

Landy, M “He Went Thataway: The Form and Style of Leone’s Italian Westerns” (Reader, p213-222)

McGee, P Chapter 8 Death’s Landscape “The Uses of the Dead & Two Kids of Men” (p.167-178)

Secondary Screening: Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), Sholay (1975), Seven Samurai (1954)

Week Twelve **********ESSAY DUE DATE **********

Mon: 9th Apr: De-constructing and reconstructing the Myths

SCREENING: The Missouri Breaks (1976) Dir. Arthur Penn, 126 mins, or The Proposition (2005) Dir. John Hillcoat, 104 mins.

Req’d Reading:

Hoberman, J “How the Western was Lost” (Reader, p.85-92)

Wright, W “The Structure of Myth & The Structure of the Western Film” photocopied on electronic reserve (Willis Library)

Secondary Viewing: Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Hour of the Gun (1967), The Wild Bunch (1969), Cat Ballou (1971), Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)

Week Thirteen

Mon: 16th Apr: Post-Revisionist I

SCREENING: The Ballad of Little Jo (1993) Dir. Maggie Greenwald, 121 mins.

Req’d Reading:

Modleski, T “Our Heroes have Sometimes been Cowgirls: An Interview with Maggie Greenwald” (Reader, p355-366)

Kitses, J “An Exemplary Post-Modern Western: The Ballad of Little Jo” (Reader, p.367-380)

Secondary Viewing: The Quick and the Dead (1995), Bad Girls (1994)

Week Fourteen

Mon: 23rd Apr: Post-Revisionist II

SCREENING: Firefly (2002) TV Series, Creator Joss Whedon

(Seminar conducted by a visiting Professor from Sunderland University UK)

Req’d Reading:

To be confirmed

Week Fifteen ******NO ESSAYS ACCEPTED AFTER THIS DATE**********

Mon: 30th Apr:

SCREENING: Dead Man (1996) Dir. Jim Jarmusch, 121 mins.

Req’d Reading:

Rickman, G “The Western Under Erasure: Dead Man” (Reader, p381-404)

Exam Week

Final Exam: Friday May 11th at 10.30am in RTVF264