Wild West: A Brief Film Analysis

Liberty is an interesting topic that few people truly have a solid understanding of, but through research and consideration, one will realize that liberty refers to one’s ability to live freely within society, free from the oppression of others, including the ability to own property and make an honest living. With this realization, one will also realize that not everyone through American history has had liberty and that still today, there are people who do not have liberty. Throughout all of the sources viewed and read in the past seven weeks, the topic of liberty and who has had access to it throughout American history has become much clearer.
In the sources considered through the course, specific groups of people have been clearly deprived …show more content…
Jamieson is “Are the Yooks and Zooks free to live without fear?” Another way to interpret this question is to say, “Are the various groups of Americans from all the previous films and novels free to live without fear?” Such a question can be answered by looking into the situation of the Wild West illustrated by the 1953 film, Shane. Nevertheless, the image of the West portrayed in the film may be more of the American belief of the West than the truth of the matter. In the film, viewers observe America’s beliefs of the Wild West. They see gunslingers, independent farmers and other than that, nothing but empty space, as suggested in the conversations amongst the homesteaders that the authorities are a “a three days’ ride” away from them. It truly is a stereotypical illustration of what one thinks of when imagining the Wild West, full of hard-working folks who live under constant oppression when in fact, Foner tells his readers that, “…on the western frontier the distinctive qualities of American culture were forged: individual freedom, political democracy, and economic mobility.” Foner’s words on the West in the time period, express a more positive image than the image given during the film. In the film, the West was a dangerous place full of white men fighting and farming, when in reality, Foner tells his readers that the West was populated and even sought after by folks looking for a new start economically. While situations such as that of the homesteaders did exist, it is much more of the American belief than the actual truth. Nevertheless, the fear that the homesteaders felt in their daily lives was a reality to most Americans of the time. They felt fear that they would lose everything they worked for and fear of ending up with nothing. Therefore, they were not entirely free to live without