It comes to no surprise that the Western isn’t the most progressive genre when it comes to the topic of sex. Staking itself on historical accuracy, films of the genre generally portray sex as an act only to be performed by a married couple. The genre also portrays sex in another, more sinister light. Via the moral precepts of the mid 1900’s Hollywood, any instance of sex outside of this accepted institution had to be penalized, mainly in the form of death for the guilty party. Why was this the case? What criteria did these preceptors have to determine immorality in the ever changing moral and social landscape of contemporary America? Only the oldest of criteria of course, according to the corresponding genre; The Western being a genre
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The extent of said punishment changing as the social and cinematic landscape would allow it. We experience this in My Darling Clementine (1946) with Doc Holliday and Chihuahua. Clementine is a described as a film that “venerates virtue” (Coyne, 37) and unfortunately these characters are the farthest from virtuous. Doc Holliday, though a well-read and articulated medical professional from the east, is a drunkard who is easily prone to bouts of rage and violence and it is that reputation that gives him the respect and fear he has in the town of Tombstone. Later in the film when his fiancé finds him and requests that Doc returns to Boston we spurns her for his lover, Chihuahua is the local saloon singer, which implies occasional bouts of prostitution, who is either Mexican or …show more content…
Here our subjects, Debbie Edwards and Martin Pawley, aren’t immoral, however they are a part of a social structure that entraps them through the means of sex. “True citizenship therein is morally and racially exclusionist” (Coyne, 40). A constant theme of The Searchers are the matters of kinship, race, and the affairs between these subjects. “The undoing of Debbie’s adoption and marriage and of the Indian law that sanctions them turns us back to Martin’s adoption and marriage to the white law that sanctions them and prescribes their terms” (Henderson, 15). Our first example Martin Pawley, adopted and raised by the Edwards family is 1/4th Cherokee, regardless of his parents being white settlers Martin’s role in the film for all intents and purposes is to be the image of the Native who in being adopted, internalizes whiteness. It is this structure that has bearing with his relationship with Laurie Jorgeneson, a white girl. Martin is the passive member in the relationship; whenever they share a scene it is always Laurie who is very forward in initiating a relationship, “a desire that presented as physical, indeed as violent, with hard kisses, pushes that knock down furniture, and a constantly agitated voice” (Henderson, 18). Why is that? It is because Martin is a “breed”, regardless of his raising Martin is still a Native American and being such he cannot show or respond the same kind of aggression, until
The extent of said punishment changing as the social and cinematic landscape would allow it. We experience this in My Darling Clementine (1946) with Doc Holliday and Chihuahua. Clementine is a described as a film that “venerates virtue” (Coyne, 37) and unfortunately these characters are the farthest from virtuous. Doc Holliday, though a well-read and articulated medical professional from the east, is a drunkard who is easily prone to bouts of rage and violence and it is that reputation that gives him the respect and fear he has in the town of Tombstone. Later in the film when his fiancé finds him and requests that Doc returns to Boston we spurns her for his lover, Chihuahua is the local saloon singer, which implies occasional bouts of prostitution, who is either Mexican or …show more content…
Here our subjects, Debbie Edwards and Martin Pawley, aren’t immoral, however they are a part of a social structure that entraps them through the means of sex. “True citizenship therein is morally and racially exclusionist” (Coyne, 40). A constant theme of The Searchers are the matters of kinship, race, and the affairs between these subjects. “The undoing of Debbie’s adoption and marriage and of the Indian law that sanctions them turns us back to Martin’s adoption and marriage to the white law that sanctions them and prescribes their terms” (Henderson, 15). Our first example Martin Pawley, adopted and raised by the Edwards family is 1/4th Cherokee, regardless of his parents being white settlers Martin’s role in the film for all intents and purposes is to be the image of the Native who in being adopted, internalizes whiteness. It is this structure that has bearing with his relationship with Laurie Jorgeneson, a white girl. Martin is the passive member in the relationship; whenever they share a scene it is always Laurie who is very forward in initiating a relationship, “a desire that presented as physical, indeed as violent, with hard kisses, pushes that knock down furniture, and a constantly agitated voice” (Henderson, 18). Why is that? It is because Martin is a “breed”, regardless of his raising Martin is still a Native American and being such he cannot show or respond the same kind of aggression, until