Rooster Cogburn Analysis

A closer look at the two respective partnerships shall now reveal that Mrs. Miller and Eula are the men's active and vital partners as well. Admittedly, both women are to an extent dependent on their male partners. Yet, as one will see, whereas in the classical Western film, as noted before, it is usually only the women who are dependent on the men's help, both films under consideration here present the men as being also in the need of the women's help. In Rooster Cogburn, Eula certainly needs Rooster to find the killers of her father since he knows the territory and how to track them down. Still, she never appears helpless out in the woods where they pursue them. Instead, she soon reveals her excellent shooting skills and, just as Mrs. Miller, becomes the man's indispensable partner. An early scene in which Rooster, Eula, and Wolf manage to steal the wagon with the nitroglycerin from the gang provides a perfect example. The three barricade a path with logs and plan to hide and wait for the gang. Rooster tells Eula and Wolf to fire into the air when he cries “Posse!” in order to make the bandits think they are surrounded by U.S. marshals. He also shows Eula how to use a gun unaware of the fact that she actually knows quite well how to shoot. When the bandits arrive, Rooster forces them to dismount by threatening to blow up their …show more content…
In his article “The Westerner,” film critic Robert Warshow states that “in Western movies, men have the deeper wisdom and women are the children.”13 Referring to Warshow's statement, Self emphasizes that “McCabe & Mrs. Miller reverses this tradition.”14 The scenes discussed above certainly show this. Although Rooster is not totally drunk all the time and plays a central role in the pursuit of Hawk's gang, the two scenes between him and Eula just described surely run counter this tradition as