Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Guitar Johnny/ Two Mules

Johnny Guitar is a different type of western film with respect to the alpha male cowboy and his general demeanor. Throughout the film, Johnny Logan is forced to change his ways to appeal to Vienna and try and win her back. A different storyline than typical, Johnny guitar shows the alpha male cowboy changing from the “other” to someone more appealing to Vienna. The women in the film are described as the others (more or less all but the alpha male cowboy is an other) for the fact that they seem to bog down the characters of the men because they dominate the roles and the actions that have taken place in the film. They find was to create a sense of power over the males in their characters. This is relevant to the time period of the mid 1950’s and the fact that the roles of women as housewives had begun to change after WWII as they proved that they could do things just as well as a man in his absence.
Two Mules for Sister Sarah is more of a different type of otherness. Sarah, a prostitute in disguise, has been tricking and coxing Hogan into helping her. However, she also manages to save his life twice and contribute to their overall journey. Sarah is a strong character because she is able to stand up in times of need and be brave and needed. But at the same time, she plays into the role of the other by disguising her true identity, along with lying to Hogan about who she is and what she is really doing. This film, made in 1970, is just after the civil rights movement and plays towards the role of women having a stronger role in society. They have found that at times, you need to disguise who you are in order to accomplish things and gain respect from others.

No comments:

Post a Comment