13.07.2015 Views

Download (3483kB) - Greenwich Academic Literature Archive ...

Download (3483kB) - Greenwich Academic Literature Archive ...

Download (3483kB) - Greenwich Academic Literature Archive ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS
  • No tags were found...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

provoked into a fight and has to admit in court that he 'struck the first blow' - albeit underprovocation. This is the argument that the North brought against the South that they firedthe first shot, and the South that they were provoked into war. Chandler's fine is paid by anorthern farmer, Linette Moore, and he goes to work for her. But the sheep farmers whoprovoked the fight want her land and Chandler and Moore combine to defend it. Yet againthe Cold War message that a united America will succeed, and unity is cemented and thefuture ensured in Hollywood's traditional Civil War ending - North-South reconciliationthrough marriage. A different twist to the southern hero comes in Quantrill's Raiders(1958) which distinguishes the good from the bad southerner. Here the Confederate captainwho has come to give Quantrill orders to carry out a raid is so shocked by his attitude thathe warns the townspeople and the soldiers and joins them to defend the town of Lawrence.The film ends with North/South reconciliation through marriage and gives positive imagesof the Union army and the federal government.The rehabilitation of the northerner can be seen in Great Day in the Morning (1956) wherethe Union captain is contrasted to the northern profiteer. As in Quantrill's Raiders thedistinction is being made between good and bad northerners - and continues the trend inaltering Hollywood's image of the Union soldier in Civil War films. In Drango, (1957) aUnion major returns to the south as a military governor wanting to make amends for thedestruction that the war caused. He has to struggle against malignant hatred and plots bydie-hard southerners, but succeeds through his compassion and desire for justice. InWestbound ( 1959) a Union captain is sent to the west to stop Confederate guerrilla raids ongold shipments. He finds that while the townspeople have southern sympathies they disliketheir most prominent citizen who has achieved power through illegal means and is also theorganiser of the guerrilla raids. After a series of atrocities they combine with the captain torestore law and order.In the mid-1950s national identity remained white and male and Hollywood, through itsportrayal of the individual in the mythical west, promoted this concept. But society waschanging. World War II had opened up national identity to previously excluded groupssuch as the Jews, the Irish and most of the Europeans. However, when the Supreme Courtdeclared that discrimination was unconstitutional, southern conservatives saw this as athreat to their identity as it implied equality with the African Americans. If Jim Crow wasto fall, so would their myths and the justification for the southern way of life. With Senator96

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!