Horizons West: The Western from John Ford to Clint Eastwood

352 Pages·2007·48.659 MB·English

by  Jim Kitses

HORIZONS WEST

HORIZONS WEST
Directing the Western from John Ford to Clint Eastwood
NEW EDITION
Jim Kitses
Inmemoryof PaddyWhannel
THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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First published in 2004 by the British Film Institute
Reprinted in 2007, 2009
Reprinted by Bloomsbury in 2018
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Copyright © Jim Kitses 2004
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
1 DirectingtheWestern:PracticeandTheory 1
2 JohnFord:FoundingFather 27
3 AnthonyMann:TheOverreacher 139
4 BuddBoetticher:RulesoftheGame 173
5 SamPeckinpah:TheSavageEye 201
6 SergioLeone:AFistfulofWesterns 249
7 ClintEastwood:TightropeWalker 285
SelectFilmography 316
SelectBibliography 322
Index 329

Acknowledgments
IamgratefultoEdwardBuscombe,AndrewLockett,JonathanTilstonandRobWhite
fortheirsupportonbehalf of theBritishFilmInstituteduringvariousstagesof pro-
duction. My gratitude as well to Sophia Contento and Tom Foley for their expert
technicalassistance.TheAutryMuseumofWesternHeritagehousedtheprojectbriefly,
forwhichIamindebtedtoKevinMulroy,Directorof Research.SpecialthankstoEd
Buscombeforstayingthecoursethroughout,andforhisvaluableadviceandhelpful
comments.
IoweaspecialdebtofgratitudetoAlanLovellfortheconstancyofhisinterest,the
lucidityofhisideas,andthegiftofhisgoodfriendship.GreggRickmanwaskindenough
tohelpwithstills,andtosharehisresponsestoearlydrafts.IamgratefultoScottSim-
monandNoelKingfortheirinterestandassistancewiththebibliography.Warmthanks
to Joseph McBride for his sharing of research and especially scripts of My Darling
Clementine. Steve Chack of San Francisco’s Naked Eye is always generous with his
knowledgeandmaterials.JodyMahoneyhelpedwithprintingglitches,forwhichshe
hasmylove.
PortionsoftheanalysisofMyDarlingClementineandofthePeckinpahchapterfirst
appeared in TheWestern Reader (NewYork: Limelight Editions,1998),edited by Jim
KitsesandGreggRickman.CommentsareexcerptedfromessaysthatappearedinSight
andSoundonTheHi-LoCountry(‘RacingwiththeMoon’,vol.9no.8,August1999),All
thePrettyHorses(‘BloodredHorizons’,vol.11no.3,March2001)andOpenRange(‘For-
given’, vol. 14 no. 1, January 2004). My thanks to Mel Zerman and Nick James for
permissiontoreprint.
IamgratefultotheLillyLibrary,IndianaUniversity,forawardingmetheHelmFel-
lowship in 1998 to support research at its John Ford Archive. Many thanks to my
colleagues over the years at San Francisco State University for making its Cinema
Departmentthecongenialandproductiveplacethatitis.Iamalsoindebttoallmystu-
dentswhosecontributionshavetaughtmesomuchandsustainedmywork.
Manyofthisbook’sideasfirsttookshapeindebateswithcomradesintheearlyfilm
education movementthatwasnurturedbytheBFI’sEducationDepartment.Iamgrate-
fultothemall–theyaretoonumeroustodetailbutknowwhotheyare–andtrustthey
understandmydedicationinmemoryofPaddyWhannelismeanttoacknowledgealarger
debttothateraandtothepolemicsandpow-wowsthatweshared.Imusthoweversingle
outPeterWollenforhiscrucialassistanceasEditoroftheCinemaOneseries.Imustalso
acknowledgetheinvaluablesupportofAnitaKitsesintheproductionoftheoriginal.
Finally,IamgratefultomybelovedPaulaforherinvaluablesupportandunderstand-
ing,andtoAngela,Jesse,JasmineandAnastasiaforhelpingtomakethetrailahappyone.

1
Directing the Western: Practice and Theory
TheWesternisoneofAmerica’sgrandestinventions.Likejazzandbaseball,twoother
uniquepastimes,itrepresentsadistillationofquintessentialaspectsofnationalcharac-
terandsensibility,andhasentertainedmillionsofaudienceswithitsintenseaesthetic
and ideological pleasures.Such original cultural forms and institutions testify to the
Americangeniusforthepopular,expressedinacreativeinterplayofcollectiveritualand
individualwill,conventionandinvention,teamplayandstardom.Thefrontierbetween
thepersonalandthesocialisarchetypalandtrans-cultural:yetisthereamoreAmeri-
candramathanoftheindividualperformanceplayedoutwithinandagainstthechecks
andbalancesofthecommunal?
However,foryearsthefreedomprovidedbygenericnarrative,theinterplayof the
familiar and the different, was ill-understood with reference to cinema: Hollywood
movieswereformulaic,empty,theenemyofart.Moreover,whenFrench,Englishand
American critics challenged this mid-twentieth-century mind-set, although genres
achievedameasureofredemption,itwasessentiallyasasideeffectoftheemergenceof
thedirectorasfilmauthor.Genresprovidedacanvasforthecreativityoftheindividual
auteur,functioningasapre-conditionforauthorship.Outof thisclashof notionsof
dreamfactoryversusvisionaries,cametheimpulsetohonourthetaleaswellastheteller
thatcharacterisesmyapproachhere.
AstudyoftheWesternthroughthelensofitsmajordirectors,astudyofitsmajor
directorswithintheframeworkofthegenre:suchisthedialecticalpremisethatstruc-
turesthisbook.JohnFordandAnthonyMann,BuddBoetticherandSamPeckinpah,
SergioLeoneandClintEastwood:thesefilm-makerscanbeseenasconstitutingagreat
traditionoftheWesterngenre.
Inmyviewthisbinocularapproach,withaneyeonbothfilm-makerandform,is
calledforpreciselybecausedirectingtheWesternasaprocessishardlythesimpleone-
way-streetapplicationofcreativeauthoritybythedirectorthatthephrasemaysuggest.
All genres are not created equal:undemocratic as that may sound,theWestern does
occupyaspecialplacewithintheAmericancinema.Nootherpopularfilmformrivals
itinthepeakachievementsandunsurpassedproductivityofitsartistictradition.The
genre’suniquecentralitytothenation’shistoryandideologyhasprovidedthefertile
groundtoinspire,supportandshape–inasensetodirect–thecareersofsomeofAmer-
ica’smostaccomplishedfilm-makers.Yettheclichéofreviewersthatthedistinguished
Stagecoach:thechallengeofAmerica