Death Of The West

Death of the West

Of the stereotypical figures that encompass the past of America, it is the image of the cowboy that resonates across the globe. Even in recent times, the image of the cowboy has been associated with the current President of the United States as he enunciates his global showdown with the terrorists, the embodied villains in black hats, by stating the old adage, "dead or alive". The cowboy myth conveys that such a person: is tough and stoic, prefers a harsh individualism to collectivism, hates injustices brought upon the weak by the powerful, and conveys a sense of honor and respect to certain members within a society. With the rise of industrialism and its effect on American culture, such examples began to die in their utility. As the American west was settled and began to emerge under a relatively unified government, the function of the cowboy, and the code of the brutal and lawless West, was lost to the powerful force of American society, and, perhaps, the cowboys themselves, to move towards civility and domestic foundations. In contextual settings, the movies Shane and The Magnificent Seven, elaborate on the passage of the American west and the cowboys, that lived by their own code of ethics, from vitality to the eccentric catacombs of the past.

In Shane, the protagonist is thrust into a conflict between cattlemen and farmers, the future and the past of the American landscape, relatively speaking. As Shane has abandoned his former life as a gunslinger, he attempts to acclimate to a different societal code devoid of showdowns at "high noon". Given the nature of the conflict and as a final alternative, Shane must return, once more, to his former code of life in order to defend the weak against the strong and powerful, but with victory on his side, he is not able to fit into the new frontier that is beginning to emerge. He is not able to be a part of the new west that has emerged (i.e. being a husband and father). As Shane rides off into the horizon, with the son of the farmer calling his name to no avail, it becomes evident that he and the way of life for the cowboy are forever lost in loneliness and antiquity.

In The Magnificent Seven, seven cowboys, each portraying a tangent of the cowboy myth, are beckoned by the weak to help defend them against powerful bandits. For various reasons, each member of the seven, have chosen to be a part of the final stand against villainy and injustice. Within an array of personalities and specific talents, it is clear that each of the magnificent seven wish that they had chosen a different path that would not be as lonely and unfulfilling, and through the noble act of defending the village from bandits, they hope that they will be able to start their lives anew; a life apart from the violence and death related to