Of all the genre films, Westerns should be said to best reflect the characteristics of Hollywood genre films. Western is a type of film unique to Hollywood, and can also be called the most American type of film. Western films are mainly based on the historical background of Americans developing the wild west land in the second half of the 19th century, and have been enduring in the history of Hollywood movies.
The first Western film recognized in film history should be "The Great Train Robbery" in 1904. The trains, police, gangsters, beautiful women and western-style landforms in the film laid the basic style for the shooting of Western films in the future. In 1939, John Ford's "Flying Off the Mountains" was an early aggregator of Westerns. The film shows that white immigrants were attacked by savage and rude Indians when they developed the land of the Wild West. The "cowboy" as a standard tough guy always acted bravely and finally won the victory, realizing the happy ending of heroes and beauties. Most Westerns use this tone. (Influenced by the European film movement, individual Westerns have different "flavors" and will not be discussed here.)
"Guanshan Feidu" has formed a fixed pattern, that is, "white immigrants are threatened, the heroic cowboy solves the crisis, the gangster is eliminated, and the heroic beauties are reunited." In the early Western films, the white people were always handsome and brave. Kind and helpful, while Indians are mostly cruel and cruel, even "desperate of conscience". With neither distinct national characteristics nor single characters, they are portrayed as symbols of evil, the needs of the villain. Why do it? On the one hand, it is to promote the American myth, that is, the baptism of high civilization to low civilization; on the other hand, it has a profound social background. At the beginning of the rise of Western films, the movement to open up the west was going on, in order to prove the rationality of this movement. And progressive, the Indians in films are often seen as representatives of savagery, danger and ferocity. From this, it is not difficult to see the egoistic characteristics of American films, that is, to shoot films for the needs of the times. Cleverly grasping every change of information in the era is one of the magic weapons for Hollywood's longevity.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Westerns as a genre almost disappeared from the American movie scene until the new era of Westerns marked by "Dances with Wolves" made a comeback. (The "The Last Samurai" and "Avatar" in the future are also Westerns in the context of the new era.) This film, contrary to the traditional Hollywood Westerns that described Indians from the devil's tradition, described the culture and life of the Indians from the front. , and also Indians with dignity. As a Western film, "Dances with Wolves" retains the classic elements of Western films from the style of film and television, white police, Indians, white beauties and the unique natural landscape of the American West. But at the story level, it has made a bold innovation, changing the look of the western movies in the past. The white police in "Dances with Wolves" are no longer brave and kind, and the Indians are no longer cruel and ignorant. From the mutual confrontation and collision between whites and Indians in the past, to the current cultural interaction between the two sides, it seems that whites and Indians in the United States have reached a kind of reconciliation. But what we can see in the film is that Dunbar did not marry an Indian as his wife but was a white man, the English that Dunbar still used when he said goodbye to Kicking Bird at the end, and the English that Dunbar used to say goodbye to the Sioux who were invading the Burnie. At that time, it was Dunbar who stood up again to protect the women, children and children of the Sioux. Although the film is a kind of cultural equality on the outside, it is the mutual learning and influence between the two races, but it is undeniable that in the end, the superiority of the American white culture still prevailed over the Sioux culture.
Hofstede defines collectivism as "the integration of people from birth into strong, tight-knit groups that provide people with lifelong protection in exchange for their absolute loyalty to that group." Furthermore, he calls individualism Defined as: "A society in which people are loosely connected: people only take care of themselves and their nuclear families. Let's still take "Dancing With Wolves" as an example. Influenced by and gradually fell in love with this exotic culture, we can call collectivism triumphing over individualism at this moment. But at the end of the film, Dunbar and his wife (the only white man in the tribe) leave The tribe of the tribe went into the distance, and finally the Sioux were overwhelmed by modern culture. Can we still call it the victory of collectivism? After that, whether it is "The Last Samurai" or "Avatar", the protagonists seem to be affected by the exotic culture. Infected, but what we must see is that the protagonists eventually become leaders, and they still have white blood in their bones (or in other words, they still have white thoughts in their brains.)
From "Flying Off Mountains" to "Dancing With Wolves", it is worthy of praise that Hollywood's sensitivity to the market is unparalleled. They can always tell the same story in different times and backgrounds, and people But always relish. "Dancing With Wolves" is about cultural identity or cultural reciprocity, "The Last Samurai" is about the confrontation between old and new eras or civilizations, and "Afa" is about environmental protection and human self-reflection , but they have a common theme - American mythology - high civilization baptizes low civilization, white race influences other races, and the superiority of American culture.
Western is a theme film belonging to the United States. ---- If you are interested in Wendao, welcome to join the group AC power supply, QQ group number: 827804366
View more about Stagecoach reviews
