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Iris,
There's a new DVD of Sergio Leone's _Once Upon A Time in 
the West_ that includes a three-part documentary on this 
film as Leone's meditation on the western.  It might be 
productive to look at films like this which are themselves 
critiques of the genre.  Clint Eastwood's _Unforgiven_ 
comes to mind as well as the 1965 _Cat Bellou_.  These 
three films, by the way, suggest some fun stuff in and of 
themselves: Eastwood was Leone's number one outstanding 
individual.  The oustanding individual of _Once Upon a 
Time_, however, was a *villain* played by Henry Fonda (the 
embodiment of the western hero), who in real life was also 
the father of the hero(ine) of Cat Bellou--Jane Fonda.

Rose


On Thu, 29 Jan 2004 19:54:35 +0100
  Iris Laner <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>dear all,
>
>i'm wirting an article on western movies and the 
>phenomenon of the setting of the outstanding individual 
>in there. matter of discourse is the extraordinary 
>positioning of the hero (sheriff-to-be as the "good law" 
>or/and bandit as the "bad law") with regards to his 
>facility to gain and keep this hierarchy (which might be 
>some kind of dictatorship).
>what makes this extraordinary figure claim "i am the law" 
>and how can this be accepted by the environmental 
>society? is there some special kind of rhetoric the hero 
>uses in order to convince the others? is there an example 
>of sophism in the genre of western? in following up this 
>matter i have to rely on clichés, of course as the whole 
>genre turns out to be a cliché itself. 
>so maybe, someone of you knows what movie might be a good 
>paradigm, or - what would be even more helpful for me - 
>what literature deals with this problems in the broader 
>field of the western or other relevant genre(s).
>
>thanks a lot - i appreciate this mailing list and its 
>members very much, as a competent source in the field of 
>filmtheory and its critical discussion. 
>
>best,
>iris
>
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