Will Wright Essay, Research Paper
Will Wright & # 8217 ; s work Six Guns & A ; Society is a proposal of a sociology of the economically most successful Western films in the four decennaries between 1930 and 1972. Mr. Wright selects as the footing for his survey, the 64 Western movies that figure into the Motion Picture Herald & # 8217 ; s top & # 8211 ; grossing charts, that is movies that made over four million dollars. Wright calls his book a & # 8220 ; structural survey of the Western, & # 8221 ; and all of his research is strongly tied to the work of Claude Levi-Strauss, Kenneth Burke, and Vladimir Propp. It is non a survey of movie as art but instead of movie as amusement popular
First Mr. Wright discusses the nature of myth. This treatment is sometimes difficult to follow because of the writer & # 8217 ; s inordinate usage of industry nomenclature but it is irrespective a helpful analysis. Then he analyzes the secret plans of the movies and split them into four different groups: ( 1 ) the classical secret plan with an single hero, approximately the 1930 & # 8217 ; s through the 1950 & # 8217 ; s ; ( 2 ) the retribution fluctuation, the 1950 & # 8217 ; s and 1960 & # 8217 ; s ; ( 3 ) the passage subject, the 1950 & # 8217 ; s ; ( 4 ) the professional secret plan with a group of heroes, from the 1960 & # 8217 ; s and 1970 & # 8217 ; s. Wright comparisons and contrasts his four secret plan types and so further analyzes the movies via four & # 8220 ; binary resistances & # 8221 ; he sees in most Westerns: inside/outside, good/bad, strong/weak, and wilderness/society. He provides close readings of the texture of 17 different movies and besides refers to several others in trying to demo how these movies illustrate America & # 8217 ; s altering positions about society and experiences germinating from these thoughts. In chapter five Wright argues that the displacement in secret plan forms of Western movies reflects a displacement in the American economic system from a competitory market that emphatic private and single concern, to corporate planning. This displacement is said to hold taken topographic point after World War II in the 1950 & # 8217 ; s.
Wright ne’er truly defines what he means by & # 8220 ; myth, & # 8221 ; and later the reader is left to seek for a practical significance. On page 17 he writes:
& # 8220 ; My involvement, nevertheless, is non to uncover a mental construction but to demo how the myths of a society, through their construction, pass on a conceptual order to the members of that society ; that is, I want to set up that a myth orders the mundane experiences of its listeners ( or viewing audiences ) , and communicates this order through a formal construction that is understood like language. & # 8221 ;
Basically
he is stating that these “myths” have such a strong influence on people that they govern their mundane experiences. Whether or non one chooses to believe that is irrelevant for the intents of this paper. Wright wants to show the construction of a myth in order to detect its societal significance. On page 150 he writes that, “in a scientific, disbelieving society, myths can non depend upon thaumaturgy and supernatural events and must hold a more realistic base for the narrative action.” But who is it that is scientific and disbelieving? Is it the mass audience for Western films? Where is the footing for these claims? Questions like these are rarely answered in Wright’s book, one of its lone defects.
About half of the films Wright hour angle selected autumn into his Classical Plot class, which he breaks down into 16 narrative capacities. This signifier is exemplified by Shane and Dodge City. It is the traditional Western in which a lone hero preserves a society from its scoundrels.
The 2nd class is one which Wright calls the Vengeance Variation which foremost pops up in Stage Coach and runs at the same clip with the Classical Plot in such movies as Red River and One-Eyed Jacks up into the 1960 & # 8217 ; s. In this signifier, the hero temporarily wantonnesss society to prosecute a personal blood feud against scoundrels whom his chap citizens are incapable of covering with.
The 3rd class is the Transitional Theme, which the writer says emerges and disappears in the 1950 & # 8217 ; s after merely three visual aspects in High Noon, Broken Arrow and Johnny guitar. Here the hero moves farther off from society and comes to place the community with the corruptness he opposes.
Wright & # 8217 ; s concluding class is the Professional Plot, towards which the Vengeance Variation and Transitional Theme have been taking the Classical Western. This secret plan has twelve narrative maps, but fundamentally the movies embodied under it are about groups of professionals instead than a individual hero, standing outside of society and, candidly or venally, working for money. The Professional Plot is exemplified in such movies as Rio Bravo, the Wild Bunch and Butch Cassidy.
Peoples ne’er seem to pall of surveies about the cowpuncher or of novels and movies covering with him. Possibly their leftover involvement reflects American & # 8217 ; s ongoing love matter with the mythic cowpuncher. Whatever the grounds, Will Wright does a good occupation of tapping that involvement and supplying the reader with fresh positions and fascinating thoughts.
