Today I was watching the movie Shane with my aunt. It’s a movie from the 1950s depicting western life after the civil war in the 1800s. I’m generally not an old movie buff, but once and a while, there will be one that gets me thinking, and I start typing away.
American Westerns have appealed to people all over the world. I know this because I am very well-traveled, and I can’t tell you how many people had approached me when I told them I was American and said, “I love America, John Wayne. I love John Wayne.” Shane does not have John Wayne in it, but it is an American Classic about an American Frontiersman that’s fighting the odds against the bad guys. The scenery is Majestic and unyielding, and the homestead is small and dwarfed in its shadow. It looks scary and forbidding. So I have to ask, what is so appealing about this scenario to the entire world?
Asians, for example, love these westerns as well. They love them as much as I love Korean and Chinese Dramas. Korean Dramas, also known as K-Drama, often depict a time in ancient Goreo. The people are generally beautiful and wear clothing that is well suited for their features and frames. The male characters are easy to fall in love with, and they all are complicated and encrusted with extravagant clothing and tradition. The characters express a cultural hierarchy that excludes the masses and praises the top one percent that all have unattainable attributes. They stick to the same template so as not to turn off either sex and keep everyone hooked. I love them! So why would people from cultures so rich in tradition and culture be so enthralled with America’s Westerns? They’re simple; they have very little pageantry, and they’re rough in that everyone is borderline on the edge of complete annihilation! It’s the American Dream. Yes, it’s the dream that you can go somewhere, make your own rules, and answer to no one. Particularly not some wealthy blowhard monarch with no sense of what it’s like to barely get by every day.
The allure is universal and primal. Be free, live life on your terms as long as your not hurting anyone else. These Hollywood Westerns offer a glimpse of what it would be like to have a chance to be the boss in your own life.
I don’t ever want to be in the position my American forefathers were in when they came to America. It wasn’t like the movie “Shane,” but it wasn’t easy. I know what they wanted, freedom. Freedom from oppression. Freedom to practice the religion of their choice. Freedom to pursue happiness etc. We all must remember these basic human desires before we voted in 2020. We must try to ignore the media’s shortcomings and make decisions that meet the primal urge we all hold dear. The desire to feed, shelter, and clothe ourselves and lastly preserve that need for autonomy like that of SHANE.