Why I watch Wild West movies now even though they are quite wild exaggeration of reality of American frontier then; The Bravados (1958) starring Gregory Peck

Last updated on 2nd Dec. 2019

Minor update on 15th Sept. 2021

A few days back, a correspondent shared an extract of a response by Noam Chomsky in a recent interview: "An enormous campaign was carried out to try to create a gun culture. They invented a Wild West, which never existed, with the bold sheriff drawing the pistol faster than anyone else and all this nonsense that you get in the cowboy movies. It was all concocted. None of it ever happened."

The interview article - Noam Chomsky: Life Expectancy in the US Is Declining for a Reason, https://truthout.org/articles/noam-chomsky-life-expectancy-in-the-us-is-declining-for-a-reason/, 28th July 2019.

The rest of the post below is based on my response to the correspondent and some stuff that I added later on.

Of course, Wild West movies of Hollywood have exaggeration much like Sholay (1975) and Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) superhit Hindi movies of my boyhood had exaggeration (I was around 15 when Sholay was released and around 17 when Amar Akbar Anthony was released).

But there is a kernel of truth around which the exaggeration of the Wild West movies are made. And the Wild West movies portray some aspects of reality of life in rural areas of USA then which apply even today to rural India (like Anantapur district where I live). That is why I am into watching Wild West movies and sharing them on Facebook. One of the biggest aspects portrayed by the Wild West movies which I think reflects reality then in USA rural areas and reality now in Anantapur district and many other rural districts of India, is how violence or just the threat of violence is used by power-bosses to control the populace. Frontier towns in USA may have used the gun for such violence to establish and maintain control over others/populace whereas in Anantapur district usually some other less sophisticated means are used. But the outcome of letting the populace know who are the bosses, is the same.

But it has to be said that the lot of the poor in Anantapur district seems to be much, much better today in 2019 as compared to what it would have been two to three decades earlier (and even worse in decades before that). That is great!

Rural India people even today in our early 21st century respect violent power - that has been the history over millennia in such places, and most of history ***all over the world*** including Western Europe and USA. It is only in recent times, say 20th century onwards, particularly after World War II, that rule of law in Western Europe and USA has become much better implemented than in other parts of the world like India.

The Wild West movies help me to come to terms with these realities of life in rural areas & towns in the past, with some aspects of these movies being valid even today in rural areas & towns in India! Also note that Hindu epics have lots of violence with usually the good overcoming the evil by killing the evil persons/demons - e.g. Narasimha killing Hiranyakashipu (demon), Devi killing Mahishasura (buffalo demon), Rama killing Ravana and Krishna killing Kamsa.

Back to the article:

Chomsky says:
"But that meant, going back to the guns, you needed them to keep off the British, you needed them to control the slaves, you needed them to kill Indians. If you’re going to attack the Indian nations — they were nations, of course — you’re going to attack the many nations to the West of the country, you’re going to have to have guns and militias. Ultimately, it was replaced later by a standing army."

I think the above words have some truth in that guns, of course, were used to brutally finish off the Native American Indians, to control the slaves, and to fight off the British. But it did not stop there. In frontier parts of the USA, I think it is a good guess that it was used by powerful white guys to dominate poorer white people (besides the black/African-American slaves) as well as poor Latinos. In frontier towns where law and order implementation would have been poor, it is very reasonable to presume that powerful white people would have even bumped off (murdered using guns typically) some other white people who were bothering them.

The wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_frontier has an introduction section that seems to be a credible account with more balance and coverage than what Chomsky said in the interview. Given below are some extracts from the intro section:

The American frontier comprises the geography, history, folklore, and cultural expression of life in the forward wave of American expansion that began with English colonial settlements in the early 17th century and ended with the admission of the last remaining western territories as states in 1959.[nb 1][1][2] This era of massive migration and settlement was particularly encouraged by President Thomas Jefferson following the Louisiana Purchase, giving rise to the expansionist philosophy known as "manifest destiny".
...
In 19th- and early 20th-century media, enormous popular attention was focused on the Western United States in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, from the 1850s to the 1910s, a period sometimes called the "Old West" or the "Wild West". Such media typically exaggerated the romance, anarchy, and chaotic violence of the period for greater dramatic effect. This eventually inspired the Western genre of film, which spilled over into television shows, novels, and comic books, as well as children's toys, games and costumes.

As defined by Hine and Faragher, "frontier history tells the story of the creation and defense of communities, the use of the land, the development of markets, and the formation of states." They explain, "It is a tale of conquest, but also one of survival, persistence, and the merging of peoples and cultures that gave birth and continuing life to America."[4] Through treaties with foreign nations and native tribes, political compromise, military conquest, establishment of law and order, the building of farms, ranches, and towns, the marking of trails and digging of mines, and the pulling in of great migrations of foreigners, the United States expanded from coast to coast, fulfilling the dreams of manifest destiny. Turner, in his "Frontier Thesis" (1893), theorized that the frontier was a process that transformed Europeans into a new people, the Americans, whose values focused on equality, democracy, and optimism, as well as individualism, self-reliance, and even violence.

[Wiki Refs:]
1. The History of the American Frontier, https://www.moverscorp.com/moving_guide/history_of_the_american_frontier/
2. Hyslop, Stephen G. (November 3, 2015). National Geographic: The Old West. National Geographic. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-4262-1555-1.
..
4. Hine, Robert V.; John Mack Faragher (2000). The American West: A New Interpretive History. Yale University Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0300078350.
--- end wiki intro section ---

Ravi: Now I am not saying that I believe the Manifest Destiny stuff ... but I think it is people who believed in that sort of stuff who led the way to America moving Westward, conquering territory till all of the West of USA was conquered.

The history of humanity including history of India is full of such violence with the more powerful crushing the less powerful into servitude.

Some of the aspects of Wild West movies around rural areas and small towns in them that I think are relevant to rural life in India today which includes, partly at least, life in ashram systems in rural India, are given below. I should also mention a recent Wild West movie I saw: The Bravados (1958) starring Gregory Peck, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L93ve656YP0, 1 hr. 37 mins. The movie's wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bravados. This movie illustrates some of the points given below.

* Far poorer availability of vital services like medical services, water, sanitation, good roads and transport as compared to cities.

* Large majority of rural people being poor or very poor for whom access to basics like food & clean water, clothing and shelter are challenging

* Very limited availability of decent employment

* Theft from vulnerable rich people being rather common but fear of retribution making theft from well protected or well supported rich people being rare

* Violence (directly or indirectly through followers of the person), threat of violence and non-violent ways available to some powerful persons (like giving/taking way jobs/business) to make life difficult for targeted persons, being vital factors in making rural people very respectful of those (powerful) persons. In other words, fear is a very vital aspect of rural people being very respectful of such (powerful) persons. [Rural India specific: I should add that as urban Indians settle down in rural areas in India, I think this fear of such powerful persons in rural areas becomes a part of their lives too, even if their contacts in urban India in law & order and political field gives them some degree of protection from rural power bosses. I mean, rural power bosses do have some fear of big influence from union government or state government (ministers, top bureaucrats, top police officers etc.) being brought to bear upon them if they mess around with urban guys in their rural areas, who have such big influence contacts.]

* Given the above points, survival itself in rural areas is a big challenge. Note that a tourist type visit to a rural town/village for a few days is a completely different matter from having to live there for many months. Those that survive for many months can slowly think of settling down in that rural area. [Rural India specific: For many urban Indian guys (like me who led almost the whole of the first four decades of my life in city environments), the first test is whether they can survive for many months in an Indian rural town/village.]

* Rural work typically involves long hours of physically demanding labour, especially if one is in farming or tending to livestock. Those who survive doing such tough rural work become physically quite muscular even if some of them tend to become somewhat obese at times. That type of powerful body is **respected** in rural society as it clearly shows that the person can do a lot of labour by himself, and if it does come to some physical pushing around type of conflict, the person will be no pushover.

* Rural society is a male dominated society. Women get their power through men (father, brother(s), husband, son(s) (sometimes son(s)-in-law)) and have to be protected by men. Fear of sexual harassment and sexual assault is a reality for women in rural areas and so they have to be in protected zones and be indoors or within their courtyards in late evenings and nights.  Family/respectable women also have to be careful with their dress being in line with what is expected of modest women in rural society. [I think this aspect of Wild West movies is very much in line with some parts of rural India today (at least the parts that I have been exposed to).]

* Mode of transport being vital for survival. The horse was a key mode of transport in the Wild West. [In rural India today, motorized two wheelers are the typical mode of transport; cycle for poor, bullock carts for poor farmer.]

* Religion played a positive role in towns and communities to have a common base of code of conduct and fear of God. The church seems to have played an important role in influencing the community about good and bad (as viewed by the church head). [Rural India specific: Most parts of rural India are deeply religious. Religion is part-and-parcel of rural peoples' individual and family lives as well as their community life. Hindu temples, Muslim mosques, Christian churches etc. and the leaders in these places of worship, play vital roles in influencing the community about good and bad (as viewed by these leaders).]

* Reality of Evil: Mean people and bad people were a reality which was well recognized.

* There was a vital need for punishment of evil doers so as to make people fear that punishment for future acts of that kind.

* Collective action against those that threaten town/village: The posse in the Wild West movies is a good example of this collective action.

* Challenge to build a decent functioning rural town society; Very easy for it to get poisoned and broken down by bad guys if the bad guys were not challenged and defeated.

* Male heroes are those who typically protect their family, including fighting off attackers, lead a reasonably decent family life, attend their community's religious functions in town etc. They are given a lot of respect and many youngsters look up to them.

* Males who are weak and so get pushed around by bad but powerful guys are shown sympathy by some, pitied by some, and viewed with contempt by some. Most people don't want to interfere as they fear the bad but powerful guys themselves. Males who push back at abusive behaviour by bad & powerful guys and are able to either defend themselves well from the bad & powerful guys or defeat the bad & powerful guys, are ***respected and admired***.

* [This is seen only in some Old West movies. I believe that women were scarce in the Old West/Wild West due to the tough life there. But some Western movies (e.g. The Bravados) show more settled towns which have lots of families and at least one church.]: The foundation of rural society in well settled rural towns is family life and family values. Most people are married with those who are unmarried typically being unmarried due to lack of adequate resources for married life. Marriage is the overwhelming norm! Persons choosing to remain single even though resource-wise they can get married, are rare. [Rural Indian ashram systems are, of course, an exception to this as significant number of ashramites may choose to remain unmarried.]
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What was life really like in the wild West?, https://www.quora.com/What-was-life-really-like-in-the-wild-West, has an interesting set of views about reality of Old West life.

[I thank truthout.org and wikipedia and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above extracts (small extracts from truthout.org) from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]