Abstract
The American Western film is mostly about food and sex. The “ur-Western” that defined the genre was Howard Hawk’s RED RIVER, which recounted the founding of the Chisholm Trail, a way to bring Texas beef to Eastern markets in 1865, immediately after the US Civil War. Hawk’s film – starring John Wayne in the role that established him as a type – was released in 1948, in the wake of WWII. RED RIVER comments simultaneously on the world created by the Civil War and by WWII. The film’s repeated references to food provide a way of decoding the meta-narrative of all Westerns - it is through masculine violence that we overcome violence, arriving at a new authority, a feminized violence that offers makes an alternative world epitomized by food.
Presenters
Michael DennerProfessor of Russian Studies, Program in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, Stetson University, Florida, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2022 Special Focus—Imagining the Edible: Food, Creativity, and the Arts
KEYWORDS
Film, American culture, Cowboys, John Wayne, Beef, Gender Studies
