American westerns (maverick, t
American westerns (maverick, tAmerican Westerns
(Maverick, The Searchers, Unforgiven)
The Civil War has ended, leaving more than 600,000 American soldiers dead. In a single decade, from 1860 to 1870, the South's wealth declined 60 percent and that of the North had a 50 percent increase. One president has been assassinated and another impeached. The foundation for the women's suffrage movement was laid when women were introduced into new fields like nursing and teaching. In the late nineteenth century, the United States went through many changes. Blacks were organizing union leagues, while the Ku Klux Klan was forming. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments were passed, establishing the full emancipation of slaves, assuring all citizens equality before the law, and allowing all male American citizens the right to vote, regardless their race. What was happening out west during this time or reconstruction? Many Hollywood producers, during the twentieth century, have tried to recreate an old west on the big screen.
One of these attempts was the television show, "Maverick". The show first aired in September of 1957, staring an unconventional hero who rather play tricks and win card games than fight with a brother who shared the same characteristics. All the men walked around in suites and lived on showboats or in big houses. Men were propositioned to murder for a fair price. When there is talk of traveling through Indian Territory, one man exclaims, "They get mean this time of year." According to "Maverick's" Creator-A Cynical Approach", an article written by John P. Shanley, Roy Huggins, the show's producer, was convinced that Westerns would last as long as there is television.2 He stated, "Westerns will have their cycles just as they have had their cycles in the movies. I think the Western will last because it combines two of the most deep and persistent desires of mankind-freedom and security."2 Huggins then continued by saying, "The Western gives the audience a sense of well-being , an escape from reality."2 Huggins tried to push the envelope in some of Maverick's episodes. Most of the time the audience caught on and did not like it. Except for one time, Huggins was surprised when no member of his audience complained about Bret Maverick's father telling him, "You're shifty, self-centered and you know the value of a dollar. You'll die wealthy and honored."
In 1955, popular western director, John Ford teamed up with longtime friend John Wayne to make "The Searchers", based on the novel by Alan LeMay. It tells a story of Comanche Indians, whom are seen as "lions", whom burn down a home of white residents and kidnap the two young daughters leaving the rest of the family dead. Two men, who were the girls' close relatives, spend five years searching for them. During which they find one of the girls was dead and land themselves...
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