HORIZONS WEST HORIZONS WEST Directing the Western from John Ford to Clint Eastwood NEW EDITION Jim Kitses Inmemoryof PaddyWhannel THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018, USA BLOOMSBURY is a trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in 2004 by the British Film Institute Reprinted in 2007, 2009 Reprinted by Bloomsbury in 2018 on behalf of the British Film Institute 21 Stephen Street, London W1T 1LN www.bfi.org.uk The BFI is the lead organisation for film in the UK and the distributor of Lottery funds for film. Our mission is to ensure that film is central to our cultural life, in particular by supporting and nurturing the next generation of filmmakers and audiences. We serve a public role which covers the cultural, creative and economic aspects of film in the UK. Copyright © Jim Kitses 2004 Jim Kitses has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as author of this work. For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. vii constitute an extension of this copyright page. Cover design: Ketchup Cover image © The Searchers (John Ford, 1956), C. V.Whitney Pictures Company All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any third-party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: PB: 978-1-8445-7050-8 HB: 978-1-8445-7019-5 eISBN: 978-1-83871-627-1 ePDF: 978-1-83871-628-8 Set by Fakenham Photosetting Limited, Fakenham, Norfolk Previous page: My Darling Clementine: the classical Western par excellence To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters. Contents Acknowledgments vii 1 DirectingtheWestern:PracticeandTheory 1 2 JohnFord:FoundingFather 27 3 AnthonyMann:TheOverreacher 139 4 BuddBoetticher:RulesoftheGame 173 5 SamPeckinpah:TheSavageEye 201 6 SergioLeone:AFistfulofWesterns 249 7 ClintEastwood:TightropeWalker 285 SelectFilmography 316 SelectBibliography 322 Index 329 Acknowledgments IamgratefultoEdwardBuscombe,AndrewLockett,JonathanTilstonandRobWhite fortheirsupportonbehalf of theBritishFilmInstituteduringvariousstagesof pro- duction. My gratitude as well to Sophia Contento and Tom Foley for their expert technicalassistance.TheAutryMuseumofWesternHeritagehousedtheprojectbriefly, forwhichIamindebtedtoKevinMulroy,Directorof Research.SpecialthankstoEd Buscombeforstayingthecoursethroughout,andforhisvaluableadviceandhelpful comments. IoweaspecialdebtofgratitudetoAlanLovellfortheconstancyofhisinterest,the lucidityofhisideas,andthegiftofhisgoodfriendship.GreggRickmanwaskindenough tohelpwithstills,andtosharehisresponsestoearlydrafts.IamgratefultoScottSim- monandNoelKingfortheirinterestandassistancewiththebibliography.Warmthanks to Joseph McBride for his sharing of research and especially scripts of My Darling Clementine. Steve Chack of San Francisco’s Naked Eye is always generous with his knowledgeandmaterials.JodyMahoneyhelpedwithprintingglitches,forwhichshe hasmylove. PortionsoftheanalysisofMyDarlingClementineandofthePeckinpahchapterfirst appeared in TheWestern Reader (NewYork: Limelight Editions,1998),edited by Jim KitsesandGreggRickman.CommentsareexcerptedfromessaysthatappearedinSight andSoundonTheHi-LoCountry(‘RacingwiththeMoon’,vol.9no.8,August1999),All thePrettyHorses(‘BloodredHorizons’,vol.11no.3,March2001)andOpenRange(‘For- given’, vol. 14 no. 1, January 2004). My thanks to Mel Zerman and Nick James for permissiontoreprint. IamgratefultotheLillyLibrary,IndianaUniversity,forawardingmetheHelmFel- lowship in 1998 to support research at its John Ford Archive. Many thanks to my colleagues over the years at San Francisco State University for making its Cinema Departmentthecongenialandproductiveplacethatitis.Iamalsoindebttoallmystu- dentswhosecontributionshavetaughtmesomuchandsustainedmywork. Manyofthisbook’sideasfirsttookshapeindebateswithcomradesintheearlyfilm education movementthatwasnurturedbytheBFI’sEducationDepartment.Iamgrate- fultothemall–theyaretoonumeroustodetailbutknowwhotheyare–andtrustthey understandmydedicationinmemoryofPaddyWhannelismeanttoacknowledgealarger debttothateraandtothepolemicsandpow-wowsthatweshared.Imusthoweversingle outPeterWollenforhiscrucialassistanceasEditoroftheCinemaOneseries.Imustalso acknowledgetheinvaluablesupportofAnitaKitsesintheproductionoftheoriginal. Finally,IamgratefultomybelovedPaulaforherinvaluablesupportandunderstand- ing,andtoAngela,Jesse,JasmineandAnastasiaforhelpingtomakethetrailahappyone. 1 Directing the Western: Practice and Theory TheWesternisoneofAmerica’sgrandestinventions.Likejazzandbaseball,twoother uniquepastimes,itrepresentsadistillationofquintessentialaspectsofnationalcharac- terandsensibility,andhasentertainedmillionsofaudienceswithitsintenseaesthetic and ideological pleasures.Such original cultural forms and institutions testify to the Americangeniusforthepopular,expressedinacreativeinterplayofcollectiveritualand individualwill,conventionandinvention,teamplayandstardom.Thefrontierbetween thepersonalandthesocialisarchetypalandtrans-cultural:yetisthereamoreAmeri- candramathanoftheindividualperformanceplayedoutwithinandagainstthechecks andbalancesofthecommunal? However,foryearsthefreedomprovidedbygenericnarrative,theinterplayof the familiar and the different, was ill-understood with reference to cinema: Hollywood movieswereformulaic,empty,theenemyofart.Moreover,whenFrench,Englishand American critics challenged this mid-twentieth-century mind-set, although genres achievedameasureofredemption,itwasessentiallyasasideeffectoftheemergenceof thedirectorasfilmauthor.Genresprovidedacanvasforthecreativityoftheindividual auteur,functioningasapre-conditionforauthorship.Outof thisclashof notionsof dreamfactoryversusvisionaries,cametheimpulsetohonourthetaleaswellastheteller thatcharacterisesmyapproachhere. AstudyoftheWesternthroughthelensofitsmajordirectors,astudyofitsmajor directorswithintheframeworkofthegenre:suchisthedialecticalpremisethatstruc- turesthisbook.JohnFordandAnthonyMann,BuddBoetticherandSamPeckinpah, SergioLeoneandClintEastwood:thesefilm-makerscanbeseenasconstitutingagreat traditionoftheWesterngenre. Inmyviewthisbinocularapproach,withaneyeonbothfilm-makerandform,is calledforpreciselybecausedirectingtheWesternasaprocessishardlythesimpleone- way-streetapplicationofcreativeauthoritybythedirectorthatthephrasemaysuggest. All genres are not created equal:undemocratic as that may sound,theWestern does occupyaspecialplacewithintheAmericancinema.Nootherpopularfilmformrivals itinthepeakachievementsandunsurpassedproductivityofitsartistictradition.The genre’suniquecentralitytothenation’shistoryandideologyhasprovidedthefertile groundtoinspire,supportandshape–inasensetodirect–thecareersofsomeofAmer- ica’smostaccomplishedfilm-makers.Yettheclichéofreviewersthatthedistinguished Stagecoach:thechallengeofAmerica