Learning to Love Cowboys, or To Be a Hero

[A Note: To those who enjoy cowboy movies well, or looked at this post merely because it's on the link-up, you may be surprised at my rather harsh initial opinions on Westerns. For my opinions, I cannot lie that they are strongly felt, but for my language on them, I apologize. As it is generally my custom to warn readers when I feel there is something unexpected contained in a post, let this be a warning now, and an assurance that the post is meant in good humor. All opinions expressed are my own.]
If I am the only one here who, at the title above, thinks of a certain song from the cartoon The Princess and the Pauper, then this is indeed a sad day. However, I am not here to talk about how much I love old Barbie movies - old movies, yes, but of a different sort. As it is, it is currently Legends of Western Cinema Week over at Hamlette's Soliloquy  (thank Megan Chappie for this post, who alerted me of the goings on by her own lovely post here). And I am not a big Western person; in fact, I usually hate Westerns (or did, at least). I disliked John Wayne and Burt Lancaster, could not stand Western aesthetics or setting (usually), and generally had no enthusiasm for cowboys... except in a few specific cases - the cases that transcended the title of "cowboy" or "non-cowboy." And those cases are why I felt I had to get in on this.

The first Western I ever watched and enjoyed was Gary Cooper's High Noon (1952), and I was surprised. Even though Coops has long been my favorite actor, he certainly doesn't have a perfect score with me for the sake of that. But the fact is, one aspect of the movie transcended both Coops and my personal tastes - the heroism. If there was one thing that stuck with me through the whole movie, it was the sheer heroism of its hero, Marshal Kane (Gary Cooper's character).

The movie took a setting of three long-unseen roustabouts coming back to the town that sent them to prison with the motivation of revenge, particularly on Kane, who has just resigned from his long reign as sheriff there. There's a hitch, though. As much as Kane would like to go away peacefully with his new wife and forget about those three outlaws (his wife, a Quaker, requested his resignation from the gunslinging duties), the new marshal hasn't arrived yet. That would leave the town unprotected - completely unprotected. As it is, those three are incredibly dangerous, incredibly good shots, incredibly angry, and their leader is incredibly nuts. They would fill the town with bullet holes without a second thought, even just passing through.  Kane isn't going to let that happen.

At first, Kane tries to get other men to aid him in the fight - after all, the three won't give up easily, nor be beaten easily. And every single man in the town refuses to help him because they're scared, or they dislike him, or - in the case of Kane's deputy - because Kane can't give them anything in return. So, it seems, Kane will have to stay himself and battle it out alone. His wife, Quaker that she is, cannot allow this. She threatens that he will either leave this town to its own defenses, or else she will leave him right then and there - she won't have any husband of hers gunslinging or endangering his life before their honeymoon. What else could Kane do but refuse, though? The town needs protecting.

The three have a particular grudge against Kane. If any one of them ever saw him, he'd probably be dead in less than a minute. By himself, he'll likely die defending the town anyways. And yet... he won't leave. The town needs protecting, and even though he risks losing his wife, his freedom, his friends, and his life, he stays - why? Kane stays for no other reason than it's the right thing to do. All of the townspeople have snubbed him, left him on his own. A few have gone so far as to curse or wish death by the three upon him. Obviously they are no friends of his. And he's not staying out of guilt - he rightly and justly put the three in prison in the first place, and rightly and justly had the right to leave and no longer any obligations of the sheriff's office. But he stays only because he thinks any righteous man would do the same. If he gets out of the situation, he would have nothing - he'd be alone in the world, without much money, no home, and no wife. If he dies in the process, he'll have gained nothing - the town will still be threatened, he'll have gained no honor in anyone's eyes, and it won't change the minds of the three. But it's just the right thing to do.

This character embodies everything I love about cowboy movies. He's man enough that nothing matters except the right and wrong; there is no gray in the truth. Everything I hated about cowboy movies, I realized then and there, was summed up in what Marshal Kane wasn't - thinking of John Wayne's often rude characters, or Burt Lancaster's ulteriorly motivated, double-dealing hotshots always made me uninspired by the movies. But here was a hero who was not like that - everything he did, he did openly, everything he believed, he said, and everything he did, he did for no other reason at all than he believed it was right. That was why I hated cowboy movies - because I didn't realize that there was more than one facet of them. I thought all the cowboys were John Waynes and Burt Lancasters, and there were just a bunch of dust-covered, selfish, gunslinging drinkers who didn't care about much. But, as in many cases, when you're proven wrong once, you are soon after proven wrong again.

The next cowboy movie I really fell in love with was Along Came Jones (1945). I'm ashamed to say, that stubborn as I am, I did not pick up this other cowboy movie for the reason of my having been proven wrong about them, but rather because, once more, ole Coops was in it. (How much thanks I owe to Gary Cooper for being in cowboy movies!) This time, I enjoyed it mostly because it was Cooper, Young, and Duryea's splendid acting, and because it made fun of cowboy movies in general, being slightly on the comedic side. But afterwards, it struck me yet again. The main character in Along Came Jones, Melody Jones, is a humble sort-of fellow, and, like Marshal Kane, lands himself in trouble when he is not only allowed but encouraged to keep out of it and mind his own business. And for what reason? Exactly like Marshal Kane, once more, just because there's something more about than his own hide. Jones stays around against the urging of his best friend and his ladylove merely because he suspects that she is in some kind of trouble and needs help - not even because she's being shot at or anything, but just because she's in enough trouble to lie and cheat. And, ever humble, he forgives her every little lie she tells to help herself out, even though he sees through every one. In this, Jones actually made rather a Christ-figure out of the dusty old cowpoke (which is material for another post entirely).

Others among Coop's reportoire came later on to prove me wrong some more: They Came to Cordura (1959), with its repentant and striving protagonist had a theme outwardly showing humanity's sinfulness, revealing the inward beauty of the things that human beings must strive for; Man of the West (1958) had a hero that saved the heroine without even the motivation of being able to have her - he was tied down, and, unlike many married figures in romance movies, returned to his wife without anything to regret by the end of it; Vera Cruz (1954) had a hero who despised even the thought of lying, and ended up facing against and even shooting one of his only friends in the world merely for the sake of preventing lies and the deaths those lies would cause; The Cowboy and the Lady (1938) featured a man who so loved goodness that he would give everything he had just to make someone he thought was a good and struggling woman his wife.

Finally, I supposed I'd give up my stubbornness - I like cowboy movies now. Don't get me wrong - I still cannot stand the rude and nihilistic John Wayne, nor the amoral and whiny Burt Lancaster, nor a lot of similar cowboy heroes. But Gary Cooper's heroes showed me that that's not what cowboy movies are about - the other side is the side of the real heroes, the men who risk everything, and often lose everything, just to do what they believe is right. Perhaps Coops isn't the only good cowboy out there. Now, I'll watch those cowboy movies I've avoided for so long. In fact, I think I'll watch them with a vigor, knowing that they could prove me wrong yet again.

What do you think? Do you enjoy cowboy movies? What are some of your favorites? Have you ever seen High Noon? Is there a cowboy hero you like best?