Johnny Guitar and Two Mules for Sister Sara

Tompkins explains, “men are superior to women” which both of the two movies we watched this week, Johnny Guitar and Two Mules for Sister Sara go against with their main characters being women (Tompkins 73). In Johnny Guitar, the alpha male is Johnny Guitar, but he does not quite act like the alpha male until later in the movie. One of the main characters is Vienna, the female saloon owner who acts much like an alpha cowboy who is introduced standing on a balcony above the men in her saloon, which shows her alpha complex right off the bat. Johnny is meant to protect Vienna, as more issues are created between her and her enemy, Emma Small and the men traveling with her. Vienna and Emma have a lot of similarities including being strong willed, masculine, and the leader/commander of their respective groups. Emma convinces the townsfolk and the men in her pack that Vienna has robbed a bank (which she did not) and therefore everybody is after Vienna. Emma’s command over so many people is unlike the normal qualities and tendencies of a woman in the west. Every word that comes out of Emma’s mouth is strong and all the men follow. Vienna is the same way, Johnny Guitar listens to what Vienna says, for example when she wants to go to the bank even though it is not what he wants to do, they still go. Both Emma and especially Vienna create issues for the Alpha male cowboy, including when Vienna is about to be hanged by Emma and her posse so Johnny must step in and save Vienna. Both of the woman, although the “other,” do not act as though they are the “other.” They both have intense alpha personalities and create different issues for the men following them. Another interesting point is how Johnny is meant to protect Vienna, but as soon as she picks up a gun it is pretty obvious that she does not need protection. The only time that she needs his help is when he saves her, which brings in his alpha male qualities.
The two main characters in Two Mules for Sister Sara are Hogan (the alpha male) and Sister Sara. Sister Sara’s first identity, a nun, is much more appropriate (characteristically) for a woman to be in a western, according to the way Tompkins describes women. She denies whiskey and acts very innocent throughout their journey and both respectful and inferior to Hogan, the alpha male. As the movie progresses and we learn her real identity, a prostitute, her character traits stray further from the way women are commonly regarded in westerns. As a prostitute, not only is Sister Sara making her own money and not relying on a man, but she also smokes cigars and drinks whiskey frequently. Hogan, the alpha male cowboy, has a hard time acting like a true alpha male because he must deal with Sister Sara. Hogan is fond of Sara, and talks frequently to her, straying far from how Tompkins describes the alpha male, silent. When Hogan finds out about the whore house and Sister Sara not being a nun, he yells at Sister Sara saying that she played him. He feels betrayed, and it is not very often that we see an alpha male be mislead by a woman.

Johny Guitar & Two Mules for Sister Sarah

Both movies assigned for this week have shifted the western ideals we studied by Tompkins and Matheson and turned them practically upside-down. Tompkins statements about women being second-hand characters and not being very authoritarian with Matheson’s strong position in favor of the whole alpha-male macho man are being completely ignored by these two movies, Johnny Guitar and Two Mules for Sister Sarah.
In the film Johnny Guitar, it is more than clear that the two main characters are Emma and Vienna and surprisingly it came as a shock when I believed the main conflict between both was going to be Johnny Guitar, it was not, the problem was in a disagreement of whether more visitors was god or bad for the town. The western portrays them as two strong willed women that did not take no for an answer, “alpha-girls”. This can be clearly seen when Vienna kills Emma, and a striking moment for Johnny Guitar in the movie is that he appears to save Vienna.
In the other film, Two mules for Sister Sarah, another side of women is shown. A manipulative, word-wise and deceiving Sarah in his being shown to the audience, while she manages to achieve everything she wants. Sarah, being a non, also manages a whorehouse near the French army and the image of the innocent girl immediately leaves our thoughts. Despite all of this, she was once saved by Hogan, the alpha male, and she returns her favor to him by saving him too.

Johnny Guitar/Two Mules for Sister Sara

In this weeks films, Johnny Guitar and Two Mules for Sister Sara, women continue to break the stereotypical mold that they have been placed into during the earlier films. No longer are women viewed as “silly, blathering on about manly business that is none of her concern, and beneath it all really asking for sex” such as Tess Millay in Red River. (61) Rather, women are playing alpha cowboy characters whom put up a fight, can yield a weapon, and deceive men.

In Johnny Guitar, Vienna (Joan Crawford), is a business woman who owns her own saloon and has aspirations of building her own town however, she often runs into issues with other members of her town. Not only is Vienna the alpha cowboy in this film but the person whom she disputes with the most, Emma Small, could also be considered an alpha character.

In the less famous film, Two Mules for Sister Sara, Sara, whom we perceive as a nun, has a deep secret. Throughout the film we see her engaging in questionable activity for a nun until Hogan, played by Clint Eastwood, discovers that she is not a nun. In earlier films a women character would not even think about pulling a deceiving act like this.

Johnny Guitar/ Two Mules for Sister Sara

In the two films, Johnny Guitar and Two Mules for Sister Sara, the "other" is a strong-minded woman in both movies. They both go above and beyond what typical Western women would do with their lives. Tompkins states that "in many Westerns, women are the motive for male activity (it's women who are being avenged, it's a woman the men are trying to rescue) at the same time as what women stand for- love and forgiveness in place of vengeance- is precisely what the activity denies" (Tompkins 41). In Two Mules for Sister Sara, Sara was in fact rescued by the cowboy, Hogan, but instead of standing for love and forgiveness, Sara helps along Hogans plot for violence against the French army. To make matters more peculiar, the viewer finds out in the end of the movie Sara was no nun, rather a prostitute. This was a shock to Hogan as well as the viewer, but not so much at the fact that she was not a perfect nun, but that she could undermine Hogan's intelligence throughout the whole movie. Also, in Johnny Guitar, Vienna is not seeking love and forgiveness in place of vengeance toward the end of the film, as she finds herself in a stand off with Emma and kills her. At multiple points in the movie she draws her gun, proving she can protect herself and is willing to fight.

Tompkins also points out that "most Western novels and movies have already accomplished and repressed: the destruction of female authority. ... Western's either push women out of the picture completely or assign them roles in which they exist only to serve the needs of men" (Tompkins 39). The women in both films challenge this assessment of women as well, as they do much more than just serve the needs of men. In Johnny Guitar, Vienna owns her own saloon and has men waiting on her and working for her. She hires Johnny Guitar to serve the needs of her. She can handle a gun and talk down a posse of angry men. Over the five years Johnny Guitar has not seen her, she has built her own business and has big ambitions. She did not sit around and wait for a man to return, such as the women in The Searchers. The roles are quiet reversed in Two Mules for Sister Sarah as well, but in more of an ironic way. While Sara's profession is normally to serve the needs of men, she gets Hogan to serve her needs by protecting her on her journey. By pretending to be a nun, Sarah avoids many conflicts and keeps Hogan respecting her throughout the journey. In the end of both films, both women achieve happiness by being so strong-willed and strong-minded, something you don't see in an "other" in more traditional Westerns.

Johnny Guitar and Two Mules for Sister Sarah

In the two films assigned for this week, Johnny Guitar and Two Mules for Sister Sara, the women once again challenge the classic western by dominating the men and differing from their respective roles as “the shadow of a more important male” (40). Tompkins states that in the classic western “there is no need to say that men are superior to women,” this fact is commonly understood (73). However, in these two females the characters Sarah and Vienna challenge the men around, them whether by deceit or power, for the respect that they deserve.

In the film Johnny Guitar, the town’s saloon owner is a strong-willed, determined woman named Vienna. Throughout the film she comes into great conflict with the townsmen and a particular woman named Emma, who is a local rancher. The two women have conflicting views about visitors to their town, which has begun to increase with the railroad.

Vienna, delighted to have more business is threatened that the town will shut down her saloon. They desire her to keep the land rather than let it be developed into the railroad. This feud continues to grow throughout the film with Vienna and Emma. As their relationship reaches a climax, we see Vienna take the life of Emma, while hers is saved by Johnny whom she is in a rocky relationship with.

The relationship between Vienna and Johnny is quite different than anything we have every seen in the classic western. Vienna is the more dominant one in the relationship, forcing Johnny to question his manhood. In describing Vienna, he notes that he has “never seen a woman act like such a man; she thinks like one, acts like one, and sometimes makes me think I’m not one.” Her ability to demoralize Johnny in their relationships verifies her role as the “alpha male.” Another instance where we see Johnny as the inferior actor in the relationship is when he pleads for Vienna to confirm her love for him. In this conversation she indulges him by declaring that she loves him, however, soon after, she becomes aggravated with his lack of confidence in himself. She tells him to “stop feeling sorry for yourself, I didn’t find this place, I had to build it!” Thus confirming that she needs someone strong in her life that she can depend on to help her business grow and prosper not someone who is going to be a free-rider. In order to appease Vienna, Johnny transforms himself from Johnny Logan; the dependent man in her life to Johnny Guitar the reinvented, independent self-sufficient savior.

In the second film, Two Mules for Sister Sarah, Sarah is first seen being saved by Hogan the alpha male cowboy. However, as the plot develops we learn that Sarah is not as innocent as she portrays. Even though she is dressed as a nun, insists on giving the dead a Christian burial-even the ones that tried to rape and murder her she actually runs a prostitute circle near the French army. Nonetheless, this façade saves Hogan’s life several times during their journey from shielding from the Yaquis Indians and raising money for artillery to gathering information about the garrison.

This relationship between Sarah and Hogan develops from infatuation to lust and extreme desire. In this non-classic western, the two protagonists in the end save each other and both give up their previous lives to be together in the end.

Johnny Guitar and Two Mules for Sister Sara

Both Vienna and Emma in the film Johnny Guitar and Sara in the film Two Mules for Sister Sara offer challenges to their respective alpha males as well as to women in classic westerns. In Johnny Guitar, Vienna is a saloon owner outside of a small town in the west. She has conflict throughout the film with the rest of the townspeople and especially Emma. In her critique West of Everything, author Jane Tompkins writes that, “in the case of women in Westerns generally…there’s nothing to them” (61). This description may fit some women in westerns, such as Debbie Edwards in Debbie Edwards in The Searchers, but it most certainly does not apply to Vienna or Emma. Vienna is a very strong woman, as she owns a saloon and runs it all by herself. She seems to have a power over men, as they both respect and fear her. The final fight in the film is not even between two men; rather Vienna kills Emma in the end. This action alone signifies that women in this film have more power than men have. The climax of the film involves two strong women, and this shows that women can do just as good a job of using guns and fighting as men.
In Two Mules for Sister Sara, Sara convinces alpha male cowboy Hogan that she is a nun in need of protection. Tompkins writes that, “the position represented by language, always associated with women…is allowed to appear in Westerns” (55), and this most certainly holds true in Two Mules for Sister Sara. Sara must use her language to convince Hogan that she is a nun when in fact she is a working girl. She uses her language because her actions sometimes seem masculine and certainly not like a nun; such as when uses a gun, drinks, and climbs up the railroad bridge to plant dynamite. Men are the ones who use guns, drink, and climb tall structures, not women. When Hogan is injured, Sara must aim his gun and plant the dynamite. I can even see this as Sara doing better than Hogan in this situation, which poses a threat to the traditional alpha male cowboy. Just taking part in these actions challenges the alpha male, because she shows that women can do just as much as men can. This defies the traditional alpha male cowboy and blurs the difference between male and female characteristics in Westerns.

Johnny Guitar & Two Mules for Sister Sara

Typically in Westerns “there is no need to say that men are superior to women” (Tompkins 73), but this supposed fact is highly debatable in Johnny Guitar and Two Mules for Sister Sarah. Women are standing up to their roles more than ever in the Western scenario, and the alpha cowboy is subdued by them to the point where its “alpha” status is questionable.
In Johnny Guitar, for instance, the main character of the movie is actually Vienna – not Johnny Guitar. The film focuses primarily on her as a leading role and her sexual drama with Johnny on the side. She’s much more dominant and independent than the typical woman in the Western. One could say that Vienna is more of an alpha cowboy than Johnny himself, with her particularly masculine ways of handling herself in the land, and her great marksmanship with the gun. She actually has her own rival, Emma, who also happens to be a woman.
In the case of Two Mules for Sister Sarah, we are presented with Sarah who is similar and different to Vienna in several ways. She seems to have more feminine ways, but still packs qualities of an alpha female. In Westerns, supposedly, “women cannot express their rage because to do so marks them as unfeminine” (Tompkins 127), but Sister Sara expresses her rage and does a very fine job at it, too. We see her snap entirely on Hogan’s face when she finds out she confronted her fear of heights and there wasn’t going to be an explosion in the end. We also see her drinking and even smoking; this is no ordinary nun – I mean, prostitute. She carries a more feminine role as a sidekick, aiding Hogan when he is injured and using her faux religion to help in battle. In a way, she’s smarter than Hogan, seeing as she deceived him throughout most of the film until she reveals her true persona. The alpha cowboy, however, instead of being offended, is actually turned on by her – and once he finds out that she isn’t actually a nun, he goes for her. The final twist is when we see the ending - instead of the typical western ending scene, lone ranger in the horizon style; we are presented with the alpha cowboy, followed suit by his faithful prostitute dress extravagantly in red.

Johnny Guitar/Two Mules for Sister Sara

In Johnny Guitar we see two women who off challenges toward the traditional women of the western. First, there is Vienna who is a saloon owner who is not very liked by the locals. She is a hard pressed woman who will wield a gun and is unafraid of pointing it at another. She is not the typical woman who “exists only to serve the need of men” (Tompkins 40). Her saloon that she opens up will serve the needs of men when the railroad comes through since it will provide gambling and alcohol that men often need in the west. But she is not a prostitute that would typically occupy the saloon. For, her she is an entrepreneur in the west who is able to get information from men and then try to make money off of it.

The other woman is Emma who like Vienna is a strong and authoritative woman. Throughout the film she doesn’t back down in trying to get rid of Vienna. She actually has a set of virtue ethics that traditionally would apply to the men of the film. And for the most part the men fulfill of the posse are the moral ones who have to be talked into killing by Emma who insists that Vienna should be put to death for a crime she didn’t do. Ultimately, the two women appear to be the two competing alphas in the film. Just like Tom Doniphan and Liberty Valance were the competing equals in The Man who Shot Liberty Valance, these two women do the same. Even with at the end when the two women face off in a duel that is never seen in other westerns. Women settling scores with guns just aren’t a part of the traditional western where the women are watching in the background. Johnny Guitar really demonstrates a role reversal for the sexes.

Another example of women fulfilling a role that women are not traditionally accustomed to in westerns is that of Sara in Two Mules for Sister Sara. We see Sara initially as a helpless nun who is on a mission to help others. But then we get glances along the way that Sara is not a traditional nun. First we see her sneak off and have a smoke. Then she has a drink of whiskey. And finally she begins swearing. Even Clint Eastwood’s character Hogan calls her out when he see that she is dinking and swearing. His question of “what type of sister are you” is quite accurate for both him and the audience. And as we learn later she is rather a saloon girl in hiding. She was able to deceive an alpha cowboy like Hogan for the length of their journey together. It projects the woman as witty and the cowboy as a fool which doesn’t happen often in the films. The cowboy is usually the one fooling others. Again there is a role reversal between the men and women.

Two Mules for Sara / Johnny Guitar

In Two Mules for Sister Sara, Sara, played by Shirley MacLaine, challenges Hogan, the alpha male, often during the film. When Sara’s mule was hurt Hogan suggested she stay in the village for a week to allow the wound to heal. Instead of waiting she traded her grown mule to in the village for a young smaller mule. She continued on with Hogan despite his suggestion. This is like the women Tompkins describes such as “the Indian woman in The Seachers (1956) who attaches herself to the young male lead.” (Tompkins 8) When Hogan is shot Sara is there to attend to his wound. He guided her through the process of taking the bow out of his body but she completed the action with mighty skill and strong will. He thanks her for her help. She is unlike the “[Indian] woman [who] is treated so abominably by the characters – ridiculed, humiliated.”(Tompkins 8) Sara proves herself equal to the alpha male because of her strong will, and determination. After revealing herself she guided the Mexican army into the French base. She aided in the ambush of the French fort. In the end Hogan and Sara walk off in the landscape happily ever after.

In Johnny Guitar, Vienna, played by Joan Crawford, also challenges an alpha male, Johnny Guitar, played by Sterling Hayden. Vienna is an independent woman living in the West. Vienna stands up to the Dancin’ Kid and his men with the help of Johnny Guitar’s protection. Their relationship is not like the relationship described by Tompkins “not talking to a woman on an equal level can be a way for a man to dominate a relationship.” (Tompkins 59) I think that Vienna plays as much a role as Johnny and sometimes she can even play a bigger role. This is shown throughout the movie because she has the same strong will, and determination as Sara. She demonstrates this when she kills Emma. At the end the two part ways unlike the other film.

Johnny Guitar and Two Mules for Sister Sara

Johnny Guitar gives us another example of a woman owning their own business. Our main character Vienna is the owner of a saloon in a local town. The major challenge that she faces is the affect the railroad has on the town. She is personally happy to have the railroad come through the town because of all the potential business she can receive. However, other’s are not as pleased. One figure is Emma, who is a local rancher and does not want any new people impeding on her land. This is the first time we see two women butting heads in a film. Tompkins states, “Westerns strive to depict a world of clear alternative – independence versus connections, anarchy vs law, town vs desert – but they are just a compulsively driven to destroying these opposites and making them contain each other”(Tomkins 48). Emma and Vienna are a great example of contrasting forces. They really remind me of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance because both women are different styles of the “alpha female” in this movie.
Two Mules For Sister Sara is great example of deception in the Western film genre. In this scenario we have the alpha male, Hogan, accompanied by his “other” Sara. Sara tells Hogan tells that she is a nun and Hogan agrees to essentially be her personal escort/guard back to the French camp in which he is trying to spy on. It becomes prevalent that Sara is challenged to act the part as a nun. She has a particularly difficult time staying away from the cigars and a bottle of whisky which sparks Hogan’s attention. Tompkins states, “Language is gratuitous at best; at worst it is deceptive. It takes the place of things, screens them from view, creates a shadow world where anything can be made to look like anything else”(Tompkins 52). Both main characters in this film have to use language to set up their false backgrounds. It is kind of comical that both made these false pretenses and it is only till later that one of them catches on to the other’s lie.

Johnny Guitar/Two Mules for Sister Sara

In classic westerns it was “the landscape that challenged the body”; however, this is not the sole challenge presented to the alpha male cowboys in Johnny Guitar and Two Mules for Sister Sara (Tompkins 71). Women were once considered “the shadow of a more important male” and were thought of as “extensions of the men they are paired with” (40). The emergence of the woman from this shadow is a vital part of these films, which portray the role of women as “other” as they offer challenges to the alpha male.

In Johnny Guitar, Vienna, owner of a saloon and a self-proclaimed “good gunfighter”, angers Emma and the other men in the town by owning her valuable plot of land on the railroad. McIvers threatens to shut down the saloon in twenty-four hours in order to take her land. Throughout the film, Vienna feuds with these people to keep her saloon and to also deny the belief that she was involved in the bank robbery. Another challenge exists within the relationship of Vienna and Johnny; it is as though she is challenging his manhood. When talking about her he says that he has “never seen a woman act like such a man; she thinks like one, acts like one, and sometimes makes me think I’m not one.” Missing his previous relationship with Vienna, Johnny asks her to tell him that she still loves him. She does so and as they are speaking and trying to resolve their differences Vienna tells Johnny to “stop feeling sorry for yourself, I didn’t find this place I had to build it!” It seems as though she was the motive for his activity (41). His transformation from Johnny Logan to Johnny Guitar was in order to win back Vienna. In the end of this film it was the alpha male who overcame his challenges with “the other” to save her life as she was about to be hung.

In Two Mules for Sister Sara, Sara challenges Hogan throughout the plot. He meets her as she is being attacked by three drunk men in the wilderness. The first challenge arises after he saves her life by killing these men but before leaving the site Sara, dressed as a nun, insists on giving the men a Christian burial, which Hogan believes to be unnecessary and he cannot imagine after what just happened why she would want to do this. He becomes angry when she uses his water to bless them. Although it poses as a challenge, I think Sara’s religious façade proves to be an asset to Hogan’s journey. Using her cross to deflect light on the Yaquis Indians, she saves Hogan and herself from attack by stepping in front of the gun. She provides him with information that helps him invade the garrison, takes the arrow out of his chest and keeps his gun steady as he shoots the dynamite on the bridge to stop the train. In the end of this film, the non-classic western of the two, it was the female who repaid the favor of being saved at the beginning of the film and helped Hogan to accomplish his task.

Johnny Guitar/Two Mules for Sister Sara

The women in each of the films offer challenges to the respective alpha males as well as to women in classic westerns. Johnny Guitar is considered a classic; Two Mules is not. In both cases, explain these challenges as you understand their status as "other." Use Tompkins.

High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo

In High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo, women are portrayed very differently than they were portrayed in previous Western films we’ve seen. In High Noon, there are two stronger female characters that both play a prominent role in the film. In The Ballad of Little Jo, Josephine takes on the role of the alpha male cowboy the moment she transforms her image from a woman to a man. In previous Westerns we’ve watched, the female characters practically went unnoticed because their role was insignificant in the diegesis. However, in these two films, women are a primary focus. In High Noon, we have Amy and Helen, both strong females. Even though Amy just married Will Kane, when he decides to stay in his town to face a deadly man he once put in jail, she decides she’ll leave without her new husband. Her religion is important to her, and she doesn’t want to sit around and wait to be made a widow if Will is killed. We also have Helen, who is strong-minded and is also very businesslike. She has a very strong presence when she is with other people, especially when she is with men. It is new to see a woman so independent and on her own, and she lives her life exactly how she chooses to.
In The Ballad of Little Jo, Josephine chooses to be a man when she has an illegitimate child and is shunned by her family. She moves to Ruby City, and although the men still treat women in a negative way, she portrays characteristics of an alpha male cowboy and fools almost all of the townspeople. There are two men who catch on to her secret. One of the men treats women very poorly and eventually leaves town, and the other man is from China and Jo falls in love with him. She acts like a female when she is with him, but when she isn’t she embodies characteristics of an alpha male cowboy. She is alone throughout a lot of the film, and she is also very quiet, which represents control. Tompkins says “not speaking demonstrates control not only over feelings but over one’s physical boundaries as well….The male, by remaining ‘hermetic,’ ‘closed up,’ maintains the integrity of the boundary that divides him from the world” (56). It is essential to Jo’s survival to stay quiet and keep that boundary up between her and the other men in the film or they would catch on and realize she wasn’t really a man. In addition to her isolation and her silence, she also learns how to shoot a gun well and demonstrates this when she is on her way into town one day with another townsman. She is the one to kill two of three men on horseback who are trying to shoot at her and Frank Badger. In both of these films, we start to see the new attitudes of women in the West and how the way they relate to men begins to change.

High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo

High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo present completely new ideas for women in Westerns. Rooster Cogburn was the first movie we saw this year where the role of women was greatly increased and these two films continue to expand on that idea. No longer are women characters “undercut” by begging, “Stop me, Matt, stop me” such as the case in Red River where Tess Millay begs for Matthew Garth but rather, these women are strong-minded and confident. (Tompkins 60-61)

In The Ballad of Little Jo, Josephine Monaghan is sexually abused as a child and kicked out of her house. Quickly learning how difficult it is to be a woman in the West, Josephine begins to go by Jo and pretends to be a man. Jo knew that she had everything it took to survive but could not do so if people knew she was a woman.

In High Noon, Katy Jurado, playing Helen Ramirez owns her own saloon. It was extremely uncommon for women to own their own business during these times. This showed just how strong and powerful of a woman Ramirez was. Amy Kane who is married to the marshal, Will Kane, is also portrayed as a powerful women in High Noon as she is involved in a gun fight and even kills a man.

This change in attitudes towards women in Western films is a nice change from the sexist views that we have seen for so long. No longer are women responsible for just putting food on the table but they now play a crucial role in these films.

Rooster Cogburn

Rooster Cogburn is the first film we have watched this year to portray the alpha male cowboy in a new light. Typically, John Wayne’s character is never intimidated by females, never in trouble with the law, and is always in control of every situation however, things are different here.

What makes Rooster Cogburn such a different compared to the other Western’s we have seen this year is the fact that a woman plays such a major role. Katherine Hepburn, playing Eula Goodnight, breaks the stereotypical Western mold for females. Typically women were portrayed as inferior, weak, and emotional however, Hepburn on the other hand is strong-minded and can handle a gun with the best of the alpha-male characters.

Wayne’s character, Rooster Cogburn, is in trouble with the law just minutes into the film for seeking retaliation for the death of his friend, Cogburn is stripped of his badge as a U.S. Marshall. No longer does a man in the West “settle his own problems” as Tom Doniphon stated in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. (Liberty Valance)

For once, Wayne’s character has to share the screen with another dominant character however, in this case it is not even another male, it is a female. This is a far different cry than The Searchers where women were expected to put food on the table and were even put up for purchase.

High Noon and Little Jo

In “High Noon” and “The Ballad of Little Jo”, we are given a view of independent women that seem to go against the traditional notion of a woman’s role in the western. In “High Noon”, we are shown Amy, the new wife of marshal Kane. She at first seems the typical woman figure in a Western, getting married and settling down with a husband. However, we are first given a view of how strong she is when she gives Kane an ultimatum. She says that she will leave Kane if he doesn’t leave town with her to avoid the gunfight. The typical western woman would have followed the pattern of waiting at home, while the alpha male goes out to do business. However, Amy decides that she will instead leave Kane, and go on her own. This shows not only defiance towards the alpha male, but independence, that is not normally found in female characters. We are then given another reason why she isn’t a typical female character, when she goes to her husband’s side. While going to her man may seem normal of a western, the fact that she picks up a gun certainly isn’t. Killing a man is usually a job only accomplishable by a man. Also, even though she went to her husband’s side, she did it with courage. No man in the town, except for the one eyed guy, was willing to stand by Kane, but she decided to go. Another example of a strong woman in “High Noon” is Helen Ramirez. She is also independent, leaving town with no man. Not only that, but while in town, she proved to be a successful businesswoman. In “The Ballad of Little Jo”, we are given a woman that would rather live completely independent of men. Josephine, while being Jo, is described as one of the meanest people in the west. This is something that usually only describes the alpha male, which is what Jo becomes in a sense. The point of the movie seems to be the way that she does everything that men were meant to do. She survives in the harsh wilderness, she shoots murderous gunmen, and gains respect. The film seems to imply that women in the west were just as strong as men. This is completely opposite to what the normal western says about women. The normal western paints women as dependent on men, and only able to survive at home or church. Instead, we are given a completely independent woman, who completely defies conventional western gender roles.

High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo

Both the film High Noon and the film The Ballad of Little Jo present revisionist ideas in relation to classic western ideas. In High Noon, while the alpha male cowboy, Marshall Will Kane, is the center of the main action of the film, the two main women, Amy Kane and Helen Ramirez, also play a major role. Amy Kane, Will’s wife, shows that she has valid opinions, and the film even has some scenes with only her and Helen, who is an independent saloon owner who must be strong in order to run her business. In her critique of the Western genre, author Jane Tompkins writes, “When the crunch comes, women shatter into words” (Tompkins 62). However, this is not true when it comes to Amy. She actually kills one of the men trying to kill Will. Amy uses action, not talk. This is similar to Jo in The Ballad of Little Jo. Josephine Monaghan loses everything and ends up masquerading as a man in order to live her life and to try to find some success. Tompkins writes that normal women in westerns, “may seem strong and resilient, fiery and resourceful at first, but when push comes to shove, as it always does, they crumble” (Tompkins 61). Jo changes the idea about this as well. Jo Monaghan works hard, learns how to use a gun, and learns how to live in the west. She survives and succeeds, not crumbles, when push comes to shove.

These changed views also have an effect on the alpha male cowboy. The alpha male cowboy in High Noon respects women, and all the other cowboys respect Jo in The Ballad of Little Jo. Even when the cowboys find out that Jo is really a woman, they still respect her for all that she has done. They are angry that she fooled them, but they nonetheless respect her. This is the main change in the world of the alpha male cowboy. While strong women may still use language to express themselves, something highly against the alpha male cowboy’s person, they also have the capacity to survive just as well as men do. Author Sue Matheson argues that the alpha male cowboy, “is an antisocial loner who functions in a world peopled with sociopaths, a Hobbesian wilderness where life is generally nasty, brutish, and short” (Matheson 891), but Jo also acts just as Matheson describes. In effect, she has become an alpha male cowboy, and this is frightening to other alpha male cowboys. If women can take on their role, then what else can women do? Amy in High Noon and Jo in The ballad of Little Jo show alpha male cowboys that women are to be respected as well.

Throughout the history of the Western, the expectations and roles of women have been quite trivial. However, in both the High Noon and the Ballad of Little Jo, the women characters contradict Matheson and Tompkins assessments by posing as a protagonist. Matheson asserts that women even when are portrayed as a main character in the Western, possess a feminizing role subordinate to men. This is specifically seen in High Noon, where women are not just servants to their men, but business women who own saloons and stand side by side with their men in battle. These women serve as a secondary alpha cowboy where they prove their points with actions rather than words.

In addition to High Noon, The Ballad of Little Jo proves women are no longer inferior to men. In one scene, Jo is seen undressing, exchanging her dress and corset for a more comfortable set of clothes-trousers and a shirt. In response to her actions, the clerk scolds her noting that "it's against the law to dress improper to your sex." When Jo transforms her clothing and defies the law, she steps into the role of the alpha cowboy in Ruby City. Not only this, but she possesses other alpha cowboy qualities such as the ability to shoot a gun, working on a farm-sheep herding, and the confidence to take the gun from Percy's hands.

Although several men, like Percy, in these two movies believe that women still cannot defend themselves, their role as the alpha male has become overshadowed by the new female character Jo and Amy. They are fooled by the women characters and the express their feelings and emotions to others. this use of emotion lessens their position as the alpha male, thus allowing room for women to step in and take their place.

High Noon/The Ballad of Little Jo

In both of the films High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo, there are multiple revisionist ideas that exist and show the changed attitudes toward women in the west. For High Noon, we see the ideas in the characters of Amy Kane and Helen Ramirez. Amy Kane in the film is able to display a power or control over her husband. He didn’t get married in his town’s church because she is a Quaker and he is putting down the gun because of her Quaker values. This represents a significant change from the past classics that show women being solely obedient to the male’s orders. It indicates too that the male is more open with his female counterpart. To let the words of a women affect Kane enough to walk away from his job indicate that he is open in his emotions and will talk with his wife and let her know he real feeling about a situation. Kane must have had an open discussion with her about their future where her words had an effect on him that the past alpha males would not have allowed.

We also see from Helen Ramirez a different type of women who exists amongst the men. She s a women who owns property and will not be told what to do why any man as she clearly states. That type of independence was in no way seen from the classic westerns. Property was an issue that men controlled. And what is even more puzzling about Helen owning the property is that she is also Mexican. She isn’t even of the same race of the white Angelo Saxon males that held all the power in the west at the time of many of the films. Helen is able to make he own business demand and even negotiate the sale with a man who takes her seriously. It was fairly surprising to see a woman in that type of position of power.

In the Ballad of Little Jo, we see Josephine transform herself actually into a man during the film. Instead of becoming a wife or prostitute, Josephine chooses to become a man known as Jo. She wears the clothes of the men and tries to scuff herself up to look like she’s been roughed up amongst the boys. Every time she is discovered to be a woman by the boys they are always surprised and show great respect for her. It’s a tough undertaking to be one with the boys in the American West but Jo is able to blend in well with her set of skills that is as good as most males in the West at the time.

High Noon & The Ballad of Little Jo

According to Tompkins, the only two places where women belong “in the social structure [are] the church and the home” (Tompkins 44). In High Noon, however, we see a different situation when Helen is introduced as a business owner of a local saloon. She’s a woman with character who knows what she wants, and she seems to be significantly respected by the men around her. Her lover happens to be the deputy, who shows less personality than her by surrendering his position in fear of the bad guys. The other main female character, Amy, sticks more to the cliché characteristics of a woman in the Western – but she doesn’t fit the “pattern of talk cancelled by action” (Tompkins 51) when she comes to the rescue for the Marshall in peril. Nobody stands up for the Marshall, not even the deputy, but a woman does – and she does a fairly decent job at it, too. What is mostly represented in High Noon in accordance to woman is how much more in control they seem to be about their lives. Helen and Amy had decided for themselves that they were leaving the town, regardless of what their men thought. Amy ultimately stays to save the day, not because any man told her to.
In the beginning of The Ballad of Little Jo we see a more accurate Western representation of women. Josephine, as a woman, is not taken seriously; she is pushed aside, sexually assaulted, and ignored. Nonetheless, she revolutionizes her female persona, by dropping all standards and camouflaging herself as a man – which goes against all law or religion which women are supposed to adhere to. When she is seen as a man, people take her seriously; she gains support and friendship. Every time she is unmasked, however, people are bewildered and treat her like scum. Nevertheless, it’s good to see women finally step up in these Western films; it gives the alpha cowboy a wakeup call.
The role of the alpha cowboy seems to be losing spotlight, too. Without John Wayne, it's difficult to see if there's any alpha male anymore. It seems like there's more characters with equal or higher status than the supposed alpha male. In High Noon we see the Marshall, who definitely proves his courage by taking up on a fight against four - but all these cowboys seem to have become softer than the alpha Wayne ideal. The women aren't as subdued by them anymore, and the only person who seems to be feared and respected are the actual bad guys. It's as if the genre had been slightly redefined.

High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo

High Noon has two female roles, Helen and Amy, which is unlike the Westerns we have viewed before. Rarely have we seen a single woman in a Western with a strong role (other than Rooster Cogburn) but both Helen and Amy are important characters. Helen Ramirez, is a Mexican business woman, and is also confident and independent. A woman owning a business is an extreme revisionist aspect of the movie because it shows her independence and capabilities. Amy, Will Kane’s wife, shows a strong, stubborn personality when she refuses to stay in town as her husband had asked. Kane wants Amy to stay with him, because he does not want to be a coward and leave town but she is reluctant to do so. She stands her ground and waits in the train station to leave her husband until the very end of the film. Tomkins explains that guns solve problems and “out here a man settles his own problems” (Tompkins, 896). Amy explains in the movie that she hates guns but, at the end of the movie, Amy shoots one of the gunmen which differentiates this movie from previous Westerns. Amy sees the trouble, and conforms to the way men work to save Will Kane. Amy becomes somewhat of a savior to the alpha cowboy because he could not win the fight without her help which is completely different than previous Westerns. The independence of the woman, and her necessity to the alpha male cowboy, completely change the look and personality of the alpha male cowboy.

From the start of The Ballad of Little Jo, when Josephine Monaghan is about to be captured by the two soldiers on horses, she immediately defends herself by hitting and pushing down the man who she was traveling with. She then continues to put up a fight by out running and escaping the two soldiers on horses, which was shocking because she was a woman. Previously we have only seen the hardships of the alpha male cowboy traveling alone through the West, but The Ballad of Little Jo shows the hardship of a women traveling through the West, which had previously seemed impossible. Regularly the woman is portrayed as a servant type for the alpha male cowboy, cooking and cleaning for him, but there is a complete role reversal in this movie. Not only is Josephine acting as the male, but she hires a Chinese male to be her servant and he cooks her meals, and she even scolds him for not putting pepper on her meal. This shows that the alpha cowboy does not necessarily have to be a male but the female gender can fulfill the same duties as though she were a man. The only aspect of the woman that she maintains through the movie is her emotions, and yet she can still successfully accomplish the same situations as previous alpha male cowboys. Josephine/Little Jo is just as masculine as most alpha males we have come across, but when by herself or acting as a women, she uses language as though she were a feminine woman. “For the men who are the Western’s heroes don’t have the large vocabularies an expensive education can buy” (Tompkins, 51). This quote talks about men as the hero, and explains a main difference between Little Jo and a typical Western hero, because she maintains her level of language.

High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo

In this film we get to see many revisions to the depictions of women in a classic western. Tompkins states, “The camera and the audience identify with the hero, while the heroine dissolves into a caricature of herself. Sex joins here with blood and death and a cold wind blowing as the only true reality, extinguishing the authority of women and their words” (Tompkins 61). In “High Noon”, and “The ballad of little Jo” this quote is not the case. We see women starting to stand up on their own. Their characters are sharing the spotlight with the alpha male and do not rely on his decisions. The first example is in “The Ballad of Little Jo”; Mrs. Addie is a saloon owner. Here is the first time we see a woman actually running her own business. She is self sufficient and opens up the concept of a women being the “moneymaker” of a household. Mrs. Addie depicts life in where women no longer need to rely on the alpha male as a provider for their family. They can take matters into their own hands and actually run and operate a business. Another example of a change is in, “High Noon”. Amy is willing to throw everything away for her husband Kane. She sells her business so she can leave at a moment’s notice if her and her husband are run out of town. Amy is willing to stand by Kane no matter the consequences and truly shows how men and women have a much stronger relationship now
The new role of women in western films has had an impact on the actions of the alpha male. We see in “Rooster Cogburn” and both of these movies that men are not the only ones who are talented with a gun. The phallic symbol of the gun is starting to diminish. The fact that women can now shoot just as well as men really defeats the symbolic meaning behind the steel weapon. The alpha male’s masculinity is a main part of that symbol, and it really takes a toll when women became so talented with a gun. In “Rooster Cogburn” we find Eula to be an excellent shot. Also, in “High Noon”, Amy guns down one of the trainmen for her husband. Also, when the two of them were in a bind come the end of the film, she attacks one of the gunmen so her husband can shoot him. It really starts to show that the alpha male has to accept the fact that women can do just about everything a man can do. The alpha male needs to recognize this partnership as in “High Noon”, where Amy and Kane essentially use teamwork to get out of the situation at hand. At the end of this movie we see another change to the alpha male’s actions. Normally, the alpha male rides out into the distance alone, but here he takes his wife. It really brings together the fact that women are now considered just as important as the men.

High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo

It is clear that there is a huge change in character qualities concerning women in these two movies. Just like in Rooster Cogburn, women take a stronger role. Their attitude of being equal and independent towards men and the rest of the community is clearly displayed in several scenes. Throughout High Noon; several actions from the two main alpha-girls, Amy and Ramirez, prove the point of taking s stronger stand in life. Ramirez runs her own saloon, she is independent, self-sufficient, hard-working, and does not need a man providing and taking care of her. This independence and confidence of being able t live a life by yourself and with no manly or cowboy sustained has never been seen before in westerns. Amy proves us that married women can also be strong. As opposed to older westerns, Amy took matters into her own hands and just like Doniphon in “The Man who Shot Liberty Valance” held the gun and supported her husband, in this case, by shooting and eventually killing one of her husband’s adversaries.
In “The Ballad of Little Jo” the sense of superiority in women is portrayed a bit differently since in this case the woman pretends to be a man. Cutting her hair, acting like a man and doing things normally men would do, Josephine makes everybody believe she is really a man and judging by her attitude, confidence and aggressiveness she is eventually feared, respected and eventually became the “alpha-male” cowboy of the movie.

High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo

In these two movies present revisionist ideas that are opposite to the westerns that we have previously watched. In High Noon the women take on manly roles. Ramirez owns the saloon, after hearing of the pending arrival of Miller and his men, she decides to leave town. She leaves her lover, the former deputy. Her character is equal to all of the characters that interact with her. Her presence demands power, and respect. She does not allow men to, “dominate or simply ignore” (72 Tompkins) her. This is unlike women in previous westerns we have watched. In these westerns there is also another woman, Amy Kane that plays a manly role in the film. Her religion makes her opposed to the thought of her husband killing another man, so she decides to leave her husband to save her soul. Hearing the sound of gunfire, she runs to the side of her alpha male cowboy. She ends up killing one of Miller’s men. This is total opposite to what we have previously seen in other westerns. She doesn’t use words, usually “women must use words as their chief weapon.”(66 Tompkins) In The Ballad of Little Jo the man character Josephine cuts her hair and becomes a man because of the troubles she encounters on her way westward. In this film Jo a women literally plays a manly role. She becomes an alpha cowboy. Everyone in the film gives her respect and listens to what she says. Though they think that she is a man, she still dominates the characters in the film. She doesn’t back down from any conflict. When men come to her and threaten her with death, She rejects there offer and battles with them for her land. She not only, “use[s] words as their [her] chief weapon,” but also uses the gun. (66 Tompkins) These two movies present different attitudes of and toward women and a cut the alpha male role.

These movies have no examples of the alpha male we have seen played by John Wayne. The roles of the men in these movies do not show the qualities of an alpha male cowboy. Neither characters in High Noon, or The Ballad of Little Jo demonstrated the qualities that an alpha male cowboy express: a silent, hardboiled loner, who’s resourcefulness in his use of the terrain, he’s as ruthless as the terrain, it’s His-way or it’s the highway, never following even if that means facing abysmal odds. By not meeting these qualifications the role of the male in the two films doesn’t represent the alpha male cowboy.

High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo

The role of women in the two movies we watched, High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo, shows a changed attitude towards females. Women no longer represent the quiet, inferior sex. Instead, they stand up for themselves. In High Noon, the two women play very significant roles. Amy Kane is a big part of the marshal’s life. She marries him and convinces him to move away with her. When the marshal has to stand up and fight the criminals, Amy comes back and helps her husband survive by killing one of the men trying to kill him. Ramirez also plays a revisionist role because she owns a saloon. She is a business woman. Ramirez in particular has a personality that we have not yet seen in a woman. She talks back to men. She puts them in their place. Ramirez does not need a husband because she takes care of herself.

In the second movie, The Ballad of Little Jo, the idea of the alpha male cowboy is overshadowed by the character of Josephine. Her character is one of a woman who pretends to be a man. This is a newly introduced concept for the role of a woman in a Western. Josephine plays the role of a man so well that she is not suspected by most people. She rides a horse like a man. She handles a gun like a man. She “talks the talk” like a man. Josephine is the first woman who slips into a man’s way of life and pulls it off. This shows that the role of the alpha cowboy is disappearing, and, in a movie like The Ballad of Little Jo, he is just not present because his place has been taken by a woman. The idea that “women must use words as their chief weapon” no longer applies to the more modern roles that we have seen women take on (Tompkins 66). They know use their mind, words, knowledge, and body to build a stronger persona. Women are no longer the same as they used to be presented in the older movies. They have a strong presence and represent very important and main roles in the newer westerns.

High Noon, The Ballad of Little Jo, and Their Women

Both High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo present many revisionist ideas about women in Westerns. In many cases they defy what was expected of women in Westerns as well as what Tompkins and Matheson believed women represented in Westerns. Matheson states that even if a woman does carry a significant role in a Western, she is still feminized, stating, “The central group is all male. In Wayne’s Western’s, however, when a woman is not the sidekick, it should be noted that these competing value systems are still carefully gendered” (Matheson 903). Such is not the case in both High Noon and The Ballad of Little Joe, as both Amy and Jo take on masculine qualities. Throughout the High Noon, Amy, as well as Mrs. Ramirez, must have it their way. They will not let the alpha male, Kane, tell them what to do. Both women prove they do not need to rely on a man as they both threaten to leave if Kane does not handle things in a peaceful way. Like an alpha male, the women make their statements through action. When Amy realizes that leaving town was the wrong action to take, she takes Mrs. Ramirez’s advice and fights for her man.

In both films the main women prove that the gun is not only for the alpha male, as both Amy and Jo prove they can use one. They both take a man’s life by the gun; something that only the male was believed to be able to do. Tompkins describes a man’s inner voice as a viewer cannot hear it such as one can a woman’s, “The silence of this inner voice, its muteness, keeps the woman’s voice, its counterpart, from being heard. It is replaced by the narrative of the gunfight, the range war, the holdup, the chase” (Tompkins 65). In both films the alpha females prove that they possess the inner voice of men, participating in “the gunfight, the range war, the holdup, the chase”. When females begin speaking in the voices of men (figuratively), the alpha male’s role begins to become overshadowed by the new female role. Throughout The Ballad of Little Jo, it seemed as though the men feared such would happen. Men discouraged Jo from her secret and even ridiculed her when her secret was revealed at the end. Males in the movie who may consider themselves alpha males, such as Percy, are embarrassed they could be fooled by a woman. By showing the emotion of embarrassment they are doing the alpha male a disservice and breaking down the old customs of the Western alpha male one step at a time. Of course the new ways of women in these two films is the largest contributor to such revision.

High Noon/The Ballad of Little Jo

High Noon and The Ballad of Little Jo both present revisionist ideas regarding the role of women in western films. Unlike the classic westerns in which the appearance of women is scarce, these two films’ plots revolve around the role of the female characters. In her novel West of Everything, Tompkins states, “that the Western turned against organized religion and the whole woman’s culture of the nineteenth century” (Tompkins 66). This does not necessarily pertain to High Noon, in which the first scene of displays a woman, wearing a cross around her neck, blessing herself. Another character, Helen Ramirez, the town’s saloon owner, seems to represent the new ideas pertaining to women. Not only does she introduce females as businesswomen but also the idea that they are supposed to stand by their man and support him even if it means fighting with weapons. Amy, the Marshall’s wife and a converted Quaker, does not believe in violence and is taken aback when Helen says, “If Kane was my man, I'd never leave him like this. I'd get a gun. I'd fight.” True female courage is exposed at the end of the film. Out of everyone in the entire town, men included, Amy is the only one to stand by her husband’s side when Miller comes to town. She shoots Pierce as he is searching for Kane. Just by holding the gun, Amy is defying the belief that the gun solely represents masculinity. She also attacks Miller, giving her husband the opportunity to shoot him. Without the assistance of Amy, Kane would have been killed. Tompkins describes that since women are the physically weaker sex, they “must use words as their chief weapon” (64). This no longer holds true after Amy took her first shot.

In The Ballad of Little Jo, as Jo takes off her dress and corset and puts on her trousers and shirt, even though the clerk told her “It’s against the law to dress improper to your sex”, the audience, similar to the people of Ruby City, could almost mistaken her for an alpha male. She is hard working, skilled in sheep herding and shooting and is the one person able to remove the gun from Percy’s hand as he begins to go mental. Although her physical being is rather masculine, she is still possesses the emotions of a female. She pours her heart and soul into letters she writes to her sister about her child. She cries and becomes extremely upset when the family she has been taking care of is murdered and when she thinks about the pervious events of her life. The men in the film portray the old thought that females are mere objects. First through the prostitute and later on in the film when Tinman asks Jo what man would ever want to be with her with the large scar on her face and the fact she cannot even make a pie. Women were expected in this time period to cater to their husband’s every need while looking pretty. Josephine revolutionizes the role of the female as she transforms into Jo.

According to Tompkins, women are categorized as a weak element of the western; however in these two films that does not appear to be the case. Instead I think the character of the alpha male has weakened with the growing role of the woman, who “have become their own moral centers” (Matheson 904). Who would have ever thought the woman would save the day in the West?

High Noon/The Ballad of Little Jo

Although both films provide a rich and varied ground for cultural studies, you are to consider only the changed attitudes of and toward women in these films. What revisionist ideas do they present in relation to the classic westerns we've watched? What effect do these changed views have on the alpha male cowboy in the genre? Explain your responses with examples from films and from Tompkins and Matheson.

Rooster Cogburn

In Rooster Cogburn, we are given a different Alpha Male than the ones we've seen in different John Wayne movies. The main difference seems to be the company this alpha male accompanies himself with. Eula Goodnight is the first odd companion of Rooster. In previous movies, we are shown that women are meant to stay at home. In Red River, Dunson is obviously in love with his woman. But, despite this, he forces her to stay with the wagons, saying that he will send for her later. In The Searchers, the women are meant to stay at home and wait for the men while they go on an adventure. In The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Doniphon builds an addition onto his house for Hallie, where he expects her to stay, as opposed to Stoddard who teachers her to read, expanding her options. In Rooster Cogburn, however, we have Eula accompanying Rooster on his journey. She closer fits the character of Matthew from Red River than any of the previously shown women. She, like Matthew with Dunson, can outshoot Rooster, a show of dominance. Add this to the fact that she seems willing to stand up to Rooster, and gets respect, and she becomes almost an alpha character. Another companion of Roosters, Wolf, is a native american, who Rooster seems to like. This is a big change from "The Searchers", where Ethan is plain racist towards the Native Americans. Even in Red River, the Native Americans are only seen as an obstacle towards the white males. Instead, in Rooster Cogburn, Wolf is treated with some respect. Rooster seems to take him under his wing a little bit, and even is willing to trade the cart of glycerine for his safety. Overall, this willingness to take a female and a native american on the journey shows a new type of alpha male. This alpha male seems to have a much softer spot in his heart. Although he is an alcoholic, and not a great role model in many aspects, he still seems more open to other people.

Rooster Cogburn

In Rooster Cogburn, there are obvious differences between the alpha male in this film compared to the alpha male cowboys of previous films we’ve seen. For example, the alpha male cowboy, Rooster Cogburn, first appears in the film with a sidekick, something that rarely happens with other alpha male cowboys. In other films we’ve watched, if the alpha male cowboy has a sidekick with him he lets the other person know that he’s in charge. In Rooster Cogburn, Cogburn meets Eula Goodnight after her father was murdered by a group of criminals. Cogburn is following these criminals and Eula insists on helping him find them. She is unlike any other female character we have seen in Western films thus far. Typically, a female’s presence in Western films practically goes unnoticed because females are portrayed as emotional, talkative, and vulnerable― all qualities that the alpha male cowboy does not wish to embody and tries to avoid. Eula, on the other hand, is the exact opposite from other female characters. Though she is talkative, she is extremely strong-minded and shares her opinion with everyone. When Hawk first arrives in her village, she doesn’t stop reciting a passage from the Bible, despite the fact that Hawk is shooting at her feet. She isn’t afraid of violence or death because of her strong faith in the Lord, and she turns out to be a great companion for Rooster to have on his search for Hawk. She can shoot well and she also gets Rooster to open up and have conversations with her. Unlike other Western films, there is a lot more interaction between the alpha male cowboy and the main female character. Rooster shares his feelings a lot more and the viewers knows his feelings for Eula. The alpha cowboy's presence isn’t as powerful in Rooster Cogburn as it is in previous Westerns, mostly because of Eula’s strong presence in the film and her ability to be Cogburn’s equal in the film.

Rooster Cogburn

The movie Rooster Cogburn, takes a modern spin on the traditional Western. This is seen by the mere fact that there are two protagonists rather than one, Rooster Cogburn and Eula Goodnight (sister). Unlike previous films, Rooster Cogburn introduces a woman who can compete with the men; no longer is the alpha cowboy left solely to the male.

Sister, who is not easily frightened by danger or commotion, is introduced by standing her ground to Hawk, the rebel outlaw. She doesn’t even flinch when he begins shooting at her feet in attempts of scaring her. Throughout the movie, sister also shows her alpha male characteristics by being able to out shoot Rooster Cogburn who readily admits her good aim as well as asserting her dominance over the men. She is able to hold her ground with anyone she encounters and they soon realize that they will lose all arguments. This is one example of how the modern cowboy is changing. We presume that Rooster Cogburn is the alpha male cowboy in this film, however, he is capable of admitting his feelings and desires, in addition to the inability to question or argue with sister.

Rooster Cogburn

Rooster Cogburn is definitely a different type of western in terms of gender relationships and the alpha male cowboy. The gender relationship between Rooster and Eula Goodnight is not the typical man women relationship that past John Wayne films have had. When we first meet Eula it can really be seen immediately that she is a women who takes charge and is not afraid to stand up to men as seen when she doesn’t back down as she gets fired upon by the outlaws. We are able to get and immediate impression of a women with fortitude. But we really see how her gender differs from past films when she insists on going with Rooster when he tries to leave her behind. She without hesitation takes a rifle and a box or cartridges and orders Wolf to get on a horse and ride with her. Women typically didn’t volunteer to head out with men in the wilderness when the men are going to be moving quickly and dealing with the hardships that the land throws at them. In the past the women typically stayed in a wagon and rode along in a big group rather than to venture out with on horseback alone. Eula too is a woman who will speak her mind and is not afraid to say it to anyone. She’s tough, she can shoot, and she proved that she can stick with an alpha male moving through the wilderness. Her involvement in something that is strictly male oriented was surprising enough but then the way that she handled everything along the way with ease while staying calm was certainly different than anything we’ve seen so far.

The alpha cowboy too was different in this film. Rooster seemed to be more of a talkative cowboy who said what he thought. He was open with his sidekick who was a woman and took to showing Wolf the ropes a little when it came to tracking. Typically John Wayne in his past characters was not so gentle with the people that accompanied him on his quests. He wasn’t as hardboiled and rough as past roles. It was a cowboy that has a much softer and human side. Even with how he talked to his sidekick was strange to see. Eula was able to put Rooster in his place. He was never able to have a controlling effect on her. She actually was the one who controlled him at time with her religious preaching that seemed to tame Rooster. Even as the two came to part, Eula managed to get in the last word which was usually done by the cowboy.

Rooster Cogburn

This film, Rooster Cogburn was tremendously different from previous Westerns we have watched. The alpha male cowboy, John Wayne, was the only piece consistent through this movie, but even his personality was very different from the previous films. Most of the differences came through one particular character, Eula Goodnight. Eula was a main character in this western along with Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne), making the movie different from the start. In previous Westerns, women have not played big roles never mind a main role. Her personality was very different than the typical personalities of women. Eula was outspoken, confident and had a masculine air to her. She explained herself as, “more forceful and independent than a woman should be.” The way Eula so easily spoke back to Rooster, as if she was equal to him, was a huge difference in this Western because never before have we seen a woman act as though she is remotely equal to a man. Eula explains to Rooster that, “it’s true you are bigger than I am, but physically that is all.” Eula also knows how to live life the way males do in the West. She rides a horse with her legs on either side of the saddle, not both legs hung over one side, the way most women do. Eula is seeking revenge for the death of her father and fully intends to kill the man who killed him, and she is not going to wait around for someone else to do it. When they are in the middle of a gun fight you do not see Eula hiding behind the crates of Nitroglycerine, but off in the woods with her gun, taking aim and usually killing whoever she intends to shoot. Eula’s talent with guns is a huge difference from most women in Westerns, who normally do not pick one up. Eula has masculine qualities, but her femininity does come out when she has to properly say a prayer for the men that were killed which shows her nurturing characteristic that is common to most women.
Usually we see the alpha male as superior to all things, especially women, but in this Western we see that the alpha male no longer acts as though he is above the female, but equal to her. The equality between Rooster and Eula is shown when they bicker while traveling. Rooster and Eula have no problem going back and forth yelling at one another. Previously, we had not seen the alpha male cowboy show any public affection to women, where as in this movie, Rooster talks about Eula to the boy; this shows how much more of an affect she has on him than we are used to seeing. Normally the alpha male will disregard women and act as though they are not worth their time. This is far from the way Rooster acts towards Eula. Also, most Westerns tend to show the alpha male as a lone ranger, but rarely do we see Rooster traveling alone. He is traveling in a pack of three and it is not until the very end when Eula and the boy must go back that Rooster is alone.

Rooster Cogburn

The film Rooster Cogburn, starring John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn and Katharine Hepburn as Eula Goodnight, offers quite a different view of women in the western. In previously viewed westerns, the woman represents almost the opposite of the alpha male cowboy. The woman in westerns usually seems weak, needy, and easily flustered. The west is a place for men and women should know their place on the homestead. However, Rooster Cogburn turns this typical picture of women upside down. Eula Goodnight does many things that a woman would just not do in other westerns. Eula Goodnight is not a helpless damsel; on the contrary she is almost a deputy. Eula can even handle a gun. In one scene, Eula saves Roster from certain death by shooting an enemy from across a ravine. At first, Rooster thinks that Wolf, a young Indian boy, took the shot, and he is surprised when Wolf confesses that Eula in fact took the shot. Eula even succeeds in the west while following Rooster on a trail to catch Hawk and Breed in order to bring them to justice. Women in most other western do not even know how to fire a gun, let alone survive in the west with little help from men.

Another interesting aspect of this film involves how the alpha male cowboy himself acts. John Wayne is getting older; as a result he does not look like the same cowboy that he was in previous films. Rooster is clean-shaven, but he seems to be a drunkard and has an imperfect face which he almost half-covers with an eye patch. Alpha male cowboys traditionally do not have any imperfections. Rooster also respects Eula Goodnight as almost an equal, which the alpha male cowboy usually would not do. First, he lets her come with him on his journey, which a cowboy like Ethan Edwards in The Searchers never would have done, then he gives her a rifle, which no other alpha male cowboy would think of unless he was in the most dire of situations, and then he even lest Eula act as a decoy in the end of the movie when he finally defeats Hawk. We have not seen any man treat any woman in the films that we have watched yet as equally as Rooster treats Eula.

Rooster Cogburn

Rooster Cogburn, a revolutionary western. Stuart Millar, director of the film, completely and utterly outdoes himself and decides to experience with westerns films. As a newbie when it comes to western movies, I believed that Rooster Cogburn was just another movie in history. It was shocking how from the beginning the audience is introduced to this “alpha-male” cowboy; a cowboy obedient to laws, a cowboy who respected the law and a cowboy with defects. John Wayne plays the part of the Rooster Cogburn, a believer of the law, a seeker of justice. In the film, many alpha-male cowboy qualities are still portrayed and accented, but the cowboys personality was so drastically “macho” and “stubborn” in other movies, that the slightest change can be spotted from a distance.
In this revolutionary and innovative film, we are also introduced to a new breed of women, the “alpha-girl”. The alpha-girl acts as the sister of the recently deceased Rev. Goodnight; Eula was her name. Eula shows us a new side of women in the West. It looks like her personality has many characteristics in common with the old alpha-male. Eula shows the audience she does not fear Rooster, she defies, corrects and even rides along Rooster. The women’s actions in the West are no longer driven by fear or awe; they are driven by their own ideals.
The alpha-male’s personality transformation is probably due to this empowerment of the “cowgirl”. The women’s voice is now strong and convincing, whereas in past movies it was barely heard and looked down upon. In Rooster Cogburn, the audience can see a definite modernization and realistic view of the man-woman relationship nowadays.

Rooster Cogburn, the Other

In this week's film, Rooster Cogburn, there are two main characters: John Wayne's alpha male character, Rooster Cogburn, and then there is "the other", Eula Goodnight. Eula is very unlike all the other female characters we have seen so far in Westerns. Unlike the other Western women who are quiet and reserved, Eula is outspoken and not afraid to voice her own opinion. She always has to get the last word in throughout the whole movie, which was odd for an alpha male such as Rooster to accept. There is a scene in the beginning of the movie which makes it easy to draw a distinct difference between Eula in Rooster Cogburn and the women in the earlier Westerns. When John Wayne begins to leave on his hunt for Hawk and his gang of thieves, Eula demands to come in order to bring justice to her father's death. Much like in The Searchers, Wayne declines her request. Though this time Eula remains persistent in her wishes and convinces Wayne, the alpha cowboy who shouldn't ever have his mind changed, to let her go. Wayne rarely ever argues with Eula, defying another alpha male characteristic.

Eula does not slow Rooster down on his hunt either like some women might have. Instead, she stands up to Hawk and never shows fear. She proves she can use a rifle and hunt better than the men could. Without Eula's assistance I believe Rooster would not have had anywhere near the success he had.

Rooster even goes so far to frequently voice his feelings, presenting him as a vulnerable alpha male. All of a sudden there is quite the new breed of alpha male in addition to the new breed of woman. He admits that he is intimidated by Eula, stating "she's frightening." Eula frequently reprimands Rooster for his actions, such as for shooting his food, talking to Hawk's men for too long in the stand off, and drinking. The weird part is that Rooster never argues with her. He obeys her and respects her. Rooster shows his soft side often, such as when he tucks Eula in and begins to reference the lord to impress Eula. He even tells her right out, "Being around you pleases me." The old alpha male John Wayne in this film is dead. Eula, the woman who never needed a man and Wayne needed by his side in court represents "the other" in Rooster Cogburn.