The Hidden Cowboy

 Our depictions of cowboys riding on horseback going from town to town to bring order to a orderless place, isn’t always the indicator of a cowboy being present in different ways than we’d expect. For instance, look at The Mandalorian from Star Wars. That entire show is essentially an unconventional western with a space take on a modern day cowboy.

So, what makes Mando a cowboy? Mando is a guy that sticks to his creed, it’s what guides him. He travels from frontier town to frontier town on these desolate planets to carry out bounties, but always ends up with him weeding out corruption or taking on an external threat to the towns people. He’s tough and rugged, and speaks very little. Being that ultimate “man’s man” is an important characteristic in being a cowboy, never being scared to stand up for what’s right and abandoning their moral code when they come across people in danger and in need of help. The Mandalorian has episode after episode that showcase Mando’s willingness to stand up for what is right and be this traveling hero from town to town, never staying long but making an impact and imposing his order on those that are taking advantage of small towns people.

There are several aspects to this show that connect it to a typical narrative of being a western and/or a cowboy story. Specifically to The Mandalorian he falls under that wanderer type of cowboy where he doesn’t seek out trouble but rather always seems to stumble into it. Now I know that he is a bounty hunter, therefore he technically is always searching out trouble, but pretty much all of the encounters are not from the bounty he is seeking but from another source of wild west behavior from the town or village he traveled to. When he shows up in these places he finds himself having to defend the people from different types of gangs or monsters that have been terrorizing these people, restoring order where there was none. The Mandalorian isn’t your typical western and Mando your typical cowboy, but they are very much a part of the genre with typical portrayals in untypical settings, making it a unique yet familiar watch.

Modern Cowboy/Western

The archetype of the cowboy and the western plays out in unconventional ways in many modern books, films, and television shows. A good example that casts to cowboy as both a good guy and an outlaw is Breaking Bad. The show ran 5 seasons from 2008 to 2013 and tells the story of a man who is desperate to make sure his family is taken care of after he is gone. Walter White is a high school chemistry teacher, husband, and father to a teenage son with cerebral palsy and a newborn daughter when he is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He discovers his health insurance will not cover treatment and embarks on a misguided trek to treat his illness and provide for his family's future by amassing wealth quicky, using a skill he has taught for years: Chemistry. With the help of a former student, Jesse Pinkman, and insider knowledge from his brother-in-law (a DEA agent), he evades the authorities and becomes the kingpin of crystal meth. It's a story of good vs evil and challenges the viewer's morality.

Set in Albuquerque, New Mexico this series is sometimes coined a neo-western. The series has 2 distinctly different settings. There is the wild west which is represented by several desert scenes: cooking in the RV and meetings with dangerous characters. The show also largely takes place inside of civilization in the city. This series has 2 distinctly different cowboys. Walter is an unconventional cowboy. He is both the hero and the anti-hero. An almost invisible man, in the beginning, transforms into a powerful figure, a family man that is also an outlaw. In contrast, you also see him transform and age, becoming more fragile and frail as his cancer progresses. The other cowboy character in the series is Hank Schrader. Hank is a man's man, a devoted, albeit brash, husband; the hero special agent who is cleaning up Albequerque by getting the meth off the streets.

There are numerous ways to connect this series back to the video. Lance talks about the mythos of the cowboy. Both Walt and Hank display "the cultural values of what it means to be a man." Aspects of them are both idealized. Walt and hank both have an insatiable desire to provide for and protect their families. They are both men who bring order: Hank as a law enforcement agent and Walt in his quest to get rid of the "bad guys", the murderous thugs that control the meth market and sell an inferior product. They both have many of the attributes of the cowboy: white, male, masculine, self-reliant, and both dealing with foreign threats: Hank within his dangerous role as a special DEA agent, and Walt in his rise to kingpin, defeating the dealers and powerful organizations in the drug world. Breaking Bad fits the genre of a western in numerous ways. They face external threats in the form of gangs and drug lords from Mexico. Walt also "stakes new territory" several times throughout the series, defeating and removing obstacles in his way. A powerful connection from the video is a bit that describes an attribute of a western is "civilizations ways are not useful or relevant." Walt feels as though the way things are supposed to work has failed him and his family. He's been the good man but the only way to survive is to "break bad."

Is Wolverine a Cow Boy?

When looking at cowboys from past generations when black and white films were popular there were many similarities in characters between Johnny from Rebel and Wolverine. The characters of cowboys tend to be demanding, separates himself from civilization, masculine, self sufficient and adventurous.  So when comparing cowboys traits to modern pop culture films such as the Wolverine from the 2017 film Logan, is he considered a cowboy? 

Logan was released in 2017 and directed by James Mangold. Wolverine was apart of the X men team and known for the steel knives that come out of his hands. He was apart of the X men team until the love of his life passed. He then became depressed and isolated himself from society and became alone wolf.  The leader of X men Professor X discovered a young girl with the same powers is in need of Wolverines help and thats when the trouble beings. Wolverine is also very self reliant and he is stubborn does not like to team up with anyone. As for Cowboys in the black in white films they also tend to keep to themselves as did Johnny from the short film The Rebel. The main character Johnny is always seeking off into the wild west by himself.  Even though the environments are different Wolverine represents characters of the cowboy series by showing the same characteristics such as masculine, protector, self sufficient, demanding, and dealing with enemies. 

In the short lecture of The Cowboy and Western in popular culture professor Eaton talks about the different types of cowboys such as seekers and explorers vs visitors and wanderers.These two main character Jonny and Wolverines are visitors and the trouble seems to find them. When Johnny was visiting a town for a stop he was targeted by other men the moment he arrived. As for Wolverine he was targeted the moment people knew he had super powers. These two characters from these two films are outsiders and other people felt threatened by them which caused the violence. If you really think about our generation today a lot of the movie characters in action films are in a way cowboys by the traits and characteristics they contain, they both just have different way of presenting the characters. 

Link, the Cowboy

In the Legend of Zelda series, the player acts through a character known as Link- the mute protagonist with an affinity for smashing jars. In the most recent installment for the Nintendo Switch, Breath of the Wild, Link wakes up in an unknown "frontier" that is overrun by evil.

The region that he wakes up in is known as The Great Plateau, where he meets a mysterious man who explains that he's been in stasis for 100 years, however Link has no memory of his purpose, and now he has to form a new identity, starting in the Great Plateau. This is fairly reminiscent of cowboys fleeing where they're from to forget their past, and start anew. The Great Plateau might as well be the Wild West. This is the first game in the series to be Open World- that is, a game where the player can decide when they wish the story to progress, and can explore the different regions/frontiers. In this game, Link has to acquire resources, clear out enemies to make things safer for the people that still live in Hyrule, and he even gets weapons and can ride a horse. Cowboys are known to bring order to a lawless land, which in his absence, Hyrule has become. The enemies may as well be the same "foreign invaders" that cowboys defend against, as well as the corruption- Calamity Ganon- that has taken the castle, and left Hyrule with no true leaders which . Civilization as Link knew before he went into stasis has been erased, and all that's left is small towns and groups that are incredibly spaced out and affected differently by what is going on, which is representative of the towns on the frontier. Link has to move through the frontiers and bring order and law back, has weapons and resources that he collects through his journey, and protects against external and internal threats to the land- Link is an elven cowboy!

Robin Hood, a Cowboy?

Robin Hood

Robin Fitzooth otherwise known as Robin Hood was on a personal quest to bring justice to a corrupt Nottingham and Prince John along with his crooked sidekick the sheriff. All very cowboy like behaviors right?
Eventually Hood left Nottingham and moved into near by Sherwood Forest to conceive a plan to right the wrongs of Nottingham.  Hood was an excellent archer and a would get justice for the murder of his father and the mismanaged authority.  The story and character of Hood is good verses evil and as in many other tales good prevails.  Hood was not a typical iconic looking  "Cowboy" wearing a wide brimmed hat with a gun, and stirrups.  Was he a cowboy wearing tights?  A spoof was made of this tale in later years; Robin Hood: Men in Tights, a must see clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G59JnM4JKNQ , does this make him less manly?   In fact the only similarity between a "Western Cowboy" would be getting around on a horse.  Hood in the story carried out the same duties associated with "Cowboy".   As in any good story after good triumphs over evil, the hero gets the girl.  This tale is no different, ending with Hood and Lady Marian

The marriage of Lady Marian and Sir Robin Hood

This tale is no different, ending with Hood and Lady Marian living happily every after.

The Story of Robin Hood 

https://youtu.be/u99fcv16-7U
Image of Robin Hood
 https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS4PuJ86NyqfpwrFRM4WSblAZZR8i6AzJcW1AAMzzPWH5zTRhicGA
Image of Hood and Lady Marian
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSsCWtVffgOHaQ-4NcFFnnI9YYmCV_RQBic7hXtbRYb2MBp7Snp1g
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G59JnM4JKNQ

Frank Castle, Cowboy.

Netflix’s The Punisher series is based off of Marvel comic character Frank Castle, who is an anti-hero who is seeking revenge with whoever was responsible for his family’s murder. For the sake being of this blog post, I will be specifically referring to the Frank Castle which is depicted in the Netflix series, not the comic version of him. I believe the series parallels that of the Western genre.

Frank Castle (i.e. the Punisher) is a cowboy. He embodies that of a hyper-ideal image of masculinity in the Western sense. He is, as the cowboy criteria within the “Cowboy and Western in Popular Culture” video describe, white, male, masculine, and self-sufficient. For physical attributes, the Punisher has a very deep voice, almost to the point where it sounds a bit hoaky. He’s brooding and muscular, miserable within his introspection as he becomes a brick wall without emotion (the peak of toxic masculinity entering around the fact that processing grief and emotion in a healthy manner would be a sign of weakness). As for the Westernization, Frank Castle may not have nationalism in the sense that he feels as if he has been failed by his country, but before the tragedy in his life, he was a proud marine. So, in this sense he would make more of a Jesse James (Jesse James: The Outlaw) than a Jace Pearson (Tale of the Texas Rangers Radio Program). He’s the lone wolf trope who works alone because he feels as if danger is around him so often that he wouldn’t want to bring anyone else down with him. He is, then, surrounded by danger in that it is him versus common criminals, corrupted authority figures within law enforcement, or super villains (within the Marvel universe, of course).

Frank Castle’s character mirrors many famous tropes of Westerns. He has a code-of-honor so to speak, in that he does not kill women or children. How admirable. It is a little wishy-washy in the sense, but within masculinity, there is that obligated sense of responsibility to protect women and children, or, those who are weak (We’ll save the feminist argument against this tired ideology of viewing women as fragile flowers for another time). But, he does embody the romantic notion of fighting for a cause, and to defend the damsel in distress, and take her away from the uncivilized danger in which she finds herself in and take her to a utopian place where they can live quietly. Probably on a ranch or something.

Although Castle is not equipped with a horse or cowboy hat, these icons are swapped for a bullet-proof vest with a skull spray painted onto it, and any car that can easily be hijacked.

He roams the country due to being an outlaw, thus moving through the new frontiers of America, and once he “rides into town,” he takes justice from both internal and external threats into his own hands. There is no shortage of gun violence, however. There are even a few scenes in which the Punisher finds himself in a duel.

Image Sources:

https://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/marvel/278737/the-punisher-season-2-complete-marvel-universe-easter-eggs-and-reference-guide

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/frank-castle-fully-unchains-the-punisher-in-latest-trailer-for-season-2

roy rogers and trigger comics #99

https://archive.org/details/RoyRogersAndTriggerComics99


In this comic we see deputies roy rogers and Pat Brady attempting to catch thieves who are stealing meat from local farmers. Roy Rogers and Pat get in to a shootout with the criminals and the criminals fell. After they use their dog to track the criminals down and end up apprehending them and bringing them to jail. To me this comic was most similar to our section on cowboys and westerns. Roy rogers and his partner are portrayed as two white men bringing justice to a town through any means necessary whether it is killing or arresting the criminals. It plays in to the idea of the cowboy and how they were seen as bringing justice to unlawful places, these two men apprehend the criminals and "save the day'  through their use of violence to catch and apprehend the criminals.

Vigilante Cowboy

Going off the fact that cowboys do not need to come from the past, or from the west, I decided to go with Arrow. Oliver Queen, also know as Arrow, is the vigilante alter ego of the Green Arrow. In this series, Oliver Queen must use his special set of skills to protect the city he lives in, Starling City, from different enemies, and villains that attack his city. During the night, Queen works as a vigilante to correct societal wrongs throughout his city. I agree that the comparison of a vigilante and a cowboy seem very different, but the vigilante could also be known as the modern day cowboy. I look at Starling City as the western aspect of the cowboy. Oliver Queen plays the role of the cowboy, or someone who rights the wrongs that may be considered crossing the line, or doing things that would be considered unjust. Queen certainly fills the description of a white, masculine male, very clearly portrayed throughout the series. Although cowboys generally seem to work on their own, Queen works with a few allies that help him get past his setbacks, and ultimately do what it takes to ensure the safety of Starling City, even if it means crossing lines he shouldn’t. 

Portrayals of Cowboys in Western Films

In this post I'm going to compare two western films - Tombstone(1993) and Jeremiah Johnson(1972) to see the different portrayals of cowboys depending on the source. In Tombstone we see Wyatt Earp joined by Doc Holliday and his brothers Virgil and Morgan become the marshals of Tombstone, Arizona a booming mining town. They were unable to tolerate the lawlessness of the town that was brought on by the Cochise County Cowboys. In this movie the cowboys are portrayed as tough, ruthless white males which is typical of cowboys but we usually see cowboys as the ones bringing order to frontier settlements however in this movie that is not the case. Their acts of violence were what was causing the disorder in tombstone. They are portrayed as purely evil while the marshals are the ones trying to bring peace and order to the mining town. However it does follow the typical western narrative that features a town on the frontier with some sort of thereat and a hostile surrounding feating a conflict between cowboys and policemen. Overall I would say the style of the movie fits the typical western movie, a lawless town on the frontier with a conflict over someone trying to bring order to it. However the portrayal of cowboys as purely evil, committing random acts of violence and causing the disorder seems a little uncharacteristic. Jeremiah Johnson's portrayal of the cowboy was a bit different from the cowboys we see in Tombstone. He is a white man man moving through the frontier by himself, attempting to be self sufficient and make it on his own and stake a new territory which is a pretty typical portrayal of the cowboy in western films. For the first part of he movie we see him struggling to make it then meting a fellow trapper and hunter who shows him the ways of living in the wilderness. Then on the way back from a hunt he meets Blackfoot  Indians who are threatening towards him, until he offers them the Elk he killed earring him their respect. He lived off the land until he found a fellow trapper buried up to his head by the Blackfoot Indians. The trappers asks him to help get his horse and supplies back from the savage Indians. Jeremiah did not want to fight them and wanted to wait until the Indians were asleep to steal their supplies back, so they did. However one of the Indians awoke and the trapper ended up killing the Indians. Jeremiah is then welcomed by another Indian tribe he offers the chief horses and the scalps of the Blackfeet in return the chief gives Jeremiah his daughter. He marries the girl and after this we see him living peacefully in a cabin in the woods with her and her son. This is different from what the typical portrayal of a cowboy is, to me cowboys usually ride alone or in a group but rarely do you see cowboys who are married going about their business not causing trouble. Soon the Blackfeet find his cabin and kill his wife and child as revenge. After this Jeremiah wanted about the woods for years killing any Blackfeet he saw. In this way we see him portrayed very differently throughout the movie. He does not want conflict with the Indians to start and even though he did not originally kill the Blackfeet they think it was him and get their revenge. This turns the peaceful self sufficient cowboy in to a different type of cowboy, a ruthless killer who wanted nothing but revenge on the Indians who killed his wife and son. To me there is some similarities in the way cowboys were portrayed in there movies but overall I think there was more differences. Obviously this is only two of the many western movies that were made but I found it interesting how they can portrayed differently throughout different movies.

Sheriff Woody... the well-known cowboy Who stars in Disney's Toy Story sequences 1-3. Woody, he is a cowboy doll and favored most by his owner, Andy. Woody is a cowboy in many different ways that it cannot be denied. You can tell by woody appearance that he is a cowboy. He wears brown cowboy boots and a flannel with a cow printed vest, is it possible to be anymore “cowboy” like? Not to mention his famous phrases like "you're my favorite deputy "and "there's a snake in my boot!"

 It was said in the video that cowboys are adventure seekers and explorers. Sheriff Woody is most certainly a cowboy, considering these are the few traits Cowboys carry. Sheriff Woody is also white and a male, these are the "attributes of a cowboy" as stated in the video. Cowboys do not have to take place in the past, nor do they have to take place in the west. The setting of this movie does not take place in the West... nor does it take place in the past, but rather inside a modern-day toddler’s bedroom.

Good Luck

            In the film Taken, Liam Neeson plays a retired CIA operative, failed husband, and loving father. Neeson is such a cowboy in this movie. As Lance points out in the Cowboy lecture, the most common attributes of a cowboy are that he is “white, male, masculine, self-sufficient and self-reliant, often dealing with Native Americans, Mexicans, Chinese, or other foreign threats.” (Eaton Web) Check, check, check, check, check. Neeson’s daughter is kidnapped in France, and Neeson employs his supremely badass skills in foreign threat operations to track her down and bring her home safely.

            I am not particularly an action movie guy. I like the action movies from the eighties, and I think the ones that come out today, like most films coming out today, are awful. Additionally, I cannot stand the tough guy or cowboy mentality. Taken, though. This movie is so good. Neeson goes to Europe by himself and takes on an entire network of human traffickers, starting at the bottom and working his way up to the top. 

One of the best scenes in the movie, when the action begins its ascent to the climax. Source.

            Neeson is clearly having a hard time adjusting to his life outside of the CIA. The viewer gets the impression that he is most comfortable in his CIA skin, and he has a harder time adapting to day-to-day civilian life. It is similar to the western dynamic of “Life still being worked out”. In that sense, we can think of his work in the CIA being “the wild west”, and his more calm life outside of work being “move civilized, back east”. Neeson’s struggle is real, as he is the greatest father ever in the western environment where his daughter is about to die, and a pretty crummy father back east where things are calm. If you haven't seen this movie (which I highly doubt), than see it forthwith. It is awesome.

Westworld

Westworld is one of Hbo's newest series. From the trailer and first episode, you are introduced to a wild west like setting. The richest people visit Westworld, which is a interactive amusement park to live out there wildest fantasies able to do whatever the want. In the amusement park there are “hosts, hosts are robots created by who I call “ God" Dr. Robert Ford. You have the basic and very straight forward dialogue that you would find in any old western series, they use it more as a parody among the hosts. The way that westworld fits into the western narrative is that you do have the western setting but also the hero and villain plot.

Teddy is introduced to us as the hero, there to save another host named Delores from the man in black. He has the clothing, dialogue, and manners of a cowboy. Teddy's outfit in the first few episodes are him in a brown hat, coat, vest, trousers and the typical cowboy boots, the look is spot on. To top it all off he has the leather gun holder, to complete the perfect cowboy ensemble. 

When Teddy speaks to Delores you can tell that he has a soft spot for her. In other western narratives the cowboy seems to act the same towards everyone that he comes across. If you were to watch the show, you will start to realize that Teddy is one of the smarter hosts there. I do not want to give too much of the show away but that plays a major part into why he is not the straight forward cowboy.

Sheriff Woody

(picture found here)

Being someone with little to no background on cowboys, the first character I thought of was Sheriff Woody. Yes, I am talking about Woody from the classic Disney movie Toy Story. The movie Toy Story follows a group of very diverse toys on their daily adventures. But these are not just any toys, these are who come to life when humans are not around. One of the main characters is a stuffed cowboy named Sheriff Woody. Some of his well-known lines include “There’s a snake in my boot!”, along with, “Somebody’s poisoned the water hole!”

Woody’s characteristics very closely reflect those of the classic cowboy in western films. Woody is known to throw himself into action, in both positive and negative ways. He always acts heavily on instinct. After all, he is an all or nothing type of toy, just like many western cowboys. They, like woody, are known to be completely there and in the action, or absolutely nowhere to be found. He could also be considered the leader of all the other toys in his owner, Andy’s, room. He is always make big decisions for his team. This brings in the authoritative role cowboys are known to take on. While Woody is not exactly the traditional cowboy you are likely to initially envision, he certainly does fit the characteristics of one.

Justice Ain't Gonna Dispense Itself

As much as I really wanted to talk this week about John Marston from "Red Dead Redemption" he is actually an extremely typical Western cowboy character existing in a very classic rendition of the Old West atmosphere. So instead, I'll switch gears to another cowboy heartthrob who's just one of many varied characters in a video game I'm obsessed with lately:

Jesse McCree from Overwatch

Three guesses what the belt buckle stands for! (source)

Since in my discussion post I argued that it would be completely plausible for an Old West cowboy to be able to live in today's world, I'll further my point by using McCree as an example that's already in practice.

For those who haven't heard of Overwatch, the timeframe of the game takes place about 60 years from now, during which time the heroes (playable characters) are called back to their initial positions in a United Nations-style task force called "Overwatch" which was created in order to fight against the Omnic resistance - the Omnics being sentient robots who are fighting for their own rights. It turns into a pretty ugly war between the Omnics and the Overwatch force, taking many casualties and ruining many cities around the globe.

Jesse McCree gets involved in Overwatch only after the gang he belongs to - the Deadlock Gang - is infiltrated in a sting operation by Overwatch commander Gabriel Reyes (Later, Reyes becomes Reaper). The Deadlock Gang had long been holding the American Southwest captive to its illegal activities for decades and they mostly dealt in arms and munitions. On one of the game maps (called Route 66), the gang has blown up a bridge in order to obtain a nuclear warhead from a military cargo train passing overhead.

Route 66 map on Overwatch, note blown up bridge over the canyon. (source)

After most of the Deadlock Gang is captured, including McCree, he (much like John Marston) decided that he had enough of that life and wanted to atone for his wrongdoing by fighting for noble reasons and justice. Overwatch's leaders, Reyes specifically, wanted to recruit him to their cause and McCree accepted, though he later went into hiding when infighting between Overwatch members began its downfall. I'd also like to mention the fact that he'd lost part of his arm and had a robotic one to replace it, this sort of thing being the norm in this future era since a lot of the characters have robotic appendages or systems to use to their advantage.

John Marston from Red Dead Redemption (source)

The similarities even between McCree and other cowboys are not to be ignored either, since his "Deadeye" ability is the exact same that Marston uses in "Red Dead" and they look very similar to each other. McCree also has notable voice lines that are direct references to other Western movies and characters, for instance: "I'm the quick... you're the dead," he says at random in the game lobby (The Quick and the Dead), or, "I'm not good, not bad, but I sure as hell ain't ugly." (The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly). He also has several different "skins" or outfits in the game that hearken back to other classic Old West characters.

Here you can see what McCree sees during "Deadeye," also notice his robotic hand. (source)

So, here we have McCree, who in the year (est) 2045 or so is running around the Southwest with a gang of bandits, dressed in chaps, spurs, and a ten gallon hat, with his signature weapon being a six shooter known as the Peacekeeper. His "ultimate" attack ability is called "Deadeye" and when activated he shouts a classic throwback to many a standoff: "It's High Noon" and then yells "DRAW!" while simultaneously shooting any of the enemies he's locked on to. A tumbleweed appears behind him and gently rolls across the ground nearby. Yet it all takes place 60 years from now and no other characters think that he's odd or out of place. It's still very normal for the southwestern United States to look and operate much like it did in the 1800's with some modern upgrades alongside.

The African American Cowboy

A famous aspect of American culture is the myths of the taming of our wild west. Another famous although less fortunate aspect of our culture would be our spoiled past with the slave trade. When combined these two faucets of American culture make for quite the breaking of stereotypes. DJango: Unchained, a film by Quentin Tarantino is a breaker of such stereotypes.

In the mythological American West most cowboys were white men, sometimes you would have an occasional Mexican or Native American, but the majority of the heroes of the wile west had pale skin.

Django turned that all around. As a former slave he becomes a bounty hunter, hunting down white men for the bounties placed on their heads. Instead of him being the one running from the white man, he is the one chasing them down. An ironic scene in the movie is when Django is hunting down a group of brothers who are hiding out on a plantation. Well Django takes the opertunity to show one of the brother just how much the leather whip hurts. He turns the tables on slavery and takes charge.

Django is doubly surprising because he is an African American cowboy. The towns people are all shocked and confused when they see him riding about on top of a horse. At the plantation they visited, the owner even mentioned that it was illegal for a black man to ride a horse. Django didn't care, he was a cowboy and he had earned his freedom. He had just as much a right to be a top a horse as any man.

Spike Lee, the director of Bamboozled, would probably appreciate the originality of Django. He would like how the character strikes back against his oppressors and how he does not get used. Django fights against his suppressors and a society that sees him as a lesser. Django does not give up although the odds are against him, he keeps moving on because he must accomplish his goal and free his wife from the same oppression he so luckily escaped. Django is the image of a strong black man far from the bumbling buffoonery of minstrelsy, Spike Lee would definitely approve with pride.

The impact of a female heroine in the video game industry

It was the most anticipated evolution in game play when Lara Croft's Tomb Raider arrived on Playstation between 1996 and 1998.  Video games primary audience was geared for male players so 

it was very important for Tomb Raider, with a female lead character, to exceed all success potential.

Lara became a modern day hero with her new movements in Tomb Raider as she lead the video game industry into a new era of game play with her ability to maneuver like no other first person game prior to her arrival.  Lara was a pioneer, a rebel, a rough rider...she had outlaw qualities as well as upstanding role model characteristics when she got her way.

Lara had a home in the game but her home was her training course to prep the gamer and their controller with never before combination of moves.  The motions Lara introduced was running jumping and grabbing edges; she had the ability to hang from the edge and 'shimmy' left or right and upon command and learning how not to fall, you could make her pull herself up onto the rock or whatever she may be climbing.  These motions were unheard of, as well as pulling guns out of your holster while running, jumping and aiming at your opponent and so much more.

Lara was truly a famed adventurer and she didn't have good or bad side as she served her needs to raid tombs and get treasures at her own, and at times others expense.  She was a loner, a ranger, a wanderer and possessed absolutely no fear of the uncivilized frontiers and territories she explored and conquered.

As Lance Eaton mentions in the assigned lecture,

"We often see the cowboy in certain lights or there is certain things he is suppose to do.  He is often a man who brings order and that is often order to uncivilized places.  The cowboy is often out in the west in a place that has no rules and he is there to bring some order.  It doesn't mean he is there to bring laws; it doesn't mean he is there to bring government but he is there bring order to an uncivilized place.  But he is often a man that escapes order rather gets away from civilization.  So a cowboy straddles this line between civilized  and uncivilized." (L Eaton, The Cowboy and Western in Popular Culture).  

Lara was designed to be a cowboy heroine for the video game industry, gamers, for the introduction of new game play, as well as a beautiful never before seen type of new frontier, in the depths of tombs.  Tomb Raider and Lara Croft paved the way for the development of video games overall.  Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Red Dead soon followed suit and developed similar fashion game play.  Lara Croft's legacy is still developed today with new installments consistently premiering and still just as anxiously awaited by fans old and new thrill seekers.

Dean Winchester- Modern Cowboy?

Throughout this week's assignments I couldn't stop trying to think of a perfect example of a modern cowboy, and my mind kept coming back to the first thought I had, Dean Winchester from the long-running television show from the CW network, Supernatural. Before I make my case, lets look at the definition of a cowboy that was provided in the mini-lecture:
1) Idealized Man/Romantic Notion
2) A man who brings order (to uncivilized places)
3) A man who escapes order (gets away from civilization)
And the types of cowboys mentioned are:
-Adventure seekers and Explorers
-Visitors and Wanderers

For those that have never heard of Supernatural, it is (at its base) a show about two brothers, Sam and Dean, that drive around the country and hunt monsters. To avoid making this blog post an explanation about the 11 season history of the show and talk about why everyone should watch it, I am going to leave the show at that description for now. Because I want to tell you all about Dean Winchester.

Dean Winchester has lived his whole life virtually off the grid and has drove around the country with his father since he was a child hunting monsters. His brother, Sam, doesn't fit the definition of a cowboy as much because he always craved normalcy, and went off to college as soon as he had the chance. Dean always accepted the way his life was and didn't see anything wrong with it. 

A Man Who Brings Order (to uncivilized places)
Dean's version of an uncivilized place could be found in someone's living room- he hunts monsters that intend on (and usually succeed in) hurting/killing people. Sometimes they are ghosts, sometimes demons, and sometimes a type of monster that only exists in storybooks. He is a protector of all humans, and he doesn't even get the recognition most of the time. 

A Man Who Escapes Order (gets away from civilization)
Dean has always lived off the grid, pretty much jumping between living in his car and living in run down motels in whatever town they find themselves hunting in all over the country. Dean doesn't have friends, just family and other hunters that he occasionally would communicate with, and he was basically always alone; hunting could be considered a lonely job, being the only ones that know the truth about whats out there. They live by their own rules, and often break the law in order to save people. 

So is he a cowboy? 
I absolutely consider him a cowboy! Particularly in the first few seasons, as things get rather complicated as the show goes on (as it is wont to do). Ignoring the technical definition, even just looking at him you would think of him as a cowboy. He is a rugged man from down south (Kansas) that even travels the country on his trusty steed: a 1967 Chevy Impala.

All he is missing is the hat, and he would be a full-blown cowboy. (which, incidentally, they played off of in an episode called "Frontierland" in season 6)

Rick Grimes; Modern Cowboy

As we learned this week in Module 3 there are still ‘cowboys’ in our modern day popular culture. Although our “Cowboys” may not be your typical “standard role of a cowboy in the wild wild west to steer the cows in the right direction,” they are all around us in movies, television, and books. A modern day cowboy could have some traits of being a rough edged man, goes against the law, and follows his own sense of a code. 

A cowboy that is in one of our popular culture Television series that isn’t a straightforward cowboy in my eyes is Rick Grimes from the well know AMC television series The Walking Dead. Rick Grimes is the epitome of a modern day Cowboy. He embodies the traits of a rough edged man after all he has dealt with because of the zombie apocalypse. He follows a very strict code in the way he deals with life in every single episode. The other characters in the series also look to Grimes as a leader and he is highly respected by almost everyone. Before the zombies, Rick was a sheriff Deputy, which also connects him as being a modern day cowboy in a sense. A little side note, when the series began Rick was known for his beige and brown police uniform, which he paired with a brown cowboy hat. Later his son Carl, in the rest of the series, wears the cowboy hat. The irony of the cowboy hat is amazing to this week’s module and raw topic of a modern day cowboy. Zombies, Modern Cowboys, and Popular Culture are three topics that are truly a great mix. This show is one of my favorites and I encourage everyone to watch it! 

The Last of Us: A True Modern Western

As I mentioned in my first blog post, I'm an avid gamer. You probably also noticed that in the bottom of said post, I had said that my second favorite game of all time is Naughty Dog's The Last of Us. This game is simply incredible in all senses of the world (and if you have a PS4 or PS3, you MUST play it), but especially because of it's deep narrative. The story starts with a man named Joel, a single father living at home with his daughter, when all of a sudden, a fungal infection starts spreading rapidly across the US (it's revealed to be a humanized form of the cordyceps fungus). Like a traditional zombie story, if you are bitten, you are infected. Joel is forced to transport a girl named Ellie, who is apparently immune to the fungus, and Joel must take her across most of the US, from Boston to Utah, where a group is trying to find a cure for this infection.

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Joel is a perfect example of a modern cowboy, and The Last of Us is a perfect example of a modern western. Firstly, they are, in fact, moving west throughout the entirety of the game. They didn't even try to blur the lines on this one, Joel's goal is to successfully move west throughout the US to reach a hospital in Salt Lake City, UT. Like other typical cowboys, Joel is a masculine white male. He often acts tough and hardened, and has to endure a lot of brutality throughout his life, especially in the time the game takes place. By bringing Ellie to Utah, he is trying to bring order to the lawless land of infected that the US has become. If a cure can be found, order can then be restored in the country, since the infected will all theoretically be either cured or killed.

Traveling most of this journey on his own, it can be safely assumed that Joel is quite self-sufficient, often even crafting weapons and other items along his trek, such as first aid kits bandage himself. Unsurprisingly, the environment surrounding him is quite hostile, with essentially everything trying to kill him and Ellie. Life has been reduced to shambles compared to what it once was, and the country is trying to sort life out once more and regain balance.

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The story fits essentially every trope you've come to know from the Western genre, yet manages to modernize it with great success. Joel is every bit a cowboy as any other one that's ever existed, and the story is a Western through and through, without a single doubt in my mind. If you get the chance, please check out this fantastic game, you won't regret it. Here's a trailer to leave you with a taste of what the game is all about (WARNING: GRAPHIC).