American Old Western Heroism

Western movies make up the oldest of American film genre. They have also been important vehicles for showcasing significant American cultural values. Westerns are known to depict men with traditional values of heroism. In A Fistful of Dollars the ideology of heroism is challenged with a violent and morally complex vision of the American Old West, a storyline of betrayal, and a subversive and tense mood.
Virtually every movie presents us with ways of behaving and therefore offers us an implied or explicit morality or ideology. Every film has its own bias based on the director's own sense of right and wrong. According to Fiske, “Ideology can be a system of beliefs characteristic of a particular class or group.” In this case the group we are …show more content…
They closely match that of the traditional hero who is framed by an ideology which values a person or character who, in the face of danger and misfortune, displays courage, bravery or self-sacrifice for some greater good. This concept of heroism praises a person of courage and ability, and admires them for their brave deeds and qualities. Historically, the central themes in American Old Western heroism have included respect for American traditions, support of the rule of law, Judeo-Christian values, advocacy of American exceptionalism and a defense of Western civilization from perceived threats posed by moral relativism. The main character of the film doesn’t necessarily defy these traits, but is certainly very unclear as to where he stands on the side of right versus wrong. Often times throughout the film the character seems to do things for only his own benefit and it doesn’t matter who the outcome also assists.
Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars established the Western hero as part of a novel kind of heroism. In this film our hero enters a town that is under the control of two outlaw gangs, the Rojos and the Baxters, and ordinary social relations …show more content…
As they note in the Encyclopedia of Communication Theory, “Perhaps the most widely recognized and understood form of genre today is associated with music and film, and this is because genre has become an important component of marketing.” So when they were selling this movie to American audiences they decided to call it a Spaghetti western, due to the fact that it was made by an italian director and shot in Spain, but also because it was so estranged from any type of western they had seen before. They also go on to say, “Media companies use generic labels to help promote and sell film and music to particular niche markets… Each niche audience knows what to expect when watching or listening to a film or song associated with a generic category.” A Fistful of Dollars ended up becoming so successful in remaking the western hero that many films attempted to emulate them in style and character. The Italian director’s film was low-budget and low-profit. When the production A Fistful of Dollars turned into a remarkable box office success in America, the industry excitedly ate up its innovations. Most Spaghetti Westerns that followed tried to get a hero just like Clint Eastwood, someone who ragged but with superhuman sharpshooting skills. Whoever the hero turned out to be, they would join a group of outlaws to further their own agenda. Some movies that copied and