...several times, in his piece on the Film Forum Spaghetti Western series.
The Western’s basic civilization vs. wilderness theme gets travestied by Spaghetti westerns into nihilistic prognostications about mankind‘s depravity. [Alex] Cox confesses the young person’s conventional fascination with cynicism as a rejection of sentimentality which hipsters consider weak and untrustworthy (especially in counterculture terms that dismiss established moral tenets). The cynicism of Spaghetti westerns now seems an inevitable development of the skepticism following mid-20th century American imperialism and triumphalism. It was a way for Italian Communist anxiety (a luxe privilege) to express itself within a critique of the American ideals it cannot sustain.
Posts
3 comments:
First...Armond is awesome...
Second...
One of the reasons I prefer "Ride the High Country" to most Spaghetti Westerns is that it gives forwards, and debunks, the argument against sentimentality. The film quite brilliantly, like the recent "Yuma" film, demonstates the power of the Classical virtues as nihilistic antagonists grapple with the legitimacy of such arguments and positions.
In neither "Ride" or "3:10" do we get a hero who says "because I 'choose' to believe." Instead, we get embodiments of particular virtues arguing through their actions the value of virtue. In the end, they both win their arguments -- even (spoiler) at the cost of their lives.
Both of these films have more "genuine-ness" than any of the Dashiell Hammett inspired nihilistic Westerns. Westerns which lack the context of "Red Harvest" -- the novel most inspirational to them -- which had been inspired by Hammett's own work with the Pinkerton's. He witnessed the Pinkertons as they hired people to perform assassination in a union squabble. It broke him emotionally, and set the tone for his political transformation. It is what adds weight to his writing. He isn't a nihilist, but he believed he was a moral man in a nihilistic world...much like his Continental Op who feigns the tools of his enemies while never actually resorting to them. See "The Dain Curse" for an ideal example of this.
The whole point of Noir is that nihilism isn't true. The message of "M" is that there are things which even the hardest of criminals recoils from...there is true evil.
Some Spaghetti Westerns have this quality as well, and anyone who likes them because they think the SWs are more sophisticated and lack sentimentality need to spend less time getting "uptight" and listening to the "Velvet Underground" and "Yes" while high, or saying that "Fantasia" is better stoned -- and actually experience the art they are giving short shrift.
SWs aren't cool because they are nihilistic. They are cool because they have sharp contrasts with rough edges and follow the path paved by John Ford and Sam Peckinpah.
Two anti-cynicism screeds in one brief period! My head is spinning.
The phrase "critique of the American ideals it cannot sustain" could appear on any page of the New Criterion. Is White's cultural conservatism a pose to irritate the hipsters, do you suppose, or sincere? Couldn't be a pose, because too eloquent, I would think, but who knows....
Given how long our culture has been praising cynisim, I don't know that White's anti-cynicism screed could be described as cultural conservatism. In a way, optimism and sincerity are the more progressive and liberal positions. The cynical is staid and reactionary, one must in some ways be advocating the new, the cutting edge, and the innovative in order to have sincerity or optimism.
Take SF of the Golden Age and that of Banks/Reynolds. The "politics" of the Campbellian Golden Age and that of the Banks/Reynolds Neuvo-Golden Age couldn't be further apart, but the tone of positive science and high imagination are very similar. Banks may describe -- and believe -- his beloved Culture to be a socialist paradise, but all it really embodies is a post-scarcity paradise. It is a very libertine place, but it is also a place where rationality and creativity rule. One need merely look at the Campbellian obsession with Psychohistory, the super science of Nexialism, Gordon Dickson's Transhuman spiritualism to see the connection with the Culture.
The cynical age of SF began with Dune where Paul Muad'ib's precient sense was faltering and in the end failed him as he was unable to control the forces of History. Herbert's definitive work was a deconstruction of SF fiction, and Banks/Reynolds and Star Trek are a glorious return. f
Post a Comment