Written by Pete Falconer.
With a few exceptions, such as Back to the Future Part III (1990) and Wild Wild West (both the 1960s television series and the 1999 film), combinations of the two genres have usually incorporated Western elements into Science Fiction settings. Large amounts of material from famous Westerns have been transposed in this way - High Noon (1952) and Shane (1953) were loosely adapted into Outland (1981) and Steel Dawn (1987). The use of Western tropes in a Science Fiction context can also be seen in television series from Star Trek to Firefly.
The aliens in Cowboys and Aliens have a similar effect. Their devastating weapons, flying machines and industrial-scale mining equipment are unlike anything the humans in the movie have ever seen. This has great thematic potential in a Western setting. As Jon Favreau himself has pointed out, it effectively puts the white settlers into the position historically occupied by Native Americans: “It’s always the low-tech culture that feels powerless when faced with an enemy that has technology on their side. And of course the culture with technology on their side feels like it’s manifest destiny: they’ve been granted this gift by the divine and intend to use it. So yes, it is a bit of a flip, because the cowboys find themselves as the low-tech culture.”
Of course, as I mentioned in my review, the brisk superficiality of Cowboys and Aliens also has its advantages. As tempting as it is to speculate about what the film might have made of some of the issues it raises in passing, its failure to do so probably makes it a better movie. The heavy-handed pursuit of seriousness and profundity is a characteristic problem with contemporary Westerns. Whilst Cowboys and Aliens is mostly able to avoid this, there are signs that if it had pursued more conventionally lofty aspirations, it would not have ended well. The somewhat patronising portrayal of the Apaches that help the cowboys fight the aliens and the predictable redemption of Colonel Dolarhyde through his relationship with Nat Colorado (Adam Beach) show the film’s limitations when it comes to handling this kind of material.
Sadly, the film’s divergent stylistic impulses do not sit very well together. The sense of vividness and substance that the movie gains from its use of more traditional cinematography highlights by contrast the synthetic character of its CGI effects. In turn, the extensive use of CGI and various forms of obvious digital image manipulation undermines any apparent immediacy. As I discussed in my review, the casting of the likes of Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde - stars for the Photoshop era - helps the film to confront these problems. Their distinctive presence helps blur the line between the natural and the artificial, and encourages us to suspend (or at least soften) our judgement of the film’s stylistic incongruities. But this, like many of the more successful aspects of the film, seems like a happy accident, a fortuitous combination of different elements which are there for other reasons. However, if we are to be entirely fair to the film, we should acknowledge that it is its enthusiasm and sincerity which make such accidents possible. This Alternate Take was published on September 27, 2011. Post your views Article comments powered by Disqus |
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