The Moving Image Source Calendar is a selective international guide to retrospectives, screenings, festivals, and exhibitions.
Descriptions are drawn from the calendars of the presenting venues.
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Two Western Myths: Billy the Kid & Jesse James
January 8–February 28, 2010 at
UCLA Film and Television Archive
, Los Angeles
Americans have always had an extremely romantic relationship to outlaws, seeing them as anti-authoritarian, anti-government heroes of the common man, daring to question ruling class prerogatives. The tradition can be traced back to the "no government is the best government" ideology of the Whigs in pre-revolutionary America, but also in the Anglo-Saxon mythology around Robin Hood. Two of the most notorious outlaws of the American West, eulogized in countless "dime novels," were Billy the Kid and Jesse James. Neither was brought to justice in a court of law (both claimed to be falsely accused); rather, each was killed by a representative of the law, but also a close friend. The betrayal makes their stories rich with metaphoric possibilities. As rumors of their exploits became codified in history, each entered the realm of myth.
Not surprisingly, Hollywood has repeatedly turned to Billy the Kid and Jesse James for Western material. Each Western hero has garnered more than 30 films, fictions crafted from the struggle between corporate America and ordinary, working people.
Hollywood Westerns as a genre are subject to timeless conventions, involving stereotypical characters (a man, a horse, a schoolmarm), and standardized plots (cattle ranchers vs. sheepherders, corrupt politician vs. townspeople). But Westerns are also oblique reflections of contemporary attitudes and mores. Reworking the myths of Billy the Kid and the James Gang, filmmakers reveal varied attitudes towards authority and American society. Three directorial debuts are among the selections, a fact worth pondering.
Featured Works:
Billy the Kid (King Vidor, 1930); Jesse James at Bay (Joseph Kane, 1941); Billy the Kid Trapped (Sherman Scott, 1942); I Shot Jesse James (Samuel Fuller, 1949); The True Story of Jesse James (Nicholas Ray, 1957); The Left-Handed Gun (Arthur Penn, 1958); The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid (Philip Kaufman, 1972); Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah, 1973); The Long Riders (Walter Hill, 1980); The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007, pictured)
Program information:
