The Politics of Hollywood Westerns

Hi Everyone,

Next week will mark four years of the Everyday Anarchism podcast! As always, Ruth Kinna is coming on to do the anniversary episode.

This time, like so many of my recent episodes, the topic will be movies - in this case, Ruth and I are analyzing two classic Hollywood films. I thought I would send a note a few weeks early in case any of you wanted to watch one or both of them before the episode aired. This email is only going out a few days early, but here it is anyway. Ruth and I will be discussing John Ford's imperialist (or is it anti-imperialist?) cavalry movie, Fort Apache, and Fritz Lang's noirish revenge Western Rancho Notorious. Both films are really interesting. In Fort Apache, it's the Apaches, not the US cavalry, who seem to hold the moral high ground - an unexpected position in a Hollywood movie from the 1940s, to put it mildly. And Rancho Notorious gives us the legendary Marlene Dietrich in an absolutely unexpected reversal - against all odds, she gets seduced by an homme fatale.

I think both films can be found to stream pretty easily, if you're interested!