The Wild West

The Wild West

In Video Games

In Cinema

In Literature

The Old West was first depicted in books, a lot of which became tremendously famous : Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Jack London wrote The Call of the Wild and White Fang, and Willa Cather's O Pioneers! is still considered as a masterpiece. But one of the most note-worthy autobiography was written by Calamity Jane (born Martha Jane Canary).

RED DEAD REDEMPTION

The Red Dead Redemption series follows outlaws living in the last part of the Old West (1899-1911) : "the West had nearly been tamed" and "the age of gunslingers and outlaws had almost passed into myth". It allows the player to discover a wide range of environments that constituted the American Frontier.

The American Frontier

The Frontier is a very important American symbol. Originally, it designated the Western frontier of the country. In the 17th century, the European colonists settled on the East coast. Other territories in the West belonged to other countries (France and Spain for example), but most of the continent was seen as untamed, uncivilized. Actually, no Europeans lived there, but Native Americans did. People who lived on the Frontier (Frontiersmen or Frontierspeople) were seen as very brave and strong, because they had to live in confrontation with nature (they had to hunt, fish, live in the wilderness, at a time when forests were still home for bears, wolves and cheetahs). The Frontier was the land that was still to tame. By 1912, the United States occupied the whole continent from East to West, it was Contiguous, and thus the US had control over all its territories : it was the end of the Wild West.

THE FAR WEST IN CINEMA

Overview

Overview

Overview

Overview

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST

Directed by Sergio Leone Released in 1968 Takes place: between 1873 and 1899 in Arizona

See Trailer in Class

Story Summary

DJANGO UNCHAINED

Directed by Quentin Tarantino Released in 2012 Takes place : between 1858 and 1860 in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi

Story Summary

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Directed by Sergio Leone Released in 1966 Takes place during the Civil War, in 1862 around New Mexico

Story Summary

1883

Series directed by Taylor Sheridan Aired between 2021 and 2022 Takes place in 1883 from Tennessee, through Texas and Oregon, to Montana.

Story Summary

Watch and take notes! Write the new vocabulary!

Three outlaws (Blondie, Tuco and Angel Eyes) discover the existence of a huge treasure buried in Sadhill Cemetery. They race to get to the gold first, but in order to get there, they have to cross the battlefields of the Civil War, where the soldiers of the Union and Confederate States are fighting. Tuco and Blondie blow up a bridge to pass. The three outlaws meet, but they can't kill each others : Tuco and Blondie know the name of the cemetery, but Angel Eyes knows the name on the grave where the treasure is buried, so they need each others to find it. They finally arrive at the cemetery. They dig up the gold, but they all want the treasure for themselves ! So there is a stand off between them.

"It was during the 1872-73 campaign that I was christened Calamity Jane. It was on Goose Creek, Wyoming where the town of Sheridan is now located. Capt. Egan was in command of the Post. We were ordered out to quell an uprising of the Indians, and were out for several days, had numerous skirmishes during which six of the soldiers were killed and several severely wounded. When on returning to the Post we were ambushed about a mile and a half from our destination. When fired upon, Capt. Egan was shot. I was riding in advance and on hearing the firing turned in my saddle and saw the Captain reeling in his saddle as though about to fall. I turned my horse and galloped back with all haste to his side and got there in time to catch him as he was falling. I lifted him onto my horse in front of me and succeeded in getting him safely to the Fort. Capt. Egan, on recovering, laughingly said: "I name you Calamity Jane, the heroine of the plains." I have borne that name up to the present time. The Life and Adventures of Calamity Jane

To go further : Even when the whole of the American territory was conquered, the idea of the Frontier stayed so important in American philosophy, that they kept using it to refer to the necessity of always going further in pushing their own limits. During the Space Race (1950s-1960s), the moon was often seen as the "New Frontier".

After the Civil War, the Dutton family leave Tennessee and join a wagon train to undertake the difficult journey west to Oregon, before settling in Montana to establish their ranch.

One night, a bounty hunter called Doctor King Schultz attacks a convoy of slave traders. He frees the slaves, and tells one of them, called Django, that he needs his help to track down three men who have bounties on their heads. He promises that if Django accepts, he will give him his freedom. Later, Schultz learns that Django had a wife, who is still a slave. He makes a new proposition to Django : he will teach him the job of a bounty-hunter, and when he will be ready, they will go and save Broomhilda, his wife. After a winter learning how to shoot and tracking down outlaws, Django and Schultz travel to Mississippi, to investigate on where Broomhilda is. They discover that she is a slave in "Candiland", the biggest cotton plantation in the region. So they plan to meet Calvin Candy, the cruel owner of the plantation. They lie to him, telling him that they want to buy slaves, to gain his trust. But they are then discovered. Schultz shoots Calvin Candy, but someone kills him directly. Django is captured, and they plan on selling him to a mining company. He manages to escape, and comes back to blow up Candy's house with dynamite. He then rides away with Broomhilda.

A train arrives at the boomtown of "Flagstone". A man with a harmonica gets off the train and faces three gunfighters who are waiting for him, killing all three. The three gunmen are working for an outlaw called Frank. Meanwhile, Frank and his henchmen kill the McBain family at their "Sweetwater" ranch. A woman named Jill arrives in Flagstone, supposedly to marry McBain at Sweetwater. She is the only heir to the ranch. Actually, the ranch has a lot of value, because the railroad that is being built is supposed to pass through it. Actually, Frank was supposed to only intimidate McBain into selling his ranch to Morton, a railroad tycoon. Harmonica saves Jill from two of Frank's men. He discovers the connection between Frank and Morton but is seen and captured. A man called Cheyenne rescues Harmonica. The two collaborate to help Jill save Sweetwater. Jill is forced to auction the land. Suddenly, Harmonica appears with Cheyenne and bids $5,000, and gets the property himself. Cheyenne engages Frank's remaining men in a gunfight on Morton's train. When Frank sees the aftermath of the fight, he rides to Sweetwater, where he finds Harmonica waiting. Cheyenne has arrived earlier, but he remains in the ranch house with Jill. Outside, Harmonica and Frank engage in a showdown. Harmonica beats Frank to the draw. Jill asks Harmonica to come back and stay with her, and he says: "Some day". Cheyenne collapses and dies from a gut wound he received in the gunfight. Harmonica departs carrying Cheyenne's body on a horse.

On these two maps, you can see the geographical evolution of the United States' territories (in pink) from 1789 to 1912.

The American Progress, John Gast, 1872.