In “The West- Hardboiled: Adaptations of Film Noir Elements, Existentialism, and Ethics in John Wayne’s Westerns”, Sue Matheson analyzes the characters, specifically the alpha male, in Wayne’s westerns. From Matheson’s examples, one can say that the term “hardboiled” is very important, as it describes the characters in detective stories but also the alpha male’s toughness when confronted with danger on a regular basis. Matheson explains the term “hardboiled” through the film noir elements, existentialist thinking, and the moral code that she sees in these Westerns.
Matheson starts off by explaining how, although the alpha male character shoots others and does things that are not exactly legal; the audience is still appealed to him. She even mentions later that this alpha male character is there to get rid of economic exploitation, to right a wrong. He is the hero, who has an anti-hero aspect to him. The alpha male character is perceived as imperfect and morally questionable. He has a mystery about him, some information that is withheld from the audience. Matheson then explains what film noir means and how that is depicted in Wayne’s westerns. Film noir, the filmic version of a hardboiled detective novel, transmits a lot of information about western culture. Matheson uses examples from the movie, The Searchers, to explain how in film noir, the character’s inner emotions and thoughts are being projected in the environment. She also mentions how the alpha male in The Searchers, Ethan Edwards, has “emotional and moral wilderness within” that is clearly visible in the scenes.
Matheson also makes it a point to let the readers know that the Westerns really reflected how people felt about their society. She mentions Hiroshima and how after that incident, no one was innocent anymore. Wayne’s westerns have the ideas of corruption and violence entwined in the plot, because that was where they lived, in a place where “the individual does not enforce the law; he is the law”.
Sue Matheson also goes into detail about how appearance is an important part of Wayne’s westerns. She gives various examples of how cleanliness and dirt tell how normal a character is. However, as disordered as a character may be, sometimes that helps them professionally. She even ties it back to what was going on at the time. Matheson says that psychopathic behavior can be tied to the concepts of capitalism. These westerns criticize capitalism, making it seem like a corrupt system with antisocial behaviors. Matheson also says that clothing can tell a lot about a character, not just dirt. She mentions that city clothes are not appropriate for the tough hero’s West. Sue Matheson explains that a person may look “civilized” and have all the qualities of a good civilian, but be a psychopath inside.
Then, Matheson goes into existentialism. In Wayne’s westerns, the alpha male is caught in a corrupt world that puts law-abiding citizens into a situation that requires them to become like criminals. Matheson points out that these westerns focus, primarily, on the “negative side of existential thought”. She gives various examples of how characters are put in a double bind and have to break the laws in order to retrieve what is his/hers.
Lastly, Matheson clarifies the ethics in Wayne’s westerns. She talks about the differences between virtues and vices. She gives examples of how lying is a virtue in the West. Also, a man is virtuous when he shoots outlaws, gives rites to the dying and gives the enemy an opportunity to surrender. She also talks about the differences between moral ethics and duty-based ethics. Matheson says that “out West he is his own moral center”, that there is no set book of ethics that men in the West have to follow. She ends by ultimately saying that the alpha male character in Wayne’s westerns appears to need as much redemption as the psychopaths that he “brings to justice”.
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