Navajo Joe/ TGTBTU JL

The classic Western always portrays the alpha male cowboy as the hero. The alpha male cowboy can do no bad. In spaghetti westerns, the alpha male cowboy is the villain. The films are saying that while we think that non-Americans are the enemy, people outside of the United States believe that we are the villains. In Navajo Joe, Duncan was the leader or a bandit gang that caused havoc on every town they invaded. Duncan and his gang were almost all white men. Having the villains be white Americans is a shift away from the traditional Western villain. Navajo Joe is the hero in the movie. We almost never see the hero being someone other than an alpha male cowboy. When Duncan rides into town with the scalps of the Native American, the owner of the store says that they used to sell the scalps of the Native Americans when they were the enemy but now that they are peaceful they no longer accept the scalps. This shows the acceptance of immigrants within the culture. In The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Blondie and Tuco partner up which symbolized the American and immigrant becoming one. By having the prize that they are after being gold, it symbolizes the greed that Americans embody. Both movies were made the year after the national origins quota system was abolished. This shows that America was opening up to letting immigrants into the culture.