From the 1930s through the early 1960s, the set of past experiences that Americans ascribed to their frontier heritage became guideposts for the present and a vision to inspire the future because they chose to view them as something crucial in their experience. Frontier western imagery permeated American film and the images transmitted through movies informed policy and political life in profound ways that had meaning and consequences for Americans of all regions, races, religions and political inclinations. During these transformative decades, Western frontier films including Stagecoach (1939), High Noon (1952), Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (1955), The Searchers (1956), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) reflected changing representations of the Old West that promoted both liberal and conservative values. Major events such as the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War and early Civil Rights movement challenged and shaped the contours of the myth and revealed Americans’ ongoing searches for answers and guidance in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing world. The power of film and of symbolism of the frontier — infused and propagated with peculiar intensity at mid-century — were mutually reinforcing. At the same time, the ambiguity and tensions within the myth were accelerating as conservative interpretations increasingly competed with liberal ones. These building political tensions, together with a series of shattering historical events, set the stage for the much more critical, revisionist tide that would sweep through films about the westering experience at the end of the sixties.

Authors:
David Smith, University of Saskatchewan, Canada

About the Presenter(s)
Historian Dr. David A. Smith is the History librarian at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, and author of the book "Cowboy Presidents: The Frontier Myth and U.S. Politics since 1900."

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