Publicity artwork for “Once Upon A Time in the West.” (Screen snip, YouTube)
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
By remarkable coincidence, as the 50th anniversary of a western film classic that has been called a “masterpiece” looms, a story in Smithsonian.com has put the lie to arguments from anti-gunners that the country is in danger of turning into the “Wild West” if gun laws are relaxed.
As it turns out, there is a marked difference between the Real West and the “Reel West.”
The film classic is a so-called “Spaghetti Western,” because much of it was filmed abroad, by famed director Sergio Leone. It was called Once Upon A Time in the West.
Released in May 1968, Once Upon A Time in the West – a layered-plot revenge tale – has garnered a huge cult following among fans of western films. It’s a story that involves building the railroad, construction of a town, a passel of gunslingers and plenty of shooting, foul murders, a fairly sizable body count and even some remorse. Among the main characters is a reformed prostitute, a nameless harmonica-playing hero, a cold-eyed killer, a warm-hearted outlaw and a haunting music score that has entertained millions of fans over the decades.
Opening credits. (Screen capture, YouTube, Paramount)
Part of the movie was filmed in Monument Valley, while the bulk was done in Europe. The cast included Henry Fonda as the vile gunslinger “Frank,” Charles Bronson as the protagonist known only by the nickname “Harmonica,” Jason Robards as “Cheyenne,” the noble outlaw on the run, Claudia Cardinale (with a dubbed voice) as ex-New Orleans hooker “Jill,” plus cameos by Keenan Wynn, Lionel Stander, Jack Elam and Woody Strode. At nearly three hours, it’s an epic.
It should be noted that when Fonda passed away, his role was said to be the only time he played the bad guy, but that isn’t true. He was also the villain in Firecreek, a western he did with pal James Stewart that was also released in 1968.
All of this added up to a Reel Western, with some flaws here and there, but by the time the final credits roll, the bad guys had been dispatched, the good guy had accomplished his mission of revenge and the bad-girl-turned-good was on the threshold of being wealthy and fully reformed.
But it’s all myth; the make-believe “Wild West” that used to thrill kids with Saturday afternoon matinees.
The Smithsonian article by Matt Jancer put it all in perspective. The piece opens with a narrative about the Gunfight at the OK Corral, possibly the most famous actual shootout in the Old West, that really didn’t occur in the corral but in a nearby empty lot. Jancer discusses early gun control ordinances in western settlements, and in the process provided some revealing facts.
When gun prohibitionists talk about turning the streets into “Dodge City” by relaxing today’s gun laws, Second Amendment advocates might actually shout in approval. According to the Smithsonian article:
“Historian Robert Dykstra focused on established cattle towns, recording homicides after a full season of cattle shipments had already passed and by which time they’d have typically passed firearm law. He found a combined 45 murders from 1870-1885 in Kansas’ five largest cattle towns by the 1880 census: Wichita (population: 4,911), Abilene (2,360) Caldwell (1,005), Ellsworth (929), and Dodge City (996).
“Averaged out, there were 0.6 murders per town, per year. The worst years were Ellsworth, 1873, and Dodge City, 1876, with five killings each; because of their small populations, their FBI homicide rates would be high. Another historian, Rick Shenkman, found Tombstone’s (1880 pop: 3,423) most violent year was 1881, in which also only five people were killed; three were the cowboys shot by Earp’s men at the OK Corral.”
By modern day Chicago standards (or those in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Newark, Milwaukee or Detroit), Dodge City was comparably boring. Same goes for Tombstone, where the Earp-Clanton feud was the exception rather than the norm.
Even with the likes of James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Luke Short, William “Billy the Kid” Bonney, John Ringo, John Wesley Hardin and the like roaming around, the Real West was demonstrably far more peaceful than the Reel West.
There was something else in Jancer’s piece worthy of attention. He discussed prohibitive laws that focused on concealed carry, thus opening the door to discussion of a critical point about the right to bear arms. In those days, firearms were routinely carried openly. Concealed carry was considered the act of a sneak, a scoundrel; someone to be avoided.
The OK Corral conflict actually was ignited by the carrying of firearms within city limits, in violation of a town ordinance. That it turned violent and fatal was an aberration, of course, which is why the incident is still talked about today.
In the real Old West, crime was typically followed by certainty of punishment. Rustling, horse theft, robbery and other crimes landed people in prison, if not at the end of a rope.
The Earps and Doc Holliday were prosecuted after the OK Corral shootout and absolved. Hickok was tried and acquitted for the daylight killing of Davis Tutt in their classic street face-off in Springfield, Missouri in July 1865. That incident was one of the very few one-on-one gunfights ever recorded, and it made Hickok something of a legend, putting a pistol ball into Tutt’s vitals at an estimated 75 yards, after which he staggered a few paces and died.
James-Younger gang was shot to pieces in 1876 when they tried to rob the bank in Northfield, Minnesota. Years later, the Dalton gang was nearly wiped out when they tried to rob two banks simultaneously in Coffeyville, Kansas. Those incidents underscored the value of an armed citizenry. In those days, criminals didn’t get slapped on the wrist. Jack McCall, who murdered Hickok in Deadwood, was hanged about seven months later. In those days, there were not endless appeals that kept somebody alive for years or decades after their dirty deeds.
The James and Dalton gangs, Hickok and the Earps are the stuff from which legends are made. But as the old newspaper editor in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance noted at the end of that film, “When legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
The western is uniquely American, yet it is popular entertainment around the globe. It talks about self-reliance, good-versus-evil, and people against the elements, progress and individualism. Leone’s masterpiece rolled them all together a half-century ago to create a vivid classic that was pure storybook. And this year the story is 50 years old. The Constitution, with its Bill of Rights that includes the Second Amendment, is 229 years old this year.
One might say both have endured the test of time.
