WESTERN UNION

US, 1941, 95 minutes, Colour.
Robert Young, Randolph Scott, Virginia Gilmore, Dean Jagger, Chill Wills, John Carradine.
Directed by Fritz Lang.

Western Union is almost the archetypal western. The familiar musical theme embodies the atmosphere of the West. The story tells of the progress of Western Union - perhaps not as it was but as it might have been.

There are heroes, villains, Indians. It has been pointed out that the actual planning and execution of the work of Western Union went almost uneventfully, so the film highlights the typical western conventions and the dangers of pioneering and the tough men of the West. It is of interest because it was directed by Fritz Lang, the famous German director of the twenties, who dealt with surrealist themes and science fiction. It was his second western in America. He started with The Return of Frank James. He was also to make the significant western with Marlene Dietrich, Rancho Notorious (1952). Western Union is a well made and very entertaining familiar western.

1. The quality of this Western? The Hollywood traditions of the West? A German director presenting a view of the West?

2. The Western conventions: the cattle, the towns, the open plains and the mountains, the Indians? Colour photography? The musical score?

3. How did the film present the West as it was? Or the myths of America's look back at the West?

4. Western Union as a symbol of the pioneering of the West? The importance of Western Union in utself, the telegraph? Communications across America? For the white men? The sequence of the telegraph being powerful medicine for the Indians and the Indian reaction? The belief of the men working for Western Union, loyalty?

5. The standard ingredients and characters of a Western? Hero, heroine, villain, dedicated men, Southerners, Indians, drunken Indians, the conventional comic men working? How well were these ingredients handled?

6. Edward Creighton? The accident over his being helped by Shaw at the beginning, his personality and character his skill with his work, dedication? His sister and their bond? Hiring men, quality of leadership, his benevolence towards Shaw? Attitude towards Blake? His handling of the men, handling of. the Indians and the situation with getting the telegraph through? His sense of achievement? A symbol of the noble side of American pioneering?

7. Shaw as the blend of hero and villain? The chance encounter and his decision for kindness? His breaking with his brother and the robberies? The chance given him by Creighton? His reappearances, rivalry with Blake for Creighton’s sister? The humour of their presence together? His work for Western Union? The encounter with Jack disguised as an Indian? The selling of the horses? His being taken at the situation when the Western Union camp was built? His decision to shoot it out with his brother? The importance of his dying? A credible man of the west?

8. The contrast with Blake? The bland hero on his arrival? His skill in riding horses? The romantic rivalry with Shaw? His being trigger happy against the Indians? The irony of his presence in the final shoot-out?

9. The contribution of the minor characters, for example Herman the Doctor?

10. The portrait of the Indians and white hostility? Drunkenness? The benevolent attitudes?

11. The danger of the Indian wars and their repercussions especially in the massacre? The background of the beginnings of the Civil War with Jack Slade and the rebels raiding Western Union?

12. The build-up to the final shoot-outs and their conventional presentation?

13. This kind of Western as a piece of Americana?