SANTEE

US, 1973, 93 minutes, Colour.
Glenn Ford, Michael Burns, Dana Wynter.
Directed by Gene Nelson.

Santee is a moderate western from the 1970s, an era when the western was losing its dynamism. The film was also a star vehicle for Glenn Ford, after his heyday in the 1940s and 50s and into the 60s when he was one of Hollywood’s most popular actors. The leading lady is Dana Wynter, who also had a brief star career during the 1950s. Michael Burns is a young lad whose father is killed and who becomes attached to the bounty hunter, played by Ford. Jay Silverheels (television’s Tonto) also appears in the cast.

The film is historically of interest in the technical sense, in that it was the first film shot on video. Thirty years later, so many films used digital photography to great effect.

1.A quality a Western? Its impact as a western, human drama?

2. How well did it use the conventions of the West of the time, places, situations on farms, towns, gangs? An atmosphere of the 19th century west?

3. Colour, location photography, music? The importance of the songs and the introduction during the film? The director and photographer as influenced by the style of Sam Peckinpah, with gore, slow motion, dramatic symbolism of aspects of the west?

4. The conventions of a vengance western; themes of venganceand peace, the role of the gunner, deaths and revenge, brooding about death for revenge? The picture of families, farms, towns, the menaceof gangs, the role of bounty hunters? These themed as part of the American heritage of the 19 th century? Influence of the present day?

5. The Initial focus on Jody; as a young boy, his being seen in the start, in the town searching for the letter? The impact of his fathers' death and the deaths of the others? Hostility towards Santee? His trying to cope, his feeling toward Santee, travelling with him and the reason for change? The impact of Santee's home? His liking for Valery and his liking him for Santee’s sake? The working with John Crowe, the exhilaration of the farm and the work? Fearing the story of Santee from John Crowe and the visual impact of the flashback for the audience and for Jody? His turning Santee into a hero, his being the equivilant of a son? The bond between the two? The humane quality and the way this was communicated to the audience?

6. Glenn Ford as Santee; the focus of the title on him, a man of the west, peaceful experiencing the violence of the gun, his brood, guilt, revenge? Motivations for being a bounty hunter and the way he exercised this job? The confrontation with Jody and the drawing out of affection and love for and equivalent son? The wisdom of the man? Their interaction as they travelled? Santee seen at home, peace, work, hopes? The tenderness of the bonds with Valery? The audience knowledge of the truth about his child and the effect of this, on response to Santee? To see his torment and guilt? The confrontations with the banners and his decision not to go? The death of the Sherriff and his still wanting to be peaceful ? The inevitability of the hunt?

7. The story and the effect of Jody, Jody pushing Santee to go a out and exercise the bounty hunter work ? Audience expectation of violence to erupt? Expectation of the death of Jody? The pathos of his bringing Jody’s body home to Valery?

8. How well portrayed was Valery as a woman of the West, her place, work, wife, grieving mother, bonds with Jody? The tenderness of the scenes between herself and Santee?

9. The character of John Crowe, his Indian background, his work on the farm? His contribution to Jody's growing up? The telling of the story and the visualising of the flash-back?

10. The portrayl of the Banner gang as typical gang of the west? Ugliness, ruthlessness, lack of morals? Cruelty and violence? Confrontations, the death of the sherriff? The west as a place where evil came in the form of gangs and had to be confronted for justice and peace?

11. Themes of peace and hopes for peace and what can be built on peace?

12. The people of the west, good and bad, the people of the town, outlaws?

13. The importance of the photography of landscapes of the west, their distinctive character, peole in this environment and how it affected them?

14. The violence of the west and the inevitability of its eruption? The surprise and creelty of violence? The atmosphere of grim fatality abotu the film? . How much hope in the ending?