Jews in Westerns

[roga]

I don't like "help, I'm writing a paper!" posts so I kind of hate to be making one, but... help, I'm writing a paper?

This semester I took a university course about westerns, and completely fell in love with the genre. My final project is to write a paper about any western I want to. So I was going to go for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,

Comments

[giandujakiss]

You should try reading the script of Butch Cassidy and comparing to the film. The script was written by William Goldman and Yiddish humor practically drips from the pages. But it's almost completely lost in the performance of the actors.

[roga]

I probably wouldn't recognize 'Yiddish humor' unless it was read to me by someone whom I knew was Jewish :-)

It's interesting how scripts can read so differently from movies themselves. I think the Life of Brian script is hilarious, and the movie is only kinda funny.

[vaznetti]

I don't know whether or not you'd count this, because it's not a film, but Sol Star was a prominent character on the HBO show Deadwood.

[roga]

I knew about him - it's not relevant for me because yeah, TV, and also because it's from the 2000's - but it's pretty cool. I looked up the character name on IMDB, and although he's a historical Deadwood figure, Deadwood was the only title that had he character 'Sol Star' or 'Solomon Star' - so he hasn't been a character in any other westerns, as far as I can tell.

[a2zmom]

I actually saw Blaxing Saddles in the theater when it came out. I'll never forget since I saw it with my friend Marianne who could understand Yiddish fluently. While everyone else was wondering what those Indians were talking about, I was laughing hsterically thanks to M.

[roga]

Hee, awesome. And since I don't understand Yiddish myself - thank goodness for the internet.

[executrix]

I haven't seen it either, but to the best of my knowledge, Eddie Cantor's "Banjo Eyes" is a 1930s film version of his popular Broadway musical with a Western setting.

BTW, there are several books about Jewish images in Hollywood films, so if you can get hold of them, they should have a few pages about Westerns.

[roga]

Oh, thanks! I looked it up, it's Whoopee!. He doesn't play a Jew, but it does add another link between Jews-in-westerns and comedy.

[bethbethbeth]

The setting is probably further west than most people think of when they consider westerns (*g*), but there was an episode of the 1960's t.v. series Here Come the Brides (set in Seattle in the 1870's) called "A Jew Named Sullivan." The episode not only had Jewish characters, but actually dealt pretty seriously (for sixties television) with the issue of anti-Semitism.

[roga]

That sounds fascinating - I'll try to look it up, even though I'm focusing on films rather than TV. (And hey, I've seen westerns set in Oregon - Washington isn't much of a stretch!)

[llennhoff]

[Geek mode on]
Trying to push this thing to its limits, the Star Trek/Here Comes the Bride crossover novel Ishmael, by Barbara Hambly has some Jewish aspects. One of the main characters, Aaraon Stemple, is implied to be Jewish. The book is otherwise notable for showing that Spock is descended from characters played by the actor Mark Lenard on both sides. ML played Sarek in TOS, and Aaron Stemple in HCTB. Aaron is shown to be the ancestor of Amanda Grayson in the course of Ishmael.
[/Geek mode]

[roga]

That is (a) cool to know, and (b) pretty much lost on me, sadly - I never got into Star Trek.