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

[llennhoff]

Little House on the Prairie features a woman from the rival Olson clan who marries a Jewish man.

[roga]

That's interesting. Apparently there were more depictions of Jews in western settings in TV shows than in films, which makes sense - TV has the time and leisure of addressing social issues and more varied characters than movies do, or at least than western films made room for.

[winterknight]

That particular character (as I catch up) was one of my favourites on that show. Percival Isaac Cohen Dalton. I had such a crush on him. *g*

Also, 'Frisco Kid'! I have to go watch that again now!

[bethbethbeth]

Oh wait...I have a movie for you. One of John Wayne's later westerns - The Cowboys (where he ends up taking a hiring a bunch of school boys for a cattle drive. One of the teenage cowboys turns out to be Jewish.

[roga]

Thanks! Oh, that's awesome, now I want to see it.

Not helpful at all...

[mamomo]

I don't know if you're interested in TV movies and I haven't seen this movie in forever, but maybe one of the eleventy billion characters in Lonesome Dove is Jewish. It's really just a stab in the dark, though - I have nothing to base this on.

Anyhow, this is a really interesting topic you brought up. I'd love to see a follow-up post!

Re: Not helpful at all...

[roga]

Once finals are over and I can take a breather, maybe I'll try writing a sum up of the paper, however it turns out. Thanks for the tip!

[all_my_fandoms]

Um, I know this isn't relevant cos - TV, and you probably know it and everything but... Mr Universe in Firefly was Jewish and even had a Jewish wedding with plastic sexdoll in Serenity.

IT HAD TO BE SAID, OK?

[roga]

...and now you have said it, cool :-) Thanks, I'd actually forgotten about him. Even if I won't be using it for the paper.

[prezzey]

Talk to miou_vicioso (tell her I sent you), she is doing her MFA in Screenwriting and Film Studies and "Jewish stereotypes in Westerns" is one of her areas of interest. I think she's even written a paper on The Frisco Kid.

[roga]

Thank you so much! Wow, that's awesome, I'll contact her.