Specter Projector

Shane (1953)

Alex & Kelten watch Shane (1953).
We like this one too! A year after High Noon got its screenwriter exiled for supposed communist leanings, this movie features a community of working people defending themselves against ruthless capitalist expansion, tiptoeing right up to the line of organized armed revolt. And this one is hailed as one of the great classic American Westerns! Clint Eastwood remade it in 1985!
What does that have to do with the archetypal lone gunslinging hero who saves the day by shooting all the bad guys himself? Well, it's complicated.
Listen to us try to figure it out!

High Noon (1952)

Alex & Kelten start off with one of the most well-regarded movies in the Western canon: High Noon (1952), starring Gary Cooper.
We like it! More to the point, we think it's an interesting critique of the archetypal single gunslinging hero defending helpless bystanders. What obligations do those bystanders have to defend their community? What happens when their guardian asks for their help and they say no?
You might think this parable about a hero Cop selflessly defending his town against generic Crime would be beloved by Cold War-era America, but it got its screenwriter run out of the country!

Westerns: History, legend, show biz

Alex & Kelten talk about the history of the Western genre (that is, the cowboy movie), from its origin in the European imagination at the dawn of the modern era to a thriving industry of children's adventure novels, which would go on to shape the ambitions of real-life historical figure Teddy Roosevelt.
Then, they talk about the history behind the genre: not only the genocidal cavalry campaigns against Native nations, but also the history of self-interested puffery at the heart of the iconic Western Hero archetype, which overlaps with the history of Wild West exhibitions, which canonized and promoted this fabricated legend around the Western (that is, European colonial) world.
Then we wrap up by introducing the western film genre in its original historical context, as the quintessential subject of early Hollywood schlock: As much as 40% of movies made before 1960 were westerns!

Introduction, Mission statement, Raison d’être, etc

Meet your projectionists: Alex & Kelten
We'll be looking at the relationship between national identity, masculinity, and violence on the one hand and (usually American) imperial history on the other hand.
Our first series will be on classic Westerns and the tension between the safety of a peaceful community and their need to defend themselves with violence.
After that, our next series will be on zombie movies, which turn out to have many of the same themes!