Author:  [log in to unmask]
Date:    12/12/94 7:30 PM
 
[Editor's note:  This message was submitted to SCREEN-L by the "Author" noted
above, and not by Jeremy Butler ([log in to unmask]).]
 
 
Sean writes:
"I find that many westerns are derived from archetypical stories that can be
found with a little investigation in the work of the Brothers Grimm or
cultural mythos.
The very best are intriguing because, although the good and bad guys are
easily distinguished by their white and black hats, respectively, the moral
dillemmas faced by the characters reside in a troublesome grey area."
 
Another, often very self-conscious, cultural touchstone is the medieval
romance (or rather its 19th-centry appropriated version), with the gunfighter
as a"
"knight without armor in a savage land", as the theme to HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL
used to allege.  (And of course Richard Boone's character was named Paladin).
BTW, I understand that a movie version of HAVE GUN is in the works.  Any
info?
 
--Don Larsson, Mankato State U., MN