HELL's HINGES William S
HELL'S HINGES William S. Hart 1916
The outsider-hero, partly civilized, partly savage as recurrent figure in the Western, upon whom we will focus much attention.
A frequent figure in the Western and in melodrama: a form of theater that arose in the 18th century and features exaggerated acting styles. More importantly, melodrama is about the forces of good and evil coming into conflict. Melodrama is highly visual: you can tell by looking who is the bad guy and who is the good guy--often by costume or behavior: if he wears a white hat and is polite to the ladies he's a good guy; if he twirls his oily mustache, he's bad. In the short reading on melodrama for today, the author discusses the Westerns of William S. Hart. Hart is described as a "hero of romance" who displays "moral rectitude." Another key to melodrama is that it is often about HIDDEN virtue ("false accusation, suffering, misunderstanding, reconciliation and redemption"). Hart begins Hell's Hinges as a bad guy, in alliance with the stereotypical sneaky and deceitful Mexican, or Mexican-like White man.
By 1916 the cinema was already a fully developed art form. Although Hell's Hinges may seem primitive, it actually uses the camera in a sophisticated way, and is drawing on a tradition of Western films that began in 1903 with The Great Train Robbery. In the Western film and novel we can read many of the attitudes of contemporary America towards America as a nation. Who are we as Americans? Was it our destiny to expand over an entire continent and turn desert into plowed land? Was it our right to impose our system of laws on all of the peoples that we encountered? Most of the time the Western answers "yes"--these were our rights and our manifest destiny as people coming from the so-called more advanced civilizations of the East.
Hart is among the first of what have been called GOOD BAD MEN. That is, ostensibly he's bad, but in fact he is good. His virtues are those of the Western man: he a man of few words; he is just; he is protective of the weak but able to use violence to dominate others. His body, clothing and equipment are always an important part of the story, whether it's the body of the lean young cowboy or of the aging gunfighter (as we'll see in Man of the West). One of the reasons for the cowboy's physical traits having such importance is that he serves as a figure of identification and fantasy--mostly for young boys and men. Indeed, many were drawn towards the West not only because of the promise of gold and land, but because the life of the unfettered cowboy was presented so attractively in literature and cinema. (Huck Finn lights out for the territory.) As in Huck Finn, what the young boy or man wishes to escape is the feminizing influence of mother and sister. The East will recurrently represent the positive and negative aspects of civilization--the power of the government but also the repressive forces of civilization. In the 19th century women were assigned the role of guarding the morals of the family. Although the moral woman is worshipped as an angel, she is also a drag on the freedom of the male to enjoy himself and must be escaped.
“In The Virginian the rejection of eastern society and western wilderness is mediated by a third term: the easternized culture we see develop in Wyoming. Similarly, in the classic film Western, the society that comes into existence through the hero’s intervention is seen as unproblematically settled. In Hell’s Hinges, however, East and West are corrupted by law and Nature respectively.” The film produces Blaze Tracy as a solution to this impasse.
clip of opening scenes from Hell's Hinges
mother as powerful influence but a mistaken one--she ruins her son by having him become a minister--film also takes the side of the woman (Faith) by showing her to be both virtuous and aware of reality
Only man who is made of "stern stuff" is fit to be one of the moral guardians of the people
West as place of fantasy of escape to "bad women" (racially/ethnically other) for preacher while for the older minister it offers a chance for reform, for a renewed chance at domesticity for a wayward young man
A west that is Placer Center but no place
Petticoat brigade--ambivalence twrds morality. Female-dominated, ultimately the accepted social forces, but it's important that the hero stands outside of this group as a more virile force.
William S. Hart, "Blaze Tracy"--"best and worst" of the early West. Hart prided himself on presenting the West authentically not glamourously as would Tom Mix.
Visually set apart from the crowd (importance of crowds scenes in setting up the need for individual) by horse
His alliance with bad man
The encounter with the good woman
Leader of two different crowds--opposition with preacher who is GOOD BAD MAN--hypocritically pretending to have a moral force he does not
Emphasis on need to reinvigorate the feminized men of the East and to bring the Western man under the sway of feminine law
Role of spectator? Humor
The attack on the service in the barn
Use of crosscutting
The awesome moral power of the innocent white woman--a remnant from the sentimental novel and melodrama--dramatically illustrates the force of the women the Westerner is trying to escape. But ultimately he must come to the rescue of this endangered moral force and incorporate it.
"Rape" scene--social result of preacher's fantasy about sex; Blaze Tracy calls it to a halt.
A study in contrasts--Miller tempts the preacher; Faith is dwarfed by protective and vertical Blaze Tracy.
Wonderful crosscutting of preacher preaching to saloon girls, Blaze reading the bible with a bottle of whiskey, Faith standing at the window (characteristic pose of domestic woman looking out into man's space)
Blaze strikes a bargain with God for the woman, while the preacher unknowingly is striking a bargain with Silk Miller for the "Mexican" saloon girl
One is a legitimate if naive barter, the other is tantamount to prostitution
Now the next morning the two groups meet again, but parson and Tracy have changed positions
the gunbelt--crosses, chiasmus