A Fistful of Symbolic Interactionism
"Fistful of Dollars" directed by Sergio Leone in 1964, is a unofficial remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1961 period film "Yojimbo" and is considered one of the most groundbreaking westerns in cinema history, the settings are gritty, the violence is realistic, more blood is shown than in any western before it, and the main character isn't the stalwart white-hat wearing good guy that appeared in most other westerns before that time, the character Joe is in fact as unprincipled as the villains in this film, and yet as amoral as the main character is, his deeds can still be quite heroic. These elements can still be seen in westerns today showing the influence that "Fistful of Dollars" that is still going strong today.
The Setting:
The movie "Fistful of Dollars takes place in San Miguel, a poor and violent village in Mexico. The land is flat and has little in the way of plant life. In the distance can be seen trees growing on a nearby foothill and on the mountains in the far distance. Most of the building in the town when first seen are simple adobe structures the tallest being no more than perhaps two stories tall, the others are made of wood. The alabaster surfaces of the adobe buildings reflect the sunlight that beats down on the town casting short shadows on the brown dusty ground (Leone, 1964). The nearest tree in the town is devoid of foliage, the only thing that hangs from its branches is a lone noose that sways in the breeze (Leone, 1964).
The soundtrack for this movie is space at times, but when it plays it's a low sound that has a soft melodonic whistling to it, that's accented with a chirping like whistle that slides down the scale like a bird (Leone, 1964). There is a harsh glaring sound of violins and cellos whenever something worth taking note of happens
There are cruel and vicious people in this town, the first people seen are a boy who has snuck into one of the adobe buildings and is then kicked out and shot at by one of the men in house, and then commences to beat the boy's father, other in the town have put a dead man on a horse and sent it out of town with a sign pinned to his back that reads "Adios Amigos"(Leone, 1964). The windows are closed and boarded shut. The windows that are not boarded shut have their curtains drawn where curious onlookers peak out from behind them to see who it is riding by. There are two buildings that stand out from either side of a deserted dusty street, one is a large adobe villa, and the other is a wooden mansion with large glass windows and a corral for holding horses (Leone, 1964).
Characters:
The main character of this story, called the man with no name (Clint Eastwood) is over six feet tall and is perhaps in his early thirties. The look on his face looks like a man who had tried to stare down the sun and he won. The look on his face is that is contemptible disgust as he clenches a cheap cigar in his teeth, and when he talks to his enemies that contempt shines through (Leone, 1964). He is dressed like a drifter; he wears dark leans and a blue shirt, as well as a worn wool lined vest. He wears all this under a brown poncho with white while lines around the neck and towards the end with sporadic white dashes across the middle. He wears a dirty beat up wide brimmed hat on his head and he obviously hasn't shaved in quite some time. Most striking though is when he throws back the poncho and shows that around his waist is a single Colt Peacemaker revolver, which he handles with ease. On the grips of the revolver there is a silver medallion that looks like a rattlesnake (Leone, 1964).
The most notable part of his personality is in what he doesn't do when he sees the Rojos' men shooting at the little boy. In westerns past the hero of the film would have interceded on the boy and his father's behalf. In this case this man with no name does nothing to stop the two hired guns from abusing the boy or his father (Leone, 1964). There is also the mercenary nature of the man when he is told that the town has two bosses, the Baxters and the Rojos his response is "Baxters over there, Rojos there, me in the middle. Crazy bell ringer was right, money to be made in a place like this" (Leone, 1964).
It is this self assured cynicism that he carries as he goes on to face down the three Baxter men he had encountered earlier in the movie when he tell the coffin maker to "Get three coffins ready", and after he shoots one more man than he had planned he says to the coffin maker "My mistake, four coffins." And when John Baxter informs him that he's the sheriff The Man with No Name tells him with contempt, "Well, if you're the sheriff you better get these men underground" (Leone, 1964).
The Analysis:
The Analysis of this film will be from the perspective of Symbolic Interactionism. This perspective states that society is a bunch of symbols that stand for something and how we react to them is based on our socialization which in turn allows us to communicate with each other (Henslin, 2009, p. 13). And the primary focus will be on roles, which are a set of expectations and responsibilities that come with a status that is either achieved or gained. Once you occupy a status, you are expected to play a role (Henslin, 2009, p. 103).
When Eastwood first comes to town he's not looking to play any role, he's not looking to play the role of the hero. This is obvious when Jesus (Nino Del Arco) get's chased out of a building and shot at while Eastwood does nothing to intercede (Leone, 1964). Even after seeing the boy's father, Julián (Daniel Martín), get roughed up Eastwood just rides on by (Leone, 1964).
Even when Silvanito (José Calvo) gives him the macro-sociological rundown of the town Eastwood declines the role of the hero once more in favor of playing the role of the mercenary (Leone, 1964). A role he continues to play throughout a good deal of the movie. He even goes so far as to sell information and Marisol to the Baxters, while he is working for the Rojos (Leone, 1964). Consuelo Baxter (Margarita Lozano) even remarks on it by saying "Very soon, you're going to be rich."
To which Eastwood replies "Yeah, that's not going to break my heart" (Leone, 1964).
It isn't until about halfway through the movie during the exchange of Antonio for Marisol That Eastwood sees something that is a bit out of normal Jesus, the child at the begging of the film, runs out into the main road shouting "Momma" and Marisol replies. She runs from the exchange crying his name and they have a tear filled reunion (Leone, 1964). On the Baxter side of the line however there is a different reaction to mother and son being reunited. Antonio hugs his mother, but she doesn't hug him back what she does instead is slap him (Leone, 1964).
This is a different interpretation on both women's part on the role of being a mother. In western civilization we expect the mother to provide unconditional love and provide a sense of safety and to feel better about one's self (Scott & Alwin, 1989, p. 483). Marisol cannot do this for her son because she is being held by the Rojos. Consuelo by contrast is deviant from these expected roles. Either because she's part of a criminal empire, or because her son's capture threatened that enterprise, her reaction to his captivity was to slap him when he returned (Leone, 1964).
When Eastwood asks what the story is with Marisol and her family is, Silvantio tells him that Marisol is being held as a hostage over an accusation that her husband, Julián, cheated at cards (Leone 1964). This changed how Julián's life was arranged. It used to be he just filled the role of the father, and left the role of the mother to Marisol. Now with Marisol no long there he has to be a single parent to a young boy.
The 1989 Article "Gender Differences in Parental Strain: Parental Role or Gender Role?" by Jacqueline Scott and Duane Alwin examines the strains that parenting brings as well as it's relation to what the different gender expectations are. In this article it is mentioned that women may feel more strain because of the guilt of leaving their children behind to have a career (Scott & Alwin, 1989, p. 485), In Julián's case he would also be feeling guilt, not because he has to have a job as well as raise a son, but guilt over his failure in the role as a husband in allowing Marisol to be taken by the Rojos. Gender differences can lead to greater strain because women are more concerned with their children's emotional well being, and men being generally more concerned with their achievements (Scott & Alwin, 1989, 497). Julián is apparently more concerned with his son's well being, as can be seen when he cries with his son at the exchange and how he takes a beating at the beginning on this film (Leone, 1964).
In the 1960 article "A Theory of Role Strain" William J. Goode discusses the strain that are created by holding multiple roles that may conflict with each other. In Julián's case he still has to be the father to his boy but he also has to develop a nurturing relationship with his boy, a role that Marisol had once held. This causes strain for Julián because the role of whatever job he held would come into conflict with his parental duties. These different roles, each one with its own set of responsibilities that could come into conflict with each other, or conflict in where he needs to be and where (Goode, 1960, p. 485). One of the ways around this is to extend his roles (Goode, 1960, p. 485); Julián in this case could bring his son to work with him. Now what is going to do about his failure in the role of the husband, that one would be a bit more problematic.
Robert K. Merton in his 1968 book Social Theory and Social Structure covers a wide range of sociological topics from the history of sociology to studies on sociology and science. And in this book he talks about the "Thompson Theorem" which states "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences" (Merton, 1968, p. 475) this is true for both Julián and Eastwood. For Julian it means when he cries, like he does when his son wants to see his mother or after Marisol is reunited with her family (Leone 1964). The situation said that it was alright to cry, he wouldn't be any less of a man if he did. For Eastwood the situation changes from scene to scene. When he first come to town he saw no reason to be in town too long and so the reality was he was just a drifter (Leone, 1964), when he finds out there is money to be made, he becomes a mercenary, and when he hears Marisol's tale the reality is he becomes the closest thing to a hero that San Marcos will ever see (Leone 1964).
And what about Jesus, how does all this affect him? Well in the 1998 Tracy Dietz wrote in her article "An Examination of violence and Gender Role Portrayals in Video Games: Implications for Gender Socialization and Aggressive Behavior" In which research was done on 33 video games to explore how gender roles and aggression are portrayed. Now keep in mind this movie takes place in the old west, video games weren't around then, but Jesus is surrounded by violence in for form of the two gangs in town, and the only strong male influence he has during most of the movie are the men who regularly beat on his father (Leone 1964).
Now if he were to accept this behavior as the appropriate way for a man to behave would be dependent on other things aside from what he has seen as a child (Dietz, 1998, p. 439). Since it is that children learn from various social agents in their environment (Dietz, 1998, p. 439), and changes to it as well, it could be argued in fact that it's the arrival of Eastwood, and how he saved Jesus' family that could prove a turning point in his socialization, but that'll be discussed in the personal response.
Personal Response:
Even in the Heroic role, Eastwood's behavior could be seen as shady, though audiences today might think his actions were smart but for the original audiences what they saw was a hero this was a serious deviation from what the Hero is supposed to do. When he rescues Marisol from the Rojo's he ambushes the men guarding her (Leone, 1964). This is something unseen before, not exactly something Lash LaRue, or Roy Rodgers would do, and aside from "The Searchers" it isn't something you'd expect from John Wayne. But even in that his actions had a positive influence. It reunited Marisol and Julián and it may have even created a positive role model for Jesus.
He spent most of the film with his father, who should be his top role model getting kicked around by the Rojos' gang members. Jesus is in what Mead called the Play stage where he starts pretending he's like the significant people in his life (Henslin, 2009, 71). His father, who should be who he is idolizing, is getting kicked around by ruffians and he doesn't fight back. It's beginning to look like he might start imitating either Baxter's or the Rojos' men who are violent and predatory, but then Eastwood comes an adds another option to Jesus' options, violent but protective. That, and the fact his father seems like a good enough man may make a good man of Jesus.
For even if Jesus later in life were to not accept the events of San Miguel as the reality for the world as a whole in terms of the gender roles he could have possibly have seen it as acceptable given the situation, so even if it was not seen as him as the way the world was, he might not have challenged how the roles of men and women were viewed by him (Diets, 1998, p. 439).
Roles play an important part in this ground breaking film. If it's Marisol's role as a mother, and then as an object for Ramon, Julián's role as a father, or his failure as a husband to protect his wife, or if it's how The Man With No Name goes from an apathetic passerby, to a mercenary looking out for himself and his pocketbook, to his role as the unconventional hero the symbolism is rife in this film. And it is their changes in roles that have set the plot into motion. If Marisol had not been taken Eastwood would have at most been a mercenary and would not have taken the role of the hero. The Baxter's might have been run out of town when Antonio was taken hostage but they and the Rojos might be alive. But the story of Marisol and her family created a change of perspective and in the end the Baxters were dead, and the Rojo's enjoyed a very brief career as the sole bosses of San Miguel.
Works Cited
Dietz, T.L. (1998) An Examination of violence and Gender Role Portrayals in Video Games: Implications for Gender Socialization and Aggressive Behavior. Sex Roles 38(5/6)425-442
Goode, J. (1960) A Theory of Role Strain. American Sociological Review 25 (4), 483-496
Henslin, J. M. (2009) Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach (3rd ed.). New York:
Pearson
Leone, S. (1964) A Fistful of Dollars. Available through MGM Home Video
Merton, R.K. (1968) Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: The Free Press
Scott, J. and Alwin, D. (1989) Gender Differences in Parental Strain: Parental Role or
Gender Role. Journal of Family Issues 10. 482-503.
The Setting:
The movie "Fistful of Dollars takes place in San Miguel, a poor and violent village in Mexico. The land is flat and has little in the way of plant life. In the distance can be seen trees growing on a nearby foothill and on the mountains in the far distance. Most of the building in the town when first seen are simple adobe structures the tallest being no more than perhaps two stories tall, the others are made of wood. The alabaster surfaces of the adobe buildings reflect the sunlight that beats down on the town casting short shadows on the brown dusty ground (Leone, 1964). The nearest tree in the town is devoid of foliage, the only thing that hangs from its branches is a lone noose that sways in the breeze (Leone, 1964).
The soundtrack for this movie is space at times, but when it plays it's a low sound that has a soft melodonic whistling to it, that's accented with a chirping like whistle that slides down the scale like a bird (Leone, 1964). There is a harsh glaring sound of violins and cellos whenever something worth taking note of happens
There are cruel and vicious people in this town, the first people seen are a boy who has snuck into one of the adobe buildings and is then kicked out and shot at by one of the men in house, and then commences to beat the boy's father, other in the town have put a dead man on a horse and sent it out of town with a sign pinned to his back that reads "Adios Amigos"(Leone, 1964). The windows are closed and boarded shut. The windows that are not boarded shut have their curtains drawn where curious onlookers peak out from behind them to see who it is riding by. There are two buildings that stand out from either side of a deserted dusty street, one is a large adobe villa, and the other is a wooden mansion with large glass windows and a corral for holding horses (Leone, 1964).
Characters:
The main character of this story, called the man with no name (Clint Eastwood) is over six feet tall and is perhaps in his early thirties. The look on his face looks like a man who had tried to stare down the sun and he won. The look on his face is that is contemptible disgust as he clenches a cheap cigar in his teeth, and when he talks to his enemies that contempt shines through (Leone, 1964). He is dressed like a drifter; he wears dark leans and a blue shirt, as well as a worn wool lined vest. He wears all this under a brown poncho with white while lines around the neck and towards the end with sporadic white dashes across the middle. He wears a dirty beat up wide brimmed hat on his head and he obviously hasn't shaved in quite some time. Most striking though is when he throws back the poncho and shows that around his waist is a single Colt Peacemaker revolver, which he handles with ease. On the grips of the revolver there is a silver medallion that looks like a rattlesnake (Leone, 1964).
The most notable part of his personality is in what he doesn't do when he sees the Rojos' men shooting at the little boy. In westerns past the hero of the film would have interceded on the boy and his father's behalf. In this case this man with no name does nothing to stop the two hired guns from abusing the boy or his father (Leone, 1964). There is also the mercenary nature of the man when he is told that the town has two bosses, the Baxters and the Rojos his response is "Baxters over there, Rojos there, me in the middle. Crazy bell ringer was right, money to be made in a place like this" (Leone, 1964).
It is this self assured cynicism that he carries as he goes on to face down the three Baxter men he had encountered earlier in the movie when he tell the coffin maker to "Get three coffins ready", and after he shoots one more man than he had planned he says to the coffin maker "My mistake, four coffins." And when John Baxter informs him that he's the sheriff The Man with No Name tells him with contempt, "Well, if you're the sheriff you better get these men underground" (Leone, 1964).
The Analysis:
The Analysis of this film will be from the perspective of Symbolic Interactionism. This perspective states that society is a bunch of symbols that stand for something and how we react to them is based on our socialization which in turn allows us to communicate with each other (Henslin, 2009, p. 13). And the primary focus will be on roles, which are a set of expectations and responsibilities that come with a status that is either achieved or gained. Once you occupy a status, you are expected to play a role (Henslin, 2009, p. 103).
When Eastwood first comes to town he's not looking to play any role, he's not looking to play the role of the hero. This is obvious when Jesus (Nino Del Arco) get's chased out of a building and shot at while Eastwood does nothing to intercede (Leone, 1964). Even after seeing the boy's father, Julián (Daniel Martín), get roughed up Eastwood just rides on by (Leone, 1964).
Even when Silvanito (José Calvo) gives him the macro-sociological rundown of the town Eastwood declines the role of the hero once more in favor of playing the role of the mercenary (Leone, 1964). A role he continues to play throughout a good deal of the movie. He even goes so far as to sell information and Marisol to the Baxters, while he is working for the Rojos (Leone, 1964). Consuelo Baxter (Margarita Lozano) even remarks on it by saying "Very soon, you're going to be rich."
To which Eastwood replies "Yeah, that's not going to break my heart" (Leone, 1964).
It isn't until about halfway through the movie during the exchange of Antonio for Marisol That Eastwood sees something that is a bit out of normal Jesus, the child at the begging of the film, runs out into the main road shouting "Momma" and Marisol replies. She runs from the exchange crying his name and they have a tear filled reunion (Leone, 1964). On the Baxter side of the line however there is a different reaction to mother and son being reunited. Antonio hugs his mother, but she doesn't hug him back what she does instead is slap him (Leone, 1964).
This is a different interpretation on both women's part on the role of being a mother. In western civilization we expect the mother to provide unconditional love and provide a sense of safety and to feel better about one's self (Scott & Alwin, 1989, p. 483). Marisol cannot do this for her son because she is being held by the Rojos. Consuelo by contrast is deviant from these expected roles. Either because she's part of a criminal empire, or because her son's capture threatened that enterprise, her reaction to his captivity was to slap him when he returned (Leone, 1964).
When Eastwood asks what the story is with Marisol and her family is, Silvantio tells him that Marisol is being held as a hostage over an accusation that her husband, Julián, cheated at cards (Leone 1964). This changed how Julián's life was arranged. It used to be he just filled the role of the father, and left the role of the mother to Marisol. Now with Marisol no long there he has to be a single parent to a young boy.
The 1989 Article "Gender Differences in Parental Strain: Parental Role or Gender Role?" by Jacqueline Scott and Duane Alwin examines the strains that parenting brings as well as it's relation to what the different gender expectations are. In this article it is mentioned that women may feel more strain because of the guilt of leaving their children behind to have a career (Scott & Alwin, 1989, p. 485), In Julián's case he would also be feeling guilt, not because he has to have a job as well as raise a son, but guilt over his failure in the role as a husband in allowing Marisol to be taken by the Rojos. Gender differences can lead to greater strain because women are more concerned with their children's emotional well being, and men being generally more concerned with their achievements (Scott & Alwin, 1989, 497). Julián is apparently more concerned with his son's well being, as can be seen when he cries with his son at the exchange and how he takes a beating at the beginning on this film (Leone, 1964).
In the 1960 article "A Theory of Role Strain" William J. Goode discusses the strain that are created by holding multiple roles that may conflict with each other. In Julián's case he still has to be the father to his boy but he also has to develop a nurturing relationship with his boy, a role that Marisol had once held. This causes strain for Julián because the role of whatever job he held would come into conflict with his parental duties. These different roles, each one with its own set of responsibilities that could come into conflict with each other, or conflict in where he needs to be and where (Goode, 1960, p. 485). One of the ways around this is to extend his roles (Goode, 1960, p. 485); Julián in this case could bring his son to work with him. Now what is going to do about his failure in the role of the husband, that one would be a bit more problematic.
Robert K. Merton in his 1968 book Social Theory and Social Structure covers a wide range of sociological topics from the history of sociology to studies on sociology and science. And in this book he talks about the "Thompson Theorem" which states "If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences" (Merton, 1968, p. 475) this is true for both Julián and Eastwood. For Julian it means when he cries, like he does when his son wants to see his mother or after Marisol is reunited with her family (Leone 1964). The situation said that it was alright to cry, he wouldn't be any less of a man if he did. For Eastwood the situation changes from scene to scene. When he first come to town he saw no reason to be in town too long and so the reality was he was just a drifter (Leone, 1964), when he finds out there is money to be made, he becomes a mercenary, and when he hears Marisol's tale the reality is he becomes the closest thing to a hero that San Marcos will ever see (Leone 1964).
And what about Jesus, how does all this affect him? Well in the 1998 Tracy Dietz wrote in her article "An Examination of violence and Gender Role Portrayals in Video Games: Implications for Gender Socialization and Aggressive Behavior" In which research was done on 33 video games to explore how gender roles and aggression are portrayed. Now keep in mind this movie takes place in the old west, video games weren't around then, but Jesus is surrounded by violence in for form of the two gangs in town, and the only strong male influence he has during most of the movie are the men who regularly beat on his father (Leone 1964).
Now if he were to accept this behavior as the appropriate way for a man to behave would be dependent on other things aside from what he has seen as a child (Dietz, 1998, p. 439). Since it is that children learn from various social agents in their environment (Dietz, 1998, p. 439), and changes to it as well, it could be argued in fact that it's the arrival of Eastwood, and how he saved Jesus' family that could prove a turning point in his socialization, but that'll be discussed in the personal response.
Personal Response:
Even in the Heroic role, Eastwood's behavior could be seen as shady, though audiences today might think his actions were smart but for the original audiences what they saw was a hero this was a serious deviation from what the Hero is supposed to do. When he rescues Marisol from the Rojo's he ambushes the men guarding her (Leone, 1964). This is something unseen before, not exactly something Lash LaRue, or Roy Rodgers would do, and aside from "The Searchers" it isn't something you'd expect from John Wayne. But even in that his actions had a positive influence. It reunited Marisol and Julián and it may have even created a positive role model for Jesus.
He spent most of the film with his father, who should be his top role model getting kicked around by the Rojos' gang members. Jesus is in what Mead called the Play stage where he starts pretending he's like the significant people in his life (Henslin, 2009, 71). His father, who should be who he is idolizing, is getting kicked around by ruffians and he doesn't fight back. It's beginning to look like he might start imitating either Baxter's or the Rojos' men who are violent and predatory, but then Eastwood comes an adds another option to Jesus' options, violent but protective. That, and the fact his father seems like a good enough man may make a good man of Jesus.
For even if Jesus later in life were to not accept the events of San Miguel as the reality for the world as a whole in terms of the gender roles he could have possibly have seen it as acceptable given the situation, so even if it was not seen as him as the way the world was, he might not have challenged how the roles of men and women were viewed by him (Diets, 1998, p. 439).
Roles play an important part in this ground breaking film. If it's Marisol's role as a mother, and then as an object for Ramon, Julián's role as a father, or his failure as a husband to protect his wife, or if it's how The Man With No Name goes from an apathetic passerby, to a mercenary looking out for himself and his pocketbook, to his role as the unconventional hero the symbolism is rife in this film. And it is their changes in roles that have set the plot into motion. If Marisol had not been taken Eastwood would have at most been a mercenary and would not have taken the role of the hero. The Baxter's might have been run out of town when Antonio was taken hostage but they and the Rojos might be alive. But the story of Marisol and her family created a change of perspective and in the end the Baxters were dead, and the Rojo's enjoyed a very brief career as the sole bosses of San Miguel.
Works Cited
Dietz, T.L. (1998) An Examination of violence and Gender Role Portrayals in Video Games: Implications for Gender Socialization and Aggressive Behavior. Sex Roles 38(5/6)425-442
Goode, J. (1960) A Theory of Role Strain. American Sociological Review 25 (4), 483-496
Henslin, J. M. (2009) Sociology: A Down to Earth Approach (3rd ed.). New York:
Pearson
Leone, S. (1964) A Fistful of Dollars. Available through MGM Home Video
Merton, R.K. (1968) Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: The Free Press
Scott, J. and Alwin, D. (1989) Gender Differences in Parental Strain: Parental Role or
Gender Role. Journal of Family Issues 10. 482-503.