Cowboy contradictions: Westerns in the postcolonial Pacific

Abstract

Indigenous scholars have recently focused on the Hollywood western and the figure of the cinematic cowboy as particularly potent sites of identification in twentieth century Oceania. Curiously, neither the genre nor the icon figures prominently in current film scholarship about the Pacific. One of the reasons is that westerns have been considered particularly paradigmatic of cinema's imperial legacy. The genre's tendency to reaffirm the dominance of white masculinity at the expense of Indigenous people, suggests that westerns ought to have attracted utter contempt in colonial settings such as Samoa and New Zealand. The fact that the opposite seems to have been true, that westerns and cowboys were not only admired in Oceania but even imitated, cannot be simply dismissed as yet another example of 'spectators […] unwittingly sutured into a colonialist perspective ' (Shohat and Stam 1994: 12). Instead, the cowboy constitutes a complex site around which political critique, corporeal desire and modern spectacle coalesce. This article interrogates why the western appears to have been overlooked, how the cowboy can be seen as a significant cultural influence in the Pacific, and how he might shed light on historical spectatorial practices and preferences in the region.

Cowboys and Aliens: Body Techniques and Audience Reception in Malaita, Solomon Islands

“…In my summary of the "Imperial Cowboy Problem," I draw in particular on the extensive discussion of the problem and associated literature presented by Pearson (2013) in her article "Cowboy Contradictions: Westerns in the Postcolonial Pacific." Pearson (2013), and others, have highlighted how cowboy movies have enjoyed a prominent place in the viewing preferences of colonized people around the world (see Keesing and Keesing 1956: 166;Ambler 2001: 133-157;Burns 2002: 103-117;High 2010: 761). The popularity of cowboy movies in places like central and southern Africa was such that the genre became synonymous with all cinema (see Burns 2002:103).…”

“…The history of cinema in Samoa constitutes a case study of the preferences of indigenous audiences and their skilled visions of the cowboy genre (Pearson 2013(Pearson , 2014. Unlike the Solomon Islands, Samoa had a robust film-based cinema industry which allowed Samoans to formally express their aesthetic tastes preferring cowboy movies vis-a-vis the other genres displayed such as romances or European historical dramas (Pearson 2013: 158).…”

“…From a thematic perspective, this popularity is surprising. Why do colonial audiences enjoy the genre even though it glorifies white supremacy (Pearson 2013)? Pearson (2013) notes how initial explanations of local and colonial elites to this popularity focused on the perceived "unsophisticated," "low brow" (Burns 2002: 104) or otherwise crude and unintelligent (Reynolds 2015: 118) nature of the cowboy movie and its colonial audience.…”

“…In 1942 the British Film Institute conducted a study on the ideal type of film to show the colonized audiences of Africa concluding that African audience tastes are similar to those of 10-year old "white boys" and that Cowboys and Aliens in Malaita 4 action movies, specifically western movies, should be shown (the Zimbabwe National Archives (ZNA) s935/10, Gale to Bell, 3 August 1942 cited in Burns 2002: 103). Pearson (2013) emphasizes how research has shown that audiences have taken more nuanced and complicated interpretation (see Salesa 2010: 330-332). Instead of identifying with the "Indians," with whom audiences in Oceania and Africa share a common subjugation by white colonial forces (Pearson 2014:1), audiences in Oceania (Pearson 2013: 156-157), the Amazon (High 2010), and Africa (Powdermaker 1962: 254) tend to identify with the cowboys.…”

“…The popularity of cowboy movies is even less surprising considering that colonial authorities liked cowboy movies (Pearson 2013). Cowboy movies were cheap to produce so they were made in abundance resulting in affordable licensing costs for formal and ad hoc cinemas that operated throughout the world (see Burns 2002: 103;Pearson 2013: 157;Reynolds 2015: 86).…”