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Of Bruce Chadwick's Argument That The Civil War Movies Went West

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Bruce Chadwick’s Argument that the Civil War Movies “Went West”
In his book "The Reel Civil War," Bruce Chadwick makes the claim that Civil War films from the 1950s and 1960s "went West." He claims that these movies frequently featured well-known "cowboy heroes" and told tales that were essentially Westerns with men wearing cowboy hats riding horses and firing six-shooters. Chadwick included films like "Friendly Persuasion" and "The Horse Soldiers" in his analysis. Chadwick's theory has some merit, but it is oversimplified to say that the Civil War moved to the West in each of these films. The fact that many of these movies presented the Civil War in a variety of ways is ignored by Chadwick's argument. Additionally, several Civil War movies …show more content…

For instance, the 1915 film "The Birth of a Nation," which had a significant influence on Civil War films in later decades, portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as a noble and heroic organization, effectively rewriting history to show white southerners as the victims of Reconstruction rather than the perpetrators of oppression and violence. The Ku Klux Klan was praised in the movie as a vital force for maintaining law and order and defending white supremacy, while African Americans were portrayed as lazy, dangerous, and shiftless. The movie successfully reshaped history by making white southerners Reconstruction's victims rather than the oppressors and violent offenders.
One could argue that, in terms of different interpretations, Civil War films from the 1950s and 1960s "went South" as opposed to "went West." This viewpoint highlights how important southern identity and experience are in many of these movies. There is another interpretation that may be made, even though Bruce Chadwick's claim that Civil War movies from the 1950s and 1960s "went West" has some merit. According to certain academics and critics, these movies actually "went south" as opposed to "going west." This alternative reading highlights how important southern identity and experience are too many of these

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