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Tropes In Dead Man

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Recommended: Stereotyping of native americans in movies

Cole Thomas
King
Film as Literature
2/14/23
Western Tropes in “Dead Man”

The “Classic Western” is one of the most iconic film genres in American culture, the genre has Given birth to countless films, plays, and books. Many of the tropes created by the Classic Western genre are ones that are outdated and considered offensive in today's culture. Jim Jarmush’s film Dead Man masterfully uses cinematic techniques as well as skillful writing to contradict the classic western tropes seen in John Ford’s The Searchers. Some impactful tropes that are subverted throughout the film are, the protagonist who is a stoic and masculine hero, as well as the unrealistic, savage portrayal of Native Americans.
Jarmush skillfully uses mise en scene throughout …show more content…

In most films they barely have speaking roles and they rarely have complex histories. In “Dead Man” Jarmusch portrays Native Americans as intelligent, kind and civilized people, this is contrary to the unrealistic portrayals in common western films. One way Jarmush subverts the savage portrayal of native americans is that, “Jarmusch reworks the meanders of cultural memory of the Western genre to recuperate those voices that had been silenced—most remarkably the natives’ voices—but refuses to pigeonhole them in a straight factual fashion.” (Ortega). The use of Nobody to be the voice of the Native Americans reveals the point of view that is rarely ever seen in western movies. This gives insight to the viewer about the struggles of the Native people and how they have had to deal with the conquest of their land by western civilization. Robert Pippin reveals some of the core narratives in western films. “One concerns the conquest by force of arms of an aboriginal people, and these people are not represented as innocent or naturally good or gentle. They are understandably resisting with ferocious violence the seizure of their land and a campaign of extermination and are often portrayed as a warrior people by nature, as if to make the point that the state of nature is the state of war.”(Pippin). Jarmush undermines all of these narratives seen in the John Ford western by giving a voice to the Native people that is

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