14. The western genre film mythologized the American West
The power of film took American audiences by storm. Before film, the dime novels and pulp magazines shaped America’s view of the West. The melodramatic tales held the reader’s interest, but the images behind them had to be formed in the reader’s own mind. Films changed that, and the viewer could effortlessly surrender to the director’s vision through the pictures on the screen. Film created the enduring myth of the American West, and its successor, television, embellished it. Manifest Destiny, one of most critical aspects of American history, vanished. It was replaced with a fictional west of cowboys and rustlers, cavalry and Indians, lawmen and outlaws.
One of the earliest films to create the American West myth was The Iron Horse, released in 1924. It purported to tell the story of the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. The film featured a competing businessman disguised as a Comanche warrior who attempted to prevent the railroad’s completion. It created the myth in American history regarding Indian attacks on the railroad as it went forward. Although scouting parties in advance of the construction gangs were occasionally attacked in the early days, the US Army increased patrols and the attacks ceased.