Author Topic: TOTW 18/07: Do you think classic cowboy icons like the "Marlboro Man" were proto  (Read 58523 times)

Offline Brown Eyes

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From Wikipedia:

James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was a two-time Oscar-nominated American film actor. Dean's status as a cultural icon is best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause, in which he starred as troubled high school rebel Jim Stark. The other two roles that defined his star power were as the awkward loner Cal Trask in East of Eden, and as the surly, racist farmer Jett Rink in Giant. His enduring fame and popularity rests on only three films, his entire starring output. As with Buddy Holly, Bruce Lee, and Marilyn Monroe, his death at a young age helped guarantee a legendary status. He was the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and remains the only person to have two such nominations posthumously.

From Crayonipedia:

Heath Andrew Ledger (April 4, 1979 – January 22, 2008) was a two-time one time Oscar-nominated American film actor. Ledger's status as a cultural icon is best embodied in the title of by his role in his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause, Brokeback Mountain, in which he starred as troubled high school rebel Jim Stark closeted gay ranch hand Ennis Del Mar. The other two roles that defined his star power were as the awkward loner Cal Trask in East of Eden troubled young prison guard in Monsters Ball and as the surly, racist farmer Jett Rink in Giant failed alcoholic skateboard empresario in The Lords of Dogtown. His enduring fame and popularity rests on only these three films and a couple of others. , his entire starring output. As with Buddy Holly, Bruce Lee, and Marilyn Monroe, his death at a young age helped guarantee a legendary status. He wasmay become the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and remains the only person to have two such nominations posthumously for his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight.


Heya K!  Thanks for this.  This comparison is really fascinating. 

For me, now thinking about this Dean/Ledger comparison is actually quite comforting... at this point, well beyond the sort-of aesthetic discussion that had been going on in this thread prior to Heath's tragic loss. 

Now that we're dealing with this awful, unchangeable fact that Heath passed away so young and so unexpectedly, I'd say that James Dean is pretty profound comparison/company to keep when considering how much respect Dean earned in his short career and when considering how enduring his cultural impact has been.  It's amazing to think about how well-known Dean has remained for generations of both serious film scholars/aficionados and for more casual film buffs.  I think Heath stands a very good chance (as good a chance as any in a long, long time) of developing exactly this kind of legacy.  Which, given the tragic state of things with Heath, seems positive or at least somewhat reassuring to me. 

One other interesting link between Dean and Heath is that they both attracted very large followings of fans within the gay community.  Clearly, they're both "heartthrobs" for large gay audiences.  But, Heath of course, by playing Ennis, pushed this to another level by providing this particular audience with a powerful, significant story/character/message (etc.)... making a gay story important and serious.  So that Heath's contribution goes well, well beyond what Dean stood/stands for within the gay community (which is much more at the level of pure "heartthrob" I think).  The always-present, but usually- subtle gay following for Dean I think was one of the motivations for pushing the Dean image (at least a little bit) in BBM... with the intention of foregrounding some usually-unspoken underlying ideas about his fan base and earlier trends in cinematic culture.  I mean the fact that Dean was acting with Rock Hudson in Giant is all sort of part of this much more convoluted subtext and following for Dean.

I don't know if Heath will achieve the same iconic status, but it sounds like burning the candle at both ends was exactly what he WAS doing.

Yes, absolutely... they were both "burning the candle at both ends" and both died in accidents that seem completely unnecessary.  Thus magnifying the tragedy.

One final thing about this comparison... with the early deaths of both of these actors, the tragedies are augmented by the loss of huge amounts of potential (in terms of the idea that each probably would have gone on to produce decades more amazing work).
 :(

the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

pnwDUDE

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For the original question:
No.  They all dress like that in real life.  This is more art imitating life and not the other way round.
During one screening, I took my arch conservative redneck from West Texas friend and when I asked how realistic the costumes were, he drew my attention to the fact he was wearing the same tan jacket as Ennis.
Since this thread is revived, I gotta say I agree with the above. Having grown up in 'cowboy country', Ennis (Heath) pulls off the traditional cowboy.  I don't think, other than the pose for the shots, the real Marlboro man has ever been on a horse. I don't think James Dean has been on a horse either. Heath grew up on a horse. Not to say he was a cowboy, but despite the skateboard, he knew more about cowboys and ranching then Dean or the Marlboro man by a long shot. I live with and love a true cowboy. He doesn't dress the part like donning a costume. The real American cowboy isn't an act.
This is my man, not at Halloween, but caught off guard and pissed I took his picture. The other shot is him on our house puttin' up Christmas lights. One could say he's dressing like MarlMan or JamesD, but he's just dressing like he was raised. Dressing like himself.





A. Proulx lives and writes cowboy. McMurtry and Ossana brought her words to screen. I don't think they based anything on James Dean or the Marlboro man.

Brad

Offline serious crayons

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I think we're debating the chicken-and-egg question, or not seeing the forest for the trees, or something like that. In my mind, there is absolutely no question that Annie Proulx was aware, when creating the characters of Jack and Ennis, that she was messing around with an American archetype symbolizing rugged manhood -- that very fact is part of what makes the story so interesting. Proulx was playing with our assumptions about what constitutes masculinity. The Marlboro man, along with John Wayne, are the most famous manifestations of that icon, so of course those images are going to be intertwined in readers/viewers minds when they think of Ennis and Jack. And yeah, for that same reason, it's definitely a Western. Not a traditional Western, like 3:10 to Yuma, but an anti-Western. A revisionist Western.

Proulx could have made Jack and Ennis accountants or social-studies teachers or oil-field roughnecks or anything else on the face of the earth. She made them cowboys (OK, sheep herders; let's not get into that!  ;D) because that is the image Americans most associate with rugged masculinity. Yes, she often writes about cowboys anyway. But so what? That just made her particularly qualified for this job. The fact that they're cowboys is also a big reason homophobes find the story so disturbing. Ernest Borgnine, in declaring that he wouldn't watch BBM, said, "If John Wayne were alive, he'd be rolling over in his grave."

It's impossible for me to believe that Annie would have spent all that time and energy working all those Biblical allusions and classical myths and all the other subtle imagery into her story ... but not have meant anything particular when she chose cowboys as her characters. It's also impossible for me to believe Ang Lee went to all the trouble to set up an image of Ennis posed against a backdrop of exploding 4th of July fireworks without having it cross his mind that his movie is playing around with American myth. Or that either Ang or Annie -- who were so careful about establishing elaborate metaphors involving buckets and snow and bears and water and laundry and so on -- would not have given any thought to American feelings about cowboys and what they represent.

Of course the costumes are authentic because that's what people in the West actually dress like. Did Ang Lee hand the costume designers pages of old cigarette ads to copy and instruct them not to consider any other models? Of course not. But like the advertising people who invented the Marlboro man, Ang was very careful about creating images that invoked cowboy stereotypes. I'm thinking of Ennis leaning against the trailer, hat pulled down. Or Jack propping himself against the back of his pickup. Or Ennis sitting on his horse looking down at the dead sheep. You may not look at these and consciously think "Marlboro man," but at some level you look at them and think, "classic American cowboy," which is exactly the intention the advertising people had in mind in creating the Marlboro man.

BTW, do you all know that Marlboro was originally designed to be a "woman's cigarette"? Here's some background from Wikipedia:

Quote
Philip Morris, a London-based cigarette manufacturer, created a New York subsidiary in 1902 to sell several of its cigarette brands, including Marlboro. By 1924 they were advertising Marlboro as a woman's cigarette based on the slogan "Mild As May".

The brand was sold in this capacity until World War II when the brand faltered and was temporarily removed from the market. At the end of the war, three brands emerged that would establish a firm hold on the cigarette market: Camel, Lucky Strike, and Chesterfield. These brands were supplied to US soldiers during the war, creating an instant market upon their return.

During the 1950s Reader's Digest magazine published a series of articles that linked smoking with lung cancer. Phillip Morris, and the other cigarette companies took notice and each began to market filtered cigarettes. The new Marlboro with a filtered end was launched in 1955. In the early 1960s Philip Morris invented "Marlboro Country" and distilled their manly imagery into the rugged cowboys known as the "Marlboro Men." Philip Morris quickly gained market share and saw their sales increase 5,000 percent within 8 months of the ad campaign's premiere. It emerged as the number one youth-initiation brand, largely on its reputation as a full-flavored brand considered delicious by many smokers.

The brand is named after Great Marlborough Street, the location of its original London Factory. Richmond, Virginia is now the location of the largest Marlboro cigarette manufacturing plant.

And on a personal note, back in my smoking days I smoked Marlboros.

Cool photo, Brad, of your man on the roof. At first I thought it WAS Ennis. That should be your Christmas card next year.




Offline Brown Eyes

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Thanks for this great post Crayons! :)

Yes, I don't think there's actually a conflict between the idea that Proulx/McMurtry/Ossana were creating Ennis's image using realism (ideas about real ranchers) AND simultaneously using cultural archetypes.

I think questioning or tweeking an understanding of the archetype is actually what makes BBM particularly interesting in a very general sense.

In the Story to Screenplay publication of the BBM screenplay, there's a direct reference to James Dean and one particular scene with Ennis.  So, there's a concrete launching pad for that idea in the screenplay (so I'm guessing McMurtry and Ossana were very conscious of the Dean idea).

As far as McMurtry goes, I think all his cowboy imagery (in Lonesome Dove, etc.) is based on a deep, deep literary and cultural history.  To me, it's simply impossible that it's based only on realism or "real cowboys".

This has a lot to do with how I view art... I think all art bounces off of other art (in all cases, paintings, film, photography, etc.).  Most serious artists have a pretty deep understanding of the tradition in which they work.  And, I think Ang Lee, Proulx and McMurtry are all examples of artists who are so serious, that they have to be trying to make a contribution to a particular genre or tradition.

the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

Offline serious crayons

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From Diana Ossana's essay "Climbing Brokeback Mountain":

Quote
That evening, I asked Larry how he would feel if any staunch Lonesome Dove fans turned against him for being involved with a film that subverts the myth of the American West and its iconic heroes.



Completely OT, but in rereading that essay just now, I just noticed that she says Larry took The New Yorker issue with the story upstairs, and came back down in 15 minutes. Did he take an Evelyn Wood speed reading class, or what??




Offline delalluvia

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I don't know if Heath will achieve the same iconic status, but it sounds like burning the candle at both ends was exactly what he WAS doing.

James Dean was living fast - racing a sports car - pushing the edge - for thrills.

Heath was pushing the edge - so he could sleep and get back to work on his 3 movies.

There is a difference.

Go do a Google search on James Dean images.  He's an icon because people want to emulate him:

Brooding loner, in cowboy hats, trench coats, t-shirt, pegged jeans and leather jackets out for thrills.  He looked ultra cool and slightly dangerous.

Now remember all our lovely pics of dear Heath - in goofy suits, mismatched clothes, silly hats, quirky sunglasses and godawful hoodies with unwashed hair and unlaced sneakers, spazzing out doing interviews and assuming the 'teapot' position.  He looked like a geek and a goober.

Anything iconically 'cool' about Heath that people are going to want to emulate?
« Last Edit: February 20, 2008, 02:07:07 am by delalluvia »

Offline serious crayons

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James Dean was living fast - racing a sports car - pushing the edge - for thrills.

Heath was pushing the edge - so he could sleep and get back to work on his 3 movies.

There is a difference.

Sure, there's a difference in their lifestyles. But what I said still holds. Burning the candle at both ends means working too hard and not getting enough sleep (the idiom refers to burning the candle because it's dark -- that is, late at night and early in the morning) and there's no question that was one of Heath's issues.


injest

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I think we are just looking for similarities with Dean. Wikipedia is hardly (in my mind) the go to source for facts.....who knows who wrote those entries? It could have been the same person feeling a bit lazy.

Dean was famous because of his roles and his death were so fitting. Now if Heath had died being thrown off a horse while herding sheep MAYBE I would consider them similar...

I agree with the 'chicken and egg' comment. I defy anyone to get on a horse and look down and not look 'like the ads'....are you posing? come on. Put on a hat and lean on a building and you are aping an ad? Not every cigar is a penis. sometimes it is just a cigar.

I don't understand this idea....that someone in an ad agency uses an image that is COMMON in an area and suddenly the IMAGE is what is being copied by the people that the ad guy copied!!

and now my head hurts...that is insane logic.

movie guy gets script: needs to dress a poor country boy....does some investigating...

"hat, carhart jacket...ok that is what poor country boys wear....let's get Ennis a carhart and a hat"

movie fan:

"Oh look! that country boy is wearing a carhart and a hat...he must be imitating Ennis!!"

 ::) ::)

pnwDUDE

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"Oh look! that country boy is wearing a carhart and a hat...he must be imitating Ennis!!"


Or imitating the Marlboro Man or James Dean.

I don't understand this idea....that someone in an ad agency uses an image that is COMMON in an area and suddenly the IMAGE is what is being copied by the people that the ad guy copied!!
and now my head hurts...that is insane logic.

But Jess, this is what people who live in town think, and they don't get it. My point was that it isn't an image. Images are Hollywood as is James Dean. One puts on 'airs' in an attempt to garner 'image'. Some are simply what they are. Your son and his (boyfriend) come to mind. They aren't adopting or imitating or costuming. They are just them, just like Ennis and one Jack Twist. Of course some out there will attempt to lump them into fake image and ads, but that is okay cause', well,  they just don't get it.

Brad



 



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Cool photo, Brad, of your man on the roof. At first I thought it WAS Ennis. That should be your Christmas card next year.

Actually, it was Ennis Brad taking a pic of Jack Steve. Maybe I'll crop in two feet of snow (which we had a week later), then maybe a Christmas card for next year  ;)

Brad