Source: Kino Lorber: Blu-ray, 2020.
Year: 1917
Director: John Ford
Action Stars:
Genre: Western
Country: United States
Story Duration: 01:01:20
Act Duration:
1st Act: 00:10:42
2nd Act: 00:20:15
3rd Act: 00:11:21
4th Act: 00:18:59
Plot Turns:
1st: Cheyenne Harry joins cattlemen
2nd: Harry quits working for the cattlemen
3rd: Fremont killed
ASD Ratio: 53%
AAD Ratios:
1st Act: 40%
2nd Act: 55%
3rd Act: 56%
4th Act: 56%
Action Structure: 1342
Action Scenarios:
Capture
Escape
Fall
Fight
Heist
Pursuit
Rescue
Speed
Transfer
Total Action Moments: 20
Notable Action Sequence: Homesteader Raid
Duration: 00:09:21
Act: 4th
Action Scenarios:
Capture
Escape
Fall
Fight
Pursuit
Rescue
Speed
Transfer
Description: Straight Shooting (1917) was made during a period when the film conventions of the western genre were solidifying. Among these conventions was the duel that takes on a different complexion in the film given it is neither a fast draw nor does it involves pistols. Instead Cheyenne Harry, the protagonist of the film, and Placer Fremont, a hired gunslinger, use rifles and engage with each other by stealth. Another genre trait featured in the film is the portrayal of the tensions between homesteaders and ranchers that assumes the form of a Manichean spilt between good and evil.
This conflict comes to a head in the final act of the film where the cattlemen, lead by Thunder Flint, amass to wipe out the Sims family. The sequence draws from the western’s conventions of the circling attack on a wagon train as well as borrows from the last minute rescue prominently featured in D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915). The sequence cross-cuts between Joan Sims alerting other homesteaders of the imminent attack who then rush to her home to protect the Sims family [Figure 1], and the cattlemen who gather at a designated meeting spot, like the Klansmen in The Birth of a Nation [Figure 2]. Joan crosses paths with Cheyenne Harry who, when informed of the situation, rides over to Black-Eye Pete, the leader of an outlaw gang, to solicit his help protecting the homesteaders. At first captured by members of the gang, Cheyenne Harry is released when he meets Black-Eye Pete, who agrees to the plan. Meanwhile the cattlemen have departed from their meeting point and ride to the Sims in overwhelming numbers. The film then sets up the last minute rescue by cross-cutting between the speeding rescue party [Figure 3], the cattlemen who attack by circling and firing at the Sims home [Figure 4], and the beleaguered homesteaders inside. The sequence ends with the arrival of the rescue party as they attack and pursue the cattlemen, who in turn abandon their raid and escape from the superior force. In so doing, the film merges the rescue scenario with the fight scenario, while inverting the traditional morality of the western by depicting outlaws as the heroes of the story.