Page 66 - Cinematic Thinking Philosophical Approaches to the New Cinema

56 MichaelJ. Shapiro

Sons of the Pioneers singing the Stan Jones ballad "What Makes a Man
to Wander?"
What makes a man to roam?
What makes a man leave bed and board
And turn his back on home?
Ride away, ride away.

As becomes apparent in the opening scene as the credits are run in
McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Altman's film is not a story about the importance
of establishing a stable, Euro-American domesticity in the West. The con-
trast between McCabe's opening ride and Ethan Edwards's overturns the
Ford clichés in various modalities. First, as John McCabe (Warren Beatty)
rides toward the town of Presbyterian Church in the opening scene, the
sound track begins with a ballad, in this case Leonard Cohens "The Stranger
Song." While the ballads by the Sons of the Pioneers in The Searchers and
Leonard Cohen's in McCabe manifest the typical ballad style—they are
both narrative poems with repeated refrains—Cohen's presents a very dif-
ferent kind of character. Rather than a heroic wanderer, Cohen's "stranger"
is an antihero, a hustler looking for shelter rather than a tough loner, the
typical western hero who is unfit for domesticity, even though he helps
those who are weaker achieve it: 17

It's true that all the men you knew were dealers
Who said they were through with dealing
Every time you gave them shelter
I know that kind of man
It's hard to hold the hand of anyone
who is reaching for the sky just to surrender
who is reaching for the sky just to surrender . . .
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger,
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger . . .

It should be noted, however, that Ford's Ethan Edwards is not en-
tirely the stereotypical western hero either. Although Edwards is the rug-
ged loner who saves those who are not as tough or wily from destruction,
his departure is not simply that of one too individualistic to accommodate
a social or domestic existence. Because of his racism he cannot accom-
modate himself to a multiracial society. Ford's ambiguous hero is therefore
exiled from America's future because his racism has no appropriate place,