The International Return of the Cowboy
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Mark Mordue sheds light on the return of the cowboy into mainstream culture. He suggests its being promoted through new culturally influencing mediums, like movies. He uses recent movies, like The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 3:10 to Yuma and No Country for Old Men as examples.
Three films now do not constitute a movement. Reviving a seemingly dead genre takes a lot more heat than that. But it’s possible to see renewed vigor behind the Western when you also take into account the critically lauded HBO television series, Deadwood (2004-06) - a prosaically brutal take on how the chaos of a gold mining town is civilized — and Brokeback Mountain (2005), author E. Annie Proulx and director Ang Lee’s gay re-visioning of a cowboy romance up in them ‘thar’ hills.
More interestingly is the stereotype that goes with being a cowboy. For example, there’s an element of danger and ruggedness that many people think of when they envision a cowboy. With what Mordue calls a “movement,” it’s no wonder why men’s Western wear is coming back into fashion. Although it’s difficult to for urbanites to live a true cowboy lifestyle, many men are able to express their inward cowboy by wearing high end Western wear, like the clothes Cacties makes. John Murfee of Avondale Partners is an excellent example — he sports one of Cacties’ wide assortment of Western neckwear.