Lesson21 Williams S. Hart and the early 'Western' film威廉 • S. 哈特和早期 “西部” 影片

Williams S. Hart and the early 'Western' film

In searching for a subject unique to the young nation some American writers of the 19th century turned to the land itself ―the vast, largely untamed territory that stretched from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

As settlement moved westward from the eastern seaboard, the West came to symbolize the qualities associated with that land―open, wild and full of opportunity.

Artists of all kinds found this symbol so evocative that a new genre emerged in literature and other arts: the Western. It’s mainly about life in the 19th century in the American West, especially the lives of cowboys.

In 1903, Edwin S. Porter produced a short silent film, the Great Train Robbery, whose theme, crime and retribution, became a standard of Western filmmaking for 75 years.

The western film reached the height of its popularity from 1930 to 1950. After 1950 television Westerns drew audiences away from big-screen Westerns.

主人公介绍

William S. Hart is noted for his insistence on realism in Westerns based on his own life in Dakota Territory. Hart directed and starred in silent movies from 1914 until 1925.

Hart was followed by the most influential of all Western filmmakers, John Ford.

Ford’s 1939 movie Stagecoach introduced John Wayne as the perfect example of the tough, taciturn Western cowboy, who became an icon of the movie Western.

In the 1950s, Western films were joined by a subcategory, the adult Western. It focused more on the psychology of the characters than on action. A classic example of the genre is High Noon, starring Gary Cooper.

In the 1970s and 1980s Westerns began to lose box-office appeal because social protest movements caused many Americans to question the cultural values presented in Westerns.

However, in the early 1990s, two Westerns won Academy Awards for best picture. One is Dances with wolves (1990), directed by Kevin Costner.

The other is Unforgiven (1992), directed by Clint Eastwood. Westerns were resurrected.

William S. Hart was, perhaps, the greatest of all Western stars, for unlike Gary Cooper and John Wayne he appeared in nothing but Westerns.

William S. Hart was, perhaps, the greatest of all Western stars, for unlike Gary Cooper and John Wayne（介词短语做状语） he appeared in nothing but（=only） Westerns. （for... 原因状语从句）

知识点（1）

appear / act / perform in a film / movie 出演电影

play the lead in … 主演

※ John Wayne played the lead in Stagecoach. 

star 

※ John Wayne starred in Stagecoach. 

※ Stagecoach starred John Wayne. 

co-star 联合主演

※ Gary Cooper co-starred with Grace Kelly in High Noon. 

※ High Noon co-starred Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. 

feature 由…主演

※ The movie featured Bruce Willis. 

知识点（2）

nothing but （修饰名词）

= nothing more than 

= only 

※ Nothing but a miracle can save her now. 

※ You are nothing but a thief.

※ He dismissed Bryan as nothing more than an amateur. 

【扩展】

anything but （修饰名词和形容词）

= not … at all

※ He is anything but a hero / stupid. 

all but （adv.）

= almost / virtually

※ It’s all but impossible to read his writing. 

※ The party was all but over when we came.

【辨析】

※ We could, at one time, repair ourselves—well enough, at least, to overcome all but（字面意思，不是副词）the most instantly fatal illnesses and accidents.

From 1914 to 1924 he was supreme and unchallenged.

知识点（1）

supreme and unchallenged 同义词连用，加强语气

【扩展】表达“至高无上的”：

supreme 

unchallenged

incomparable

unequalled 

peerless

be second to none

※ When it comes to singing, Mary is second to none.

It was Hart who created the basic formula of the Western film, and devised the protagonist he played in every film he made, the good-bad man, the accidental, noble outlaw, or the honest, but framed cowboy, or the sheriff made suspect by vicious gossip; in short, the individual in conflict with himself and his frontier environment.

It was（强调句） Hart who created the basic formula of the Western film, and devised the protagonist he played in every film he made（内部小定语从句）（定语从句）, the good-bad man（protagonist同位语1）, the accidental-noble outlaw（protagonist同位语2）, or the honest-but-framed cowboy（protagonist同位语3）, or the sheriff made suspect by vicious gossip（后置定语）（protagonist同位语4）; in short（简言之）, the individual in conflict with himself and his frontier environment（介词短语当后置定语）（protagonist同位语6）. 

知识点（1）

语法：一般强调句：

it is/was +被强调部分 + that/who(m)+ 从句 可以强调句子中任何非谓语的部分；只用于书面语

※ The tree was planted near the church fifty years ago, but it is only in recent years(强调时间) that it has gained an evil reputation.

※ It is I that am looking for you. 强调 “I” 

※ It is Jack who(m) Frank phoned last night. 强调 “Jack”

it is … which …（尤其用于科技、说明文体）

知识点（2）

formula pl. formulas / formulae 配方、处方；（派生）模式

※ the formula for a new drug / the washing powder

※ It is said that the nerve poison is the more primitive of the two, that the blood poison is, so to speak, a newer product from an improved formula. 

知识点（3）

devise vt. 设计；想出；发明；图谋；遗赠给

※ The cartoon character Mickey Mouse was devised by Walt Disney in 1928.

【近义词】表达“设计；想出；”：

conceive

come up with

※ 托福听力真题： 

A. Very few people come to it.

B. A good name hasn’t been found for it.

C. People don’t like climbing the stairs to get there.

D. She has decided to phone the ticket office.

※ M: what had they decided to call the stadium? 

※ W: No one has come up with a good name.

※ Q: What does the woman say about the stadium? 

※ Answer: (B) A good name hasn’t been found for it. 

fabricate / concoct 捏造

※ fabricate / concoct an excuse

知识点（4）

写作：矛盾修饰法（Oxymoron）；越接近名词的越是表面含义

※ bad-good news

※ a cold warm embrace 

※ sick health

※ sweat sorrow 

※ a damned saint

※ a beautiful tyrant

※ an honorable murder

知识点（5）

accidental adj. 意外的；偶然的；附属的；临时记号的

incidental adj. 附带的；偶然的；容易发生的

※ incidental expenses

※ incidental music for the movie 

incidentally （引出新话题、附加信息、或临时想到的问题）顺便提一句

知识点（6）

suspect n. 嫌疑犯 ；adj. 可疑的；不可信的；v. 怀疑；猜想

suspect that … 怀疑…

suspect sb. of doing 怀疑某人做某事

※ I suspected him of lying.

make 表“选举”；可以和没有冠词的名词搭配

※ We made him monitor / king. 

课文此处为形容词：

※ or the sheriff made suspect（adj.） by vicious gossip

※ The statistics are suspect(adj.).

知识点（7）

vicious adj. wicked; evil; malicious adj. 恶毒的；恶意的；堕落的；有错误的；品性不端的；剧烈的

※ a vicious circle

※ a virtuous circle

※ a malignant tumor 

※ a benign tumor

知识点（8）

【近似词组】表达“简言之、总之”：总结句

in short 

in sum

in summary 

to sum up

to summarize 

simply put

知识点（9）

in conflict (with …) 与…有冲突

※ As long as poor people, who in general are colored, are in conflict with richer people, who in general are lighter skinned, there’s going to be a constant racial conflict in the world. 

【形近词】【辨析】

inflict sth. on sb. 把…（痛苦的事）强加给某人

※ Please don’t inflict your love on me. 

afflict sb. 折磨某人

※ He may never be sure where the next meal is coming from, but he is free from the thousands of anxieties which afflict other people.

※ 托福：

※ Hazen and Brown's work was stimulated by the wartime need to find a cure for the fungus infections that afflicted many military personnel.

be afflicted with / by … 被…折磨

※ 托福：

※ Although afflicted by serious eyesight problems, Alicia Alonso was one of the principal stars of the American Ballet Theater and later formed her own dance company.

Unlike most of his contemporaries in Hollywood, Hart actually knew something of the old West.
知识点（1）

contemporary n. 同时代的人；同时期的东西 ；adj. 当代的；同时代的；属于同一时期的

counterpart n.职位（或作用）相当的人；对应的事物

 

 

He had lived in it as a child when it was already disappearing, and his hero was firmly rooted in his memories and experiences, and in both the history and the mythology of the vanished frontier.

He had lived in it as a child when it was already disappearing（时间状语从句）, and his hero was firmly rooted in his memories and experiences, and in both the history and the mythology of the vanished frontier.

知识点（1）课文背景介绍

Hart was born in 1870, just after the end of American Civil War in 1865. After the Civil War, slavery was abolished, four trans-continent railroads were built, and American economy was rapidly developed.

Meanwhile, the Wild West was fading away. 

知识点（2）

be rooted in … 根植于…

※ The conflict in this area was rooted in history and religion. 

【近义词组】表达“根植于…”：

be embedded in …

be entrenched in … 

be ingrained in …

※ He always meant to go back one day, but not to stay. His roots and mine had become too firmly embedded in the new land.

【近义词组】表达“根深递归的”：

deep-seated / deep-rooted

※ a deep-seated faith in god 

※ a deep-rooted bad habit 

inveterate （贬义）

inveterate hatred（仇恨） / prejudice（偏见） / distrust（不信任） 深深的、根深蒂固的…

an inveterate smoker（老烟鬼） / drinker（老酒鬼） / gambler（赌棍） / liar（骗子）

※ If we remain inveterate smokers, it is only because we have so often experienced the frustration that results from failure.

【近义词组】表达“来源于…、起源于…”：

have its roots in … 

stem from … 

originate in …

※ Printing has its roots in / stems from / originates in China.

知识点（3）

语法：省略留下介词

※ He had lived in it as a child when it was already disappearing, and his hero was firmly rooted in his memories and experiences, and in both the history and the mythology of the vanished frontier.

※ Carlyle was entirely ignorant of what the bottle in his pocket contained, of the nature of the illness from which his friend was suffering, and of what had previously been wrong with his wife, but a medicine that had worked so well in one form of illness would surely be of equal benefit in another, …

※ The adverse effects of the Great Leap Forward and of the Cultural Revolution still loom large in the minds of Chinese policy makers.

※ For in a university, science majors look down on humanities majors, foreign language majors on Chinese majors, Chinese majors on philosophy majors, philosophy majors on sociology majors, and sociology majors on education majors. Since education majors have no one to look down on, they can only despise the professors in their own department. ——‘Fortress besieged’ by Zhongshu Qian

And although no period or place in American history has been more absurdly romanticized, myth and reality did join hands in at least one arena, the conflict between the individual and encroaching civilization.

And although no period or place in American history has been more absurdly romanticized（让步状语从句）, myth and reality did join hands in at least one arena, the conflict between the individual and encroaching civilization（one arena的同位语）. 

知识点（1）

join hands: co-exist 共存

知识点（2）

conflict n. clash; collision 冲突

Men accustomed to struggling for survival against the elements and Indians were bewildered by politicians, bankers and businessmen, and unhorsed by fences, laws and alien taboos.

Men accustomed to struggling for survival （状语前置）against the elements and Indians （后置定语）were bewildered by politicians, bankers and businessmen, and unhorsed by fences, laws and alien taboos. 

知识点（1）

be accustomed to sth. / doing 习惯于

= be used to sth. / doing

※ For men accustomed to eating seven-course dinners and sleeping between fine linen sheets at home, the change to the Alps must have very hard indeed.

知识点（2）

… against the elements …

element (earth, water, fire, air) 

the elements 指“大自然”

fight / battle / struggle against the elements 与困难做斗争

fight / battle / struggle against the odds 与困难做斗争

※ They would have continued to struggle against economic odds and would have lived in obscurity.

知识点（3）

unhorse vt. 使下马

Hart's good-bad man was always an outsider, always one of the disinherited, and if he found it necessary to shoot a sheriff or rob a bank along the way, his early audiences found it easy to understand and forgive, especially when it was Hart who, in the end, overcame the attacking Indians.

Hart's good-bad man was always an outsider, always one of the disinherited, and if he found it（形式宾语）necessary to shoot a sheriff or rob a bank along the way（to…真正宾语）（if... 条件状语从句）, his early audiences found it（形式宾语）easy to understand and forgive（to…真正宾语）, especially when it was（强调句） Hart who, in the end, overcame the attacking Indians when...时间状语从句）.

Audiences in the second decade of the 20th century found it pleasant to escape to a time when life, though hard, was relatively simple.

Audiences in the second decade of the twentieth century（后置定语） found it（形式宾语）pleasant to escape to a time when life, though hard（让步状语从句，省略）, was relatively simple（when...定语从句）（to…真正宾语）. 

知识点（1）

decade 十年

century  百年

millennium 前年

We still do; living in a world in which undeclared aggression, war, hypocrisy, chicanery, anarchy and impending immolation are part of our daily lives, we all want a code to live by.

We still do; living in a world（原因状语） in which undeclared aggression, war, hypocrisy, chicanery, anarchy and impending immolation are part of our daily lives（in which...定语从句）, we all want a code to live by.

知识点（1）

※ 课文补全：

※ We still do; …

※ We still find it pleasant to escape to a time when life, though hard, was relatively simple. 

知识点（2）

live by … 按照…的生活

※ I have always tried to live by my faith.