4

Contents:

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 5

I. WESTERN GENRE ANALYSIS .................................................................................... 7

1. Possible Pathways ......................................................................................................... 7

2. Guns, Horses and Cactuses – Defining the Genre ...................................................... 10

3. White Cowboys and Other Key Features.................................................................... 15

4. The Milestones in Hollywood Western’s History –

A Short Genealogy of the Western ................................................................................. 17

5. The Structure of Western films – Plot Variations ....................................................... 20

6. Stereotypes .................................................................................................................. 23

6.1. The Hero.............................................................................................................. 24

6.2. The Anti-hero ...................................................................................................... 25

6.3. The Villain........................................................................................................... 26

6.4. The Woman ......................................................................................................... 27

II. COWBOYS ENTER THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT ........................................... 29

1. European Western Film............................................................................................... 29

2. Czechoslovakia............................................................................................................ 35

2.1. Westerns and the Tradition of American West in Czechoslovakia..................... 35

2.2. Jiří Brdečka and the Czech Western Movies ...................................................... 37

2.2.1. Árie prérie ................................................................................................... 38

2.2.2. Lemonade Joe – a Hero or a Salesman?...................................................... 41

2.2.2.1. The Origins.......................................................................................... 41

2.2.2.2. Parody as a Genre................................................................................ 41

2.2.2.3. Narrative Structure .............................................................................. 44

2.2.2.4. Joe, Horác, Winnifred, Tornado Lou and Other Stereotypes.............. 45

2.2.2.5. The Style ............................................................................................. 51

2.2.2.6. Critique of Capitalism ......................................................................... 55

2.2.2.7. Critics and Awards .............................................................................. 59

3. Other European Parody Westerns – Manitou’s Shoe .................................................. 61

CONCLUSION................................................................................................................... 67

APPENDIX ......................................................................................................................... 69

PRIMARY SOURCES....................................................................................................... 70

SECONDARY SOURCES................................................................................................. 71

5

INTRODUCTION

The impulse to do a research on the Czech parody of western Limonádový Joe (1964) came

from the experience which I had during my Erasmus stay in Greece. Limonádový Joe was

shown in the Aristotle University cinema and I was surprised by the high attendance and

reactions to the film. The Greek students liked the movie and understood its satirical jokes.

Obviously, the movie has some universal message which could be appreciated not only in the

country of its origin but also by the international audience. This function is possible because

Limonádový Joe is a parody of American westerns of which the clichés are known worldwide.

In my thesis I am going to analyze Limonádový Joe and suggest the possible

interpretations of the movie. To understand the features that are spoofed in the movie, the

basic knowledge of the western genre is necessary. That is why I am first going to outline the

theoretical approaches to western films and define the western genre and its stereotypes. A

brief genealogy of western films will help to realize how the genre has changed since its

beginnings in the early 20th century. This development prepared the ground for the arrival of

parody of western.

The second part of the thesis will introduce the possible interpretations of Limonádový Joe.

In the “parody interpretation”, the main goal will be the identification of particular stereotypes

and western clichés Limonádový Joe parodies. In order to do this I am going to carry out the

structural analysis of Limonádový Joe and compare this pattern with the structure of classical

American westerns. Then it will be shown how the established clichés and stereotypes in

Limonádový Joe function in connection with the parody. For this demonstration it will be

appropriate to discuss parody as a genre and introduce its basic tools.

Except being a parody, Limonádový Joe can be “read” as an anti-American critique of

capitalism. To support this idea, I am going to analyze the movie with particular attention to

the capitalist ideas it advocates and show how the authors of Limonádový Joe criticize them.

6

This will be illustrated on concrete examples. I am also going to suggest the possible reasons

for the anti-capitalist motif in the film.

To enable a comparison with other parodies of western, one chapter will be dedicated to

German parody western Manitou’s Shoe (2001). This German parody chose the romanticized

childlike westerns based on the books by German writer Karl May as its target of humorous

critique. I am also going to show how the clichés lampooned in Manitou’s Shoe are different

from those in Limonádový Joe.

7

I. WESTERN GENRE ANALYSIS

1. Possible Pathways

Throughout the existence of film, several approaches to the study of this medium have

emerged. I am going to mention here those which are most frequently used in the context of

western films.

In this sense, the ‘oldest’ critical theory in understanding the western is the western as a

myth approach. This approach was most popular in the 1950’s but nowadays other theories

prevail.1 There are a few pitfalls in the mythological theory which a serious critic should be

aware of. The first one is the definition of a myth in general. The tendency among scholars is

to define a myth in the ancient context; in this light a myth is parallel to classical Greek

mythology. So a problem may arise when the critic defines the American myth from the

European point of view. André Bazin, one of the best European critics, found common

features between narrative in western and both the ancient myth and medieval legend.

Michael Coyne warned that the latter two are European paradigms and thus it is not adequate

to compare them in the American context.2 Certainly both, the ancient myth and medieval

legend are rooted in different historical periods and cultural traditions than the western myth

but nevertheless, there are certain obvious parallels between the western plot and the narrative

in classical myth, e. g. in the odyssey myth. I agree with Bazin that these analogies should not

be overlooked. In the odyssey myth the hero sets out on a journey, on the way he fulfills

special tasks which help or even save the community and in the end departs (home). Such

characteristics could be applied to many western movies.

Except of the similarities in the narrative structure, another parallel of western movies with

a myth is in the portrayal of the life on the Frontier which these films have presented to the

1 Coyne, Michael. The Crowded Prairie. American National Identity in the Hollywood Western. I. B. Tauris Publishers, New York 1997, p. 8. 2 Ibid.

8

audience. The picture of the West offered by the directors of western was, to a large degree, a

myth; at least in the early stage of the genre. Before entering the world of Hollywood cinema

the myth of the West was widely popular in the dime novels. Nevertheless, only on the screen

has this myth found its ideal portrayal because its visual aspect could be fully expressed. The

western as a myth approach is best characterized in the popular quote from a famous western

movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962): “When the legend becomes fact, print the

legend.”3 This is exactly what happened in the case of Hollywood western. The idea of the

West presented in the classical western films was highly romanticized and often had very

little in common with the historical reality. The other thing is that the audience liked this

“kind of West” and they wanted to believe in it; they believed in the myth.4

The next theoretical approach, which follows the mythic approach diachronically, is called

the auteurism. It was spread in the 1960’s and it can be characterized by its focus on the

auteur.5 Auteurism claims that the director plays the crucial role in forming the structure of

the movie and that director’s own unique style is imprinted within each of his films.

Moreover, it is proposed that within director’s filmography the critic can trace a certain

development. In the case of western, this approach is usually narrowed down to one figure,

director John Ford.

In the 1970’s there was a major change in all cultural theories fields which was caused by

the arrival of a new theory – structuralism. Structuralism seeks possible universal structures

within the westerns. It does so with the help of binary oppositions. The most “famous” ones

are following dichotomies: West/East, wilderness/civilization, outside/inside, good/bad,

male/female etc.

3 Coyne 1997, p. 8. 4 To learn more about the Western myth see Smith, H. N. Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth. Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1978. 5 Coyne 1997, p. 9.

9

There is an important structuralist text in connection with western studies which should be

pointed out here: Will Wright’s Six Guns and Society (1975). Wright’s plot theory brought a

significant asset to western studies. Wright identified four kinds of narratives within the wide

scale of western movies: the classical plot, the transition theme, the vengeance variation and

the professional plot. This theory will be analyzed in detail in the chapter dealing with the

structure of western films.

The structuralist approach is sometimes criticized for its tendency to create artificial

categories, in other words to prefer structure to idea. In his effort to find a universal structure,

the scholar can come up with ideas which fit in the pattern well, but do not reflect the reality

of the film at all. Wright himself faced a serious critique for trying to place some westerns in

the classical plot category by force.6

In my analysis of the structure of Limonádový Joe I will apply some elements from the

structuralist theory, mainly the oppositions which help to define the stereotypes of the genre.

Another pathway to analysis of western films was introduced by Philip French and is

called political/allegory approach. French presumes that particular western films reflect the

policy of individual American presidents or senators and the political era during which they

were in charge. In this context French defined e.g. “Goldwater western”. 7 This type of

western starred John Wayne, a dedicated supporter of Republican Senator Berry Goldwater.

Coyne declares that there are similarities between Goldwater’s rhetoric and the morality of the

westerns with John Wayne.8

I definitely agree with the idea that westerns can serve as a kind of mirrors of the political

milieu in which they were produced. Out of the Cold War era came the so called Red

Westerns or Osterns (East westerns) which were shot in the countries of East European bloc. I

6 Comp. Tuska, Jon. The American West in Film. Critical Approaches to the Western. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 1985, p. 13. 7 Ibid. 8 Coyne 1997, p. 121.

10

will partly use French’s approach in connection with the shooting of the Czech parody

western Lemonade Joe (1964) which was released in a politically difficult time and expresses

certain ideological thoughts connected with that regime.

The last approach I will apply in my thesis is the genre theory. Tuska uses following

citation to explain this approach’s aim: “it encourages the critic to explore an individual

motion picture in the broadest possible generic context and to show how the film enlarges and

alters the form or type to which it properly belongs.”9 The alternation of the western genre in

European westerns will be the primary focus of my research. The genre theory will be of great

importance also in case of the analysis of Lemonade Joe. Parody can emerge only in

particular phase of the genre – when the genre exhausted itself. And this was the case of

Lemonade Joe.

The main problem of this approach is of course the definition of the genre itself. This issue

will be discussed more thoroughly in the next chapter.

2. Guns, Horses and Cactuses – Defining the Genre

To come up with a decent definition of such a complex and varied phenomenon as western

appears to be a problem for more than one scholar. Throughout its development the genre has

gone through so many transformations – horse operas, epics, romances, classics, “B”

westerns, parodies or anti-westerns – that finding a universal structure among this manifold

mixture is difficult. Perhaps we should ask: Is it necessary to define western? Defining any

cultural phenomenon entails a certain degree of generalization and limitation, but it also

provides us with a universal cultural grid which, when applied on the inspected film, should

show whether this movie corresponds to the characteristics of the genre or not.

9 Tuska 1985, p. 12.

11

The current tendency among the scholars of western genre does not differ much from the

situation in other cultural fields: they can not agree upon one acceptable definition of the

Western film. I would like to mention here at least the most sophisticated attempts which

were done in the effort to define the western genre.

First of all, it must be said that the western is an American genre par excellence. In his

essay The Evolution of the Western André Bazin explains: “western is rooted in the history of

the American nation,”10 I think this is a claim each student of western would agree with. The

western films reflect the historical period from the end of the Civil War until the 1890 when

the settlement of the West finished and the Frotier was closed. The degree of realism in the

depiction of the Wild West on the Hollywood screen will not be a subject of my attention

right now.

Some scholars take Bazin’s claim even further and suggest that besides of growing out of

American history the western genre also is a history.11 This is for example what Jim Kitses

does. In Authorship and Genre: Notes on the Western, he starts the text with following words:

“The Western is American history.”12 In other words, this means that besides reflecting the

history of the Wild West, the western genre also is American history.

An acknowledged western scholar Robert Warshow is the author of a crucial text The

Westerner (1954). In this remarkable essay he characterizes the elements of western film: “As

guns constitute the visible moral center of the Western movie, suggesting continually the

possibility of violence, so land and horses represent the movie’s material basis, its sphere of

action.”13 This means that there are three key features which a western movie should not lack

– guns, land and horses. The absence of a hero in this definition is just formal. As the title of 10 Bazin, Andrè. The Evolution of the Western (1955). In Kitses, Jim, Rickman, Gregg (eds.). The Western Reader. Limelight Editions, New York 1998, p. 49. 11 Walker, Janet. Introduction: Westerns Through History, In Walker, Janet. (ed.) Westerns: Films Through History. Routledge, New York, London 2001, p. 1. 12 Kitses, Jim. Authorship and Genre: Notes on the Western (1969). In Kitses, Jim, Rickman, Gregg (eds.). The Western Reader. Limelight Editions, New York 1998, p. 57. 13 Warshow, Robert. Movie Chronicle: The Westerner (1954). In: Kitses, Jim, Rickman, Gregg (eds.) The Western Reader. Limelight Editions, New York 1998, p. 37.

12

Warshow’s essay prompts, he analyses the western hero throughout the paper in great detail.

Where the guns are, there is also violence and as some scholars claim that the western film

glorifies violence.14 Violence forms the action of western films. Indeed, guns are a form of

communication in westerns. There is not much talking in the movies, but instead you can

often here the gunshots. The Westerner is not a man of words but of action. As Warshow

mentions in The Westerner “it comes as a shock when the hero is made to operate without a

gun.”15 For example in the movie Winchester 73 the plot is entirely based upon one gun – the

Winchester 73. The whole action circles around this particular rifle. In connection with the

role of violence in westerns, Warshow makes an important clarification: it is not violence

itself which is in the centre of the movie, but rather the western man who expresses himself

through violence.16 He is the figure with whom the male audience can easily identify.

Although the notion of violence has been hypocritically rejected by our society, many men

admire (although maybe unconsciously) the lightness with which the Westerner “solves” the

disputes by simply pushing the trigger.

The sphere of action is characterized by horses and land. Especially the second defining

point – the landscape – is one of the key elements in western films. This is what Edward

Buscombe, a well-known western scholar, defines as “a sense of place,”17 the most salient

characteristics of the genre. The audience takes this feature for granted, but if it wasn’t there

its absence would be noticed immediately. So in the first decade of 20th century “western

locations had gone from being a novelty to a necessity.”18 Buscombe also argues that the box

14 Coyne 1997, p. 3. 15 Warshow 1998, p. 42. 16 Ibid., p. 47. 17 Schneider, Tassilo. Finding a New Heimat in the Wild West: Karl May and the German Western of the 1960’s. In: Buscombe, Edward, Pearson E. Roberta. (eds.) Back in the Saddle Again: New Essays on the Western. BFI Publishing, London 1998, p. 148. 18 Buscombe. Edward. Inventing Monument Valley: Nineteenth Century Landscape Photography and the Western Film (1995). In: Kitses, Jim, Rickman, Gregg (eds.). The Western Reader. Limelight Editions, New York 1998, p. 116.

13

office success of the European western depended greatly on the authentic western look.19 In

their search of “European Monument Valley” the European western directors found the most

suitable locations in Spain or Croatia. Long shots of the wide open countryside associate a

feeling of freedom and are often used by the directors of westerns. People are not usually

present in these shots, and if, they are portrayed as miniature figures, in contrast to the vast

areas of land. Such shots may have an ambiguous effect on the audience. They can be either

associated with freedom as I mentioned before or, on the other hand, they can stress man’s

insignificance in his relation to nature. As Buscombe noticed, however, the landscape can

become an obstacle for the narrative’s development as well. This happens in the case when

the western has a form of a journey and the omnipresent surrounding countryside must be

overcome.20

The last thing I want to point out in connection with the western landscape is the

iconographical importance of a cactus. Cactuses are the “trees” of the West which are

depicted in almost all classical westerns. A desolate cactus with spiky thorns resembles a

lonesome cowboy wondering through the desert. In Buscombe’s words “it (the cactus)

virtually came to signify the West.”21

Before analyzing other defining attempts, I will provide characteristics of a phenomenon

without which the western genre could hardly exist – the cowboy. First of all, what does he

look like? There is a certain dress code according to which we can identify him. He wears a

Stetson hat, leatherstockings, spurs, has a gun and rides a horse. Wikipedia defines the

Western heroes in following terms: “semi-nomadic wanderers, often cowboys, with life

reduced to its elements.”22 This definition tells us that a Westerner does not have a permanent

home and lives a simple way of life. Another characteristic thing about his life is that there are

19 Buscombe 1998, p. 116. 20 Ibid., p. 127. 21 Ibid., p. 129. 22 Wikipedia. Western (genre). Definition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_%28genre%29#Definition. 6 May 2006.

14

no other nomads around; he wanders through the desert alone, his only companion being his

horse. He is a stranger and there is usually nobody who understands him but the saloon girl.

As Warshow mentions in his essay “the Westerner is par excellence a man of leisure.”23 This

means that he does not have to work and indeed, we see him most of the time chatting in the

saloon, drinking at the bar or gambling. It is true that from time to time he accepts an offer to

carry out some “dirty” work, but this is mostly done for social purposes, not for his individual

profit. In fact, he never does anything for his own good. It seems he has got some higher

mission and that “he does what he has to do,”24 in the service of the common good. Because

he is unemployed, he is not a rich person but, at the same time, we are not given an

impression that he is poor either. His property usually consists of clothes, a gun and a horse.

Warshow points out another important element relating to the hero stereotype: to prevent the

Westerner from becoming a ridiculous figure, he must be also imperfect in certain ways.25

The imperfectness may be seen in the fact that despite he fights for justice, he is still a killer

of men. The western hero is, in the end, an ambiguous figure. He has got two sides – the light

one and the dark one.

The last definition I would like to introduce here is by Jim Kitses. Kitses rejects a single

definition because according to him “the western is many forms,” and he does not want “to

freeze the genre once and for all in a definitive model.”26 For him “western is a western is a

western.”27 Although his attitude may seem too general, he comes up with a concrete solution.

He summarizes the conventions which, in his opinion, constitute the western films. The first

aspect has been already mentioned above – history. The other conventions are: themes,

archetype and icons.28 Because I find his theory sensible, I would like to explain its individual

23 Warshow 1998, p. 37. 24 Ibid., p. 38. 25 Comp. Ibid., p. 39. 26 Kitses 1998, p. 63. 27 Ibid., p. 67. 28 Ibid.

15

aspects. By themes Kitses means the familiar plots which are expressed by stereotypical

characters and situations. These are used over and over again only with slight variations

caused by a particular director. Such themes are, e.g. law versus gun, settling old scores,

kinship rivalry, East versus West etc. The archetypes were incorporated in westerns through

the pulp literature in which western has its origin. Through the influence of the

Leatherstocking Tales western adopted the elements of romance, tragedy, comedy and

morality play.29 The last aspect is the icons. These are emblems associated with the western

movies, e. g. hat code, open landscape shot, tee-pee, saloon, cowboy sitting on a porch gazing

at the horizon etc. All western movies are flooded with them. Kitses convention summary is

in my view a useful device how to identify western films and how to distinguish them from

other genres. It is flexible enough and at the same time it captures the core elements of the

western genre.

3. White Cowboys and Other Key Features in Western

Some crucial aspects of westerns have not been mentioned yet and those will be pointed out

in this chapter.

I have already dealt with the main protagonist of western – the cowboy or the gunman.

This time I would like to concentrate more on his ethnic and gender identity. He has two

crucial qualities – he is male and he is white. Most Americans associate a typical western hero

with the American actor John Wayne. Western’s cinematic world is full of macho types,

violence and alcohol. Whiskey and other alcoholic drinks are characteristic signs of tough

guys. Moreover they often helped to gain courage or will to go on. Conditions for living in the

West were harsh and often only the strongest, in Darwinian terms, could survive. Westerns

29 Comp. Kitses 1998, p. 67.

16

are, above all, movies about “real men” addressed to male audience. There is not much space

left within the genre for female figures or possible love affairs.

Except of glorifying violence, western also typically celebrated the white race and its

victory over the wild deserted country. Other races – Indians, Blacks or Asians – occur only

marginally, at least during the classical period of the genre. Nevertheless, it is a well known

fact that the number of black cowboys in Western America was not insignificant. Brinkley

offers following information: “Among cowboys, the majority (in the early years) were

veterans of the Confederate army. The next largest group consisted of blacks.”30 Until the

Civil Right era in the 1960’s the Blacks were mostly excluded from westerns and in case they

were filmed, they were portrayed as comic characters.31 The Indians, for whom the West was

their home, received on the screen similar treatment. They were usually depicted as savage

and rather childish; they represented adversaries of the civilized white American. As the

western genre developed, the white orientation ceased to be so dominant and the directors

took into consideration other ethnical groups’ point of view as well.

As it has been already mentioned here, the Westerner is a lonesome melancholic man. He

is usually portrayed as an independent mobile unit in contrast to the coherent stable

community. The western hero is excluded from the society; nobody understands him and he

does not care much. In this light he can be seen as an asocial or individualistic figure.

Although there are examples of gunmen forming a posse in the later development of the genre

(The Magnificent Seven; 1960, The Wild Bunch; 1969), its members are strong individual

characters. Thus the tensions and disputes among them are always present and there is a

constant threat of split.

An important aspect of western genre is its tendency to escapism. This notion has very

much in common with the myth of the West. The enormous success of westerns with the

30 Brinkley, Alan. American history : a survey. Vol. 2, Since 1865 [Brinkley, 1991]. 8th ed. McGraw-Hill, New York 1991, p. 497. 31 Comp. Coyne 1997, p. 5.

17

audience can be explained by the spectators’ nostalgia about the happy past, when the land

was huge and available for minimal prices. The Americans still want to believe in the myth of

their peaceful settlement and civilizing of the desert; in the myth of new beginnings. The fact

that this “cultivation” was more than anything else a brutal invasion and ethnical cleansing

had not been acknowledged in western films and until the 1960’s there were not any attempts

to popularize the historical truth and thus demythologize the genre.

Finally, the last element inherent to the western genre is the tension between two milieus –

wilderness and civilization. By wilderness I mean the immaculate landscape of Western

America. Civilization is embodied in the westerns in the notion of the East and penetrates to

the West in the movies in the form of construction of the railroad, telegraph usage or arrival

of the press. The clash between West and East provides a rich material for western movies’

plots. Moreover, those examples of “high technology” usually carry on with them the notion

of the approaching end, of the early closing of the Frontier, of the loss of the West.

4. The Milestones in Hollywood Western’s History – A Short Genealogy of the Western

The western genre has undergone dramatic changes since its first appearance on the screen at

the beginning of 20th century. Starting as a silent epic film, it was gradually completed with

sound, color and finally showed on wide screens.

The primacy in the genre, i.e. shooting of the first western film, is traditionally ascribed to

Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery (1903). This western is at the same time seen as

the first successful American movie which started the long history of American cinema. The

hero of the film, Broncho Billy Anderson, became the first famous cowboy. Although the

movie is only twelve minutes long, it brought great success and other westerns soon followed.

In the first decades of the genre the names of the western heroes were much more widely

known than the names of the actual directors. This was because hundreds of westerns were

18

being shot and quantity often prevailed over quality. Names such as William S. Hart, famous

Hollywood actor and director of westerns, or Tom Mix, another favorite western hero, should

not be omitted here.

Because of the lack of sound, the core of the silent westerns lay in the visual depiction of

action scenes. The narrative was uncomplicated and the characters unambiguous, in order not

to disturb spectator’s main focus on the action. Fenin and Everson make a good observation

when they claim that the early westerns were “approached in a quasi-documentary fashion.”32

The first sound western that can be labeled a classic is the glorified Stagecoach of 1939,

directed by John Ford. It made Ford an icon, produced the most famous western hero of all

times and set the basic stereotypes of western characters. The plot is very simple – it follows

the story of a group of strangers who are brought together in a stagecoach to Lordsburg. The

crew is a cut through the western society of that time – a banker, a drunken doctor, a gambler,

an outlaw, a prostitute and an educated lady from the East. In this clever mix Ford presented

different social classes and the clashes among them. The movie created a new star – John

Wayne (The Ringo Kid) – which eventually became an icon of the Wild West itself.

Stagecoach started a new era of quality westerns which continued until the 1960’s, with a

short break during the World War II. In the years following Stagecoach John Ford produced a

great number of other very popular westerns which became classic pieces of the genre. These

are e.g. Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), Rio Grande (1950), The

Searchers (1956), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance etc.

Among other directors, King Vidor’s Duel in the Sun (1946) or Fred Zinnemann’s High

Noon (1952) can be regarded as western classics. Another iconic western movie is Shane

(1953) directed by George Stevens. Shane’s originality derives from its visual procession. It

32 Fenin, George N.; Everson, William K. The Western. From Silents to the Seventies. Grossman Publishers, New York 1973, p. 25.

19

“was the first bigscreen (Vista-vision) color western film ever produced.”33 The color, in

combination with the spectacular landscape and stereophonic sound, has made Shane a

remarkable western.

The form of westerns in the later decades, i.e. from late 1930’s to 1960’s, changed greatly.

In comparison to the shallow characters of the beginning of the century, we now encounter

well-drawn life-like characters, e.g. in the Stagecoach. Moreover, a sociological, cultural or

political aspect is added in the films. For example, the plot in High Noon can be seen as a

struggle of good individual against the absence of law, after the community has deserted him.

I have not yet taken into account the degree of historicity presented in the westerns. In

connection with the myth of the West, the portrayal of the life in the Wild West in Hollywood

movies was highly romanticized until the 1960’s. The settlement of the West was depicted

from the view of the white male, as a search of a civilized man for a new home full of

promises. The Indians of Hollywood western were there only to prevent him from this noble

aim. This “romantic” depiction began to change only in the 1960’s.

The next stage brought about a generic, as well as an ideological shift. Probably in

connection with the growing interest in civil rights issues in the United States in the mid

1960’s, the western film had ceased to be exclusively white male oriented. Portrayal of the

Wild West came closer to the historical truth; in other words the western was demythologized.

This kind of western is called a revisionist western or anti-western, because it reverses some

of the established western clichés.

Among the most famous revisionist westerns are e.g. Cheyenne Autumn (1964), one of

Ford’s latest films, where the Indians are portrayed as victims of white officer’s commands

and a role of a strong woman is introduced; The Wild Bunch directed by accomplished

western director Sam Peckinpah, where the audience is made to sympathize with a violent

33 Wikipedia. Shane (film). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane. 5 May 2006.

20

anti-hero; Little Big Man (1970), a western movie made by Arthur Penn, which favors Indians

and contains elements of black humor (e.g. a homosexual Indian); or Robert Altman’s Mc

Cabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), a feminist western.

The 1970’s saw a sharp decline in the production of Hollywood western films. After going

through the revisionist phase, the genre seemed to be exhausted. Nevertheless, the center of

western movies production moved elsewhere – to Europe. There it was received very

enthusiastically and gained a new, unique face.

The last phase, with which I will end this brief genealogy, is the contemporary western. In

the 1990’s the western was a marginal genre. Nevertheless, from time to time, a few

successful western movies emerged, which proved, that the genre is still popular among the

audiences. To speak of concrete films, such an enormous commercial success was caused by

Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves (1990). Costner’s movie can be also seen as a revisionist

western, because it depicts the white male officers in an appalling light, in contrast to the

Native Americans, who are presented as peaceful naïve peoples.

The contemporary western often deals with psychological, gender and social issues. Thus,

we have an opportunity to watch a female western whose heroine is a woman wearing a gun –

The Quick and the Dead (1995). In the same year a noted director of independent movies, Jim

Jarmusch, produced an original postmodern western movie Dead Man (1995). The black and

white Dead Man is considered an anti-western, because it breaks several traditional western

categories. At the center of the movie there is a friendship of a white man, Mr. Blake (Johny

Depp), and a Native Indian named Nobody (Gary Farmer). The names themselves indicate the

cynical mood of the film. Although the figure of Nobody is entirely fictional, Jarmusch made

an exhaustive investigation into the life of the Native Americans. The purpose of Nobody’s

role in the movie is to revise the white man’s crimes committed against Indians. The latest

contemporary western film is not so much a western as it is a cowboy movie. Its name is

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Brokeback Mountain; directed by Ang Lee it was released in 2005. It gives a deep insight into

the love relationship between two homosexual cowboys.

5. The Structure of Western Movies – Plot Variations

If we look closer at the structure of western films, we find a simple pattern which is repeated

throughout the decades only with subtle variations: the hero arrives in town, learns that the

community is tyrannized by a villain and his mob, helps the town to get rid of him/them and

leaves the town after accomplishing his mission. The hero is usually rewarded for his heroic

deeds by the love of the town’s most beautiful and virtuous woman, whose feelings he can not

reciprocate.

This structure was elaborated further by the already mentioned western scholar and

structuralist Will Wright. Wright noticed that “the types of people in western films have not

changed over the years, only the ways in which they interact.”34 In order to prove this claim,

Wright chose westerns from 1930’s to 1970’s whose rentals exceeded four million dollars and

analyzed their narrative structures. In those westerns Wright discovered four basic types of

patterns – the classical plot, the vengeance variation, the transition theme and the professional

plot.35 Each plot corresponds to certain historical period and thus the changes between

individual plots reflect the generic shifts within western films.

Before I introduce the four types I would like to note that Wright’s plots are defined on the

basis of the binary oppositions. Three key features – the hero, villains and society – are

compared within these dichotomies. The elementary opposition is outside/inside, the main

contrast being the lonesome hero outside the society, as opposed to the locals inside the

coherent community. The villains have an ambiguous position in this category; they are

sometimes inside and sometimes outside the society. Other pairs include good/bad – in

34 Tuska 1985, p. 13. 35 Comp. Ibid.

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Wright’s theory this is the tension between the good hero and the society and the bad villains

on the other side; male/female – usually a weak woman who falls in love with the strong hero

or strong/weak – the strong hero and villains in opposition to weak society.

The classical plot according to Wright “is the story of the lone stranger who rides into a

troubled town and cleans it up, winning the respect of the townsfolk and the love of the

schoolmarm.”36 This definition is further differentiated into sixteen evolution stages:

(1) The hero enters a social group. (2) The hero is unknown to society. (3) The hero is revealed to have an exceptional ability. (4) The society recognizes a difference between themselves and the hero; the hero is given a special status (5) The society does not completely accept the hero. (6) There is a conflict of interests between the villains and the society. (7) The villains are stronger than the society; the society is weak. (8) There is a strong friendship or respect between the hero and a villain. (9) The villains threaten the society. (10) The hero avoids involvement in the conflict. (11) The villains endanger a friend of the hero. (12) The hero fights the villains. (13) The hero defeats the villains. (14) The society is safe. (15) The society accepts the hero. (16) The hero loses or gives up his special status.37

The classical plot era dates from 1930’s to 1955 and Wright includes here e.g. Shane or

Duel in the Sun.38 As I mentioned earlier, Wright’s theory is called into question among some

scholars, e.g. John Tuska claims that Duel in the Sun does not fit in the classical plot category

at all. Not only because the main protagonist is an Indian woman, but also because her special

ability is defined as sex.39

The vengeance plot and the transition theme are variations of the classical one. In the

former, the hero is more linked with the villains than with the society, as in the classical plot.

36 Tuska 1985, p. 14. 37 Elkins, James R. Notes from Will Wright`s Six Gun and Society. Lawyers and Film. http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~jelkins/film04/wright.html. 10 Jan 2006. 38 Comp. Place, Janey. Structured Cowboys. Jump Cut: Review of Contemporary Media. no. 18. August 1978, 2005. pp. 26-28. http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC18folder/6gunsSociety.html. 8 May 2006. 39 Tuska 1985, p. 14.

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“Unlike the classical hero who joins the society because of his strength and their weakness,

the vengeance hero leaves the society because of his strength and their weakness.”40 The

content of the vengeance variation differs in these points: the hero seeks vengeance; the hero

goes outside the society; the hero takes up his revenge.41 In this category Wright enlisted e.g.

Ford’s movies Stagecoach and The Searchers. Historically, it overlaps with the end of the

classical era and continues until the 1960’s, with later recurrences.42

The transition theme, as the name reveals, indicates a shift from the classical plot. At the

beginning, the hero is inside the society and leaves it at the end. In this narrative pattern, the

society is well established and gradually becomes hostile to the hero. It acquires the role of

the villains from the classical plot. The shining example of transition theme is Zinnemann’s

High Noon.

The distinctive feature of the professional plot is that the hero goes out of his loneliness

and forms a posse with other gunmen. What connects them is a common work or task, usually

done in favor of the society which is alone incapable of fighting the villains. The heroes in the

professional plot become less positive than the hero of the previous plots. In this sense, they

should rather be considered as anti-heroes. Historically, this plot covers the era from 1968 to

1970 and its representatives according to Wright are e.g. Sam Peckinpah’s Wild Bunch or Roy

Hill’s Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid (1969).

I will examine the applicability of Wright’s plot types in the structural analysis of the

Czech parody western Limonádový Joe.

40 Elkins. http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~jelkins/film04/wright.html. 10 Jan 2006. 41 From Will Wright, Six Guns and Society. Vengeance Variation. University of Missouri, St. Louis. http://www.umsl.edu/divisions/artscience/english/faculty/grady/VENGEANCE.htm. 8 May 2006. 42 Comp. Place. http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC18folder/6gunsSociety.html. 8 May 2006.

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6. Stereotypes

No matter what the reservations of some scholars to Wright’s theory might be, we can say that

the characters in western movies have not changed much throughout the existence of the

genre. I will now characterize the most important western stereotypes. This typology will be

used later in comparison with the characters in Limonádový Joe.

6.1 The Hero

In the early westerns we encounter a highly idealized image of Westerner. He is a handsome,

slightly feminine type, usually dressed in shining white spotless clothes – a thing which could

have never happened in the dusty streets of the real Wild West. An example of such a “super”

hero is the first famous cowboy Tom Mix. Moreover, the hero was not perfect only aesthically

but also spiritually. Gene Autry’s “Ten Commandments of the Cowboy” characterize well the

early stereotype of a cowboy. 43 The early image of a cowboy should behave according to

following rules: e.g. “he must not take unfair advantage, he must always tell the truth, be

gentle with children, elderly people and animals, be a good worker, keep himself clean in

thought, speech, action and personal habits. He must neither drink nor smoke.”44 These

commandments cannot be taken seriously in today’s westerns. Such an idealized image of a

cowboy becomes exactly what Warshow predicted – ridiculous. In this moment, parody

comes on the scene. Lemonade Joe is an example of the principles embodied in the “Ten

Commandments”. His hyperbolic perfection provides space for the tools of parody.

One aspect of hero’s character never changes – he always stands on the side of good. Good

in this sense is equivalent to law. He comes from the outside (we do not know from where)

and helps the city to settle down its disputes. This is usually done by means of a gun, although

43 Fenin, Everson 1973, p. 20. 44 Ibid.

25

the hero tries to prevent the violence to the very end. Nevertheless, his murderous reasons are

of noble origin: paying off revenge, saving woman’s life etc.

As the genre developed, the hero was becoming more aggressive and brutal and the

shooting was done more easily.

The heroic deeds of the cowboy often result in emotional attraction of some woman to the

hero. But because the hero is a nomadic independent figure, things such as a family life or

settling down are out of question. Kissing or other sexual issues are also avoided because they

could spoil the melancholic adventurous atmosphere of western movies. In this context, and in

combination with the “Ten Commandments”, the hero acquires almost monk-like qualities.

Finally, the hero rides off alone on horseback, towards the horizon in the distance.

For most Americans the hero stereotype is associated with the American actor John

Wayne. Wayne played the part of many famous western heroes, e.g. Tom Doniphan in The

Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Tom is the man who helps the town to get rid of the outlaw

and at the same time saves his friend’s life. In the end this friend gets the woman of Tom’s

heart and Tom stays alone as a typical Westerner. Other Wayne’s significant roles are The

Ringo Kid of Stagecoach or Ethan Edwards in The Searchers. A well-known hero stereotype

became also Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda), the brave sheriff of Tombstone in My Darling

Clementine (1946).

6.2 The Anti-hero

With the arrival of the revisionist western in the 1960’s, the main protagonist has undergone

an important change. As the genre progressed towards its demythologization, the hero was

becoming more and more realistic. His positive qualities retreated and the negative started to

prevail. In connection with Autry’s “Ten Commandments” it can be said, that the anti-hero

breaks all of them. The anti-hero does not think twice before he fires; he shoots a man as

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easily as he orders another glass of whiskey. He may be a bank robber as in Butch Cassidy

and Sundance Kid, nevertheless the audience will love him and even keep their fingers

crossed for him to run away with a bag full of money. In comparison to his positive

predecessor, the anti-hero stereotype is sexually more matured. He shows interest in women

and even gets involved in a love affair, although only temporarily. The duration and character

of the relationship is equal to anti-hero’s choice of women: single experienced females,

usually from around the local saloon.

A vivid example of an anti-hero is Jack Crabb in The Little Big Man; although he is a

confused, clumsy, physically weak, anti-macho figure, he manages to survive because he is

lucky. The western movies which started to be produced in Italy in the mid 60’s, the so-called

Spaghetti westerns, produced a crucial anti-hero figure – Clint Eastwood – a brutal man

without a name.

6.3 The Villain

This category contains a colorful range of bank robbers, alcohol or gun smugglers, cattle

thieves, stagecoach bandits – in one word, the outlaws. Their place is on the dark side, on the

side of evil, where law is ignored or totally absent. The Frontier was full of such types. They

took advantage of the lax legal system and anonymous milieu.

Without the rascals, the western genre would lack a factor, which is crucial for building up

the story – the opposition between the negative and the positive characters. Without the villain

we could not fully realize and appreciate the fairness of the hero. The nature of westerns is

like the one of fairy tales – it favors the heroes, villains always lose. The struggle between

those two parties forms the basis of the western plot. The border between good and evil

worlds is sometimes permeable and thus the hero can easily be a former outlaw who was later

reformed. The shining example of this situation is The Ringo Kid (John Wayne) in

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Stagecoach. Getting on the board “handcuffed”, he gets off in Lordsburg as a hero with the

intention of marriage and settled life. Such twist in category can create a moral tension and

make the story more interesting. A popular plot device is to link the hero and the villain by

means of kinship.

In contrast to the lonely figure of the hero, the villains tend to group in posses or mobs.

What brings them together is greed, lust for money or just primitive favor of violence. There

is usually a leader of the gang who is the greediest of all, the most corrupt and the others are

afraid of him. Out of these doubtful qualities he derives his authority.

Concerning the physical depiction, the outlaws are almost always portrayed in dark

colored outfits and they have unshaved (or a moustache), ill-favored faces. The famous

outlaw Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald) of High Noon is a good example of the villain

stereotype.

6.4 The Woman

Life in the infertile sandy environment was full of hardship for men and it was even more

demanding for women. Women often performed masculine roles, including typically male

physical work and at the same time had to function as mothers. In other words, western

women had to be strong characters. What portrayal did they receive on the cinematic screen?

As I mentioned above, western is considered a typically (white) male genre. Nevertheless,

some scholars do not share this view. Blake Lucas, in his essay Saloon Girls and Rancher’s

daughters: The Woman in Western, calls for a change: “It’s time to see the Western in a

different light – not as a masculine genre but as one supremely balanced in its male/female

aspect.”45 In my opinion, this was only possible later, in the revisionist form of western, when

women received more careful attention. The reason, why women play less important roles in

45 Lucas, Blake. Saloon Girls and Rancher’s daughters: The Woman in Western. In: Kitses, Jim, Rickman, Gregg. (eds.) The Western Reader. Limelight Editions, New York 1998, p. 301.

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westerns, at least in the classical stage of the genre, is because their characters are essentially

passive. Man is the character who carries a gun and rides a horse, in other words, he creates

the action of the movie. The female figure is usually highly dependent on the hero – her

common task in the plot is to be saved and serve as a 1st prize for the winner. Nevertheless,

sometimes she can perform more active, tempting ways of behavior. As I will explain now,

there are different kinds of females in western.

Women in westerns are usually reduced to two basic stereotypes, which have some minor

variations – “rancher’s daughter” and “saloon girl”. They stand in opposition to each other

and display totally different qualities.

The representative of the first group is a weak, naïve, family-oriented lady with good

manners. She is usually somehow interconnected with the East or with its associations –

civilization, education, religion etc. She may as well be a pioneer, a Puritan, who had come to

the West in search of better tomorrows. In this sense she becomes what Lucas calls the

“rancher’s daughter”.46 Very often this stereotype is a cavalryman’s wife or a Quaker with

messianic intentions, such as temperance movement or educational mission. In this context

this stereotype is sometimes referred to as “schoolmarm”.47 The two female types are also

distinguished physically – the rancher’s daughter usually being an angel-like figure with fair

hair, analogous to her pure nature. The concrete examples of such females in westerns are

many: Marshal Kane’s pacifist Quaker wife Amy (Grace Kelly) in High Noon, loyal wife and

mother Kathleen Yorke (Maureen O’Hara) in Rio Grande etc.

The adversary character of the rancher’s daughter, in Lucas’s terminology, is a “saloon

girl”.48 In contrast to her civilized counterpart, the saloon girl is an experienced, independent

and sexually aggressive figure. We usually encounter her at the bar or, more precisely, on the

bar – dancing, drinking, smoking, in one word entertaining men. She usually lives directly in

46 Lucas 1998, p. 303. 47 Schoolmarm is a female teacher in a small town (a compound of school and madam). 48 Lucas 1998, p. 303.

29

the saloon or in the nearby hotel. She is a woman without commitments – a prostitute; we can

never imagine her as a family member or even as a mother. Sometimes, she can be a rich

widow, involved in a black market, dealing with guns, alcohol or drugs. It is not a big surprise

when she pulls out a gun from a drawer and handles it quite well. This devilish sinful woman

is usually portrayed with dark hair which stresses the character of her soul. Her role in the plot

is just marginal – she often keeps some kind of secret, usually connected with the hero’s dark

past, e.g. that they were involved in a love affair. Shining example of such a stereotype is

Helen Ramirez (Katy Jurado) in High Noon; she is the total opposite of spiritually innocent

Amy. Another representative of this female category could be Dallas (Claire Trevor) in

Stagecoach. In this crucial western, Ford made an interesting switch: the ‘good’ girl is a

brunette and the ‘rotten’ one a blonde. Surprisingly, blonde, warmhearted prostitute Dallas is

depicted with more sympathy than rather cold dark but civilized Lucy Mallory (Louise Platt),

(the reason of this inversion may be that Dallas wants to change – she is leaving the town

where she used to live, plans to settle down and start a new, better life. She even shows some

maternal qualities – during the adventurous journey to Lordsburg she helps to deliver a baby

and looks after it later. I think that the spectator identifies with her more than with Lucy,

because they want to believe that every human can redeem and begin a new better life;

especially in the West).

II. COWBOYS ENTER THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT

1. European Western Film

European production companies started to produce westerns only when the genre began to

fade in its country of origin in the mid sixties. At that time, the golden age of American

western was over and it was going through the revisionist phase. Europe took charge and

continued in the development of the genre. Thus most of the European westerns from the

30

1960’s belong to the revisionist category. Nevertheless, also other forms of western emerged

– “Spaghetti western”, parodies, comedies or even romanticized, fairy-tale like German

westerns.

The European directors of westerns began to produce a genre which was until that time

considered exclusively American. Firstly, it dealt with the history of settlement of the western

part of the United States. Secondly, the American landscape played a crucial role in the

production of westerns. Concerning the first problem, the Europeans handled the historical

material considerably well, in some cases even better then the “fathers” of the genre. For

example the German Indian movies from the DEFA production depict the coexistence of

white settlers with the Native American people very realistically; moreover, they offer an

exceptional view on the matter – the whites are illustrated as bad corrupt people harming the

Indians. The reason of the historically more accurate portrayal in the European westerns is, on

one hand, genre’s demythologization during the revisionist period. The other cause is perhaps

the fact that the Europeans, in contrast to the Americans, were not involved with their own

myth and could embrace the topic more objectively, or in the case of a parody, more lightly.

The problem with the geographical setting was solved quite elegantly as well. The

European production companies did not have enough financial means to move the whole crew

to Grand Canyon, so they had to look for a closer place. And they did not have to go far – the

dry southern plains of Spain or Croatia offered an ideal environment for simulating the Wild

West countryside.

The western genre became quickly popular with European audiences. Although westerns

are placed in specific historical and geographical setting, their plot is universal and can

address a wide range of spectators. Moreover, the particularity can function in a positive way

as an exotic attraction for the Europeans cinema-goers. Fenin and Everson explain that

“because of the Western’s foreign origin, it retains a kind of exotic appeal for the English

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child that it no longer has for the American.”49 I suppose that this claim is true for most of the

Europe’s children audience as it manifests itself for example in the popular game of

“Cowboys and Indians.” Another western’s well exportable commodity has always been

action. Gradually, the Hollywood cinema as such became associated with action films.

Before I will draw an outline of the European countries which played a significant role in

the production of westerns, I find it helpful to clarify one theoretical problem. As Fenin and

Everson stress, there is a difference between the imitation of the western, the utilization of

Western’s techniques and the influence of the western genre upon films that are not

considered westerns.50 Some films may utilize the techniques which are normally used by the

directors of westerns; examples of such “loans” are long shots of the landscape, stuntman’s

methods or sound tricks etc. Other movies are influenced directly by the western genre; this is

the case of the gangster films which use some of the features of westerns, e.g. the conception

of a hero, adventure and law. But in my thesis I will only deal with the films that try to imitate

the American western genre, that is films which somehow resemble the American westerns in

their style. The German films are a good example of imitations of westerns; they try to copy

the historical and geographical setting of American westerns. The reason why I will

concentrate on the imitation westerns is because the movie on which I focus in my thesis –

Limonádový Joe – also belongs to this category.

From the European countries which shot westerns, Italy and Germany can be considered

the major producers of westerns. In the mid 60’s Italian directors started to produce a unique

style of westerns which was labeled “Spaghetti western”. Obviously, it has nothing in

common with the famous Italian pasta but rather serves as a mark to denote the national origin

of these films. “Spaghetti westerns” are usually narrowed down to one director – Sergio

Leone – and one actor – Clint Eastwood. The first successful Italian western which triggered

49 Fenin, Everson 1973, p. 321. 50 Comp. Ibid., p. 327.

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the “Spaghetti” wave was The Fistfull of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari; 1964).51 This

movie is a part of the famous “Dollar” trilogy, the other two westerns being For a Few

Dollars More (Per qualche dollaro in più; 1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

(Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il; 1966). Italian westerns tried to copy the style of American

westerns as closely as possible. They were usually shot in Spain in order to imitate the

Mexican border where the action of Italian westerns was set. Italian directors often used

English names, e.g. Bob Robertson was Sergio Leone’s pseudonym. Leone even assigned

American actor in his movies – Clint Eastwood. Back in the United States, Eastwood was just

an average actor but in Europe, Leone made him a star. He became the well-known “man

without a name”, the brutal silent anti-hero. Perhaps the most significant feature of “Spaghetti

westerns” is violence. Italian westerns are much more brutal than the American ones. Good

examples are the ten-minute wild shooting scenes in The Fistfull of Dollars. It should be

pointed out that music played an important role in “Spaghetti westerns”. The soundtrack is

tightly linked with the composer Ennio Morricone. In Italian westerns music was used as a

means of communication and to highlight the mood of the concrete scene. In Leone’s

masterpiece Once Upon a Time in the West (C’era una volta il West; 1968) there is a

character called Harmonica. This hero is a silent man who uses his harmonica instead of

talking. With combination of melancholic music and close-ups, Leone creates a unique

atmosphere with a feeling of nostalgia.

With the emergence of “Spaghetti western” the roles between American and European

westerns have reversed. Now the Italian western began to influence American directors, such

as Sam Peckinpah in the movie Wild Bunch.

51 Leone based the story of The Fistfull of Dollars on Japanese film Yojimbo (1961) by Akira Kurosawa. This was not for the first time that director of western film was influenced by Japanese movie. For example when American director John Sturges worked on The Magnificent Seven (1960) he was inspired by another Kurosawa’s film Seven Samurai (1954).

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Germany acquired a special name of its westerns which was taken from the area of

national food as well – “Kraut Western”. The German westerns can be differentiated into two

groups. Westerns of the first group originated in the East German state movie production

DEFA between the years 1966-1983. They are called Indian films and belong to a larger

category of Red Westerns. Indian films are a series of twelve films all of which are featuring

the Yugoslavian actor Gojko Mitic, who became a star in East Germany. As its name

prompts, these films are about particular Indian tribes and their famous chiefs; for example

films such as: Chingachgook, The Great Snake (Chingachgook, der Grose Schlange; 1967),

Osceola (Osceola; 1971) or Tecumseh (Tecumseh; 1972). What makes the Indian films so

exceptional is the fact, that they are not white-male oriented and offer a wide objective

spectrum of different characters of inhabitants in the Wild West. In these films you may

encounter brave Indian, corrupt white villain, Indian traitor or white friend of the American

Natives. An internet article on East German Indian movies indicates how such realistic

approach was possible: “East German Filmmakers did an extensive research in an attempt to

be true to the historical events in general, and the Native American culture in particular.”52

This attitude was in sharp contrast with the approach of the directors in West Germany.

The West German westerns were based on the novels by successful German writer Karl May.

In the center of these movies stood the blood brotherhood of Apache chief Winnetou and

white Greenhorn Old Shatterhand. Their relationship was highly romanticized within “May”

films as was the portrayal of Indians. German director Michael Bully Herbig shot an amusing

comedy Manitou’s Shoe (Der Schuh des Manitu; 2001) parodying the westerns about

Winnetou and Old Shatterhand. I will analyze Manitou’s Shoe and its function as a parody

more thoroughly later.

52 Wild East. Background. East German Movies. 2 Jul 2001. http://www.wazel.org/wildeast/bafacts.htm. 10 Jun 2006.

34

European filmmakers of westerns could skillfully link the visual and sound aspect: the

shots of the vast landscape were enhanced with melancholic music. The soundtrack to

Winnetou films was very popular throughout Europe and many copies were sold. Concerning

the visual aspect, the German directors of westerns found the suitable landscape with an

authentic western look in Yugoslavia. Thanks to its popularization in the West German

westerns, these places became nowadays favorite tourist destinations.

After reaching the European continent, the genre has soon domesticated there and more

European countries followed in the production of westerns. France released a considerable

number of westerns which were categorized as “Camembert” westerns, joining the European

group of “food westerns”. The most debated French western is Jean Bastia’s Dynamite Jack

(1961), a parody of the American westerns. The “Camembert” western gradually spread

outside France, to French colonies – Morocco and Algeria. An acknowledged specialist in

French westerns, Peter J. Bloom, explains how the relations of France and its colonies were

reflected in the American western: “In France, colonial Algeria and Morocco were

represented as the French frontier most frequently compared to the climate, opportunities and

moral dilemmas of the American West.”53 The rights to Dynamite Jack were later bought by

Algerian directors Fellag and Allalou who remade it into political satire on the contemporary

religious situation in Algeria. The name of the Algerian version is Dynamite Moh (1996),

Moh being a short name for the Islamic prophet Mohammed. I find realization of such

politically critical movie very daring, especially when you consider the serious attitude of

Muslim community towards any kind of parody from the Western world addressed to their

divine Prophet.

Last European country which should not be omitted in connection with the production of

westerns is Russia (then: the Soviet Union). Because of the geographical location the Russian 53 Bloom, Peter J. Beyond the Western Frontier: Reappropriations of the “good badman” in France, the French colonies, and contemporary Algeria. In: Walker, Janet (ed.). Westerns. Films Through History. Routledge, New York, London 2001, p. 197.

35

westerns are sometimes referred to as Easterns (Osterns) or Red Westerns. The story of

Easterns is usually set in the period of Russian Civil War in Central Asia in the 1920’s. The

action is created by the conflict between Russian Red Army and the “Basmachi” rebels.

“Basmachi” or bandits is a pejorative term used by Soviet officials for the Islamic radicals

living in the area of Turkestan.54 Nevertheless, some historians disagree and claim that the

rebels were “ordinary peasants and nomads who opposed the cultural imperialism of

Russia.”55 The revolt of “Basmachi” people against the Bolshevik brutality can be viewed as a

political allegory based on the pattern of the struggle between Anglo-Saxon settlers and

American Natives in westerns.

White Sun of the Desert (Beloe Solntse Pustyni; 1969) was not only the most successful

Russian Red Western but also one of the most popular Russian movies ever. The plot

develops around the “Basmachi” rebellion, combining elements of comedy and drama. The

soundtrack of the movie created famous hits and its sayings enriched the vocabulary of

Russian language. In short, White Sun of the Desert became a cult. Another example of Red

Western with the “Basmachi” topic is The Bodyguard (Telohranitel; 1979).

2. Czechoslovakia

2. 1. Westerns and the Tradition of American West in Czechoslovakia

Parody as a form assumes a good knowledge of the genre which is lampooned. Ironically,

despite the great success of Limonádový Joe, this condition was not fulfilled in

Czechoslovakia. The distribution of American westerns was scarce at the time when

Limonádový Joe was released. Film critic Ivan Dvořák informs about the situation in Czech

cinemas in a film magazine Film a doba from the 1964: “Since the time when the import of

American films was interrupted as a consequence of World War II until now, this means for

54 Comp. Wales, Jimmy (founder). Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Basmachi Revolt. 6 Jun 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basmachi. 11 Jun 2006. 55 Basmachi Revolt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basmachi. 11 Jun 2006.

36

almost a quarter of century, only one western film has been released in common film

distribution – High Noon.”56 He further claims that a limited number of audiences saw a

couple of movies by Ford in the film clubs.57 Thus we have to look for the reason of

Limonádový Joe’s success somewhere else. In my view the elevated acceptance of the movie

was a combination of the two following things.

Firstly, it is the multilayered humor which Lipský skillfully incorporated within

Limonádový Joe. The spoof of the movie is built, on one hand, on the parody of American

western epics; these are the jokes referring to breaking the western clichés. The other layer of

humor is formed by gags and universal comic elements which do not correspond to western

genre, but the audience enjoys them, although it lacks the good knowledge of American

westerns.

The second aspect which, in my opinion, broke the ground for the parody of westerns was

the popularity and tradition of the American Wild West culture in Czechoslovakia.

The enchantment by the American Wild West culture has got a long tradition in the Czech

Republic, former Czechoslovakia. It dates back to 19th century and it was linked with the birth

of the tramp movement. 58 The tramp culture and westerns have certainly many features in

common, e.g. the love of countryside and survival in it or worship of freedom. The romantic

idea of the American Frontier was also elicited by the distribution of dime novels or

Leatherstocking Tales, in Czech countries called ‘rodokaps’, and later by the western films.59

The ‘orthodox’ Czech Wild West fans gradually separated from the tramp movement and

formed a significant Country and Western group, parallel to the original American C&W

movement. They started to organize events which copied the life on the Frontier: country

balls, festivals of C&W culture, horse riding etc. Because of the communist regime which, of

56 Brdečka, Jiří. Limonádový Joe aneb Koňská opera. Československý filmový ústav, Praha 1988, p. 186. 57 Comp. Ibid. 58 Westerners International. Kdo je to WI– CZ. Westerners International v srdci Evropy. 28 May 2005. http://www.westerners.cz/wi_cz/kdo_je_wi_cz.htm. 29 May 2006. 59 ‘Rodokaps‘ is an abbreviation of ‘novel into a pocket’.

37

course, did not support this pro-American movement, many of these activities were held in

secret. The first legally public event was the Czechoslovakian Pony Express ride in 1985,

which has been organized every year since then.60 Since that time the popularity of American

West by Czech people has not declined and can be demonstrated e.g. by the number of the

Wild West “cities” in Czech Republic and their high attendance.

2. 2. Jiří Brdečka and the Czech Western Movies

When the parody western Limonádový Joe was released in 1964, it was met with an

immediate success by the Czech audience. Czech people admired the culture of American

West and it was also curiosity which brought them to the cinemas; it was for the first time

when a Czech director got engaged with a genre that was still considered rather exotic in

Eastern Europe.

Limonádový Joe is a result of cooperation between two figures – the director, Oldřich

Lipský (1924-1986) and the screenwriter, Jiří Brdečka (1917-1982). Parody was Brdečka’s

favorite genre and truly, he became an acknowledged master in this cinematic field. American

culture was the usual target of his witty critique. Besides Lemonade Joe, he also wrote a

screenplay to another parody Adéla ještě nevečeřela (Adela hasn’t had dinner yet; 1977), a

story satirizing American pulp literature about detective Nick Carter.

Despite the fact that he was lampooning the western genre, Brdečka liked American

western movies very much. In an interview, printed in the book Limonádový Joe, he mentions

several classical western epics, such as Stagecoach, Wells Fargo (1937) or Frontier Marshall

(1949), which originally evoked his interest in the Wild West.61 He further admits that he

experienced “certain enchantment” while he was watching these films.62 His attention to the

60 Comp. Westerners International v srdci Evropy. http://www.westerners.cz/wi_cz/kdo_je_wi_cz.htm. 29 May 2006. 61 Brdečka 1988, p. 9. 62 Ibid., p. 10.

38

history of the American Wild West remained and probably inspired him to write a serious

historical book about the life on the Frontier, called Kolty bez pozlátka (1956). In this book,

Brdečka analyzes stories of three historical Western figures – Wild Bill Hickock, Billy the

Kid and Jesse James. He separates fiction from historical reality, demythologizes the legends

and shows that they were not so much heroes, but rather outlaws with corrupt manners.

Production of parody requires a good orientation within the genre which the director wants

to lampoon. As I demonstrated above, Brdečka confirmed that he had all the necessary

dispositions to do so.

2. 2. 1. Árie prérie

Limonádový Joe has its less known predecessor in a short deft puppet parody film Árie prérie

(1949), which Brdečka created together with a well-known Czech cartoonist, Jiří Trnka. A

parody of western made in the form of a puppet film? Although it may sound absurd, Árie

Prérie is a clever and amusing satire criticizing bad western films. It contains all important

features a real western should have – guns, horses, desert-like landscape, a hero, a

“schoolmarm”, an evil gambler, bottles of whiskey, Mexicans, coyote, vultures and cactuses.

Fenin and Everson mention this movie in their chapter on international westerns (Song of the

Prairie; 1952) and call the film a “satirized Westerns per se.”63

The action is set somewhere in the Western part of the United States, where a bunch of

outlaws raids a stagecoach. Does it sound familiar? Yes, the authors of Árie prérie were

parodying Ford’s classical movie – Stagecoach. Nevertheless, the main target of the authors’

critique was not the film itself, but the repetitive style of western plots. The narrative in Árie

prérie copies the usual scheme of western films: the rascal steals the gold and the beautiful

lady; the hero gets rid of the villain, brings the “treasure” back – thus helping the society, and

63 Fenin, Everson 1973, p. 323.

39

is awarded the woman in the end. This is also the pattern of Wright’s classical plot with all the

typical western stereotypes. Pavel Taussig, a Czech historian, puts it this way: (Árie prérie)

“is a parody of schematism which is manifested by the naïve development of the story. This

means that in the end the evil is punished and the good rewarded.”64 To illustrate his claim, I

will describe the individual puppets more closely and discuss their particular role within this

“western”.

The stagecoach is driven by two funny coachmen; one of them is constantly drowning

himself in whiskey. Jiří Trnka is said to have created his own caricature in this ridiculous

figure, a fact that declares the humorous approach of the authors. But the crew inside the

vehicle is more important: there is a beautiful lady and an old senile man. The woman is

wearing a white dress and beguiles the journey with knitting, reading and singing; she also

takes care of the old man – a caricature of drunken Doc Boone from Ford’s Stagecoach.

These activities reveal that she is clearly the “schoolmarm stereotype” – she probably comes

from the East and is educated. She lampoons Lucy Mallory, the cavalryman’s wife, from

Stagecoach.

When the lady starts singing a song (of the prairie), a handsome gunman on a horse

appears in the window of the stagecoach and joins her with the song. He is dressed in white as

well and he rides a snow white horse. The white color links him with the lady inside the coach

and indicates that they are both on the side of good.

The song “Sou Fár Tu Jú Aj Mej” which they sing can be heard twice throughout the

movie, always when the couple meets. Jan Rychlík, the author of the song and the music,

cooperated with Brdečka also later during the shooting of Limonádový Joe; the lyrics are a

special mixture of English and Spanish without an obvious meaning. I will analyze it more

thoroughly in the chapter dealing with Limonádový Joe. As a goodbye, the hero shoots holes

64 Brdečka 1988, p. 15.

40

in the lady’s book in the shape of a heart and in return he gets one knitted sock from her. This

scene has clearly a tone of parody: instead of exchanging a common kiss, a picture or a photo,

the hero gets one sock – a practical gift, as the nights were cold in the Wild West, but useless

without the other piece.

On the way, inside the dark rock pass (Monument Valley?), another character joins the

crew – the gambler. In contrast to the lady and the hero, he is dressed all in black, the color of

the evil. Moreover, he has a moustache – a typical sign of villains. Throughout the cartoon he

is playing cards all the time, and they eventually become his symbol. When he dies after

falling off a cliff, his body is eaten by the vultures and nothing is left of him – except the

cards. The physical appearance of the evil gambler was created by Jiří Brdečka according to

his own appearance.

The humorous aspect of Árie prérie is based on the simplifying division of categories into

good/bad and on the exaggeration of the qualities of the characters. The whitewashed hero is

shown in a very positive light without a slightest mistake. He possesses special abilities: he is

a perfect shooter, an excellent rider; can elegantly climb a steep rock and smoke a cigarette at

the same time. When the villain throws a huge stone at the hero, the only harm it does him is

the tousling of his haircut, an imperfection which he immediately corrects with a comb. Such

an idealized picture cannot, and should not, be taken seriously. Similar motif, as the one with

the comb, is used also with the lady. While she is hanging on the branch and waiting for her

hero, she uses a flapjack to make up her face. The hostility between the villain and the hero is

exaggerated to such level that neither their horses are on friendly terms. This is particulary in

the scene when the horses cool down their backs in a pond after sliding a hill; after the white

horse has seen that the villain’s horse is also there, he moves away from him. This gesture is

accompanied by a despising sigh. Another western cliché parodied by the authors is the

common immortality of the gunmen in western films. When the stagecoach is attacked by the

41

gambler and his mob, the drunken coachmen is shot several times. Nevertheless, he stays

alive but when he drinks from the bottle of whiskey, the liquid comes out through the holes in

his body. This problem is quickly solved by the other coachmen who bandages the holes.

Finally, I would like to point out Jiří Trnka’s skills in the handling of the puppets. They do

not evoke the usual wooden impression that most of the puppets do but, quite on the contrary,

they have fluent movements and when they sing, they are depicted with open mouths and

closed eyes.

2. 2. 2. Lemonade Joe – a Hero or a Salesman?

2. 2. 2. 1. Origins

Before he appeared on the cinematic screen, Lemonade Joe (read: [Yoe], not [Dzou]) had

gone through several stages. He was originally made to order for a popular magazine Ahoj na

neděli as a parody of dime novels. But as the author himself admitted, he digressed from this

intention and created a satire of western epics instead.65 As a young man, Brdečka saw quite a

number of western films and claimed that those had much greater influence on him than the

“cowboy tales” which he knew only marginally.66 After becoming a literary figure at the

beginning of the 1940’s, Joe was played also in theatres. The success he brought in different

media convinced Brdečka to make a film about Lemonade Joe. Thus, in 1964, the spectators

could see historically first Czech feature western film in the cinemas.

2. 2. 2. 2. Parody as a Genre

Brdečka said that Limonádový Joe was a parody of American western epics. These were the

narrative westerns with capital-intensive production shot at the beginning of the golden era of

westerns, e.g. Stagecoach. The western epics should be distinguished from cheap, low quality

65 Comp. Brdečka 1988, pp. 6-8. 66 Comp. Ibid., p. 8.

42

series of so-called “horse operas”. Apart from western epics, Brdečka directed his humorous

critique to early western films starring singing cowboys such as Tom Mix or Gene Autry.

Reference to this early western period is evident in the visual style of the movie and in the

illustration of the characters.

But to understand the role of parody in Limonádový Joe we have to investigate the matter

further. In the following quote Brdečka describes his plans during work on the script to the

film: “I was looking forward that I will break the rules and stereotypes of genre (that is parody

of westerns), and will write something “in between”, that is combination of humorous, almost

absurd fiction, with many situations and characters who did really exist in the history of the

Wild West.”67 Brdečka’s vision poses a question: is Limonádový Joe a parody or is it more a

fictional comedy? To clarify this ambiguity it will be helpful to make an excursion into the

theoretical field of parody.

Parody is defined as a “special sub-genre of comedy”.68 Its humor is based on the fact that

it distorts conventions of genre. Parody actually exploits the parodied and copies the storyline

and the conventions of genre or heroes in a comic way.69 According to these definitions

Limonádový Joe should be categorized as a parody. As I will demonstrate in the structural

analysis of the movie, it uses all the above mentioned features of parody genre. On the other

hand, Limonádový Joe depicts the characters and especially the mise-en-scène in such a

realistic and serious way that it sometimes evokes an image of an original western film. In

combination with the usage of universal comic gags, the movie could be understood at this

level as a fictional comedy. In this sense, it can be said that Brdečka and Lipský created a

generically original film in which each spectator can find their interpretation.

To understand the nature of parody it is helpful to view this phenomenon in the

postmodern context. Linda Hutcheon, a Canadian feminist writer, claims that a parody is an

67 Brdečka 1988, p. 11. 68 Ptáček, Luboš (ed.). Panoráma českého filmu. Rubico, Olomouc 2000, p. 267. 69 Comp. Ibid.

43

inherently postmodern feature.70 She claims that postmodernism and parody share a common

aspect – “recontextualisation”.71 The term defines a method which enables to see old things in

a new perspective or context. Obviously, this is also what parody does: it takes an established

genre, usually in the phase of exhaustion, and puts it in the context of modern age.

“Recontextualisation” leads to paradoxical situations which form the basis of parody. An

example of such an absurd linkage is Lemonade Joe, a cowboy who drinks and sells

lemonade. Another case of “recontextualistation” in Limonádový Joe is the usage of

advertisements in the milieu of the Wild West.

According to Pytlík, “parody, as a form of comic illustration has got two parts: the

imitation of the original, which has to be thorough and apt. The other side is the lampooning

and significant shift to comic realization”.72 The visual aspect of Limonádový Joe was

rigorously worked out with the loyalty to classical westerns and is a merit of Brdečka’s

excellent knowledge of the history of the Wild West. He was constantly present on the scene

during the shooting and controlled everything from hats to guns and other props. The movie

contains all key features of western as I analyzed them in the introductory part of this thesis:

the stereotypes, the plot, the landscape and other clichés connected with the depiction of the

Wild West in films. There is a typical western town with the main street where you can find a

saloon, a bank or a barber. The main street is a setting for a bank robbery or for settling men’s

disputes in duels. In the saloon, wild fights are an everyday matter; chairs are broken, shots

fired, whiskey pours in liters and prostitutes are available. Nearby the town, a cemetery and

Dead Man’s Valley are situated. The characters – tough white macho guys – ride horses, wear

70 Felluga, Dino. "Modules on Hutcheon: On Parody." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. 28 Nov 2003 http://www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/theory/postmodernism/modules/hutcheonparody.html. 14 Jun 2006. 71 Felluga. http://www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/engl/theory/postmodernism/modules/hutcheonparody.html. 14 Jun 2006. 72 Pytlík, Radko. Fenomenologie humoru. Emporius, Příbram 2000, p. 65.

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leatherstockings, hats and pull the triggers of their Smith & Wessons73. The authentic western

look is also underlined by western music. The quality of the visual side of Limonádový Joe

was noticed also by American critics at film festival in San Francisco where the movie was

shown.74

All the necessary elements of the genre are present, so the first condition of Pytlík’s

definition – the imitation of the original – is successfully met. Ironically, the imitation of the

western genre is maybe too perfect and it is possible that this fact prevented some spectators

to realize the element of parody in the film. Before I will discuss the second part of Pytlík’s

definition I want to demonstrate some parallels connected with the movie’s plot.

2. 2. 2. 3. Narrative Structure

The narrative in Limonádový Joe imitates the plot of western epics and is applicable to

Wright’s classical plot. If we compare the development of the plot to Wright’s sixteen

individual phases (see above), we find many analogies. Lemonade Joe arrives in Stetson City

(1) where he does not know anybody. He is called by the townspeople “a stranger” (2). His

special ability is his temperance, a truly exceptional virtue among the alcohol-based society in

the Wild West. Joe is famous for drinking only Kolaloka (3). When the people see how Joe

copes with the local bandits, they admire him and want to be like him; he becomes a hero (4).

Nevertheless, he is still called “the stranger” and does not settle in the town (5). Joe’s

promotion of Kolaloka causes that the Trigger Whiskey Saloon loses all its customers. A

tension develops between the Badman, who runs the saloon, and the townsfolk (6). The

inhabitants are portrayed as a weak mass without their own opinion; they drink what is in

fashion at the moment. Thus the villains bring them back easily to their saloon (7) and the

73 The Czech actor Karel Fiala (Lemonade Joe) tells a story in the documentary on Czech parodies (see Tváře českého filmu) how the Smith and Wesson gun was borrowed from a museum for the taking of Limonádový Joe and was repaired especially for this opportunity. 74 Brdečka 1988, p. 206.

45

glorification of alcohol, gambling and sex begins anew. The strong relationship between Joe

and Horác is later confirmed by their common kinship (8). The renewed revelry has a harmful

effect on the society (9). At first, Joe does not want to intervene and leaves the town (10). But

when evil Horác kidnaps Joe’s fiancée Winnifred (11) Joe takes action immediately (12).

After overcoming a few obstacles he manages to defeat the rascals (13) and save the town

from alcoholism (14). Finally, Joe marries Winnifred, loses his individualistic status (15) and

becomes an ordinary citizen (16).

By using the most common narrative patter, the authors indicated their awareness and

disapproval of the schematism which can be traced repeatedly in the majority of western

films. This cliché was already satirized in Árie prérie.

2. 2. 2. 4. Joe, Horác, Winnifred, Tornado Lou and Other Stereotypes

Limonádový Joe contains all the stereotypes of classical western film as I defined them in the

introductory part of this thesis. There is, nevertheless, one important difference: the qualities

of the characters in Limonádový Joe are hyperbolic and simplifying. In order to create a

parody, the authors portrayed the stereotypes as “white” – too perfect, divine figures or as

“black” devilish criminals. This simplification is projected also in the colors of the costumes

of these characters. In other words the structural dichotomy good/bad is exaggerated in

Limonádový Joe to extremes. The examples I have just mentioned are the second aspect of

Pytlík’s definition of parody – the subversion of original genre’s form and shift to comic

realization. In this sense, caricature and exaggeration are the crucial methods of parody and

grotesque. As Thomson puts it “One laughs at a caricature because a recognizable or typical

person or characteristics is distorted (or stylized) in a ridiculous and amusing way – that is a

46

peculiar feature is exaggerated to the point of abnormality.”75 I will show how this principle

works when applied on concrete characters from Limonádový Joe.

The most obviously parodied western cliché of the movie is its hero Lemonade Joe (Karel

Fiala). As his name prompts he is an advocate of lemonade. This is one of his absurd qualities

– a cowboy who drinks only lemonade. Next paradoxical moment comes when the spectator

finds out that he is also a salesman of this product. The idea of a Westerner as a lonely

melancholic figure wandering through the desert is lampooned in Limonádový Joe when Joe

calls himself expressively “a lonely wolf” and “avenger of injustice”.

Joe reminds us of the first cowboys, such as Tom Mix or Gene Autry, or even cartoons like

Lucky Luke. Just like the hero in Árie prérie, Joe is dressed in an ironed white outfit and rides

a white horse. He is very touchy about the neatness of his clothes. He keeps it clean

throughout the whole movie. When he falls through the chimney into Lou’s apartment, he

cleans himself miraculously in few seconds. The biggest humiliation for Joe is the final

torturing when the members of Grimpo’s mob pour various liquids over him, thus sullying his

spotless white dress. Such an obsession with tidiness is of course unthinkable in the real life

of rough men in the Wild West and makes Joe a ridiculous figure.

Concerning the physical appearance, Joe is a handsome, blond, neatly shaved fellow with

behavior of a real gentleman. Nevertheless, his politeness seems absurd in certain contexts,

e.g. during the pursuing of Horác he comes to Lou’s room through the chimney and the first

thing he does is that he apologizes that he did not knock. No matter what situation Joe gets

into, he does not forget to greet everybody first. When the torturers threaten Joe with throwing

him into a well, Joe asks them to label the well afterwards as polluted and dangerous for

health. Simply, Joe is the embodiment of Autry’s “Ten Commandments”, the moral code of

early cowboys.

75 Thomson, Philip. The Grotesque. Cox & Wyman Ltd., Fakeham 1972, p. 38.

47

Joe’s entrée on the scene is fabulous: he appears in the door of Trigger Whiskey Saloon

and is fully enlightened by the sun from the back. Another shot glorifying Joe’s magnificence

is used when he is walking along Stetson’s main street and the earth is shaking under him.

Those saint-like images clearly dub Joe a hero number one. When the bank is robbed, Joe

hides, together with Winnifred and her father Ezra Goodman, behind a water tank. From there

he comments on the poor ability of the shooters who are fighting the criminals (utterances

such as: “No bodies, bums!”) and in between his speech he shoots all four robbers. Joe’s

extraordinary shooting performance is exaggerated to such degree that he even strikes a fly in

the air. Joe’s primary position among the gunmen is justified by the consumption of Kolaloka.

In this context all Joe’s heroic deeds can be understood as a kind of promotion of this product.

In other scenes, Joe is given supernatural qualities: he jumps off a high cliff and “flies” down

in a Superman-like style for unrealistically long time.

With such a hyperbolic image of the cowboy Brdečka wanted to lampoon and criticize the

idealized depiction of the Westerner in the early westerns. The cowboys were then often

mythologized and presented as an incarnation of good. This trend began to change only in the

1960’s during the genre’s revisionist phase when the hero acquired more realistic signs.

Joe’s greatest admirers are female characters Winnifred (Olga Schoberová) and Tornado

Lou (Květa Fialová). The two are complete opposites – Winnie is the embodiment of virtue

and Lou the sinful coquette. Logically, Joe chooses Winnifred as his future wife. She is a

confident temperance fighter, a member of Arizona Revival, so she fits to Joe’s abstinence

perfectly. Like Joe, Winnifred is associated with colors of the good side – she is dressed in

white and has got blond hair. She is clearly the “schoolmarm” stereotype. Except of being a

pious, naïve girl, she is also portrayed in the movie as silly and childish. This was probably

done by the author to satirize the often romanticized stereotype of a “rancher’s daughter”. For

example during her temperance speech in Trigger Whiskey Saloon, Winnifred forgets the

48

words and is unable to improvise. Her father prompts the text to her. They depend on each

other and usually occur at the scene together. Winnifred’s next childish aspect is that almost

every trifle makes her cry. This quality of hers is exaggerated and lampooned in the scene

with Horác dressed up for a blind piano tuner. During his moving story Winnifred’s

handkerchief is literally soaked with tears and consequently she has to wring it.

Tornado Lou is a caricature of all the western’s saloon girls. Dark femme fatale, wearing

fancy black dresses, the authors place Lou on the rotten side, together with the Badmans

family. Towards the end of the movie, as Lou redeems, she is dressed in white clothes. Lou

ironically calls herself “an artist”, ignoring the fact that singing for drunken gunmen in a

saloon can hardly be considered as a form of art. Most of the prostitutes or singers on the

Frontier wanted to live better lives and the character of Tornado Lou is no exception.

Throughout the movie she keeps repeating one sentence: “I want to be different, better.” This

wish is repeated over and over until it becomes an empty phrase. In this sense she could be

associated with the redeemed prostitute Dallas from Stagecoach. Tornado Lou links her inner

transformation together with an ideal man – a champion – for whom she waits. Finally, he

comes, but to Lou’s distress he chooses Winnie for his wife. It is, of course, Lemonade Joe.

Despite the unfulfilled love, Lou gradually becomes “better”, her transformation culminating

in a decision to open her own brothel where she would offer Kolaloka lemonade. Hopefully,

the audience realized the humorous tone behind Lou’s “noble” achievement.

There is a numerous group of negative characters in Limonádový Joe but one of them is

clearly outstanding – Horác Badman alias Hogo Fogo (Miloš Kopecký). He is an orthodox

villain, a master of disguise, a sharper. Horác puts on black clothes and wears a moustache, a

typical accessory of all criminals. If Joe’s character was is exaggerated to positive

superlatives, Horác’s qualities are the worst from worse. He is wanted in four states – a

consequence of his rich criminal past. When Horác and his brother Doug reminisce about

49

“good old days” we get to know that they robbed banks, trains and stagecoaches, murdered

etc. Now they are involved in business with whiskey. Horác’s cunning nature is lampooned in

his disguises. During the film he changes several costumes but to the spectator he is always

easily recognizable. Nonetheless the other characters of the movie are always fooled by

Horác’s masquerade and even his own brother Doug Badman or Lemonade Joe do not

uncover his true identity. This fact increases Horác’s credit as a professional criminal. Tereza

Brdečková, Czech film critic and daughter of Jiří Brdečka, recognized in Horác John

Carradine who played the gambler Hatfield in Stagecoach. Indeed, these two characters share

similar features – they wear a moustache, they are charming and play cards.

Another important negative character is Grimpo (Josef Hlinomaz). It is one of the best

worked out caricatures of the movie. In contrast to Horác’s corrupt creativity and intelligence,

Grimpo’s significance lies mainly in his physical strength. His hyperbolic roughness ridicules

the dullness of all the tough guys of western epics. Instead of eating meat as a real gunman,

Grimpo eats a violin, a stick or even a glass. After eating the glass, he cleans his mouth with a

handkerchief, an absurd gesture for a bandit. The excellent acting of Josef Hlinomaz in the

role of Grimpo should be pointed out. His mimics and body language are remarkable and

complete the overall comic effect of the character.

An important feature of western films in connection with Limonádový Joe has not been

considered yet – the minorities. In this sense, Limonádový Joe imitates other western classics.

This means that the movie is focused almost entirely on white race. The other races –

Mexicans, the Blacks or the Indians are dealt with only marginally. The two members of

Grimpo’s bunch are Mexicans – Pancho Kid and Kojot Kid. As their names indicate, they are

closely connected with each other and always appear on the scene in pair. With this image,

the authors might have criticized the usual depiction of Mexicans in westerns which neglected

their individuality and rather displayed them as an anonymous mass. The only “black”

50

character in Limonádový Joe is Horac’s disguise of black trumpet player which is depicted

stereotypically: his face is covered with black cream and has exaggeratedly huge white lips.

The black musician resembles the Sambo stereotype; his behavior is as ridiculous as Sambo’s

– moving fast from one place of the room to another and performing a funny dance.76 There is

also one Indian in Limonádový Joe, although a very inconspicuous one. He is hidden behind

the screen in Horác’s room together with other musicians and playing drum. He is standing in

a static posture and looks more like a wooden statue than a living being.

Some scenes in Limonádový Joe refer directly to concrete western classics. For example

Doug Badman, leaning in a chair on the porch in front of the Saloon is analogous to similar

scene with Wyat Earp from My Darling Clementine. Another reference to the same movie is

Joe’s visit at the barber, again imitating Earp at the hairdresser’s.

Apart from the above mentioned stereotypes, there are other minor characters and more

general clichés parodied. For example the impression of Tornado Lou’s performance makes

the gunmen in the saloon cry. By connecting two unusual categories, gunmen and cry, the

director causes an absurd effect which results in amusement. The way the characters greet

each other can be seen as being abnormal in the context of western as well. The murderers are

addressed “gunman”, Lemonade Joe is called “a stranger” and Tornado Lou “a lady”. Even

more humorous is when Joe insults Grimpo and uses following abuses: “stinky coyote”,

“smelly skunk” or “smelly opossum”. The vocabulary of an ordinary gunfighter from

American western film is usually much harsher.

The names in Limonádový Joe reveal a tone of playful parody as well. To make it easier

for the spectator to identify the positive figures and differentiate them from the villains, the

authors divided the names of the characters into two family clans, according to their personal

76 As Pospíšil explains the Sambo stereotype has its roots in the so-called Jim Crow dance. This dance was performed by a white comedian with face covered by black cream as a parody of Afro-American dances. (Comp. Pospíšil, Tomáš. Sambo tu již nebydlí? obraz Afroameričanů v americkém filmu 20. století. Nadace Universitas Masarykiana, Brno 2003, p. 17)

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conviction. Thus we have two families – the Goodmans and the Badmans. The virtuous

temperance fighters, Winnifred and her father Ezra, belong to the first family, whereas the

owners of Trigger Whiskey Saloon – Doug and Horác – and Tornado Lou are members of the

Badmans clan. The disclosure in the end of the movie is surprising: Lemonade Joe, Horác,

Doug and Lou find out that they are all members of one family which means that Joe is

associated with the Badmans as well. The clear distinction of the movie’s characters into the

two families with their appropriate names, criticizes the “black and white” depiction of

figures in classical western films.

There are also other amusing names in Limonádový Joe referring to western clichés. The

town’s name is Stetson City, alluding to the name of the famous cowboy hat. Another

reference to the Wild West is e.g. the Dead Man’s Valley, funny version of the real Dead

Valley in the South West of the United States. Perhaps the most obvious of all parodied

names in the movie is the brand of Joe’s favorite lemonade – Kolaloka. Originally, the

lemonade should be called Kolakoka.77 Then the parodied product would be even clearer. The

lampooned beverage is, of course, the famous American lemonade Coca-Cola.

2. 2. 2. 4. The Style

The encyclopedia of Czech film informs that during the realization of the mise-en-scène of

Limonádový Joe, Lipský was inspired by silent grotesques.78 This inspiration is clearly visible

in the film, since it is shot in black and white colors and uses some of the methods typical for

a grotesque. Lipský is either accelerating or decelerating the shot, according to the character

of the scene and the effect he wants to cause. Acceleration is used mainly in the gunfight

scenes, for example in Trigger Whiskey Saloon when Joe shoots down Grimpo’s trousers and

Grimpo scoots upstairs to his room. The fight scenes in the saloon, such as the famous one at

77 Comp. Brdečka 1988, p. 4. 78 Comp. Ptáček 2000, p. 287.

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the beginning of the film, evoke the destruction fights in dumb grotesque films. On the other

hand, deceleration can be seen when Winnifred sings the song “Arizona” in God Bless

Kolaloka Saloon. The slow shot gives the director time to contrast Winnifred’s singing with

the shots from the saloon fights.

Photography in Limonádový Joe often uses close-ups. For example the funny detailed shot

of Joe’s mouth when he is singing or the close-up of Winnifred’s eyes which captures well

her misery. It is a remarkable coincidence, that Sergio Leone’s For a Fistful of Dollars which

was released in the same year as Limonádový Joe contains the same close-up shots. Another

interesting camera technique in the movie is the double exposure. It is used in the scene when

Joe rides through Fatamorgana Valley. The background changes along the way and we can

see images of the Pyramids, Prague castle or Winnifred calling for Joe’s help.

The most striking technique which Lipský introduced in Limonádový Joe is the tinting. By

using filters of different colors he distinguished various settings and completed their

atmosphere. Critic Jan Bernard comments on the tinting in Limonádový Joe: “As far as I

know, it was the first piece, in the experimental era of Antonioni and Vard with color film,

which bravely revived the old filter technique.”79 Three colors are used in the film – yellow,

red and blue. The choice of colors and its association with particular scenes is adequate to

traditional color symbolism: “In general, cool colors (blue, green, violet) tend to suggest

tranquility, aloofness, and serenity…Warm colors (red, yellow, orange) suggest

aggressiveness, violence and stimulation”.80 The yellow filter enlightens the outdoor scenes –

Stetson’s main street, Dead Man’s Valley, the cemetery but is also used for the interior of the

Trigger Whiskey Saloon. As the above quote prompts this color illustrates the violent

character of the saloon. The other important function of the yellow filter was certainly to

imitate the scorching heat of the Wild West which would be otherwise hard to evoke in the

79 Brdečka 1998, p. 214. 80 Gianetti, Louis. Understanding Movies. Prentice Hall, New Jersey 2002, p. 25.

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temperate climate Czechoslovakia. The red color accompanies the pictures which are

somehow considered erotic. These are the stimulating scenes showing Tornado Lou’s

performances or the cancan dance of the prostitutes. The blue filter is used only in the setting

of God Bless Kolaloka Saloon. In agreement with Gianetti’s color definition, the scenes from

this non-alcoholic saloon arouse church-like atmosphere. The guests sit calmly at the tables;

the quiet ambiance is dominated by the organ music.

Limonádový Joe also contains many animated parts. This fact may be explained by

Brdečka’s former cooperation with Czech master of cartoon, Jiří Trnka. Trnka also

collaborated on Limonádový Joe. For example, Horác communicates with his brother Doug

through smoking signals. During a card game, Doug reveals to Horác the other player’s cards

by “drawing” their symbols with smoke. The next cartoon device is the animated dotted line,

joining Horác’s and Joe’s bullets during the gunfight. Lipský sometimes combines the feature

film with cartoons, or more precisely, with excerpts from the dime novels or newspapers. This

style is used e.g. when Doug and Horác reminisce about their common criminal past.

Limonádový Joe would not become such a cult without its audio aspect. The music is a

crucial element of the film and Limonádový Joe even looks in certain parts like a musical. The

song “Horác’s Funeral Blues” is accompanied by a cabaret show which seems as if cut out

from some musical. The number one hit of the movie is “Sou Fár Tu Jú Aj Mej”, which

appeared first in Árie prérie. In this song, the English language of western epics became a

target of author’s humorous critique. As the title of the song prompts, the lyrics are in English

(and partly in Spanish) but it is a “special” kind of English. During the first listening the

spectator may not realize this “discrepancy”. But after hearing it again they will find out that

the sentences do not have any meaning. They use English words but these are shuffled at

random. To illustrate this linguistic anecdote, I will quote a few lines from the above

mentioned song:

54

„Sou fár tu jú aj mej for tu náj mí tu sej

mu ča či ta mia kára to verá on maj dej sej aj

Gud báj gud báj.“81

It is not that the authors of Joe did not speak English very well; they rather wanted

Limonádový Joe to be a close imitation of the original American westerns so they used the

traditional language of western films. To add the humorous aspect to the song, they put the

words in wrong order so they are meaningless. When Limonádový Joe was released in the

1960’s, not many Czech people spoke English. Ironically, it is possible that they were not able

to notice this level of parody within the movie.

Finally, I would like to comment on the acting in Limonádový Joe. According to Czech

historian and critic Taussig, “without good actors, there would not be a good parody. They

also have to know the form which is parodied.”82 Most of the actors in Limonádový Joe

belong in the category of Czech elite actors. Names such as Miloš Kopecký, Květa Fialová or

Olga Schoberová are associated with good quality films. In parodies in general and in case of

Limonádový Joe as well, the key element of actor’s performance grounds in the sincerity with

which he or she plays the essentially comic character. In the words of a critic, “the comic

actor has got a special gift, which distinguishes him from the tragic actor, and this is the

ability to show the hyperbole with all details of life, with dead pan humor, proximity and at

the same time with maximal sincerity.”83 Watching the character in a funny situation with a

deadly serious expression in his or her face makes the spectator laugh. Karel Fiala as Joe

demonstrated that he understands the comic nature of his role very well. Cowboys are tough

guys and had to evoke a serious and loyal impression. A sentence sincerely uttered by Joe

81 Brdečka 1988, p. 172. 82 Ibid., p. 17. 83 Boček, Jaroslav. O Komedii. Orbis, Praha 1963, p. 76.

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“Are the nights cold these days?” (“Yes.”) So I should better take warm underwear,” evokes

smile and amusement.

2. 2. 2. 5. Critique of Capitalism

Many critics have noticed that Limonádový Joe, except of being a parody of western clichés

has also another level within the story. According to David Austin, “there is also an odd anti-

capitalist subtext.”84 By odd, Austin does not mean that the concept itself is odd but rather

that it is difficult to say from the movie, whether the director is being serious or not.85 Before

I will suggest possible answer to Austin’s question I will analyze the anti-capitalist reading of

the story.

By criticizing capitalism and its elements in the 1960’s, Brdečka has forgone his time.

Limonádový Joe depicts the society as weak, easily influenced by the individual product’s

competitors. In this sense, the movie is still highly relevant even today.

When we first see Lemonade Joe in Trigger Whiskey Saloon, he is persuading the drunken

gunmen about the harmful effects of alcohol and seems to be just another Arizona Revival

member. Later, at the cemetery, Winnifred finds out from Joe’s diary that he is a dealer of

Kolaloka lemonade. Pleased by this fact, she is interrogating Joe about his percentage from

the profit and consequently agrees on engagement. In “return” Winnie asks Joe for small

percentage share. This market behavior is also characteristic for Joe. When Tornado Lou

saves his life, he asks her what she wants in return. When she replies that she did it for the

sake of love, Joe is very disturbed by her “non-commercial” gesture.

Although Joe evokes a positive impression of hero, his main interest seems to be Kolaloka

and her sale. As I explained, the name Kolaloka is a word rebus of the brand Coca-Cola. Joe

84 Austin, David. Lemonade Joe, or The Horse Opera: Surrealist Czech Western. Cinema Strikes Back, 2005. http://www.cinemastrikesback.com/index.php?p=17. 18 Jun 2006. 85 Comp. Austin. http://www.cinemastrikesback.com/index.php?p=17. 18 Jun 2006.

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identifies Kolaloka with “law”. Taking this idea further, this means that Coca-Cola rules the

world, in other words that our world is governed by global companies, such as Coca-Cola.

Rachel Sanders, a film critic, comments accurately on the following statement from the film:

“What’s good for Kolaloka is good for the law,” declares one character, accurately predicting

the relationship between government and corporations in early 21st century America.86

From certain perspective Limonádový Joe can be viewed as an allegory of the competitive

fight between whiskey and Kolaloka. The advocates of whiskey, Doug and Horác Badman

compete with Lemonade Joe, the sales representative of Kolaloka. The ordinary people from

Stetson City are dragged into this commercial fight. They are portrayed in the movie as weak

and very easily influenced: they are consuming whiskey in liters but when Joe comes and

promotes the good effects of Kolaloka everybody switches the brand and moves to Kolaloka

Saloon. Then the famous outlaw Horác Badman arrives and visits the Kolaloka saloon. He

orders a bottle of lemonade and after having a sip he cries out: “Ugh!” The sheriff reacts

quickly and asks him: “Did you say ‘ugh’ to Kolaloka lemonade, stranger?” After Horác

confirms it, the Sheriff calls him “an anarchist”. Brdečka used again a hyperbolic device to

highlight the criticized nature of capitalism – uniformity; who does not follow the fashion is

an opponent of capitalism, an anarchist. Nevertheless, Horác’s criminal fame and charm

enchants the consumers of Kolaloka so much that they return to Whiskey, a drink for “real

men”.

The competitive fight is supported by the traditional capitalist “weapon” – advertisement.

This takes several forms in the movie. Firstly, Joe himself is a “living” advertisement for

Kolaloka lemonade. Because he drinks Kolaloka, he is the best shooter in the town and the

women lie at his feet. Moreover, Joe has almost fetishistic relation to this soft drink; after he

86 Sanders, Rachel. Lemonade Joe. Apollo Guide. Intelligent Reviews Online.

http://apolloguide.com/mov_fullrev.asp?CID=4170&Specific=4931. 19 Jun 2006.

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drinks from the bottle of Kolaloka, he kisses it. Commodity fetishism is one of the crucial

features of capitalism.

Secondly, some of the dialogues in Limonádový Joe sound like commercial slogans, e.g.

after the duel in the main street in which both men die, the doctor states death and exclaims:

“When the consumer of Kolaloka lemonade shoots, it is not necessary to call a doctor.”

Authors’ intention was to satirize the idea of advertisement as such and to suggest that

nowadays you can promote almost any kind of product. This idea is evident when Horác

advertises whiskey: “Alcohol in little potion, is not harmful in any kind of amount.”

The next form of promotion used in the film is the printed advertisement. One morning

Stetson is covered with Kolaloka posters. These show two American presidents, George

Washington and Abraham Lincoln, leading an absurd dialogue: “If I were alive I would drink

Kolaloka,” says Washington. “Me too,” replies Lincoln. This poster is an amusing parody of

American patriotism which is a popular device in American commercials. A careful spectator

will notice that there are pictures with notices hanging in different places during the film. For

example in Tornado Lou’s room there is a capitalist sign: “Hard work, spells success.”

Taussig describes the amusement elicited by this Puritan note during the projection of

Limonádový Joe in the United States.87 Another sign, promoting consumption, is situated in

the Kolaloka Saloon: “Better buy, than borrow.”

The satirical glorification of capitalism culminates at the end of the film. In the final scene,

almost as cut out from a soap opera, the dead characters are revived (parody of the frequent

“immortality” of heroes in westerns?) and discover their common kinship. Joe, Lou, Horác

and Doug are all members of the same family. Now a problem arises: there are two brands

and only one family. This obstacle is solved in a way which is characteristic for current global

economy – a fusion is made and a new product is born. The product is named accordingly

87 Limonádový Joe. DVD. Bonusový materiál. Slovo historika.

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Whiskola. Capitalism is once again celebrating its victory or in the words of Mr. Kolaloka “I

knew good was going to win.” Capitalism is satirically considered in the movie as being good.

Everybody is happy and Horác is even thinking about reforming his life and stop being a

villain. But his father, Mr. Kolaloka, assures him that their business needs villains too. This is

another critical statement directed towards the corruption of capitalism. The final discovery of

gold and petrol suggests the future growth of capitalism.

To clarify the issue questioned by Austin – whether Brdečka was serious about the anti-

capitalist message of Limonádový Joe – I will make an excursion into the political situation in

Czechoslovakia in the 1960’s. At that time, Europe was divided into to alien camps –

capitalist and socialist – as a consequence of Cold War which resulted from the World War II.

Czechoslovakia belonged to the Communist bloc which was controlled by the Soviet Union.

The capitalist camp was lead by the other superpower – the United States. Brdečka was

logically influenced by the anti-imperialist atmosphere of Czechoslovakia of the 1960’s and

probably projected his critique in Limonádový Joe. Slovak film critic, Peter Horňák, accused

Brdečka of being principally anti-American and claimed that Limonádový Joe was a

pedagogical pamphlet rather than a parody.88 Outraged by his opinion Brdečka excluded the

possibility that Limonádový Joe should serve as some kind of an educational ideology. To

clarify the misunderstanding he described the period when he was working on the screenplay

as a time of change towards liberalization. This trend was in process since the 1960’s and

eventually lead to Prague spring in 1968.89 Brdečka than explained why he included the anti-

capitalist message in his movie: He wanted to express his disapproval of the commercial

background of classical American westerns. Rather than being interested in the authentic

portrayal of the Frontier, the American directors are driven by the possibility of profit and

88 Brdečka 1988, p. 191. 89 Comp. Ibid., p. 192.

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create westerns in such way, as to make them attractive for the spectators.90 Following quote

should dispose Austin of his doubts: “My screenplay was not addressed to the myth (that is

myth of the West) but rather to the abuse of this myth. Hypocritically moral gunman, ensuring

his popularity by consumption of lemonade – that is an illustration of business with a myth.”91

In this context Brdečka should not be seen as a strict left-wing advocate but rather as a critic

who was aware of the commercially oriented American culture and could predict the

inevitable cultural decline of such society.

2. 2. 2. 6. Critics and Awards

Finally, I would like to close the chapter about Limonádový Joe by informing briefly about

the acceptance of the movie in Czechoslovakia and other countries, above all in the homeland

of the western genre – the United States.

The Czechoslovak premiere took place on 16th October 1964. In general, the film war

received positively by critics. Nevertheless, they expressed several reservations. The most

common objection was the imbalance between the first and the second part of the movie.

Some critics considered the second part as “too slow” and “lengthy”, loosing the element of

parody and concentrating more on the anti-capitalist motif.92 An example of such critique

would be following quote by Otakar Váňa: “Somewhere in the middle, the parody changes

into satire by highlighting a new updating track. Nevertheless, it is here where Limonádový

Joe begins to lose its former pace.”93 Other frequent reservation was that the purpose of the

movie, which is to parody bad western films, went in vain. This means that most of the

audience lacked the necessary knowledge of parodied genre. This was not so much fault of

the author of the movie but rather a consequence of the low distribution of American

90 Comp. Brdečka 1988, p. 196. 91 Ibid., p. 197. 92 Ibid., p. 19. 93 Ibid., p. 183.

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westerns. In this context one critic marked Limonádový Joe as a parody “without a

fundament”.94 The actress Květa Fialová (Tornado Lou) describes her experience from the

cinema in East Germany where she was on a tour together with the other actors: after the

projection the actors came on the stage only to see the unsatisfied audience which threw

bottles and other objects at them. The East Germans asked why did the dead characters in the

movie come to life again; they simply did not understand the movie.95

The situation was different in America and in western European countries. There the

spectators were literally flooded by western films so they could enjoy the entertainment based

on the spoof of western clichés. Moreover, Brdečka and Lipský did a pioneer work by

shooting a parody of westerns, thus introducing a phenomenon which was rare even in

cinemas of western countries. Lipský speaks about the time when Limonádový Joe was shown

at the film festival in San Francisco: After the projection, he was asked by the president of the

American Film Academy to send the movie to Hollywood.96 Lipský says that “it was

historically the first case when a Czechoslovakian film had a chance to gain the Oscar.”97

Unfortunately, the lack of financial means ruined the prospects. Moreover, the next year

American director Elliot Silverstein produced a parody of westerns – Cat Ballou (1965) –

which was awarded several Oscars. Lipský thinks that Silverstein “cut out his movie

according to Limonádový Joe”.98 In the United States Limonádový Joe was accepted tepidly in

general. The only aspect of the movie which the critics praised was its visual side.99 They

lacked the action of American westerns and called for additional editing. Stanley Eichelbaum

from San Francisco Examiner did not like the anti-capitalist message of the movie: “the

major part of this satire is rather an anti-American dialectics than an innocent parody of

94 Brdečka 1988, p. 186. 95 See Tváře českého filmu. 96 Comp. Lihem, Antonín J. Ostře sledované filmy. Československá zkušenost. Národní filmový archiv, Praha 2001, p. 174. 97 Lihem 2001, p. 175. 98 Ibid. 99 Brdečka 1988, p. 206.

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Hollywood westerns.”100 Obviously the proud “founders” of western genre could not bear a

witty critique from the country as insignificant in the production of westerns as

Czechoslovakia. Eichelbaum should have realized that Limonádový Joe is actually both – an

anti-capitalist satire and an amusing parody of western clichés. The reaction of famous

American actor Henry Fonda, who played the glorified western hero Wyatt Earp, declares that

at least some of the Americans have understood the film. After the projection of Limonádový

Joe at the film festival in Karlovy Vary he said: “I have not had so much fun for a long

time.”101

The reactions of European critics about Limonádový Joe varied immensely: (Lipský) “is

demystifying in a pleasing way the old western films”102 claimed one French critic, while the

other wrote that “this lemonade is a bit flat.”103 Finally, Limonádový Joe came through in

Spain at XXI. International Film Festival in San Sebastian in 1964. Surprised but pleased, the

authors returned home with three awards – the Silver Shell – being the most important one.

Many critics saw Limonádový Joe in San Sebastian and commented on the movie afterwards.

The feedback was generally positive, e.g. Anton Dietrich, a West German film critic describes

the movie in the following terms: “An impish caricature of American westerns, full of ideas

and gags, where grotesque is combined with irony. Laughing aloud, the spectator does not

even realize, that the movie is not only entertaining but at the same time moralizing and

offending the capitalist system.”104

After San Sebastian Limonádový Joe was sold in many countries, the resources claim that

the movie “traveled” to more than fifty of them.105

100 Brdečka 1988, pp. 206-207. 101 Vysekalová, Jitka. Oldřich Lipský. Cesta za humorem. Československý filmový ústav, Praha 1984, p. 13. 102 Brdečka 1988, p. 197. 103 Ibid., p. 198. 104 Ibid., p. 204. 105 Vysekalová 1984, p. 13.

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3. Other European Parodies of Westerns – Manitou’s Shoe

The next country which proved that it can deal with the western genre with humor was

Germany. Nevertheless, the German directors chose slightly different target than Brdečka did

in Limonádový Joe. The Germans actually parodied themselves. The production of western

films in Germany was separated into two “camps”: East and West. Whereas East produced

quality pro-Indian westerns, West shot the romanticized western “fairy-tales” based on the

adaptations of Karl May’s novels. The films about the adventures of Apache chief Winnetou

and his inseparable white blood brother Greenhorn Old Shatterhand became a cult in Europe.

In 2001 West-German director and comedian Michael Bully Herbig released Manitou’s Shoe,

an apt parody of “May” westerns.

Before I will analyze the parody itself a characteristic of the material it lampoons should

be explained. To understand the nature of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand movies we have to

go back to the “father” of these figures – Karl May. May, who himself visited the United

States only four years before his death, created in his books a highly idealized image of the

Wild West based on the travel books, anthropological guides to the fauna and flora of the

Southwest.106 This would not be such problem if May had not presented his books as

trustworthy resources. As Fenin and Everson inform: “May claimed to have lived among the

Indians, and to be writing of events of which he had heard firsthand accounts.”107 Later on,

May was forced to admit that he was a deceiver. Thanks to May’s romantic vision of the

Frontier most Germans gained a distorted idea of the real life in the West. The “May”

westerns, in comparison to DEFA Indian films, are full of clichés and romantic views of the

relationships between the white settlers and the Indians. Thus they should be considered as

adventurous fairy-tales for juvenile audience.

106 Comp. Hollick, Julian Crandall. Winnetou and Old Shatterhand. The American West in the European Imagination. Independent Broadcasting Associates, Inc. 2002. http://www.ibaradio.org/Europe/winnetou/ia/ia2.htm. 10 Jan 2006. 107 Fenin, Everson 1973, p. 324.

63

The most classical West German westerns are: Apache Gold (Winnetou 1. Teil, 1963), a

trilogy with two other parts; and The Treasure of Silver Lake (Der Schatz im Silbersee, 1962).

The theme of May’s novels and consequently the plot of the movies based on them, are

very well known in Eastern Europe. May projected his ego into the figure of a young German

writer Karl, with a nickname Old Shatterhand, who comes west to help with the construction

of the railroad. Because the construction works take place in the land of Apache tribe, Old

Shatterhand is captured by Winnetou and has to buy out his life in a race with Winnetou’s

father Intchu-tchuna. Not surprisingly, Old Shatterhand wins but, moreover, he preserves

Intchu-tchuna’s life. Consequently, Winnetou and Old Shatterhand become blood brothers

and an inseparable friendship develops between them. They wander through the Wild West’s

deserts and get involved in series of adventures.

The director of “May” western films, Harald Reinl, realized his movies with great loyalty

to the original. The Indians are portrayed romantically as possessors of natural wisdom and

with respect to their customs. They speak Indian dialect but Winnetou can also speak the

language of white people even though he uses figurative style inherent to Indian

communication. Both, Winnetou and Old Shatterhand are depicted in a highly idealized

manner. Their harmonious relationship sometimes acquires almost homo-erotic qualities.108

They are the positive characters who fight for the peaceful Frontier, a vision which is

constantly being spoilt by Yankees and aggressive Indian tribes (e.g. the Shoshones). The

negative characters are represented by Santer, a white villain who had come to the West in

search of gold, and his bunch. Female characters are dealt with even less marginally than in

classical American westerns. The “Winnetou” westerns, in order to preserve their romantic

notion, are strongly asexual. Tassilo Schneider describes this trend in following words: “It is

as if the “May” films strive to protect their male protagonists from the threat of sexuality, and

108 Comp. Schneider 1998, p. 150.

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to keep them within the confines of a mythically pure, ‘innocent’, i.e., pre-/asexual boyhood

universe”.109 One of the few women in these movies is Winnetou’s sister Nscho-tschi who

falls in love with Old Shatterhand but the director “lets he die” before any sexual relationship

can be developed. Other minor characters include the ridiculous trapper Sam Hawkens or

adventurous journalist and butterfly hunter Lord Castlepool.

Manitou’s Shoe reveals that Michael Bully Herbig has studied the “May” films very

thoroughly. The two main protagonists Indian Apahachi and white settler Ranger clearly

parody Winnetou and Old Shetterhand from “May” westerns. Nevertheless, their relationship

is illustrated as far less harmonious. Throughout the movie they argue as if they were a long-

married couple. In these quarrels, the cultural differences between them are highlighted

(Apahachi does not like the way Ranger rides the horse, Ranger on the other hand considers

Apahachi to be too slow in everything). In other scenes, Herbig spoofs the cultural enrichment

which Apahachi and Ranger exchange, e.g. when Ranger teaches wild Apahachi how to use

cutlery or brush his teeth.

The romanticized idea of Indians and their skills of “May” westerns are satirized in

Manitou’s Shoe, e.g. the Shoshone Indians do not have any horses but a small pony; Apahachi

is portrayed as clumsy – he falls off a horse or is not able to sneak in a house without being

noticed by the villains. On the other hand, Apahachi’s craftsmanship is sometimes visibly

exaggerated: sitting by the fire with the Greek Dimitri, he carves out a (useless) wooden toy in

couple of seconds.

The arch-villain and caricature of Santer is Santa Maria, a real-estate agent. The plot is

based on the tension between Santa Maria and his child-like gang on one side and Apahachi,

Ranger and their absurd crew on the other. These two groups compete in a hunt for a treasure

hidden near Manitou’s shoe. The element of the “treasure hunt” is obviously taken from

109 Schneider 1998, p. 150.

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another “May” western – The Treasure of Silver Lake. Herbig uses many motifs from this

western, e.g. the secret way from the “Pink Face Powder Ranch” or the final scene with a trap

door protecting the treasure inside the cave. The representative of women in Manitou’s Shoe

is half-Indian girl and saloon singer Ushi. In comparison to the females in “May” westerns,

Ushi is depicted more sexually.

The homo-erotic element of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand’s friendship was incorporated

by Herbig in the figure of Apahachi’s homosexual twin brother Winnetouch. Surrounded by

pink, Winnetouch lives on the “Pink Face Powder Ranch”, in original German “Puder Rosa

Ranch” – a parody of Ponderosa Ranch.110

Herbig did not forget to create a caricature of the author of the European myth about the

Wild West himself – Karl May. In Manitou’s Shoe he is caricatured as a drunken writer in

Dimitri’s taverna.

Like the Czech parody western Limonádový Joe, Manitou’s Shoe also includes

advertisements. These are references to concrete German commercials so the comical effect is

unfortunately weakened in the non-German versions of the movie. An example is the scene in

front of the cave with the treasure. Santa Maria goes inside the cave and commands his bunch

to wait outside. They ask him to bring them “some present, some surprise, some chocolate,”

which is a parody of the German commercial for chocolate eggs with small toys inside.111

Another feature which the film shares with Limonádový Joe are the songs which

accompany the movie. We can hear a wide range of songs, such as Ushi’s western blues sang

in English or ridiculous “Lebkuchen” song in German.112

But Manitou’s Shoe is not only a spoof of the “Winnetou” westerns and the mythologized

West they depict. A fan of western films will notice that there are also some analogies to

110 Ponderosa Ranch was an amusement Wild West park near Lake Tahoe in Nevada opened until 2004. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Der Shuh des Manitu. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Schuh_des_Manitu. 24 Jun 2006. 111 Kinderschokolade in German. 112 Lebkuchen dance is a traditional German dance.

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classical “Spaghetti western” Once Upon a Time in the West. These references vary from an

inconspicuous shots to whole scenes taken from the Italian western: there is a close-up of the

wooden board hanging in the air with a sign “Station”; Ranger playing his harmonica

resembles the character Harmonica; the scene in which Apahachi standing on Ranger’s

shoulders and trying to reach an apple from a tree is a clear analogy to the scene in which

Harmonica’s brother is killed. Besides westerns, Manitou’s Shoe also lampoons Indiana Jones

and the Temple of Doom (1984) using its “roller coaster” ride at the end of the film.

To sum up the analysis, it has been demonstrated on concrete examples that Manitou’s

Shoe is a spoof of the West German westerns which are based on Karl May novels. Karl May

created a European myth of the American Frontier which was projected also in these

westerns. By his parody, Michael Bully Herbig demythologizes the romantic portrayal of the

Native Americans and the ideal homo-erotic relationship between Winnetou and Old

Shatterhand. Because of the general fame of the “May” westerns throughout Europe,

Manitou’s Shoe can appeal to a wide range of spectators. Nevertheless, in the home of the

genre, the United States, Manitou’s Shoe would probably loose its relevance because its

fundament is not known there.

67

CONCLUSION

The structural analysis of Limonádový Joe has confirmed that the movie is a parody of

American western epics. As I have shown on concrete examples, the storyline of Limonádový

Joe is applicable to Will Wright’s classical plot and the characters from the movie are

representatives of the stereotypes from classical American westerns. Limonádový Joe contains

all necessary features which form the western genre: the hero, guns, horses and western

landscape. The mise-en-scène also copies the action and setting of classical westerns: the

movie includes saloon fights, bad girls, a bank robbery, a duel in the main street, a barber, an

undertaker, a cemetery etc. These essential western clichés are supported by appropriate

choice of costumes and other props. The authentic imitation of the original in Limonádový Joe

fulfills its condition to function as a parody. By applying the techniques of parody, such as

exaggeration, simplification, absurdity or “recontextualisation”, on the characters and

situations with which they deal, Jiří Brdečka spoofs the most frequent western clichés, e.g. the

“black and white” portrayal of characters, the idealization of the hero, the schematism of the

plot in westerns and others. Because Limonádový Joe lampoons the classical American

westerns, its function as a parody has a universal appeal to the international audience of

western genre.

Limonádový Joe can be also interpreted as an allegory of a competition fight between two

brands: Kolaloka and whiskey. From this point of view, Limonádový Joe has an anti-capitalist

message, criticizing the commercial companies driven by the vision of profit and exploiting

the easily influenced consumer society. This anti-capitalist level in the movie reflects

Brdečka’s disapproval with the fact that American directors of westerns, in order to fill the

cinemas and ensure the profit, distort the historical reality of the Wild West portrayed in their

films. In other words, Brdečka criticizes the American directors of westerns for being profit-

oriented.

68

The analysis of the other European parody of westerns, Manitou’s Shoe, has revealed that

it makes fun of other clichés than those valid in case of Limonádový Joe. Herbig’s film is a

spoof of a specific sub-genre within the western genre – the West German westerns based on

the novels by famous German writer Karl May. Thus the main target of Herbig’s humorous

critique are not clichés of American westerns but the romanticized illustration of Indians and

their relationship with white settlers. The basis of the parody in Manitou’s Shoe is the

friendship between red Apahachi and white Ranger which reflects the romanticized homo-

erotic relation between Apache chief Winnetou and white settler Old Shatterhand in the

“May” westerns. The specific orientation of the parody in Manitou’s Shoe (that is on West

German westerns) narrows the range of potential audience. Thus the American spectator,

unfamiliar with the “May” westerns would probably lose the main point of the movie.

69

APPENDIX: Posters

70

PRIMARY SOURCES

Filmography:

Limonádový Joe (1964)

Based on the novel and theatre play by Jiří Brdečka. Screenplay: Jiří Brdečka, Oldřich

Lipský. Directed by: Oldřich Lipský. Cinematography: Vladimír Novotný. Lyrics: Jiří

Brdečka, Vratislav Blažek, Pavel Kopta, Jan Rychlík. Choreography: Josef Koníček.

Designer: Karel Škvor. Sound: Josef Vlček. Editing: Miroslav Hájek. Special effects: Jiří

Trnka, Břetislav Pojar. Cast: Karel Fiala (Lemonade Joe), Rudolf Deyl Jr. (Doug Badman),

Miloš Kopecký (Horác-Hogofogo), Květa Fialová (Tornado Lou), Olga Schoberová

(Winnifred).

Other films analyzed:

1939 Stagecoach, John Ford

1946 Duel in the Sun, King Vidor

1946 My Darling Clementine, John Ford

1949 Aria of the Praire (Árie prérie), Jiří Trnka, Jiří Brdečka

1952 High Noon, Fred Zinneman

1953 Shane, George Stevens

1954 The Seven Samurai (七人の侍), Akira Kurosawa

1960 The Magnificent Seven, John Sturges

1961 Yojimbo (用心棒), Akira Kurosawa

1962 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, John Ford

1964 A Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari), Sergio Leone

1965 Apache Gold (Winnetou 1. Teil, 1963), Harald Reinl

71

1965 Cat Ballou, Elliot Silverstein

1965 For a Few Dollars More (Per qualche dollaro in piu), Sergio Leone

1965 The Treasure of Silver Lake (Der Schatz im Silbersee, 1962), Harald Reinl

1966 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo), Sergio Leone

1966 The Sons of the Great Mother Bear (Die Söhne der großen Bärin), Josef Mach

1969 Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, Georgie Roy Hill

1969 The Wild Bunch, Sam Peckinpah

2001 Manitou’s Shoe (Der Shuh des Manitu), Michael Bully Herbig

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