The Western as Male Soap Opera: John Ford's Rio Grande

Abstract

Conflicts between career and family are commonly assumed, in social science and popular culture, to be women's problems. Recognition that men might have similar problems has been slower in coming, perhaps because we assume that the superior power men often have in domestic and work situations can resolve or mitigate them. John Ford's 1950 Western Rio Grande presents a male-role conflict that neither institutional power nor violent physical action can resolve. The struggle must be waged within rigid institutional constraints, a pattern commonly seen in 1950s melodrama and soap opera. These films gave us a preview of the Women's Movement of the 1960s. This article investigates the film Rio Grande qua male soap opera as a possible preview of men's concerns.

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