High Noon and the Magnificent Seven

This is not a post about tonight's GOP debate.

Seven of them aren't heroes. 

I am posting about the values and ethics in two movies from the Cold War era.

Gary Cooper in High Noon

The old "Westerns" of the 1950s and 1960s were moral dramas that retold the central geo-political dramas of the previous decades. On the surface the shows were about sheriffs and outlaws, with the resolution settled by gunfights. They were metaphors. The shows were re-enactments of the decision to confront aggression in WWII and the ongoing Cold War with the USSR.

I gave myself a respite from the current burst of media hype of tonight's GOP debate by re-watching two old movies, High Noon and The Magnificent Seven. I didn't escape the news. I saw commentary on it. Both movies are stories about people having the courage to do the right thing, the honorable thing, the thing that protected civilized order. 

In High Noon the sheriff, Will Kane, played by Gary Cooper, had just married. He was planning to leave town with his new wife, a Quaker who objected to violence. The new sheriff would arrive in two days. But in that interim a man Kane had put in prison announced he was returning to town with three relatives to kill Kane, arriving on the noon train. Kane had every right to avoid the confrontation and enjoy his new domestic life. He had resigned. He refused to go. It would expose the town to lawlessness. Kane looked for backup and a posse among the townspeople. The townspeople found excuses. The sheriff stood firm. In the end he prevailed with help from his Quaker wife.

In The Magnificent Seven a group of men agreed to help a Mexican village defend themselves from a gang of thieves. Midway in the defense of the village the villagers lost confidence and agreed to submit to the gang. The leader, Chris, played by Yul Brenner, had this bit of dialog with his chief ally, Vin, played by Steve McQueen, as they considered whether to abandon the town.

Chris: "We took a contract."
Vin: "It's not the kind any court would enforce."
Chris: "That's just the kind you've got to keep."

The seven eventually stay to fight.

Both of these movies are about moral courage, physical courage, and the pairing of virtue and the law. In each the heroes defended order even when there was an arguable pretense or loophole to evade confrontation. It would be expedient. It is what a "winner," a "smart person," would do. 

In tonight's debate most of the aspirants to replace Trump as GOP party leader will make excuses for him. They will divert and distract and blame the sheriff for making trouble, just like in these movies. The candidates will pretend Trump's actions to stay in office have an arguable basis for not being provably criminal. He proudly did wrong things, sure, but he believed his "crackpot lawyers." He made mistakes, but they aren't necessarily criminal beyond a reasonable doubt, so the supposed hero with the badge is the actual troublemaker. Blame him.

Chris Christie and Asa Hutchison aside, the GOP debate tonight is a group of citizens -- the Mexican villagers and Kansas townspeople -- who are unworthy of peace and order. In the movies they willfully accept the lawless gang of thieves or the murderer arriving on the noon train. The GOP candidates are not blind to who Trump is and what he has done. Possibly they feel bad about their hypocrisy -- the villagers and townspeople do -- but they are being expedient. Two characters briefly try out excuses in the scene above in The Magnificent Seven: "Sometimes you bend with the wind or you break" and "there comes a time to turn mother's picture to the wall and get out." Six of the candidates tonight are taking that path. 

Both movies celebrate the heroes who uphold law and order. They are the good guys. The movies of that era celebrated virtue, not irony. Not expediency. But both movies end with the same note, the one that I expect to be the conclusion tonight. Yul Brenner and Steve McQueen ride off with the recognition that they did the right thing, but lost. The winners are the farmers who benefited from their courage, but return to their lives. The Gary Cooper character throws his gun and badge on the table and leaves for the train out of town. He has the consolation of leaving with a wife played by Grace Kelley, 30-years his junior, but the townspeople don't beg him to stay. Nor did the Mexican villagers. Heroes are an embarrassment to the townspeople. They shame them by their presence.

Liz Cheney shames Republicans. It is too late for Chris Christie and Asa Hutchison, but now they also shame them. Pence wants it both ways, so his reward is boos and 2% in the polls.

They don't make movies like The Magnificent Seven and High Noon anymore. Tastes have changed. The best characters now are anti-heroes. The smart money sticks with the townspeople. Don't offend the GOP primary base.

We get the democracy we deserve.

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