Short Film: "Big Iron"
Against the backdrop of a traditional Hollywood scene, we made movies and referenced history.
So, I made a music video/ movie about Big Iron by Marty Robbins. (click here).
Big Iron was a significant song in country music history and was the 6th best-selling country ballad in the 1950s. This song became synonymous with cowboy music and introduced life in the Wild West to many Americans. The title “Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs” was suggested by Marty’s producer, Don Loss. Neither Marty nor his producer were sure that this album title would sell well because it was so long, however, it ended up further romanticizing the image of badass gunslingers in the Wild Wild West. What I thought was most interesting about the producing and imaging of this album was how Marty posed and dressed for the album cover itself. Historically, Spaghetti Westerns and Westerns in general portray the villain in a black cowboy hat and darker clothing and the protagonist gunslinger in white cowboy hats and lighter clothing. This is done to contrast the characters visually as well as in character development and traits. For example, we watched a movie in Shell Wyoming called The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) wherein the protagonist, Tom Doniphan (played by John Wayne) wore a white cowboy hat while the antagonist, Liberty Valance (played by Lee Marvin) wore a Black cowboy hat. This same symbolism is used in a movie that we watched in Butte Montana called ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1969) Harmonica and Jill McBain (played by Charles Bronson and Claudia Cardinale) wore white hats and light clothing; and similarly, the antagonist Frank (played by Henry ford) wore a black hat and all black clothing. Where does this leave Marty Robbins’ all black gunslinger album cover? Who is he trying to portray?
WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE
Big Iron has been covered by many artists and its story can be paralleled to many Westerns, inspiring me to create my own interpretation in the Alabama Hills of Lone Pine, California. While in Lone Pine we met with a film buff and production assistant named Manny. He told us all about the movies that have been filmed there like Django Unchained (2012), The Lone Ranger (1933), Tremors (1990), and Gunga Din (1939). The Alabama hills have been a place where Hollywood has gone to film many of their movies, specifically westerns, and the landscape has become what we see and think of for rugged cowboy life. We toured where Quentin Tarantino had filmed very integral parts of Django unchained, saw the rock where Kevin Bacon camped out on in Tremors, and the backdrop of the Sierra Nevada’s. The landscape of these rocks is so iconic in so many different films throughout history, which is why I thought, “what a cool opportunity to film in a place that has shots from the Lone Ranger and Django Unchained” (Django Unchained is just one of my favorite movies, along with many Quinten Tarantino classics (taking the art without the artist)). However, The Lone Ranger parallels Big Iron quite spectacularly, and is a major reason why I wanted to film a silent western in the spot where it was shot.
This landscape has pop culture as well as historical significance. The Alabama Hills is located in Owens Valley CA, which is a key component to how Las Angeles was created. Owens Lake was once a prosperous naturally saltwater lake, fed by the Owens River that flows down the Sierra Mountains. The only reason that LA has the means to live in the area is because of the aqueduct that diverted the majority of the river to support a massive population growth in a total desert. This, very quickly, dried the Owens Lake and created a harsh environment for ranchers and farmers to grow because of the water shortage. LA, and the higher ups of LA had bought up significant portions of the land (Including the Alabama Hills) for the water rights of that land to then divert to LA. Present day, LA is now responsible for “restoration” of the Owens Lakebed to keep it from becoming a toxic dust cloud. I say “restoration”, in quotations, because the restoration of the Owens Lake is debatably not for ecological reasons but for satisfying a court order to keep it from becoming a toxic salt cloud that would sweep into LA. However, this land that LA had bought up for the water rights became where Hollywood went to film. In conclusion: I made a movie amid a historically significant landscape, and am grateful to have gotten the opportunity to have done so.