Epic of the Eternal Frontier

The American Story

Christopher Flannery

Society & Culture, Documentary, History

4.6 • 941 Ratings

🗓️ 8 June 2021

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Hollywood Western was a great achievement of American popular art—an epic of the eternal frontier, where trouble is always brewing and everything is at stake: the law is out of town, and if a hero doesn’t ride into your valley, you’re going to lose the things you hold most dear. On the eternal frontier, we are always faced with the problem of establishing and securing justice and peace. Because establishing justice and peace is a pressing and permanent human problem, the classic Western is eternally interesting.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the American Story.
0:04.0	Stories about all the things that make America the country we know and love.
0:08.0	For millions of American boys and girls of a certain generation,
0:12.0	the most familiar piece of classical music American boys and girls of a certain generation.
0:13.1	The most familiar piece of classical music
0:15.4	was the theme music for the Lone Ranger.
0:19.0	Americans crossing several generations
0:21.0	can still hum the theme songs for Bananza and Rawhide, and somehow know
0:25.9	the lyrics and melody to Happy Trails.
0:30.7	On the big screen and the small screen, in the middle decades of the 20th century,
0:35.0	that original American art form, the Western,
0:38.0	gave Americans and people across the globe
0:41.0	memories they would carry with them always. across the
0:44.0	world memories they would carry with them always. The world of the Classic Western is always with us.
0:48.0	Law and order are in danger.
0:50.0	They are good guys and bad guys.
0:52.0	And we sorely need heroes.
0:56.3	This is Chris Flannery with the Claremont Institute.
0:59.2	I call this one, Epic of the Eternal Frontier
1:05.0	As early as 6 in the morning, six days a week in the 1950s and 60s.
1:10.0	In a parking lot on the corner of Ventura and Suppulveda
1:14.0	boulevards on the southern edge of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles.
	...

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