The Long Dark, a Western? (Essay)


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The Long Dark, a Western?
(I know. What a nerd. Writes an essay in his spare time, for fun! Somebody get this guy a life!)
(As a disclaimer, this essay is mainly focused on the sandbox mode (As of the "Vigilant Trespass" Update. This may not reflect once the story mode is released)
(Another disclaimer. There will be spoilers to numerous westerns, in both film and video games. So beware)
 
***Introduction***
 
"In westerns you were permitted to kiss your horse, but never the girl" I don't really know what Gary Cooper was on about. I don't even know how this quote could apply to the overall point of this essay? I was trained to always start an essay with a quote. Although, I was also trained never to use 'I' in an essay. That rule has already been broken four times.
So let's give Google another spin.
 
"I felt pretty comfortable with westerns, apart from the fact I couldn't ride" This quote from Richard Widmark, also doesn't apply much either. The horse references are already piling up, yet they're stabled in the roadmap currently.
So maybe we should try another.
 
"Samurai films, like westerns, need not be familiar genre stories. They can expand to contain stories of ethical challenges and human tragedy" Roger Ebert's quote starts hitting the nail on the head. The Long Dark (LTD) still lives in the wilderness of westerns (Apparently the realm of samurai films too. Reishi tea anyone?) thus why we will wander between the tropes and motifs of westerns.
 
***What even is a Western?***
 
When you talk about westerns with someone, people tend to fall into the various camps. The spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, with the hallmark Fist Full of Dollars trilogy. The acid westerns such as Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo (1970), or the contemporary and revisionist westerns beginning in the late 60s.There are many other varieties and forms of westerns. Coming from very different creative spheres and cultural mindsets. They all however, share common traits and motifs that we're going to highlight and will refer back to later in this essay.
 
1) The hero/protaganist is a lone figure, usually with a particular worldview on morality.
The lone wanderer rides into town, watched by the townsfolk and deputies. They enter the saloon and the whole place goes quiet. Usually the hero of the story is either a stranger or an outcast, usually by their own volition but also by ostricised by society. An amazing example of this is in The Searchers (1956) directed by John Ford.
The opening shot and the closing shot are both filmed from within a doorway looking out. In the opening shot, John Wayne's character is riding towards the homestead. Returning from a eight year absence, fighting in two wars, and unwittenly entering into the dramatic events unfolding in West Texas.
In the closing shot, once the story has been resolved. John Wayne looks into the doorway, turns away, and walks back into the wilderness from whence he came.
These two shots shows us that John Wayne's character, Ethan Edwards, is a man lingering between worlds, but not comfortable in any. Therefore, his doom is to wander between them all, but never truly settle.
 
2) The characters have mercantial goals, usually either by accumilating land or money.
I use the term characters rather than protagonist/antagonist as this motif is rather interchangeable. In Unforgiven (1992) directed and starring Clint Eastwood. Eastwood's character Billy Munny is brought out of retirement to hunt a large bounty, the reward of which will help to support his struggling farmstead and kids. This is an example of one of the protagonist's having a mercantial goal.
The 1968 film The Great Silence involves the antagonist character of Loco, played by Klaus Kinski, leading a gang of bounty hunters. They have been attracted to bounties put on the starving people of Snow Hill, who in desperation have taken up banditry. It's the same goal of accumilating money, except Munny is doing it for his family's economic survival and Loco is doing it out of greed.
 
3) The land is pastoral, but crucial, usually representing both freedom and primitivism.
There are very few examples of westerns that don't have sweeping landscapes and jawdropping views. They're not really there to just look pretty though. Usually they are to convey the dominance of nature, but also they display the allure of freedom and their monopoly on primitivism. These specifically can be communicated to the viewer/player either by their interactions with the land or native americans.
The example that does this best is The Revenant (2015) directed by Alejandro G.Iñárritu. The shots with the avalanche in the background and Hugh Glass (Leonardo Dicaprio) in the foreground or the sweeping herd of buffalo being assailed by wolves. These are displays of the ebb and flow of the land. These shots are showing how small man's actions are within the grand and immense dackdrop of nature.
Glass' interactions with the Arikara war party and the pawnee refugee Hikuc, represent the deal struck between the the first nations peoples and the land. How to live in such an environment so impressive yet cruel, they must embrace what our modern minds would call a primitive lifestyle. The Revenant shows us this harmonious balance. As all of the problems and conflicts the Arikara and Pawnee face in the film were caused by other men, not the land. Glass, a man between two worlds, is attacked by both, first by the Arikara and the bear, then by Fitzgerald and the french trappers. Thus hinting back at our first point, in how our protagonist spends (at least most of the movie) as a lone figure between two worlds.
 
4) Civilisation is usually smaller representatives of the larger force of civilisation.
If you've played Red Dead Redemption (2010) developed by Rockstar San Diego. You might recognise the cutscene of our character, John Marston, entering the Marshal's office in Armadillo. There, the US marshal Leigh Johnson is struggling to use a telephone. The telephone is symbolic of the encroachment of the industrialising forces of the east, permeating the western frontier opened up by soldiers and settlers.
Johnson however, along with his dim-witted deputies and the town of Armadillo itself, are the moderate foothold of the United States. Though they are a small holdout of law and order amongst a handful of settlements around them. They are members of the long gone wave of manifest destiny, left behind like thousands of other towns and settlements all across the west.
 
5) The dilemma of the story is usually part of the broader theme of primitivism vs civilisation.
The clash between the civilising forces and the primitive forces are usually the subject or setting of most (if not in some way, all) westerns. It is the shift of the world of the native americans to that of the europeans/americans. Or it's the settlers against the eastern company men. Or it's the free outlaw being pursued by the Pinkerton agents.
In 2005's Gun, developed by Neversoft. Not only is the player's character, Colton White, a man raised by a fur trapper and hunter in the wilderness of Colorado. His adventure propels him into the push against the corporate/greed interests of Thomas Magruder.
We fight/aid the Apache and Blackfoot in halting the construction of railroads and forts into their territories. As to do we uphold/resist the corruption of Empire City and it's mayor, Hoodoo Brown. As they struggle with settler/rancher resistance set to thawt and depose him.
 
6) Dramatic moments are usually ritualised.
Whether we are talking about the final showdown of 1952's High Noon or the gritty street fight of Dan Dority and the Captain in season 3 of Deadwood (2006). The major dramatic moments in westerns have a ritual about them, with clear moments of preparation, beginning and ending. My personal preference of the two said examples is deadwood's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blki-DISUis
Notice how first, both contenders remove their sidearms and stare down each other from across the street. This is the initial challenging of the opponents, like the display of feathers before a cockfight.
The stagecoach going past isn't an accident. It's signalling of the commencement of the fight. Then you have the 'patrons' of the two fighters, Al Swearengen and George Hearst respectively, watching the clash from their balconies.
It's almost gladiatorial, as if they're recreating the gladiator fights of classical Rome in the mud of the Dakota territory. This is especially reminiscent when the Captain looks up to George Hearst, as if he's going to give him a thumbs up or down. Then the tide is turned, the dynamic of the ritual is shifted. Then the final blow is struck, but not before getting the thumbs up from his patron.
This is just one of the ritualising of events and plot points in westerns. The cattle drive, the wagon train, the gunfight. These are all rituals that are repeated and reenacted across the western genre as it was across the west over a century ago.

***Isn't Post-Apocalyptic a genre***
 
Doesn't the creative works focused or set in the post-apocalyptic have enough tropes and motifs of it's own to be considered a genre on it's own? I don't really think so.
I believe that this is the case because the term post-apocalyptic is too broad. The umbrella term post-apocalyptic is so big and has so many different sub-tropes and settings in it. Rather than having a set code of motifs and rules that most writers/filmmakers/critics can agree on. Instead I would say that post-apocalyptic is an addition to the already existing genre's in order to diversify and break away from the more archaic motifs and rules.
Stephen King's The Stand, published in 1978, was descirbed by him as "...The Stand, finally writing my American fantasy epic, set in a plague-decimated USA. Only instead of a hobbit, my hero was a Texan named Stu Redman, and instead of a Dark Lord, my villain was a ruthless drifter and supernatural madman named Randall Flagg."
The Stand isn't just a post-apocalyptic story. King intended it to be an american fantasy story. So the post-apocalyptic became the enabler of the shift between the disaster/horror novel and the
fantasy novel.
 
The Resident Evil series is a thriller about government agents stopping an evil corporation.
The Last of Us is a drama, about a single dad suffering from parental grief and then learning to love again.
The Metro 2033 series, is an action-adventure about democracy, fascism and communism, in post-soviet union Moscow.
 
If you'd never played these games, would you really of thought that they would of involved pandemics or nuclear wastelands?
Post-apocalyptic is such a broad spectrum, that it can't assemble a collection of core motifs and rules together. At least not any that can apply to the majority of post-apocalyptic media.
It is best at complimenting and accompanying other genres. Providing a means to fresh and interesting spins on already established motifs.

***What's this gotta do with The Long Dark***
Do you remember that list of traits about westerns?
We're going to go through each one again.
Though this time, I'm going to show you how they apply in TLD and how they constitute it as an anti-western.
 
1) The hero/protaganist is a lone figure, usually with a particular worldview on morality.
As we are discussing the sandbox mode (As of Vigilant Trespass update), you're thinking..."Oh he's going to go on about how the lack of NPCs applies to his BS theory!"
That's not actually that far from the truth.
Sure, the lack of npcs to interact with does make playing the sandbox seem rather lonesome.
However, when we talk of the lone figure, we are talking about a character who has been pushed out of the company of others. Yet also has hesitation/reservations about trying to get back in.
Our sandbox characters have been ostricised from society. Though instead of that being at the hands of society itself, which is often the case in westerns, such as in 1976's The Outlaw Josey Wales, who is forced to flee west from union soldiers.
Instead our characters have been forced out by the initial disaster of the aurora, while being kept out by the secondary disasters of violence, famine, disease, the winter etc.
 
The sandbox characters however, are also forced into sporadic movement between areas and whole regions.
We all know after playing a single run long enough, you eventually have to move on. No matter how cool the lighthouse in Desolation Point is, or how you like the view from the radio tower in Pleasant Valley. Eventually, your resources will begin to dwindle and you'll be forced to vacate to pastures new.
Now also consider how the experience modes are named. Pilgrim, Voyageur, Stalker and Interloper. All these names describe people who are moving and travelling. Some are just passing through,while others will out stay their welcome. Ultimately however, they must eventually venture on alone.
 
Unlike a scripted and acted character in a film or tv series, the worldview on morality is more difficult to nail down in a video game. As you are essentially given free rein on methods and means of playing the game. You can be influenced into certain moral situations by achievements and feats present in the game, however, there isn't really much stopping you from coming up with your own methods of playing.
You could argue, that a more roleplay orientated playthrough, might make you consider the ethics of sharing a cabin with a corpse, or killing an adorable rabbit. However, that is ultimately up to the player.
 
2) The characters have mercantial goals, usually either by accumilating land or money.
This is rather self-explanitary, considering the scavenging nature of the game.
I need to get deer skins to make these boots!
I need to find a rosehips or I'll die!
I need to find a rifle or else the wolves will get me!
Where as in a western, the mercantile goals are usually for individual wealth or socio-economic gain. TLD requires you to set materialistic goals in order to ensure your character's continued survival. What sets apart TLD from westerns however is how, where as the achievement of the goal is a conclusion of the story. In TLD, the desire for material and items is near constant.
Even if you collect all the items in a game and arrange them into an ordered stockpile in the camp office in Mystery Lake. Eventually, you'll run out of it. It might take a while, but if you play it long enough, you'll run out essentials and be forced out again.
 
3) The land is pastoral, but crucial, usually representing both freedom and primitivism.
4) Civilisation is usually smaller representatives of the larger force of civilisation.
5) The dilemma of the story is usually part of the broader theme of primitivism vs civilisation.
I included all of these points together because in order to explain one, I have to over lap into the other two points.
 
The land is pastoral and the representatives of civilisation is minimal in TLD mainly because of the setting and location of the sandbox. The north-western reaches of Canada are very wild and also a meeting point between the natural world and man made society.
Just watch this sea otter in Victoria,BC just swim up to a guy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_U-MQcTimM
I know that Victoria isn't that small of a city, or that animals in that part of the world are particularly friendly. However, compared to places like the United Kingdom, the Netherlands or Los Angeles. The line between the natural world and civilised land is much more blurred.
On Great Bear Island however, the natural world is definately more prominent. Whole regions like Timberwolf Mountain, are almost completely devoid of previous human inhabitation. Save a few chunks of plane and some cabins.
 
We're starting to work our way towards point number four. The largest settlements in my humble opinion, are the township in Coastal Highway and Hibernia Processing in Desolation Point.
Scattered around them in their respective regions are these lone or small settlements. Nothing in the way of big cities or highways or fast food restaurants.
The civilised world is embodied by the small man-made features, that are dwarfed by the mountains and forests around them. There is a struggle present, as in places like Pleasant Valley, where the radio tower stands over the valley or how the railroad cuts right through Mystery Lake.
You could argue that in TLD these two worlds are in tandem with each other.
 
However, I would like to bring up a scene in Easy Rider, directed by Dennis Hopper in 1969. (A biker movie, I know) Where our two bikers are replacing a tire on a motorcycle. In the foreground, there is a cowboy replacing the shoe on a horse.
That scene is displaying a passing of the torch, that the bikers are the new cowboys. Just that instead of a domesticated animal, they use a fossil-fuel run machine.
However, as we broach into point five, this is where TLD starts to branch away from the western genre.
Rather there is a struggle between the natural world and the man-made. The modern world is gradually being overpowered by the old, natural world.
TLD presents us with the opposite. The aurora has allowed the natural world to overcome the man-made one.
The characters in TLD are living in a place where the world afforded by electricity is on the back foot. The natural world is ruthlessly cutting into the world built by centuries of human technological advancements.
 
Examples of this include the collapsed railroad bridge between Mystery Lake and Coastal Highway, or the Riken, or every car and truck you come across. These are just relics of a time that still have a use, but for how long.
In a traditional western, despite the efforts of the hero, representing the old/natural world, managing to cast out the bad industrialist and save the day. Such as in Pale Rider (1985, directed by Clint Eastwood).
It doesn't take many pages of a history textbook to tell you that, ultimately the industrial east won.
In TLD, there is that same prevailing feeling. However, it's the opposite.
There is this lingering sense that there is going to come a point, when you run out of bullets and all your clothes came from an animal you killed. You'll be no different from the hunter-gatherers that first arrived in North America, thousands of years ago.
It's this shift of an almost essential paradyme, that sets TLD apart from other westerns. Just as I said the post-apocalyptic genre being an add-on, rather than an actual genre to itself. It has added to the game's western genre in a new and refreshing way, while not souring it.
 
6) Dramatic moments are usually ritualised.
Just like we explained the key moments in westerns having a ritual about them. In TLD, it's no different.
The fight with a wolf might change with the locations, but there is a means and a method to the interaction.
Light a flare? Shot your rifle/bow? Get ready to wrestle?
Then once you finish the middle part, either by diffusing the situation before it continues or finishing a fight. Assuming both parties survived the conflict, the ritual continues. Do you run or pursue?
That is the ritual for almost every wolf encounter, no matter if its some random bastard in Timberwolf Mountain or Fluffy in the Hydroelectric dam.

***Conclusion***
To conclude, Yes.
I think that The Long Dark is a western.
There are the fundermental twists and shifts of direction. Ultimately however, I genuinely think that The Long Dark is a western. I can't talk for the story mode, but the sandbox is certainly submerged in the tropes and motifs of westerns. Let's go back to Roger Ebert's quote
"Samurai films, like westerns, need not be familiar genre stories. They can expand to contain stories of ethical challenges and human tragedy"
Well, there's nothing quite as tragic or as challenging to your ethics, as the end of the world.
 
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Fascinating analysis! There's a lot to chew on here, so to speak. :)

In terms of post-apocalyptic fiction, I think you are on to something about it being something of an "addition" to other types of story-telling. Another way we could put it is to call post-apocalyptic stories a sub-genre. In his excellent anthology Wastelands, editor John Joseph Adams talks a bit about this distinction by pointing out that post-apocalyptic works have always been able to avoid "traditional genre boundaries." It's a great short story collection, and one that might speak to the diversity of storytelling motifs you discuss in your post above.

I think one characteristic we can point to in all post-apocalyptic fiction is the presence of survivors--at least one human being that lives on past the catastrophe and bears witness to what life is like after. I suspect this is key to understanding why post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction became so popular during the Cold War. With memories of WWII's devastation still fresh in everyone's minds, and the threat of even greater calamity on the horizon in the form of a global thermonuclear war, thoughts turned to the experience of life after the apocalypse. If we did live on, how would we do it? And what would it be like? 

To add another twist to this idea of genre, some theorists would argue that the concept of the "post-apocalyptic" is a kind of misnomer in itself, as a true apocalypse would mean the end of all human life-no survivors and the end of the humanistic drive (or even capacity) to understand what has occurred. Perhaps this is why many see these stories as a sub-genre of science fiction, rather than a stand-alone category on its own. 

In any case just a few initial thoughts. I need to re-watch some of the Westerns you mention so I can comment on them! Cheers, :coffee:

 

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