Blogging By Cinema-light: Don't Make a Scene: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

Sunday, August 22, 2021

Don't Make a Scene: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

The Story: For the next few weeks, we're going to be looking at grieving in the movies. Maybe, it's a scene over a grave, at a funeral, or something else. It seems an appropriate time.

As of today, there have been 625,375 deaths due to the Covid-19 pandemic. That's a lot of deaths for what so many consider a "hoax," or an exaggeration, or—as I heard one preacher say on the radio yesterday—"a way to distract from a stolen election" (really, preach'? Got your timing right on that?) Well, the pandemic has caused more than the 405,399 deaths that occurred during the second World War (and we know that happened, right?). And we're getting close to the number of people killed in the 1918 flu pandemic (estimated at 675,000) and quite away from the 752,000 killed in the Civil War. It should be noted that those events happened over years and not the 20 months or so of the Covid pandemic.

There are a lot of people grieving. And the upheavals have impacted everybody. We've all been touched by this and the evidence points to us not being in control (as much as we think we are, anyway).

So, another grave-yard scene, this time from She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, also, as was last week's scene, directed by John Ford. Hear Captain Nathan Brittles visits the grave-site of his wife (and two daughters, who died within days of their mother, also due to disease?) to talk of events, get things said, and to remember, and, at least temporarily, forget the loss.

The Set-Up: Captain Nathan Brittles (John Wayne) commanding Ft. Starke (at least until his retirement in six days time) finds his final days problematic with uprisings by the Cheyenne and Arapaho nations following their victory at Little Big Horn. Plus, he has to get his commanding officer's wife and niece on a stage and out of the area. And he has a couple of wet-behind-the-ears lieutenants vying for the niece's attentions. He would like his last days to be well-ordered and spit-and-polished. That is not going to happen.

Action.

CAPT. NATHAN BRITTLES: Well, Mary...

CAPT. BRITTLES: ...only six more days to go...

CAPT. BRITTLES: ...and your old Nathan will be out of the Army.

CAPT. BRITTLES: Haven't decided what I'll do yet. Somehow, I just can't picture myself...back there on the banks of the Wabash...rocking on the front porch.