The Mandalorian and the Real Wild West

"The Mandalorian" on Disney+ is built on a ton of classic Western movie tropes. Mando is frequently seen as the lone rider who comes to town, discovers a problem and solves it by being a superior gunslinger -- like Clint Eastwood in "A Fistful of Dollars".

And that's what most of us think about when we imagine the "Wild West", but are those tropes even real? Was the old West as "wild" as we think?

Find out in this first edition of Out of Frame Shorts.
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CREDITS:
Produced by Sean W. Malone
Written by Sean W. Malone, Paul Nelson, and Jennifer Maffessanti
Edited by Paul Nelson & Sean W. Malone
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LINKS:

[tinamvin]

Please do more of these! I’m a Social Science teacher and my kids love anything that helps me relate what we’re studying in history or current events to popular culture. These are invaluable for me!

[SirBladewind]

I like out of frame. Also I love how you accurately described how western life was like. So many on one side of the argument will claim that the west wasn't as armed or dangerous as movies depict and so many on the other side will claim that it was a hellscape with apaches and outlaws lurking around every corner.

Whereas I am a native American who grew up out west and spent my childhood devouring old letters and journals stored in the Meetesee town library where I lived. I learned a lot of how life was in the ages before I was born and it was fascinating.

Western life was tough and people were often clannish and fearful of strangers because they were an unknown. Neighboring ranchers and tribes had peace between them because nobody wanted to cause a fight that would result in further consequences. But rustlers and other outlaws were definitely a concern since a crew of rustlers could skip a few towns over and be consequence free after a theft since there wasn't much infastructure to apprehend them. Law enforcement was mostly locally present and didn't travel far. Bounties were mostly there to deincetivize people from theft or murder for fear of being hunted. Bounty hunters weren't often professional and usually were a few local cattle hands who happened upon a wanted criminal and had a need for quick cash.

Many times criminals who roamed the countryside were often poor folks who had lost their homes or farmers to any number of disasters and saw crime is their only opportunity to thrive again. Most of them were not even violent since ultimately they didn't want to hurt anyone, they just needed money, Opting to run instead of facing the classic gunfight.

Overall the western was a tense and carefully armed time but not a chaotic one.

[grantjohnson]

"The Mandalorian" is one of the few things Disney has done *right* with Star Wars...

[jonbilgutay]

Glad to see another one of these. I would be fine with a short or two every now and again.

[thedoruk]

The Foundation has been officially introduced throught the beloved cult of 🅱🅱 Yoda

[caseystrong]

Out of frame's strength imo is its well thought out in depth discussions. I think these shorter versions will greatly diminish that aspect as you're limited by the time. I personally rather infrequent longer episodes.


However, that being said if you have an idea but it can't really support a longer out of frame episode then I think this format would be good to express those smaller ideas.

[Chipiricuiki]

I love OOF it's by far the best thing FEE puts out and I'd love to see and share more of these every month! keep up the great work y'all.
This is the way!

[grupohebi]

the video starts : "if you've been watching the mandalorian on disney plus..."

actually I've been watching the mandalorian on torrent plus

[lowenstaat]

"If the
Mandalorian wants to find peace for himself and the child they'll have to find a new home that limits the authority of government and values individual freedom." This is my hope for my child, too.

[OPMatar]

This format is good for getting people into this channel.
It's informative and delivered still at a relaxed pace, doesn't feel rushed or TMI.
But I still like the longer videos, this one feels a bit short to a long time fan

[someonesomeone]

Thanks for the video! However, I personally prefer the more in-depth, longer video format, even if it means with a lower frequency. Happy new year !

[bluesnare]

I think the quality of this short was just as good as past episodes, but I must admit that I like the longer format more. I think that it gives more time for the topic of choice to be explored and explained. This series helps me to develop my own opinions in an entertaining and relaxing way and I've watched every episode more than once. Either way, whatever is planned for the future of "Out of Frame" I will be happily looking forward to it.

[know-nothingmillennial]

As long as it doesn't affect the long episodes I like this. The more OOF the better!

[lcronovt]

Love it. Is a good starting point for a conversation

[keith-ole]

Personally, I like the long format most. I feel like I become an expert in the topic whereas this video simply piqued my interest. But I guess that's fine because you share articles for further reading that I always tell myself I'll get to, haha. Thanks, Sean!

[ikepigott]

The short format is great, as it will likely help drill the focus to a main point. The longer form videos are fine for those topics where you need to display a number of clips to build out the evidence backing your more esoteric (or multi-layered) thesis.


I am trying to think of a name for these, besides just "Out of Frame Shorts." I do like separating them in a playlist, because you might catch people who want to snack on smaller bites. But a catchy name might help too.

[yaronnn]

Hey FEE, thank you so much for exploring these kinds of themes in popular culture! If I may suggest, I would love to see you guys' perspective on "Two Popes", especially Francis' way of looking at Free Market Economy...cheers!

[cameronmoore]

You upload an _Out of Frame, _ I'll watch it!

[abrahemsamander]

This was a great video. I love he dollars trilogy and I haven’t seen mandolorian yet. It’s very interesting how it seems to realistically captures the West. I think I might check it out.

[spiffygonzales]

Sime interesting things to note.
Cowboys were actually more afraid of Farmers, since the farmers normally had guns and cowboys normally didn't, and even when they did they would have them all stored so as not to cause problems.

Another interesting bit is that gun laws were actually pretty strict in most places. So the large scale shootouts between towns and bandits was actually mostly just a couple sherrifs vs a couple bandits. And individual gangs were seldom as big as they are shown in movies.