Synopsis
Jack Nicholson wrote the scenario of Ride in the Whirlwind, being inspired by Vittorio de Seta's Bandits of Orgosoloand a record of the time when the west was exploited found in a library in Los Angeles. Curiously enough, the movie which was about a man who becomes a bandit after hiding a bandit and a tragedy of a wandering cowboy was recognized as an allegory of political persecution in the McCarthy era and transformed into a political task regardless of the director's intention. Three cowboys migrating in search of jobs get to a cottage occupied by bandits. Without knowing the identity of the bandits, they stay the night there and hide themselves after being attacked by a militia led by a sheriff the next day. In the meantime, one of the cowboys and the bandits are killed and the remaining cowboys get to a ranch in a settlement area, but they are still chased by the militia considering them as outlaws. Ride in the Whirlwindshows how the legend of American cowboys is collapsed and destroyed and how the mission of the sheriffs revered as a hero of the west is distorted. There are only stealers, murderers, people who chase and punish others and people who become outlaws to sustain life in the area and the ideal west does not exist any more in front of western movies made by experts who exist by working in a mechanical manner. As the title implies, a man disappears in the whirlwind at the end of the movie. This kind of scene is quite familiar, but it seems that the man disappears into a hollow world where nothing exists rather than returning to a shelter. A solitary man has nowhere to turn for rest. It can be said that this movie describes the death of American myth as well as that of the western film genre. (LEE Yong Cheol)