The Battle At Ambush Gulch Essay

Both The Battle at Elderbush Gulch and The Shirt can be contrasted by examining how they portray the idea of an ideal feminine image. The Battle at Elderbush Gulch portrays gender roles from a fundamentalist standpoint. Women are the mothers, while men are the providers. Native people are considered savage for not strictly following those rules. The film utilizes cinematography to contrast the white, female characters’ strong emotions against the violent events of the film. For example, at the beginning of the film, Sally and her sister sit in the back of a wagon and weep over leaving their home town. Sally has her arm around her sister in a maternal fashion, and they are placed in the left of the frame and given a medium shot. The camera remains
Similar shots are used throughout the movie as the sisters share a bed, and these shots also seem to be intentional to enforce Sally’s motherly role. The concept of motherhood is extended upon in the film when a mother in the settlement losses her baby after the Natives attack. During her panic, the mother is given a close-up in the centre of the frame so that the audience can see her dishevelled appearance with her widened eyes and messy hair. Therefore, the film is implying that a mother without her baby becomes savage like the wild Native people because it’s a woman’s civilized duty to protect her infant. In a later shot, the mother aimlessly stumbles around in the frame as the loss of her baby has driven her almost mad. She is framed with a medium-long shot that cuts off the top of her head to enforce her mindlessness. Smoke surrounds the pro-filmic space to illustrate how out of place she is in a war-setting. She is powerless in this sort of situation in comparison to the white men, who are currently fighting, as enforced by the numerous long-shots of the battle. In contrast, Native women are portrayed like Native