Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for the Prime Video series The English.
Made Hugo BleekPrime Video English western like no other, although at first glance it may not seem like it. Over the course of six episodes, the show tells the story of an unlikely couple traversing the American West in the late 19th century, each in search of their own form of retribution. Lady Cornelia LockeEmily Blunt) crossed the ocean and half the country to find and kill the man who took the life of her son. Recently fired Pawnee scout Eli Whipp (Chask Spencer), on the other hand, travels to Nebraska to claim a piece of land that used to belong to his people. However, as we’re told right in the show’s first episode, what you want and what you need are two different things, and Cornelia and Eli’s journeys change drastically from the moment they cross paths with each other.
Yes, according to this short synopsis, English no different from other westerns. Of course, the main characters in it are a woman and an Indian man, which in itself is very important. This allows the series to tell stories not usually shown in films and TV shows of this genre, showing the Old West through a completely different lens. But EnglishThe main story is still one of vengeance filled with bandits and dishonest lawmen, with a death toll that any season could give. Game of Thrones mileage for your money. When it comes to the main character, things can seem even more “old, just as old”. Eli is a brooding, sullen, and sometimes morally dubious character—everything we’ve come to expect from a male protagonist in a western. Eli Whipp and his comrades in the genre end on the surface. such a cruel world.
The classic western hero often just thinks for the sake of thinking.
SeekersEthan Edwards, Trilogy of DollarsThe man without a name Outlaw Josey Wales‘, well, Josie Wales… In our understanding, a typical western hero usually has a face either John Wayne (Edwards) or young Clint Eastwood (Unnamed, Wales). He is taciturn, always frowning and looking menacingly at anyone who dares to cross his path. He’s usually cool-headed and not afraid to draw a gun, but every once in a while someone just gets to him and he just knows he has to do the right thing - whatever the right thing to do. However, he never shows his true feelings. Instead, he hides them behind a façade of unwavering stoicism, hinting at a painful past.
The past referred to is not always known to viewers. Sometimes the audience knows perfectly well what made our protagonist so quiet and ruthless. Josie Wales, for example, began his life of crime after his wife and son were killed by Union sympathizers during the Civil War (yes, we’re not revealing Eastwood’s politics here). Aside from all the murders and kidnappings that have befallen his family, Ethan Edwards is a man hardened by war. And then there are those characters who are interesting precisely because we don’t know about them. So it is with the director Sergio LeoneThe Man with No Name, whose antihero appeal lies precisely in what is left to the viewer’s imagination. What does he think? What did he do before? What does he really want? We don’t know, and the fact that we’re left wanting to know is exactly what draws us to the character.
But even if that stoic demeanor is sometimes explained, or even if it’s the lack of explanation that makes some of these characters appealing, there are very few layers underneath that thick exterior. There is nothing complicated about how Josie or Ethan feel about the horrors they have experienced, there is no boiling cauldron of mixed emotions that can only be expressed through anger, because it is the easiest feeling to resort to, or because it is what they need, to survive. They simply are angry because that’s the only thing a man in their position can be. These characters are driven by a venomous masculinity—and, in many cases, a sense of white supremacy—that dictates how “manly” to deal with pain, how “real men” should respond to the loss of everything they love. In their trajectories there is no place for tears or heartfelt sorrows, only shots, blood and many angry looks. Their travels never lead them to a better place, where they can finally find solace from all their pain: the end is usually as filled with rage as the beginning, except now our so-called hero has blood on his hands. He no longer has a place in society. No scene illustrates this better than the ending. John FordX Seekersin which Ethan Edwards brings his niece home and leaves without saying goodbye, framed by a door he can’t bring himself to go through because it’s not his home - there’s no place here.
Eli’s stoic façade is essential for navigating a world filled with racism and violence
Eli Whipp enters on his horse. Eli belongs to our first category of brooding Western heroes who have a fairly well-defined harrowing past: not only was his family and his entire community wiped out by European colonizers, he became a willing participant in the killing of other non-Pawnee, Native Americans. Along with everything he endured before joining the US military, complicity in the horrors perpetrated by his fellow soldiers left more than a small dent in his soul. Eli is quiet and sullen because he is both sad and ashamed. We see more and more traces of his sadness as he begins to open up to Cornelia, and his shame regularly clashes with him whenever he encounters other Native Americans such as Kills On Water (William Bello) who are not afraid to call him.
More than just a way to deal with pain, Eli’s stoic façade is also shown as a tool he uses to navigate a world in which his feelings and his very presence are unacceptable. He does his best to appear indifferent to the horrors around him in order to better achieve his goals. For example, when Eli runs into David Melmont (Rafe Spall), Billy Myers (Nicholas Aaron), Timothy Flynn (Miguel Alvarez) and Jerome McClintock (Julian Bleach) is covered in blood and learns about what they have done, it is obvious that he is more than disturbed by what he sees, but his expression remains unchanged when he tells the other soldiers that what they did is none of his business. He maintains a cool head and a slightly menacing look even when Melmont taunts him with his rabid dog feign. If he had lost his temper at any point during this conversation, they would not have let him go his own way.
Another scene that clearly shows how important Eli’s behavior is to his own survival and even the behavior of others can be found in Episode 5, “Buffalo Gun”.Nicola McAuliffe) home to Major McKay’s camp (Stuart Milligan). McKay spends long minutes talking to Cornelia and Eli about his “Indian school” where he teaches Native Americans how to be more “American”, i.e. how to be his servants. McKay makes many attempts to elicit a violent reaction from Eli, but fails every time. At first glance, Eli swallows his pride and lets McKay’s humiliating words wash him away. In the end, it proves vital to the White Moon (Corey Bird) salvation: if Eli had said anything, he would not have been able to tell Touching Ground (Tonantzin Carmelo) about the son, nor leave the camp with the boy.
There are many layers to Eli Whipp’s character. And it is because of them that his path is so different from the path of classical Western heroes. First what Eli wants is to go about your business and acquire a piece of land. However, what Eli really needs is to make amends for the mistakes he made in his past, such as turning a blind eye to the massacre committed by the team of David Melmont and Billy Myers. Although he initially believes that he must get Myers and the others to the graves to make things right, murder is not what he needs for redemption: just like Cornelia, he needs to see what happened to the people he let go before , and he must free the others so they can complete their own journeys. Unlike Josie Wales and Ethan Edwards, Eli’s path is not about revenge, but about making amends. And, since his journey is as much internal as external, he finds his way home without difficulty in the end: as he himself tells Cornelia, home was with him all the time, in the memories of his family and his people.
‘The English’ redefine who should be the tortured hero
Eli’s journey and inner turmoil set him apart from other tortured heroes and anti-heroes of the Western genre. However, while what he carries in his heart is of paramount importance to his character, how he looks and how he is perceived by others also matters. Eli is a Native American trying to survive in the Wild West, keeping to himself to avoid trouble and pretending not to care about the genocide of his people. His personal conflicts and the way he behaves are closely related to his ethnic background.
The same can be said about a character like Ethan Edwards. However, to say that Ethan’s feelings, namely his anger, are related to his ethnic background is not the same as saying this about Eli. When Ethan leaves home to feign revenge, he does so with a right, not only because he feels he has the right to avenge his family’s death, but also because he is white and the people he wants to kill , - No. It’s hard to imagine that exactly the same story is being played out with Debbie (Natalie Wood) is kidnapped by a group of German settlers, not Comanches.
For decades, the only pain that was acknowledged in Western films was that of white male colonizers, whether at the hands of each other or as a result of the looting and murder that accompanied colonization. Those who had their land taken away, who lost families to guns and new diseases were relegated to secondary characters, with a few comedic lines at best. This, of course, has changed over time: with all its problems, Outlaw Josey Wales at least gave a little more personality to her Native American characters. However, the focus has always been on the pain of the white man. Even when he wasn’t the one to bear the brunt of suffering, his story mattered the most. Debbie has been kidnapped and yet we follow Ethan’s story. Through Eli English brings to the fore some minor characters. It concentrates the pain of those who were there only to be shot at. This redefines who the brooding hero should be, and what said hero’s tortured past might look like.
Source: Collider
