High Noon and the Ballad of Little Jo are two films that both feature females who do not share the common traits of western women. In High Noon, Amy is the sheriff’s new wife and cannot understand why he would throw his life away for a town that doesn’t want to be saved, she tries to talk to Will Kane to persuade him to leave but words mean nothing to Kane. In the beginning of the movie Amy exhibited common western female traits as she consistently tried to get Kane to talk to her but as classic westerns show “when it comes to the relations between men and women, the Western doesn’t aim to communicate at all” (Tompkins 61). Amy remained this way even after talking to Miss Rodriguez who told her that “if Kane were my man I would grab a gun and help him”. Once the fighting began Amy became less of a talker and more of a doer as she used a firearm and killed one of Kane’s enemies and when captured helped Kane get the advantage on Miller to kill him. Amy then stops talking and becomes like Kane, thus showing more bravery than the other men in the town. Amy is not the alpha-male cowboy in this film, but there is a feminist movement in that Amy fights for her man and wins him.
The Ballad of Little Jo is a movie of a women dressing as a man to survive in the West. Jo becomes the alpha-male cowboy of the film as she always stands up for what she believes in. The only time she faulted in when the masked bandits threatened to kill more of her friends, but when push came to shove Jo faced death and defeated her opponents in battle proving she was the strongest man around. Jo did not enjoy the killing she committed but faced it non-the less and was victorious. This film shows the true modern day feeling towards women as equals as she performs all the actions of men with greater success than the other men in the film.
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