After watching Rio Bravo and understanding the background from which it came it was easy to see the aspect of resistance to a totalitarian state. In this film the Burdette’s are seen as the totalitarian dictators that use any means possible to get Joe out of jail for murdering another person in the saloon. His brother Nathan is a rich man who is able to pay off many men in order to kill Sheriff Chance or take townspeople hostage. There were several key parts in the film that lend itself to be openly resistant to “totalitarianism”; specifically at the end after the Sheriff had engaged with Burdette’s vigilantes one too many times and he finally was forced to comply with their order to let Joe out of prison because they took Dude hostage (2:00). Sheriff was prepared to make the trade and allow the Burdette’s to have full rein over the town to do whatever else they wanted to do as long as Dude would live. Once the trade was in full swing Dude took it upon himself to take Joe out and make sure the transaction did not go through (2:07). This is where the term “it takes a village” really plays a role. The Sheriff would not have been able to defeat the dictatorial rule of the Burdette’s if he had not had help from his fellow townspeople that were willing to help save the town and imprison Joe Burdette for his wrongful deeds. I believe this is an excellent example of resistance to totalitarianism. However, this could be a complicated comparison when using art/storytelling to define what should be done to resist a totalitarian state due to the ruthlessness of totalitarian states and the real life implications of such resistance. It is not so black and white or clear cut as far as how to resist, whether that be upfront confrontation or underlying, behind the scenes resistance. For instance, in Witness Whittaker Chambers takes the liberty upon himself to testify against Alger Hiss. This piece in particular stood out to me:
“But one man must always be willing to take upon himself the onus of evil that other men may be spared greater evil. For the sake of his children and my own, that all children might be spared the evil of Communism, I was going to testify.”
Excerpt From: Whittaker Chambers. “Witness.” Chapter 11; Section I.
I think this excerpt goes to show how far Chambers was willing to go to resist Communism in any way form infiltrating the lives of Americans, even if it meant putting his own private life on the line. I think the Sheriff and Chambers were one and the same in trying to resist the totalitarian powers that loomed over them ordering them to be obedient and they out of principle would not.