Phantom cowboy

Phantom Cowboy is a film essay about aggression and identity. It was inspired by the question: “Why are we so hard on ourselves?” And it suggests that the answer lies in the nature of culture’s role in the formation and maintenance of our identities. Through a series of metaphors, experiences and biographies, Phantom Cowboy gives us a glimpse of the “phantom” created by culture and biology: Our “phantom” is our unconscious need to emotional need for community, brotherhood, sisterhood and the gang. It is also the force that drives bigotry, pear measure, racism, fascism, and was. Our “phantom” interferes with the free transmission of ideas when smell groups try to own ideas as a means of heightening their identity—ideas that might serve a large society. Phantom Cowboy asks viewers to stand back from culture (including the metaphoric images in the film) in order to see themselves more clearly and to understand the cultural forces that manipulate them. The film was originally made in the hope of helping social change movements (peace, women’s rights, and environmental) to be more effective. That this film might do that has proven to be extremely presumptuous. It has, in fact, at times excited extreme hostility from the members of such groups as well as those from the far right. Business people and cultural anthropologist give the film its highest approval ratings. High school students, having a hightened awareness of the problems of identity, are the most fascinated with its ideas.