The Cowboy’s Last Cigarette
Published in La Nación
(Argentina) on 18 January 2015
by Mariano Donadío (link to original)
(Argentina) on 18 January 2015
by Mariano Donadío (link to original)
Translated from
by Álvaro Rodríguez.
Edited by Emily Chick.
Both the Western and the gauchesco are crepuscular genres: civilization is coming and the free country man says goodbye. Darren Winfield, the Marlboro Man between 1968 and 1989, has passed away recently. His death represents the end of a symbol, that is, a double farewell.
For Americans, the Marlboro Man stands for a masculine, lonely and independent cowboy lighting his cigarette as the sun sets over the Grand Canyon — another crepuscular event.
There were four Marlboro Man actors since the 50s and every one of them died because of smoking-related diseases, such as emphysema, respiratory failure and lung cancer.
We’re also saying goodbye to the representation of another group of people: the smoker.
Revisionism, which retells everything, is already creating a new kind of cowboy for the cinema. They don’t smoke and their lungs are healthy. They’ll die because of a bullet, never because of nicotine.
For Americans, the Marlboro Man stands for a masculine, lonely and independent cowboy lighting his cigarette as the sun sets over the Grand Canyon — another crepuscular event.
There were four Marlboro Man actors since the 50s and every one of them died because of smoking-related diseases, such as emphysema, respiratory failure and lung cancer.
We’re also saying goodbye to the representation of another group of people: the smoker.
Revisionism, which retells everything, is already creating a new kind of cowboy for the cinema. They don’t smoke and their lungs are healthy. They’ll die because of a bullet, never because of nicotine.
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