The western U.S. was populated by people of chiefly European origin, no?
So, why is it you never, ever hear a European accent of any kind in movies or television programs that depict 19th century western United States?
There should be English, Irish, Scottish, Polish, German, and Scandinavian accents abounding.
However, in fact, the accents are way over-the-top Texan-style drawl and are, in my opinion, very unlikely to be the accents of the era. Even modern Westerns make this glaring error.
In Destry Rides Again Marlene Dietrich as “Frenchie” speaks in her customary German accent. Callahan speaks with a Russian accent. It’s been too long since I’ve seen it so I can’t recall if Mrs Callahan speaks with an Irish accent or not.
There is very little talking at all in Seraphim Falls so I don’t really remember.
Doesn’t Festus speaks with an Albanian accent?
There is sometimes one character who has a big accent. Usually to imply that they just came to America and came straight out west. Everyone is actually speaking with their east coast accent.
In “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence,” a Swedish couple - the Ericsons - own the cafe where everyone eats. In fact, when Jimmy Stewart is first brought into the place after being beaten by Valence (Stewart ends up working as a dishwasher there), the Ericsons give him Akavit.
Well, Back to the Future 3 had some Irish and Eastern US accents…
I doubt the filmmakers did much research into accents, but I recall from a linguistics class I took that immigrants to the US from England noticed a distinctive American accent developing very quickly, so it’s likely that anyone who wasn’t a first generation immigrant would have spoken in the local US flavor. Still, though, the American west has always had a lot of immigration, so there should be a wide array of accents in these movies, just as there’s a pretty wide array of accents in the southwest now.
In Shane there are a number of different accents including Swedish, and Southern. I seem to remember an Irishman in there two. In Major Dundee with Charlton Heston and Richard Harris there were a bevy of different accents. Harris made another appearance in Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven as English Bob as I remember. In the John Ford/John Wayne military westerns there were always a number of different accents most memorable are always the Victor McClaughlin (sp) Irish sergeant, but there would usually be a Swede/Norwegian and a hispanic too. Centennial had them all French trapper, German patato farmer, Mexican cowboy, English ranch owner and all of their inter-related families.
In Sean Connery’s attempt at a western, Shalako, you had an Irishman, an Englishman, two French women and a German or two if I remember correctly. In the western Texas Accross the River Alan Delon plays, appropritely enough, a Frenchman. Speaking of Frenchmen, another John Wayne movie Rio Lobo had a French second lead (his Fenchness was never sufficiently enough explained to my satisfaction). In the Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin western Four for Texas. Elke Sommer does a believable (or not) Scandinavian dance hall queen.
And can we ever forget Arnold Schwarzenneger as the hero in The Villian?
Perhaps my favorite foreign accent in a western was the 1950s serial (and B movie) western hero Lash LaRue whose thick New Jersey accent was delightful to hear everytime he confronted the bad guys.
These are only off the top of my head mind you. Give me a minute or two and I will probably give you scores more.
For instance, in Heaven’s Gate, you seldom hear an unaccented voice among the settlers.
Well, no. At least if you mean first-generation immigrants.
There were of course some first generation immigrants, but the West was populated mostly by Easterners, including a lot of displaced Southerners after the Civil War (which is why you get the drawl so often in westerns). (Even before the Civil War, a lot of Southerners moved West during the California gold rush, as Southern miners abandoned the gold fields of Georgia and North Carolina for better prospects in the West.)
No there shouldn’t. Hollywood makes movies, not documentaries. It would be like asking why does the Terminator have an Austrian accent or why movies about Troy aren’t performed in Greek.