I believe that all art is influenced by the worldview of its creator, even if the work is not meant to be a direct projection of such a worldview. Therefore, the movie Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier cannot be viewed as discrete from Walt Disney’s perspective. According to Roberts and Olsen, this perspective was politically conservative, with an emphasis on the past and stability. Most pertinently to the subject of legendary Americans, he promoted the preservation of heroes who represented liberty and the rights of man as part of America’s “sacred heritage.” Success, he believed, was achieved not through bureaucracy or unions, but through hard work, which could allow even the disadvantaged to rise up if they had the ambition and drive to do so. Those who did not would fail, regardless of whatever egalitarian ideologies the communists professed. In business, he adopted a paternal, old-fashioned, and non-regulated style of dealing with employees, which was reflected in his belief that where governments were fallible individuals could create prosperity themselves. These convictions were manifested in the architecture of Disneyland, which was modeled at fraction of average sizes to create a world that, like the past, was “knowable, smaller, more intimate, neat, and safe.”
I think the actual nature of Disney’s worldview was determined primarily from his upbringing and other factors that do not factor into the Crockett craze or those times. The examples given in the book, rather than actually forming his views, accentuated and reinforced them. For instance, the bitter workers’ strike against Disney in 1941 did not give him the idea that unions were dangerous, but instead highlighted it as an issue for America that should be addressed.Similarly, the Nazi-Soviet pact did not ‘form’ Disney’s opinion that communism was morally questionable, but cemented it as a malignant practice that should be curtailed in America. The zeitgeist of the era also contributed in shaping Disney’s worldview: during the Cold War, a need for unifying nationalism and a strong international persona was widely felt, spurring Disney and other manufacturers of entertainment to create works that would foster patriotism and faith in the nation.
As previously mentioned, I think that Davy Crockett can only be seen as an extension of Disney’s worldview. As Robert and Olsen indicate, his perspective can be seen in the case of Red Stick’s assertion that white governments lie and Crockett’s claim that he, the man, does not, just as Disney put more faith in the individual than in the bureaucracy. This individualism balanced with national ties was exhibited in Crockett’s treatment of the volunteer army, wherein he arrived and fought hard with everybody else but left when he saw fit regardless of what the officials told him. In physically besting the Indians Crockett was a role model for the United States—striving for peace but not afraid to use his position of superior strength to push others in the desired direction. Crockett also fostered patriotism among viewers by being one of the “great men” whose memory would keep America great, according to Disney. His choice to join the Texas Revolution was a historical extension of the Truman Doctrine, which was dividing America at the time. Disney’s belief in his own paternal management style is also championed in Crockett, with his honest, familiar colloquialisms, friendly attitude, and desire to be with his family. In this way, Crocket resembles Furstenberg’s view of Washington as a remedy for common fears of the time, as the nation was being fractured by labor issues and McCarthyism. The severity of the country’s fracturing is evidenced by the fact that just a year after the film was released, the Vietnam War began, which did create division in the population despite having shared heroes like Crockett. Even the mere fact that the movie’s subject was a historical figure, and an idealized one at that, betrays Disney’s belief that the past was a place of greater heroes and glory than the present. Thus, the Davy Crockett video can be said not to be influenced by Disney, but to be almost completely crafted according to his perspective.