Sylvester

This indigenous American art form focuses on the frontier West that existed in North America. Westerns are often set on the American frontier during the last part of the 19th century (1865-1900) following the Civil War, in a geographically western (trans-Mississippi) setting with romantic, sweeping frontier landscapes or rugged rural terrain. However, Westerns may extend back to the time of America's colonial period or forward to the mid-20th century, or as far geographically as Mexico. A number of westerns use the Civil War, the Battle of the Alamo (1836) or the Mexican Revolution (1910) as a backdrop. The western film genre often portrays the conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature, in the name of civilization, or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original inhabitants of the frontier. Specific settings include lonely isolated forts, ranch houses, the isolated homestead, the saloon, the jail, the livery stable, the small-town main street, or small frontier towns that are forming at the edges of civilization. They may even include Native American sites or villages. Other iconic elements in westerns include the hanging tree, stetsons and spurs, saddles, lassos and Colt .45's, bandannas and buckskins, canteens, stagecoaches, gamblers, long-horned cattle and cattle drives, prostitutes (or madams) with a heart of gold, and more. Very often, the cowboy has a favored horse (or 'faithful steed'), for example, Roy Rogers' Trigger, Gene Autry's Champion, William Boyd's (Hopalong Cassidy) Topper, the Lone Ranger's Silver and Tonto's Scout. Western films have also been called the horse opera, the oater (quickly-made, short western films which became as commonplace as oats for horses), or the cowboy picture. The western film genre has portrayed much about America's past, glorifying the past-fading values and aspirations of the mythical by-gone age of the West. Over time, westerns have been re-defined, re-invented and expanded, dismissed, re-discovered, and spoofed. In the late 60s and early 70s (and in subsequent years), 'revisionistic' Westerns that questioned the themes and elements of traditional/classic westerns appeared (such as Sam Peckinpah's [|**The Wild Bunch (1969)**], Arthur Penn's **Little Big Man (1970)**, Robert Altman's **McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971)**, and later Clint Eastwood's [|**Unforgiven (1992)**]). Usually, the central plot of the western film is the classic, simple goal of maintaining law and order on the frontier in a fast-paced action story. It is normally rooted in archetypal conflict - good vs. bad, virtue vs. evil, white hat vs. black hat, man vs. man, new arrivals vs. Native Americans (inhumanely portrayed as savage Indians), settlers vs. Indians, humanity vs. nature, civilization vs. wilderness or lawlessness, schoolteachers vs. saloon dance-hall girls, villains vs. heroes, lawman or sheriff vs. gunslinger, social law and order vs. anarchy, the rugged individualist vs. the community, the cultivated East vs. West, settler vs. nomad, and farmer vs. industrialist to name a few. Often the hero of a western meets his opposite "double," a mirror of his own evil side that he has to destroy. Typical elements in westerns include hostile elements (often Native Americans), guns and gun fights (sometimes on horseback), violence and human massacres, horses, trains (and train robberies), bank robberies and holdups, runaway stagecoachs, shoot-outs and showdowns, outlaws and sheriffs, cattle drives and cattle rustling, stampedes, posses in pursuit, barroom brawls, 'search and destroy' plots, breathtaking settings and open landscapes (the Tetons and Monument Valley, to name only a few), and distinctive western clothing (denim, jeans, boots, etc.). Western heroes are often local lawmen or enforcement officers, ranchers, army officers, cowboys, territorial marshals, or a skilled, fast-draw gunfighter. They are normally masculine persons of integrity and principle - courageous, moral, tough, solid and self-sufficient, maverick characters (often with trusty sidekicks), possessing an independent and honorable attitude (but often characterized as slow-talking). The Western hero could usually stand alone and face danger on his own, against the forces of lawlessness (outlaws or other antagonists), with an expert display of his physical skills (roping, gun-play, horse-handling, pioneering abilities, etc.). There are many [|subgenres] of the typical or traditional western, to name a few: In many ways, the cowboy of the Old West was the American version of the Japanese samurai warrior, or the Arthurian knight of medieval times. They were all bound by legal codes of behavior, ethics, justice, courage, honor and chivalry. The roots of the film western are found in many disparate sources, often of literary origins: The most often-portrayed western heroes on screen have been (in descending order): William Frederick Cody ("Buffalo Bill"), William Bonney ("Billy the Kid"), Jesse James, Wild Bill Hickok, Gen. George A. Custer, and Wyatt Earp. The western was among the first film genres, growing in status alongside the development of Hollywood's studio production system. There were only a few great silent westerns, although the best ones established some of the archetypes that are part of the genre even today. The earliest westerns (silent films without the sound of gunfire, horse's hoofbeats, and the cattle trail) are gems of American history. A few of the earliest western-like films were two shorts from Thomas Edison's Manufacturing Company: But the 'first real movie' or commercially narrative film that gave birth to the genre was Edwin S. Porter's pioneering western [|**The Great Train Robbery (1903)**]. Porter (named 'the father of the story film') was responsible for the one-reel, 10-minute long film, shot - curiously - on the East Coast (New Jersey and Delaware) rather than the Western setting of Wyoming. [The //first// westerns were shot, until 1906, on the East Coast.] Porter had also directed and filmed Edison's short publicity western-themed film **A Romance of the Rail (1903)**. Almost all the essential elements or conventions of typical westerns were included: good guys vs. bad guys, a robbery or wrong-doing, a chase or pursuit, and a final showdown, all in a natural setting. The film ended (or began) with a stunning close-up (the first!) of a gunman (George Barnes) firing directly into the camera - and audience. It was the most commercially successful film of the pre-nickelodeon era. Porter's film was a milestone in film-making for its storyboarding of the script, the first use of title cards, an ellipsis, and a panning shot, and for its cross-cutting editing techniques. One of its stars with multiple roles, Gilbert M. Anderson (Max Aronson), later took the name "Broncho Billy" Anderson and became famous as the //first// western film hero - the genre's first cowboy. As in other genres, westerns quickly became character-driven and stars began to be developed. Porter's other film in the same year was a non-Western, **Life of An American Fireman (1903)** featuring more overlapping action and cross-cut editing, and a last-minute rescue of a mother and child in a burning building. And Edison's **A Race for Millions (1907)** also featured typical western plot elements - a high-noon shootout, and claim-jumping. In fact, a number of major film studios were making westerns as early as 1907, and by the end of the first decade of the century, about twenty percent of all of Hollywood's films were westerns. Biograph claimed to have made the first western one year before Porter's **[|The Great Train Robbery (1903)]**. A few early westerns copyrighted by the American Mutoscope and Biograph Co. were the 21-minute long **Kit Carson (1903)** and the 15-minute **The Pioneers (1903)**. The first western produced in the West was Biograph's **A California Hold Up (1906)**. D. W. Griffith dabbled in silent westerns at Biograph Studios between 1908 and 1913, producing such pictures as: The //first// feature-length western was Lawrence B. McGill's six-reel **Arizona (1913)**. The //first// film to feature an all-Native American cast was **Hiawatha (1913)**, made by the Colonial Motion Picture Corporation and based on Longfellow's poem. Young Cecil B. De Mille's //first// motion picture was **The Squaw Man (1914)**, usually credited as the //first// feature filmed entirely in Hollywood. [De Mille remade the film in 1918 and 1931.] Even in the early days of the film industry, some real-life cowboys and legendary western figures appeared in films: Thomas Ince (1882-1924), known for inventing the studio system, was the first studio executive who embraced the western in the teen years. He arrived in California in 1911, where he produced detailed scripts with new situations and characters for a vast number of classic westerns. In 1912, his Bison Company production studios (known as Inceville) purchased the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch and the Wild West Show to use their props and performers for his assembly-line, mass-produced films. In the early 1910s, famed director John Ford's older brother Francis was directing and starring in westerns in California for producer Ince, before joining Universal and Carl Laemmle in 1913. Ince was responsible for discovering and bringing Shakespearean actor William S. Hart (1870-1946) to prominent stardom by signing him up in his New York Motion Picture Company. Hart served as both actor and director after moving to Hollywood, and was often portrayed as a "good bad man" on the screen (with his Pinto pony named Fritz). He emerged as one of the greatest Western heroes in the mid-1910s, until the release of his last film in 1925: John Wayne, towering and dominant, remains the most popular and durable of the major western film stars of the modern era. [Other western stars also included Henry Fonda, Clint Eastwood, Randolph Scott, James Stewart, Joel McCrea, and Gary Cooper.] In Wayne's many films, he embodied the great American hero and forever closely identified with the genre. A short summary of his films shows how deeply ingrained he was within the western film. Nine years after his first western **The Big Trail (1930)**, Wayne further developed his western persona in [|**Stagecoach (1939)**], and then performed in a series of action-packed WWII pictures in the early to mid-40s. He reappeared in Howard Hawks' epic of a mutinous cattle drive [|**Red River (1948)**], and in John Ford's cavalry trilogy (see above). Wayne also starred in his best Western (anti-hero) role in probably the best Hollywood Western ever made - John Ford's [|**The Searchers (1956)**], one of the few westerns which has consistently won praise as a work of art. The //VistaVision// film, shot in Monument Valley, portrayed Wayne as a racist, hate-driven, and lonely outsider relentlessly and obsessively searching over a period of years for his Comanche-kidnapped niece (played by a young Natalie Wood). John Ford memorably united two major stars of the genre in his last great film, the excellent adult western **The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)**, John Wayne and James Stewart -- and also Lee Marvin as 'Liberty Valance' (shot by Stewart). Its byword was "When the Legend Becomes Fact, Print the Legend." In the 60's, Wayne also acted in Andrew McLaglen's comedy western **McLintock! (1963)** (a battle-of-the-sexes film with Maureen O'Hara), Burt Kennedy's **The War Wagon (1967)** with Kirk Douglas, and Henry Hathaway's **The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)** with Wayne's second co-starring role with Dean Martin. In later years, Wayne's character aged and matured in such "autumnal" films as Howard Hawks' **El Dorado (1967)** (a remake of Hawks' own **Rio Bravo (1959)** again with Wayne), Henry Hathaway's **True Grit (1969)** in which he finally won a Best Actor Oscar as Rooster Cogburn, a boozy marshal engaged in a track-down, and in its sequel, **Rooster Cogburn (1975)**, with Wayne in an //African Queen//-like role opposite Katharine Hepburn. Two of Wayne's last-day films were Mark Rydell's **The Cowboys (1972)** and Don Siegel's elegiac **The Shootist (1976)**, in which Wayne (in his final film) played a famous gunfighter seeking peace while dying of cancer. http://www.filmsite.org/westernfilms2.html
 * Western Films** or **Westerns** are the major defining genre of the American film industry, a nostaligic eulogy to the early days of the expansive, untamed American frontier (the borderline between civilization and the wilderness). They are one of the oldest, most enduring and flexible genres and one of the most characteristically American genres in their mythic origins. [The popularity of westerns has waxed and waned over the years. Their most prolific era was in the 1930s to the 1960s, and most recently in the 90s, there was a resurgence of the genre.
 * Westerns Film Plots:**
 * Subgenres of Westerns:**
 * the epic Western (i.e., **The Big Country (1958)**)
 * the 'singing cowboy' Western (films of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, see below)
 * the "spaghetti" Western (the "Man With No Name" trilogy of films by Sergio Leone)
 * the "noir" Western (i.e., **Pursued (1947)**)
 * the "contemporary" Western (i.e., **Hud (1963)**)
 * the "revisionistic" Western (i.e., **Little Big Man (1970)**, **Dances With Wolves (1990)**)
 * the "comedy" Western (i.e., **Cat Ballou (1965)**, [|**Blazing Saddles (1974)**])
 * the "post-apocalyptic" Western (i.e., **Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981-2)**, **The Postman (1997)**)
 * the "science-fiction" or "space" Western (i.e., **Outland (1981)**)
 * Influences on the Western:**
 * Western Film Roots:**
 * [[image:http://www.filmsite.org/covers/lastofmohicans1920.jpg width="115" height="172" align="right" caption="The Last of the Mohicans - 1920"]]folk music of the colonial period
 * James Fenimore Cooper's novels such as his 1826 story //The Last of the Mohicans// (re-made as a feature film at least three times - Clarence Brown's 1920 version, a 1932 version starring Harry Carey, and George Seitz' 1936 version with Randolph Scott, and most recently as the popular film **The Last of the Mohicans (1992)** starring Daniel Day Lewis as the heroic white frontiersman scout named Hawkeye, raised as a Mohican)
 * Francis Parkman's //The Oregon Trail (1849)//
 * Samuel Clemens' (Mark Twain) //Roughing It (1872)//
 * Bret Harte's short stories
 * dime novels about Western heroes
 * Owen Wister's influential //The Virginian//, published in 1902, the first modern western novel
 * prolific Zane Grey's (1875-1939) 60+ novels that inspired dozens of films, including his best-known western //Riders of the Purple Sage (1918, 1925, 1931, 1941); also The Rainbow Trail (1918, 1925)//, George Seitz's //The Vanishing American (1925)// - the first film made in Monument Valley, //Rangle River (1937)//, //The Mysterious Rider (1933, 1938)//, //Lone Star Ranger (1942),// //Nevada (1927, 1936, 1944)//, //Western Union (1941)//, //Gunfighters (1947)//, and //Red Canyon (1949)//
 * other mythologies (tales of Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, Jim Bowie, Gen. George A. Custer, Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody, Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson), and outlaws (such as the James Brothers, the original Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Billy the Kid)
 * screen cowboy Gene Autry's "Cowboy Code" (or Cowboy Commandments) written in the late 1940s - a collection of moralistic principles and values that cowboys reportedly live by, including such tenets as: the cowboy never shoots first or takes unfair advantage, always tells the truth, must help people in distress, and is a patriot
 * Silent Westerns:**
 * the less-than 1 minute-long **Cripple Creek Bar Room Scene (1899)** (with its prototypical western bar-room scene, and a barmaid played by a man)
 * **Poker at Dawson City (1899)** (set during the Alaska Gold Rush, about a crooked poker game with flagrant cheating that led to a fight)
 * Edwin S. Porter's Pioneering Western:**
 * Other Early Westerns and Their Directors/Producers:**
 * **In Old California (1910)**, Griffith's first western-filmed western, followed by **The Twisted Trail (1910)** with Mary Pickford
 * **The Last Drop of Water (1911)**, with the western's first characteristic scenes of a wagon train siege and a cavalry rescue
 * the innovatively-filmed **Fighting Blood (1911)** about conflict between white settlers and Sioux Indians in the Dakota territory of 1899
 * and Griffith's last major Biograph western filmed in S. California, titled **The Battle of Elderbush Gulch (1914)**, a two-reel pre-cursor to his most (in)famous landmark film, [[image:http://www.filmsite.org/redstar.gif width="14" height="10" align="bottom" link="http://www.filmsite.org/birt.html"]] [|**Birth of a Nation (1915)**], with Lillian Gish and Mae Marsh
 * Wyatt Earp in **The Half-Breed (1919)**
 * Buffalo Bill Cody in **The Adventures of Buffalo Bill (1917)**
 * William S. Hart: The First Westerns Super-Star of the Silent Era**
 * [[image:http://www.filmsite.org/covers/tumbleweeds.jpg width="125" height="147" align="right" caption="Tumbleweeds - 1925"]]**T****he Disciple (1915)**
 * **The Taking of Jim McLane (1915)**
 * **Devil's Double (1916)**
 * **Hell's Hinges (1916)**
 * **The Return of Draw Egan (1916)**
 * **Truthful Tulliver (1916)**
 * **The Narrow Trail (1917)**, Hart's first feature production for Paramount
 * **Branding Broadway (1918)**, set in modern-day New York City!
 * **Riddle Gawne (1918)**
 * **Breed of Men (1919)**
 * **The Money Corral (1919)**
 * **Sand (1920)**, reportedly Pres. Woodrow Wilson's favorite Hart film
 * **The Testing Block (1920)**
 * **The Toll Gate (1920)**, Hart's first film with his own production company
 * **The Three Word Brand (1921)**, with Hart playing three roles
 * **White Oak (1921)**
 * **Travelin' On (1922)**
 * **Wild Bill Hickok (1923)**
 * **Singer Jim McKee (1924)**
 * **Tumbleweeds (1925)**, Hart's best-known and greatest western, by director King Baggot and from UA - about the Cherokee Strip (Oklahoma) Gold Rush; the film's title referred to a breed of roaming cowboys
 * John Wayne:** **The Archetypal Western Hero (or Anti-Hero)**

Definition
Westerns, by definition, are set in the **//American West//**, almost always in the **//19th century//**, generally between the **//Antebellum//** period and the turn of the century. Many incorporate the **//Civil War//** into the plot, or into the background, although the west was not touched by the war to the extent the east was. However, their setting may extend further back to the time of the American **//colonial period//** or forward to the mid-twentieth century. They may also range geographically from **//Mexico//** to **//Canada//**. [|American West] - [|19th century] - [|Antebellum] - [|Civil War] - [|Colonial period] - [|Mexico] - [|Canada] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Many westerns involve semi-**//nomad//**ic characters who wander from town to town, their sole possessions consisting of **//clothing//**, a **//gun//**, and (optionally) a **//horse//**. The high technology of the era – such as the **//telegraph//**, **//printing press//**, and **//railroad//** – may appear, occasionally as a development just arriving, and usually symbolizing the impending end of the **//frontier//** lifestyle which will soon give way to the march of **//civilization//**. [|Nomad] - [|Clothing] - [|Gun] - [|Horse] - [|Telegraph] - [|Printing press] - [|Railroad] - [|Frontier] - [|Civilization] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The Western takes these simple elements and uses them to tell **//morality//** tales, usually setting them against spectacular American **//landscape//**s. In some movies, scenery becomes almost the star of the movie. Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in a desert-like **//landscape//** for example in //**The Searchers** (1956) and **Open Range** (2003). However, this desert **landscape** is not as evident in **High Noon**// (1952), which is set in a gritty, dirty western town and shows a juxtaposition between the dirty town and the beautiful **//landscape//**. [|Morality] - [|Landscape] - [|The Searchers] - [|Open Range] - [|High Noon] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Specific settings include lonely isolated forts, ranch houses, the isolated homestead, the saloon or the jail. Other iconic elements in westerns include Stetsons and Spurs, **//Colt .45//**s, **//prostitute//**s and the faithful steed. http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/western-(genre)/definition.html
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Common themes
The western film genre often portrays the conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature, in the name of civilisation or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original inhabitants of the frontier. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The Western depicts a society organized around codes of **//honor//**, rather than the **//law//**, in which persons have no social order larger than their immediate peers, family, or perhaps themselves alone. Here, one must cultivate a reputation by acts of violence; or they can be generous, because generosity creates a dependency relationship in the social **//hierarchy//**. [|Honor] - [|Law] - [|Hierarchy] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ These themes unite the Western, the **//gangster//** movie, and the **//revenge//** movie in a single vision. In the Western, these themes are forefronted, to the extent that the arrival of law and "**//civilization//**" is often portrayed as regrettable, if inevitable. http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/western-(genre)/common-themes.html
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Western films
A genre in which description and dialogue are lean, and the landscape spectacular, is well suited to a visual medium. Early Westerns were mostly filmed in the studio like other early Hollywood movies, but when locations shooting became more common, producers of Westerns used desolate corners of **//California//**, **//Arizona//**, **//Utah//**, **//Nevada//**, **//Colorado//** or **//Wyoming//**, often making the landscape not just a vivid backdrop, but a character in the movie. [|California] - [|Arizona] - [|Utah] - [|Nevada] - [|Colorado] - [|Wyoming] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The Western genre itself has sub-genres, such as the **//epic Western//**, the **//shoot 'em up//**, **//singing cowboy Westerns//**, and a few **//comedy Westerns//**. The Western re-invented itself in the **//revisionist Western//**. [|Epic Western] - [|Shoot 'em up] - [|Singing cowboy Westerns] - [|Comedy Westerns] - [|Revisionist Western] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ [|Cowboy] - [|Gunslingers] - [|Indians] - [|Trek] - [|Bandits] - [|The Magnificent Seven] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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 * //Cowboy//**s and **//Gunslingers//** play prominent roles in Western movies. Often fights with **//Indians//** are depicted, although "revisionist" Westerns give the natives sympathetic treatment. Other recurring themes of westerns include western **//trek//**s, and groups of **//bandits//** terrorizing small towns such as in **//The Magnificent Seven//**.
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The Classical Western film
The western film traces its roots back to **//The Great Train Robbery//**, a **//silent film//** directed by **//Edwin S. Porter//** and starring **//Broncho Billy Anderson//**. Released in **//1903//**, the film's popularity opened the door for Anderson to become the screen's first cowboy star, making several hundred Western movie shorts. So popular was the genre that he soon had competition in the form of **//William S. Hart//**. [|The Great Train Robbery] - [|Silent film] - [|Edwin S. Porter] - [|Broncho Billy Anderson] - [|1903] - [|William S. Hart] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ In the United States, the western has had an extremely rich history that spans many genres (**//comedy//**, **//drama//**, **//tragedy//**, **//parody//**, **//musical//**, etc.). The golden age of the western film is epitomised by the work of two directors: **//John Ford//** (who often used **//John Wayne//** for lead roles) and **//Howard Hawks//**. Ford's 1939 epic, **//Stagecoach//** is considered one of the best westerns ever made. [|Comedy] - [|Drama] - [|Tragedy] - [|Parody] - [|Musical] - [|John Ford] - [|John Wayne] - [|Howard Hawks] - [|Stagecoach] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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Spaghetti Westerns

 * Main article: [|**//Spaghetti Western//**]

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ During the **//1960s//** and **//1970s//**, a revival of the Western emerged in **//Italy//** with the "Spaghetti Westerns" or "Italo-Westerns". Many of these films are low-budget affairs, shot in locations chosen for their cheapness and for the similarity of their landscapes to those of the **//Southwestern United States//** (southern **//Spain//** was the most popular choice). Spaghetti Westerns were characterised by the presence of more action and violence than the Hollywood westerns. But the best of the genre, notably the films directed by **//Sergio Leone//**, have a **//parodic//** dimension (the strange opening scene of **//Once Upon a Time in the West//** being a reversal of **//Fred Zinnemann//**'s **//High Noon//** opening scene) which gave them a different tone to the Hollywood westerns. **//Clint Eastwood//** became famous by starring in Spaghetti Westerns, although they were also to provide a showcase for other such considerable talents as **//Lee van Cleef//**, **//James Coburn//**, **//Klaus Kinski//** and **//Henry Fonda//**. [|1960s] - [|1970s] - [|Italy] - [|Southwestern United States] - [|Spain] - [|Sergio Leone] - [|Parodic] - [|Once Upon a Time in the West] - [|Fred Zinnemann] - [|High Noon] - [|Clint Eastwood] - [|Lee van Cleef] - [|James Coburn] - [|Klaus Kinski] - [|Henry Fonda] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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Revisionist Westerns
Beginning in the **//1960s//**, in part due to the impact of the Spaghetti Westerns, many American filmmakers began to question many traditional themes of westerns. Aside from the portrayal of the **//Native American//** as a "savage", audiences began to question the simple hero versus villain dualism, and the use of violence to test one's character or to prove oneself right. Examples of "revisionist westerns" include //**Jeremiah Johnson**, **Little Big Man**, **Dances With Wolves** and **Unforgiven**. Some "modern" Westerns give women more powerful roles, such as **Open Range** and **The Missing**//. In **//1969//**, **//Claudia Cardinale//** had a starring lead in **//Once Upon a Time in the West//**. [|1960s] - [|Native American] - [|Jeremiah Johnson] - [|Little Big Man] - [|Dances With Wolves] - [|Unforgiven] - [|Open Range] - [|The Missing] - [|1969] - [|Claudia Cardinale] - [|Once Upon a Time in the West] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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Genre studies and Westerns
In the **//1960s//** academic and critical attention to cinema as a legitimate art form emerged. With the increased attention, **//film theory//** was developed to attempt to understand the significance of film. From this environment emerged (in conjunction with the literary movement) a enclave of critical studies called genre studies. This was primarily a semantic and structuralist approach to understanding how similar films convey meaning. Long derided for its simplistic morality, the western film genre became to be seen instead as a series of conventions and codes that acted as a short-hand communication methods with the audience. For example, a white hat represents the good guy, a black hat represents the bad guy; two people facing each other on a deserted street leads to the expectation of a showdown; cattlemen are loners, townsfolk are family and community minded; and so forth. All western films can be read as a series of codes and the variations on those codes. Since the 1970s, the western genre has been unraveled through a series of films that used the codes but primarily as a way of undermining them (//**Little Big Man** and **Maverick**// did this through comedy). **//Kevin Costner//**'s **//Dances with Wolves//** actually resurrects all the original codes and conventions but reverses the polarities (the Native Americans are good, the U.S. Cavalry is bad). **//Clint Eastwood//**'s **//Unforgiven//** uses every one of the original conventions, only reverses the outcomes (instead of dying bravely or stoicly, characters whine, cry, and beg; instead of a good guy saving the day, unredeemable characters execute revenge; etc.) [|1960s] - [|Film theory] - [|Little Big Man] - [|Maverick] - [|Kevin Costner] - [|Dances with Wolves] - [|Clint Eastwood] - [|Unforgiven] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ One of the results of genre studies is that some have argued that "Westerns" need not take place in the American West or even in the 19th Century, as the codes can be found in other types of movie. For example, **//Hud//**, starring **//Paul Newman//**, and **//Akira Kurosawa//**'s //**Shichinin no samurai** (The Seven Samurai//), are possible examples of these. Likewise, it has been pointed out that films set in the old American West, may not necessarily be considered "Westerns." http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/western-(genre)/western-films.html
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Influences on and of the Western
During the late **//1950s//**, the Western movie became a template for the **//Bills//**, a **//Congolese//** youth **//subculture//**. [|1950s] - [|Bills] - [|Congolese] - [|Subculture] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Many westerns after 1960 were heavily influenced by the **//Japanese//** **//samurai//** films of **//Akira Kurosawa//**. For instance //**The Magnificent Seven** was a remake of Kurosawa's **Seven Samurai**, and both **A Fistful of Dollars** and **Last Man Standing** were remakes of Kurosawa's **Yojimbo**, which itself was inspired by **Red Harvest**//, an American detective novel by **//Dashiell Hammett//**. It should also be noted that Kurosawa himself was heavily influenced from American Westerns, especially the works of John Ford. Senses of Cinema [|Japanese] - [|Samurai] - [|Akira Kurosawa] - [|The Magnificent Seven] - [|Seven Samurai] - [|A Fistful of Dollars] - [|Last Man Standing] - [|Yojimbo] - [|Red Harvest] - [|Dashiell Hammett] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Despite the **//Cold War//**, the western was a strong influence on **//Eastern Bloc cinema//**, which had its own take on the genre, the so called '**//Red Western//**' or //Ostern//. Generally these took two forms: either straight westerns shot in the Eastern Bloc, or action films involving the **//Russian Revolution//** and **//civil war//** and the **//Basmachi//** rebellion in which **//Turkic//** peoples play a similar role to Mexicans in traditional westerns. [|Cold War] - [|Eastern Bloc cinema] - [|Red Western] - [|Russian Revolution] - [|Civil war] - [|Basmachi] - [|Turkic] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ An offshoot of the western genre is the "post-apocalyptic" western, in which a future society, struggling to rebuild after a major catastrophe, is portrayed in a manner very similar to the **//19th century//** frontier. Examples include //**The Postman** and the// "**//Mad Max//**" //series, and the computer game **Fallout**//. [|19th century] - [|The Postman] - [|Mad Max] - [|Fallout] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Many elements of space travel series and films borrow extensively from the conventions of the western genre. Peter Hyams' //**Outland** transferred the plot of **High Noon**// to interstellar space. **//Gene Roddenberry//**, the creator of the //**Star Trek** series, once described his vision for the show as "Wagon Train// to the stars". More recently, the **//space opera//** series **//Firefly//** used an explicitly western theme for its portrayal of frontier worlds. [|Outland] - [|High Noon] - [|Gene Roddenberry] - [|Star Trek] - [|Space opera] - [|Firefly] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Elements of western movies can be found also in some movies belonging essentially to other genres. For example, //**Kelly's Heroes** is a war movie, but action and characters are western-like. The British film **Zulu**// set during the Anglo-**//Zulu//** War has sometimes been compared to a Western, even though it is set in **//South Africa//**. [|Kelly's Heroes] - [|Zulu] - [|Anglo-Zulu War] - [|South Africa] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ In addition, the **//superhero//** **//fantasy//** genre has been described as having been derived from the cowboy hero, only powered up to omnipotence in a primarily urban setting. [|Superhero] - [|Fantasy] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The western genre has been parodied on a number of occasions, famous examples being //**Support Your Local Sheriff**, **Cat Ballou**//, and **//Mel Brooks's//** **//Blazing Saddles//**. [|Support Your Local Sheriff] - [|Cat Ballou] - [|Mel Brooks's] - [|Blazing Saddles] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/western-(genre)/influences-on-and-of-the-western.html
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 * //George Lucas//**'s **//Star Wars//** films use many elements of a western, and indeed, Lucas has said he intended for **//Star Wars//** to revitalize cinematic mythology, a part the western once held. The **//Jedi//**, who take their name from **//Jidaigeki//**, are modeled after samurai, showing the influence of **//Kurosawa//**. The character **//Han Solo//** dressed like an archetypal gunslinger, and the **//Mos Eisley Cantina//** is much like an old west saloon.

**T** he era of the American West lasted from about 1850 to 1900, when the country was expanding at a staggering rate. Settlers trudged West on the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails, cattle empires sprang from the prairies, cow towns grew around railroad stations, and legendary cattle drives cut great swaths across the plains. This time period provided the raw material for the Western. Back on the East Coast, dime novels about the West flooded newsstands and bookstores, spreading the legendary feats of real life characters such as Kit Carson, Wild Bill Hickok, and Jesse James. Artists Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, Frederick Remington and Charles Russell captured this world on canvas, emphasizing epic mountain vistas, valiant cavalry actions, and noble Indians. Wild West Shows featuring Indian war dances, stagecoach chases, and authentic frontiersmen (such as Buffalo Bill Cody) packed in audiences and even toured Europe. Onto this world, the early filmmakers turned their cameras. Thomas Edison produced several short films that plainly and simply showed Indians and cowboys at work and play. These minute long movies that played in Mutoscope and Kinetoscope peep-show viewers were the beginning of the West on film. In 1898, the Edison Company recorded the first Western dramas. //Cripple Creek Bar Room// shows several prospectors slogging down beers until they get drunk and thrown out of the bar, and //Poker at Dawson City// shows a game of five-card stud that ends in a brawl. || ||  || || http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue06/infocus/western2.htm
 * Beginnings **
 * [[image:http://www.imagesjournal.com/graphics/smimages.gif width="105" height="39"]]

**T** hroughout most of the '30s, Hollywood provided few feature Westerns. Among the exceptions were //The Plainsman// and //Wells Fargo//. But then suddenly in 1939, with World War II developing in Europe, Hollywood turned out a spate of Westerns, including //Union Pacific//, //Jesse James//, //Stagecoach//, //Dodge City//, and //Destry Rides Again//. //Stagecoach// marked John Wayne's return to the "A" Western and firmly established him as a major star. John Ford even gave Wayne the type of on-screen entrance usually reserved for only the biggest stars: the camera zooms from a medium shot to a close-up of Wayne's face. //Stageocoach// is an exciting tale of pursuit across hostile Indian territory, filmed with visual poetry by John Ford. Andre Bazin described //Stagecoach// as "the ideal example of the maturity of the style brought to classic perfection" (Bazin, pg. 149). Although //Stagecoach// was a standout critically, it did only middling box-office business. The biggest box-office returns went to the stories of outlaws--//Jesse James// and //Dodge City//. //Jesse James// established the badman biography as a major Western type and paved the way for films about the Daltons, the Youngers, Billy the Kid, and the James brothers. //Dodge City// established the town-taming Western, filled with brawling, expansive action, including a climactic fight aboard a burning train. The Westerns of 1939 may simply have been a sign of the times: war was approaching and feelings of patriotism were on the rise. The Westerns helped the country as a whole look at the nation's history while we prepared to send men into battle. With themes such as "Winning the West" taking hold in the genre, the Western celebrated American values, and films such as //Virginia City//, //Santa Fe Trail// and //They Died With Their Boots On// soon appeared. || ||  || || http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue06/infocus/western4.htm
 * The Rise of the Feature Western **
 * [[image:http://www.imagesjournal.com/graphics/smimages.gif width="105" height="39"]]