Read the following note and complete the instructions for the Movie Genre Chart that follows.
WESTERNS FILMS
Westerns Films 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. 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.
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 small-town main street, or small frontier towns that are forming at the edges of civilization. Other iconic elements in westerns include the hanging tree, stetsons and spurs, lassos and Colt .45's, stagecoaches, gamblers, long-horned cattle and cattle drives, prostitutes (or madams) with a heart of gold, and more.
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.
Westerns Film Plots:
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.).
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. [No wonder that westerns were inspired by samurai and Arthurian legends, i.e., Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961) served as the prototype for Clint Eastwood's A Fistful of Dollars (1964), and Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai (1954) was remade as John Sturges' The Magnificent Seven (1960). Le Mort D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory also inspired much of Shane (1953).
John Wayne: The Archetypal Western Hero (or Anti-Hero)
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.
His first western, The Big Trail (1930), was a hit. Wayne further developed his western persona in Stagecoach (1939), Red River (1948), and in John Ford's cavalry trilogy. 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. He followed with The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), (Lee Marvin as 'Liberty Valance'). In the 60's Wayne also acted in Andrew McLaglen's comedy western McLintock! (1963), 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 Howard Hawks' El Dorado (1967), Henry Hathaway's True Grit (1969) in which he finally won a Best Actor Oscar as Rooster Cogburn, and in its sequel, Rooster Cogburn (1975. Two of Wayne's last-day films were The Cowboys (1972) and The Shootist (1976), in which Wayne (in his final film) played a famous gunfighter seeking peace while dying of cancer.
Sergio Leone's 'Spaghetti' Westerns:
Italian director Sergio Leone brought many changes with his trio of low-budget "spaghetti" western films made in Europe (Spain and Italy) in the mid-60s. The changes were a new European, larger-than-life visual style, a harsher, more violent depiction of frontier life, haunting music from Ennio Morricone, choreographed gunfights, wide-screen closeups, and TV's Rawhide (Rowdy Yates) star Clint Eastwood as the mysterious, detached, amoral, fearless and cynical gunfighter (dusty, serape-clad, stubbly-faced, and cigar-chewing) and bounty hunter - 'The Man With No Name. The trio of films actually resulted in a revival of the genre in the mid-to-late 1960s. A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966) - the best and most ambitious film in the trilogy. The director's true western epic masterpiece was Once Upon a Time in the West (1969).
Clint Eastwood:
During John Wayne's closing years, his popularity in westerns was matched only by Clint Eastwood, who had graduated from CBS-TV's Rawhide to Italian "spaghetti" westerns and was brought to Hollywood to star in American westerns, first as an actor and then as director (or actor/director). Eastwood developed and broadened his range by appearing in director Ted Post's violent revenge western Hang 'Em High (1968), Eastwood's first American film as the star. High Plains Drifter (1973) was Eastwood's second film as a director (and his first western as director), where he reprised his "The Man with No Name" character from the "spaghetti" Western sub-genre. He also directed and starred in the excellent epic The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976). He went on to star in Broncho Billy (1980), and Pale Rider (1985).
Although it was thought that Westerns were experiencing their swan song in the late 1970s and 1980s, Eastwood's award-winning and compelling film Unforgiven (1992) became the third western ever to win the Best Picture award. The film began something of a comeback for the western, due in part to the boost and the recognition received by two revisionist films (Best Picture westerns): Dances with Wolves (1990) and Unforgiven (1992).
The MOVIE GENRE CHART here have the LEFT column completed before watching the movie. While watching thye movie, complete the RIGHT column with examples from the movie.
So again....use the note above on this page to complete the left column and the movie to complete the right column.