The Western Genre: An Analysis of its History and Rise and Fall as a Genre

Directed by Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight is not a film normally considered a member of the western genre by any means. The western genre is meant to captivate a viewer with action on the frontier of the ol’ west. From bank robberies to mining towns wanted for land, the western brought many new film plots and characteristics to the big screen. The main appeal of westerns started dying off in the late 1900s but that has not stopped modern day film makers from producing them. Films such as Django Unchained (2012), True Grit (2010), The Magnificent Seven (2016), and The Dark Knight (2008) all have revamped the western genre in the early 2000s by bringing new modern twists and stories to the genre. Now many would wonder as to why The Dark Knight is listed here as a western, and the short and simple response is that it is a western and can be considered so for multiple reasons, such as characters, the fight between good and evil, setting, and the fact that it compares very well to another well-known western, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. All of these reasons come together to make The Dark Knight a certified western.

In 1939 John Ford masterminded a classical western film by the name of Stagecoach. This film has the integrity of a fine work of art. Being that it could be considered a work of art, the impression left on a viewing audience could differ relying on the audience's demographics. However, it is conceivable to all audiences that Ford delivers a cast of characters that are built on stereotypes and perceptions conjured from 'B' westerns that preceded this film's time. Each character is introduced to the audience in a stereotypical genre, as the film progresses, these stereotypes are broken down and the characters become more humanized. This is apparent with a handful of characters being

John Ford built a standard that many future directors would follow with his classic 1939 film “Stagecoach”. Although there were a plethora of western films made before 1939, the film “Stagecoach” revolutionized the western genre by elevating the genre from a “B” film into a more serious genre. The film challenged not only western stereotypes but also class divisions in society. Utilizing specific aspects of mise-en-scène and cinematography, John Ford displays his views of society.

For my at home movie I watched Hang em’ High directed by Ted Post. It is considered a spaghetti western that was made in America. In comparison to the film we watched in class, High Noon directed by Fred Zinnemann. These two westerns had many similarities and differences. From differences in how the movie was actually shot, to the similarity of how both of the main characters are loners, these two movies connect all over on many different levels.

A film genre is a motion picture category based on similarities in either the narrative elements or the emotional response to the film. While films have at least one major genre, there are a number of films that are considered crossbreeds or hybrids with three or four coinciding genre or sub-genre types that they can be identified with them and most can be filed into categories that are easily recognizable to audiences (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 1998, p. 4.1). However, ever so seldom a film comes along that breaks free of its invisible bounds of genre and it leaves the audiences confused about the actual existence of genre. One such film is a film that most are familiar with Steven Spielberg’s classic Saving Private Ryan.

According to the film critic, Phillip French, “The Western has always been about America rewriting and reinterpreting her own past,” if this is indeed the case, then the two most popular Westerns of the early 1990s reveal that many Americans had rejected the traditional interpretation of the Old West. The critically and commercially successful, Dances with Wolves and Unforgiven, repudiated the patriotic frontier myth that had characterised the Western when it was the preeminent genre in American cinema. Informed by new Western historiography, itself an expression of political concerns that had been moving into the American mainstream since the 1960s, the movies display a complex and nuanced understanding of the frontier experience. Dances with Wolves rejected the traditional narrative of the inherent superiority of the Anglo-American hero conquering both Native Americans and the wilderness, and also focused on the environmental destruction that accompanied the ideology of Manifest Destiny. Unforgiven would similarly reject the frontier myth, replacing the democratic, civilised frontier town, with a brutal regime in which white men’s property rights prevail over any sense of justice. The film is noted for its self-reflexive nature, with a writer documenting and embellishing the tales of the Old West before the viewer’s eyes. This self-reflexion indicates that Americans were re-evaluating the myths of the frontier, and seeing them for what they were, creations by the

Stagecoach represents Native Americans as noble savages, a typical Hollywood Indian in western movies. A noble savage is a racist term used to describe a character as a wild person who symbolizes the goodness of humanity. They are an outsider who has not been civilized yet. This representation of Indians is completely stereotyped and is completely inaccurate but was created for the entertainment of white audiences who watch western films. The film Stagecoach is a complete western style film with scenes of cowboys versus Indians, in which the Indians are helpless, and cowboys seem to come out of the middle of the desert (Ford, 1939). These types of western films portray the American Indians through basic stereotypes such as riding horses with bows and arrows, they are always outnumbered, and they are portrayed in a dehumanizing style. These films act as if Indians are wild animals and not as actual people. The cowboys always are the heroes and the Indians always are incapable of surviving. Due to western movies, America now has the image of the Hollywood Indian that some people still believe Indians are in today's society. The representation of Indians in Stagecoach creates a visual that Indians are impotent and not humane. American Indians are always seen as the bad guys in western films which allows today's society to use the image of Indians as costumes for Halloween and allows people to see Indians as an object and not

American western movies were a thing of the 1950’s but they were no longer captivating in the 1970’s. It was apparent that guns, cowboys, and American heroes were no longer seen as a point of interest for the viewing public. Mel Gibson’s film entitled, Blazing Saddles, debuted in 1974 and seemed to fit the bill of the post-1960’s western. Blazing Saddles is a film that is able to take on racism and utilize it as an important reflection of the time. The film goes where no film has gone before in terms of discussing race and Hollywood. Blazing Saddles was able to seemingly integrate elements of Blaxploitation and introduce the film industry’s first interracial buddy comedy.

By conquering the frontier, characters in western films portray how they, as well as society at this

Development and adaptation of the western genre has occurred throughout the twentieth century in relation to the shift in context, this is still relevant. Stereotypes of a western genre and the context are determined by the time in which the film is being produced. The time in which they were produced determine how social construction, gender ideas, values and attitudes, the setting and SWAT codes are demonstrated. I have chosen to present this speech by looking at the film studied in class, and a film of my choice and how the difference in context has changed in the tie of these two films.

He was the academy winning Western legend, recognized as one of the best filmmakers of all time, his name was John Ford. He started out his career in film in July 1914 as an assistant, labourman and actor for his brother Francis Ford. It was not until 1917 where he made his debut as a director with the lost film, The Tornado and ended his career in the early 1970s with his last film Chesty: A Tribute to a Legend. During his early years, he was making silent films where Westerns were very popular during the time. When the introduction of sound came and the birth of Talkies came, however, the genre started losing its popularity. Yet, that did not stop the director from working on the genre, eventually to the point where he is now credited today as the man who played a huge role in bringing the westerns back to popularity. So, in this video essay, I will be talking about John Ford’s take on Westerns and how he revolutionized the genre.

Typically referred to as ‘Indians’ in popular culture, Native Americans were traditionally seen in Westerns as the antagonists. The Western genre typically tells the story of the colonisation and discovery of America, which saw the major Hollywood studios revive the interest in the Western. Westerns draw on “historical actuality, a romantic philosophy of nature, and the concept of the […] savage” (Saunders, 2001, p. 3). Westerns often split the “depiction of the Indian, with the cruel and treacherous [Indian] balanced by the faithful [Indian]” (Saunders, 2001, p. 3) which resulted in the portrayals of Native Americans witnessed in films today.

The film genre of the Western has long since proven to be more about the conflict and showdowns that occur in the storyline. Usually the western genre incorporates traditional western motifs and icons and adheres to those common plot structures of the genre, but Brokeback Mountain is different from what is to be normally expected because it does not seem like a traditional and conventional Western film at all. Brokeback Mountain has several different twists to it, like the more modern take on it – traditionally, characters in Western films were riding horses, but because Brokeback Mountain is a more modern movie, the two characters Jack and Ennis are seen traveling in cars and trucks most of the time. This alteration is very

The Western film genre is typically set in a secluded village in the middle of the desert, normally in the American West. The setting includes wooden buildings, tumble weed, cacti, trains, horses and carriages. The storyline for western films is usually the same, namely, a hero travels to a remote village, usually on a horse, and brings peace to the warring villagers.

This "inimical" environment forces the characters to endure and survive (71). The heroes attain their status by using their knowledge of the land to survive the trials it presents. Secondly, horses are expected in Westerns; they are the props. Horses stand at hitching posts, carry the hero over the frontier’s rough terrain, allow the fleeing villain to outrun the pursuing posse, and represent "the heart and soul of a Western" (89-90). But, the essential component of the Western is the hero, the character. Without question, the hero must exude a certain spirit hinting at his physical capabilities, his fearlessness, and his ability to accomplish even the impossible. The Western values his actions over his words (50) and idealizes his physical strength (11). Interestingly, the West requires these heroes to have strength and to act assertively, but their ability to endure the West’s challenges actually molds them into heroes. The rough wilderness, the hero, whose presence dwarfs the robbers and townspeople alike, and the trademark horses that keep the hero in action, carrying him across the unfriendly terrain, provide a working basis on which to compare texts and the roles of the characters. Although Tompkins discusses these elements in the context of the modern Western, they also apply to the earlier texts and are the elements that survived