Revisionist Western
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The revisionist Western (also called the anti-Western) is a sub-genre of the Western film.[1][2][3] Called a post-classical variation of the traditional Western, the revisionist subverts the myth and romance of the traditional by means of character development and realism to present a less simplistic view of life in the "Old West". While the traditional Western always embodies a clear boundary between good and evil, the revisionist Western does not.
Revisionist themes have existed since the early 20th century but it was not until 1968, when the
Concept
This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2022) |
The traditional Western typically features a strong male lead character, often a lawman or cavalry officer, who takes direct action on behalf of supposedly civilized people against those deemed to be uncivilised. The former are portrayed as honest townsfolk or travelers, the latter as outlaws or hostile Native Americans.[citation needed]
In the revisionist Western, the traditional format and themes are subverted by such devices as the Native American protagonist; strong female characters; the outlaw protagonist; plots that are pre-eminently concerned with survival in a wild environment; or the presentation of a morally ambiguous storyline without definite heroes, these often featuring the so-called
The traditional Western treats characters in simplistic terms as good or bad with minimal character development. The psychological Western, which began in the 1940s and was hugely popular through the 1950s and 1960s, prioritizes character development ahead of action whilst retaining most of the traditional aspects. For the most part, the psychological Western morphed into the revisionist Western as censorship restrictions were relaxed and removed in the 1960s.[citation needed]
Shane is a psychological Western with many of the trappings of a traditional one. Fifteen years later, Sergio Leone directed Once Upon a Time in the West, a revisionist Western[citation needed] which completely subverts the traditional with complex characters and multiple plot devices, the key one being revenge – the motive of enigmatic gunfighter Harmonica (Charles Bronson). As in Shane, it is not the gunfighters who "inherit the West" but in this case the compassionate town-building ex-prostitute Jill (Claudia Cardinale). By the end of the film, all of the antagonists except Harmonica are dead and, like Shane, he rides away to an uncertain future.[7]
Development
This section needs additional citations for verification. (January 2022) |
Opinion is divided on the origin of the revisionist or psychological Western but it is generally agreed that there were hints of a darker perspective in some films of the 1930s such as
The Outlaw/Gunfighter sub-genre focused on outlaws and gunfighters as human beings rather than using them as stock characters, often dressed in black, as in traditional Westerns. The aim was to examine the impact of gunfights on the participants by revealing their neuroses and redeeming characteristics. AllMovie's earliest films of this type are two silents: The Road Agent (1926), directed by J. P. McGowan and starring Al Hoxie; and Jesse James (1927), directed by Lloyd Ingraham and starring Fred Thomson.[10]
In a similar vein, the Indian Western seeks to reverse negative stereotypes by sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans who, in the traditional Western, are nearly always the enemy of the "heroic" white settlers and cavalry. In the Indian Western, roles can be reversed with peaceful Native Americans driven to fight against white aggression. Usually, however, the Native American hero or heroine is played by brownface whites such as Burt Lancaster and Jean Peters in Apache (1954). In Dances with Wolves, the female lead was Mary McDonnell playing a white who had been raised by the Lakota.[11] There had been earlier films which portrayed Native Americans sympathetically, but the breakthrough for this sub-genre was Broken Arrow (1950), directed by Delmer Daves and starring James Stewart, with Jeff Chandler as Cochise. Kim Newman wrote that Chandler's performance established Cochise as "the 1950s model of an Indian hero" and the film inspired goodwill to other Native American chiefs such as Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Geronimo – as a result, "it became fashionable for Westerns to be pro-Indian".[12]
Many of the films were produced in the 1950s during the milieu of McCarthyism and attempted to strike back against blacklisting of the film industry at that time, notably High Noon (1952) starring Gary Cooper.[citation needed] By the time of the loosening, and later abandonment, of the restrictive Hays Code in the 1960s, many directors of the New Hollywood generation such as Sam Peckinpah, George Roy Hill, and Robert Altman focused on the Western and each produced their own classics in the genre, including Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969), Hill's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971).[citation needed]
Meanwhile, European directors such as Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci had been making Western films unencumbered by American expectations nor Hays Code inspired censorship, and these spaghetti Westerns also provided a new perspective on the Western genre. Early examples of this sub-genre are Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, starring Clint Eastwood, and Corbucci's Minnesota Clay, starring Cameron Mitchell, both made in 1964.[13]
The revisionist and psychological Westerns have been carried forward from their own standard settings into the
Spaghetti Westerns
European countries, which had imported Western productions since their silent film inception, began creating their own versions and, in the 1964, Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars became an international hit initiating the spaghetti Western filone.[14] Although they were mostly shot in Spanish locations, featured U.S. actors, and were co-produced by European and U.S. producers, many of the most successful directors were Italian, resulting in these films being known by the misnomer spaghetti Western. Leone is often credited with initiating the growth of these co-produced European Westerns as he played a seminal role due the financial success of A Fistful of Dollars. Scholars such as Austin Fisher have begun to pay attention to how in this popular genre Italian directors such Damiano Damiani, Sergio Sollima and Sergio Corbucci, in responding to international and national events, chose the Western as way to represent Leftist doctrine in the second half of the 1960s, interpreting the conflict between Mexico and the U.S. through the lens of Italian politics.[15] Leone popularized the morally ambivalent gunfighter through his representation of "The Man with No Name," Clint Eastwood's gritty anti-hero who was copied again and again in spaghetti Westerns in characters such as Django and Ringo and which came to be one of its universal attributes.[16]
Counterculture
Beginning in the late 1960s, independent filmmakers produced revisionist and
List of revisionist Western films
This list is not exhaustive. It includes major films labelled revisionist Western, anti-Western, psychological Western, Indian Western, outlaw Western, gunfighter Western, or spaghetti Western. By 1970, revisionism had supplanted the traditional as the predominant Western sub-genre and so the list highlights the films released until then to illustrate the development of the concept.
1901–1950
- The Great Train Robbery (1903)[21]
- The Road Agent (1926)[21]
- Jesse James (1927)[21]
- Law and Order (1932)[21]
- The Outlaw Tamer (1935)[21]
- Outlaw Rule (1935)[21]
- Outlawed Guns (1935)[21]
- Westward Ho (1935)[8]
- Outlaws of Sonora (1938)[22]
- Heritage of the Desert (1939)[22]
- Jesse James (1939)[22]
- Outlaws' Paradise (1939)[22]
- The Desperadoes (1943)[22]
- The Outlaw (1943)[9][22]
- Outlaws of Stampede Pass (1943)[22]
- The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)[9]
- Outlaw Roundup (1944)[22]
- The Daltons Ride Again (1945)[22]
- Badman's Territory (1946)[22]
- Gran Casino (1947)[22]
- Gunfighters (1947)[23]
- Jesse James Rides Again (1947)[22]
- Pursued (1947)[9]
- Adventures in Silverado (1948)[23]
- Blood on the Moon (1948)[9]
- The Man from Colorado (1948)[9]
- Rachel and the Stranger (1948)[9]
- Yellow Sky (1948)[23]
- Bad Men of Tombstone (1949)[23]
- Colorado Territory (1949)[9]
- I Shot Jesse James (1949)[9][23]
- Branded (1950)[24]
- Broken Arrow (1950)[25]
- Devil's Doorway (1950)[24]
- The Furies (1950)[24]
- The Gunfighter (1950)[24][23]
- I Shot Billy the Kid (1950)[23]
- Winchester '73 (1950)[24]
1951–1955
- The Great Missouri Raid (1951)[23]
- Three Desperate Men (1951)[23]
- The Battle at Apache Pass (1952)[8]
- Bend of the River (1952)[24]
- The Duel at Silver Creek (1952)[24]
- Hangman's Knot (1952)[23]
- High Noon (1952)[24]
- Hondo (1953)[24]
- The Lawless Breed (1953)[23]
- The Naked Spur (1953)[24]
- Hannah Lee (1953)[23]
- Shane (1953)[24]
- War Arrow (1953)[8]
- Apache (1954)[26]
- Broken Lance (1954)[27]
- The Far Country (1954)[24]
- Johnny Guitar (1954)[27][26]
- Silver Lode (1954)[27]
- Vera Cruz (1954)[28]
- The Kentuckian (1955)[27]
- The Man From Laramie (1955)[27]
- Man with the Gun (1955)[27]
- Run for Cover (1955)[27]
- Tribute to a Bad Man (1955)[27]
1956–1960
- Gunslinger (1956)[26][28]
- Jubal (1956)[27]
- The Last Hunt (1956)[27]
- The Searchers (1956)[26]
- Star in the Dust (1956)[27]
- 3:10 to Yuma (1957)[29][28]
- Decision at Sundown (1957)[27]
- Forty Guns (1957)[29]
- Gun Glory (1957)[26]
- The Lonely Man (1957)[26]
- Night Passage (1957)[29]
- Oregon Passage (1957)[26]
- Run of the Arrow (1957)[26]
- The True Story of Jesse James (1957)[28]
- The Bravados (1958)[29]
- Buchanan Rides Alone (1958)[29]
- Gun Fever (1958)[26]
- The Left Handed Gun (1958)[29][26][28]
- Man of the West (1958)[29]
- Showdown at Boot Hill (1958)[26]
- Terror in a Texas Town (1958)[29]
- Day of the Outlaw (1959)[29]
- Face of a Fugitive (1959)[28]
- The Hanging Tree (1959)[29]
- Last Train from Gun Hill (1959)[30]
- No Name on the Bullet (1959)[29]
- Warlock (1959)[29][26]
- 13 Fighting Men (1960)[28]
- Comanche Station (1960)[28]
- The Magnificent Seven (1960)[31][32]
- One Foot in Hell (1960)[30]
- Sergeant Rutledge (1960)[33][4]
- The Unforgiven (1960)[30][34]
1961–1970
- The Deadly Companions (1961)[34]
- One-Eyed Jacks (1961)[34]
- Two Rode Together (1961)[34]
- Lonely Are the Brave (1962)[30]
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)[34][28]
- Ride the High Country (1962)[34]
- A Fistful of Dollars (1964)[28]
- Cheyenne Autumn (1964)[35]
- Arizona Colt (1965)[36]
- Arizona Raiders (1965)[34]
- For a Few Dollars More (1965)[36][34]
- The Glory Guys (1965)[34]
- Apache Rifles (1966)[34]
- Django (1966)[36]
- El Dorado (1966)[36]
- An Eye for an Eye (1966)[34]
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)[36][37]
- Nevada Smith (1966)[37]
- The Plainsman (1966)[34]
- The Professionals (1966)[36]
- Ride in the Whirlwind (1966)[37]
- The Shooting (1966)[37]
- Any Gun Can Play (1967)[36]
- Bandidos (1967)[36]
- Chuka (1967)[37]
- Hombre (1967)[37]
- Hour of the Gun (1967)[37]
- Rough Night in Jericho (1967)[37]
- The Way West (1967)[37]
- Welcome to Hard Times (1967)[37]
- Bandolero! (1968)[38]
- Day of the Evil Gun (1968)[30]
- The Desperados (1968)[38]
- Firecreek (1968)[38]
- The Great Silence (1968)[37]
- Hang 'em High (1968)[38]
- Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)[38]
- Will Penny (1968)[30]
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)[38][36]
- Death of a Gunfighter (1969)[38]
- Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969)[39]
- A Time for Dying (1969)[38]
- The Wild Bunch (1969)[38][36]
- Young Billy Young (1969)[38]
- Barquero (1970)[40]
- Little Big Man (1970)[40]
- Monte Walsh (1970)[40][30]
- Soldier Blue (1970)[40]
- Deadlock (1970) [17][18]
Later films
Subsequently, revisionist themes have prevailed in Western film production. Major releases from 1971 to the present include:
- Lawman (1971)[41]
- McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)[42]
- Jeremiah Johnson (1972)[43]
- Chato's Land (1972)[44]
- The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972)[45]
- The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972)[46]
- Joe Kidd (1972)[47]
- The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)[48]
- Ulzana's Raid (1972)[49]
- High Plains Drifter (1973)[50]
- Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)[51]
- Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976)[52]
- The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)[53]
- The Long Riders (1980)[54]
- Pale Rider (1985)[55]
- Dances with Wolves (1990)[56]
- Unforgiven (1992)[57]
- The Ballad of Little Jo (1993)[58]
- Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)[59]
- Tombstone (1993)[60]
- The Quick and the Dead (1995)[61]
- 3:10 to Yuma (2007)[62]
- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)[63]
- Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007)[64]
- True Grit (2010)[65]
- Django Unchained (2012)[66]
- The Hateful Eight (2015)[67]
- Brimstone (2016)[68]
- Never Grow Old (2019)[69]
- Hostiles (2017)[70]
- The Power of the Dog (2021)[71]
- Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
- The Settlers (2023)
See also
- List of Western subgenres
- Portrayal of Native Americans in film
- Ostern
References
- ISBN 978-0-8047-5800-0.
He called his film an "'anti-Western' because the film turns a number of Western conventions on their sides"
- ^ Ben Sachs, "The Sisters Brothers", Chicago Reader, September 27, 2018: "Neither a nostalgic throwback to traditional westerns nor a revisionist antiwestern, [...]"
- ^ Brent McKnight, "On Robert Altman's Subversive Anti-western, 'McCabe & Mrs. Miller'", PopMatters, November 21, 2016: "[...] Robert Altman's revisionist anti-western, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, [...]"
- ^ a b Newman 1990, p. 44.
- ^ Newman 1990, p. 86.
- ^ Newman 1990, p. 93.
- ^ Newman 1990, pp. 39–40.
- ^ a b c d "Revisionist Western". AllMovie. p. 12. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "Psychological Western". AllMovie. p. 7. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
- ^ "Outlaw/Gunfighter Western". AllMovie. p. 12. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ "Indian Western". AllMovie. p. 5. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ Newman 1990, pp. 70–71.
- ^ "Spaghetti Western". AllMovie. p. 15. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ "Introduction to the history of Italian Cinema (part 2)". Retrieved December 23, 2022.
- ISBN 978-1-84885-578-6.
- ISBN 1-903047-42-0.
- ^ a b "Deadlock".
- ^ a b "Roland Klick: Celebration". September 2, 2019.
- Cineaste. Vol. 22, no. 2. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
- ^ Brophy, Philip (1987). "Rewritten Westerns: Rewired Westerns". Stuffing. No. 1. Melbourne. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film". AllMovie. p. 8. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film". AllMovie. p. 7. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film". AllMovie. p. 6. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Psychological Western". AllMovie. p. 6. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
- ^ Erickson, Hal. "Broken Arrow (1950)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Revisionist Western". AllMovie. p. 11. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Psychological Western". AllMovie. p. 5. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film". AllMovie. p. 5. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Psychological Western". AllMovie. p. 4. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Psychological Western". AllMovie. p. 3. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
- ^ Newman 1990, pp. 92, 156.
- ^ The Magnificent Seven at AllMovie
- ^ Sergeant Rutledge at AllMovie
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Revisionist Western". AllMovie. p. 10. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
- ^ "Indian Western". AllMovie. p. 3. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film". AllMovie. p. 4. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Revisionist Western". AllMovie. p. 9. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Revisionist Western". AllMovie. p. 8. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
- ^ "Indian Western". AllMovie. p. 2. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
- ^ a b c d "Revisionist Western". AllMovie. p. 7. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
- ^ Brenner, Paul. "Lawman (1971)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ Erickson, Hal. "McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
- ^ Bozzola, Lucia. "Jeremiah Johnson (1972)". AllMovie. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
- ^ Brenner, Paul. "Chato's Land". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
- ^ Deming, Mark. "The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ Erickson, Hal. "The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid (1972)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
- ^ Brenner, Paul. "Joe Kidd (1972)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ Brenner, Paul. "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
- ^ Rasmussen, Linda. "Ulzana's Raid (1972)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ Bozzola, Lucia. "High Plains Drifter (1973)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
- ^ Bozzola, Lucia. "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
- ^ Bozzola, Lucia. "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976)". AllMovie. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
- ^ Bozzola, Lucia. "The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
- ^ Brenner, Paul. "The Long Riders (1980)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ Deming, Mark. "Pale Rider (1985)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ Blaise, Judd. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
- ^ Bozzola, Lucia. "Unforgiven (1992)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
- ^ Erickson, Hal. "The Ballad of Little Jo (1993)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 17, 2023.
- ^ Brenner, Paul. "Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
- ^ Ramsey, Lucinda. "Tombstone (1993)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
- ^ Williams, Karl. "The Quick and the Dead (1995)". AllMovie. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
- ^ Buchanan, Jason. "3:10 to Yuma (2007)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ Dominik, Andrew. "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ Buchanan, Jason. "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ Manning, Joseph. "True Grit (2010)". AllMovie. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
- ^ Buchanan, Jason. "Django Unchained (2012)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ Gelb, Daniel. "The Hateful Eight (2015)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ Ciampoli, Tom. "Brimstone (2016)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
- ^ Kenny, Kenny (March 15, 2019). "Never Grow Old". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
- ^ "Hostiles movie review & film summary (2017) | Roger Ebert". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
- Far Out Magazine. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-07-47507-47-5.
External links
- Articles in Western American Literature on the "Postwestern"
- Articles in Western American Literature on "Western film and TV"
- Example: 'WILD HEARTS ROAM FREE[1]' by author J S Morey, Sercombe Morey Publishing (Independent),ISBN 979-881521613
- )