Western (genre)

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The Western is a

California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada.[1][2]
: 7 

The frontier was commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West" and depicted in Western media as a sparsely populated hostile region patrolled by cowboys, outlaws, sheriffs, and numerous other stock "gunslinger" characters. Western narratives often concern the gradual attempts to tame the crime-ridden American West using wider themes of justice, freedom, rugged individualism, manifest destiny, and the national history and identity of the United States. Native American "Indian" populations were often portrayed as averse foes and/or savages.

Originating in

Western lifestyle, country-Western music, and Western wear globally.[3][4]
Throughout the history of the genre, it has seen popular revivals and been incorporated into various subgenres.

Characteristics

Stories and characters

The classic Western is a

vests, and cowboy boots with spurs. While many wear conventional shirts and trousers, alternatives include buckskins and dusters
.

Women are generally cast in secondary roles as

ranchers
, and townsfolk).

The ambience is usually punctuated with a Western music score, including American folk music and Spanish/Mexican folk music such as country, Native American music, New Mexico music, and rancheras.

Locations

Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an

arid, desolate landscape of deserts and mountains. Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting a "mythic vision of the plains and deserts of the American West".[6] Specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways, wilderness, and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a stock plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution, which is often dispensed through a shootout or quick draw duel.[7][8][9]

Themes

The Lone Ranger, a famous heroic lawman, was with a cavalry of six Texas Rangers until they all, except for him, were killed. He preferred to remain anonymous, so he resigned and built a sixth grave that supposedly held his body. He fights on as a lawman, wearing a mask, for "Outlaws live in a world of fear. Fear of the mysterious".

The Western genre sometimes 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, Native American, inhabitants of the frontier.[10] The Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice–"frontier justice"–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are often played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them (e.g., True Grit has revenge and retribution as its main themes). This Western depiction of personal justice contrasts sharply with justice systems organized around rationalistic, abstract law that exist in cities, in which social order is maintained predominantly through relatively impersonal institutions such as courtrooms. The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a seminomadic wanderer, usually a cowboy or a gunfighter.[10] A showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns.

In some ways, such protagonists may be considered the literary descendants of the

ronin
in modern Japanese culture.

The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, although some notable examples (e.g. the later Westerns of John Ford or

Wild West; it is the place to go for music (raucous piano playing), women (often prostitutes), gambling (draw poker or five-card stud), drinking (beer, whiskey, or tequila if set in Mexico), brawling, and shooting. In some Westerns, where civilization has arrived, the town has a church, a general store, a bank, and a school; in others, where frontier rules still hold sway, it is, as Sergio Leone
said, "where life has no value".

Plots

Author and screenwriter Frank Gruber identified seven basic plots for Westerns:[11]

  • Union Pacific story: The plot concerns construction of a railroad, a telegraph line, or some other type of modern technology on the wild frontier. Wagon-train stories fall into this category.
  • Ranch story: Ranchers protecting their family ranch from
    rustlers
    or large landowners attempting to force out the proper owners.
  • Empire story: The plot involves building a ranch empire or an oil empire from scratch, a classic rags-to-riches plot, often involving conflict over resources such as water or minerals.
  • Revenge story: The plot often involves an elaborate chase and pursuit by a wronged individual, but it may also include elements of the classic mystery story.
  • Cavalry and Indian story: The plot revolves around "taming" the wilderness for White settlers and/or fighting Native Americans.
  • Outlaw story: The outlaw gangs dominate the action.
  • Marshal story: The lawman and his challenges drive the plot.

Gruber said that good writers used dialogue and plot development to develop these basic plots into believable stories.

Media

Film

Main article: Western film
Justus D. Barnes in Western apparel, as "Bronco Billy Anderson", from the silent film The Great Train Robbery (1903), the second Western film and the first one shot in the United States
The Great Train Robbery full film (1903); runtime 00:11:51.

The

new frontier".[12] Originally, these films were called "Wild West dramas", a reference to Wild West shows like Buffalo Bill Cody's.[13] The term "Western", used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World magazine.[13]

Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th-century popular Western fiction, and were firmly in place before film became a popular art form.[14][page needed] Western films commonly feature protagonists such as cowboys, gunslingers, and bounty hunters, who are often depicted as seminomadic wanderers who wear Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, and buckskins, use revolvers or rifles as everyday tools of survival and as a means to settle disputes using "frontier justice". Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds.[citation needed]

Gary Cooper in Vera Cruz

The first films that belong to the Western genre are a series of short single reel silents made in 1894 by Edison Studios at their Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey. These featured veterans of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show exhibiting skills acquired by living in the Old West – they included Annie Oakley (shooting) and members of the Sioux (dancing).[15]

The earliest known Western narrative film is the British short Kidnapping by Indians, made by Mitchell and Kenyon in Blackburn, England, in 1899.[16][17] The Great Train Robbery (1903, based on the earlier British film A Daring Daylight Burglary), Edwin S. Porter's film starring Broncho Billy Anderson, is often erroneously cited as the first Western, though George N. Fenin and William K. Everson point out (as mentioned above) that the "Edison company had played with Western material for several years prior to The Great Train Robbery". Nonetheless, they concur that Porter's film "set the pattern—of crime, pursuit, and retribution—for the Western film as a genre".[18] The film's popularity opened the door for Anderson to become the screen's first Western star; he made several hundred Western film shorts. So popular was the genre that he soon faced competition from Tom Mix and William S. Hart.[19]

Western films were enormously popular in the

Yosemite, and the giant redwoods, due in part to exhibitors' inability to switch over to widescreen during the Great Depression. After renewed commercial successes in the late 1930s, the popularity of Westerns continued to rise until its peak in the 1950s, when the number of Western films produced outnumbered all other genres combined.[21]

The period from 1940 to 1960 has been called the "Golden Age of the Western".[22] It is epitomized by the work of several prominent directors including Robert Aldrich, Budd Boetticher, Delmer Daves, John Ford, and others. Some of the popular films during this era include Apache (1954), Broken Arrow (1950), and My Darling Clementine (1946).[citation needed]

The changing popularity of the Western genre has influenced worldwide pop culture over time.[23][24] During the 1960s and 1970s, Spaghetti Westerns from Italy became popular worldwide; this was due to the success of Sergio Leone's storytelling method.[25][26] After having been previously pronounced dead, a resurgence of Westerns occurred during the 1990s with films such as Dances with Wolves (1990), Unforgiven (1992), and Geronimo (1993), as Westerns once again increased in popularity.[27][28]

Television

Main article: Westerns on television
James Garner and Jack Kelly in Maverick (1957)

When television became popular in the late 1940s and 1950s, Television Westerns quickly became an audience favorite.[29][page needed] Beginning with rebroadcasts of existing films, a number of movie cowboys had their own TV shows. As demand for the Western increased, new stories and stars were introduced. A number of long-running TV Westerns became classics in their own right, such as: The Lone Ranger (1949–1957), Death Valley Days (1952–1970), The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955–1961), Cheyenne (1955–1962), Gunsmoke (1955–1975), Maverick (1957–1962), Have Gun – Will Travel (1957–1963), Wagon Train (1957–1965), The Rifleman (1958–1963), Rawhide (1959–1966), Bonanza (1959–1973), The Virginian (1962–1971), and The Big Valley (1965–1969). The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp was the first Western television series written for adults,[30] premiering four days before Gunsmoke on September 6, 1955.[31]: 570, 786 [32]: 351, 927 

The peak year for television Westerns was 1959, with 26 such shows airing during primetime. At least six of them were connected in some extent to

A&E network from 2012 to 2014, it was picked up by Netflix
in 2015 until the show's conclusion in 2017.

Crime drama makes the show a unique spin on both genres. Walter's reliance on the desert environment makes the Western-feel a pivotal role in the show, and would continue to be used in the spinoff series Better Call Saul.[35]

Literature

Main article: Western fiction

televised Westerns, and the rise of the spy novel. Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s and reached a new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside of a few Western states, now only carry a small number of Western novels and short-story collections.[36]

Literary forms that share similar themes include stories of the American frontier, the gaucho literature of Argentina, and tales of the settlement of the Australian Outback.

"As Wild felled one of the redskins by a blow from the butt of his revolver, and sprang for the one with the tomahawk, the chief's daughter suddenly appeared. Raising her hands, she exclaimed, 'Go back, Young Wild West. I will save her!'" (1908)

Visual arts

Main article: Western American Art

A number of visual artists focused their work on representations of the American Old West. American West-oriented art is sometimes referred to as "Western Art" by Americans. This relatively new category of art includes paintings, sculptures, and sometimes Native American crafts. Initially, subjects included exploration of the Western states and cowboy themes.

Charles M. Russell are two artists who captured the "Wild West" in paintings and sculpture.[37] After the death of Remington Richard Lorenz became the preeminent artist painting in the Western genre.[38]

Some art museums, such as the

Autry National Center in Los Angeles, feature American Western Art.[39]

Anime and manga

With

shonen manga about a boy with a Japanese father and a Native American mother, or El Cazador de la Bruja, a 2007 anime television series set in modern-day Mexico. Part 7 of the manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is based in the American Western setting. The story follows racers in a transcontinental horse race, the "Steel Ball Run". Golden Kamuy (2014–2022) shifts its setting to the fallout of the Russo-Japanese War, specifically focusing on Hokkaido and Sakhalin, and featuring the Ainu people
and other local tribes instead of Native Americans, as well other recognizable Western tropes.

Comics

Western comics have included serious entries, (such as the classic comics of the late 1940s and early 1950s (namely Kid Colt, Outlaw, Rawhide Kid, and Red Ryder) or more modern ones as Blueberry), cartoons, and parodies (such as Cocco Bill and Lucky Luke). In the 1990s and 2000s, Western comics leaned towards the fantasy, horror and science fiction genres, usually involving supernatural monsters, or Christian iconography as in Preacher. More traditional Western comics are found throughout this period, though (e.g., Jonah Hex and Loveless).

Games

Western

video games are often either straightforward Westerns or Western-horror hybrids. Some Western-themed computer games include The Oregon Trail (1971), Mad Dog McCree (1990), Sunset Riders (1991), Outlaws (1997), Desperados series (2001–), Red Dead series (2004–), Gun (2005), and Call of Juarez series (2007–). Other video games adapt the "weird West" concept – e.g., Fallout (1997), Gunman Chronicles (2000), Darkwatch (2005), the Borderlands series (2009–), Fallout: New Vegas (2010), and Hard West
(2015).

Radio dramas

Western radio dramas were very popular from the 1930s to the 1960s. There were five types of Western radio dramas during this period: anthology programs, such as Empire Builders and Frontier Fighters; juvenile adventure programs such as Red Ryder and Hopalong Cassidy; legend and lore like Red Goose Indian Tales and Cowboy Tom's Round-Up; adult Westerns like Fort Laramie and Frontier Gentleman; and soap operas such as Cactus Kate.[40]: 8  Some popular shows include The Lone Ranger (first broadcast in 1933), The Cisco Kid (first broadcast in 1942), Dr. Sixgun (first broadcast in 1954), Have Gun–Will Travel (first broadcast in 1958), and Gunsmoke (first broadcast in 1952).[41] Many shows were done live, while others were transcribed.[40]: 9–10 

Web series

Westerns have been showcased in short-episodic web series. Examples include League of STEAM, Red Bird, and Arkansas Traveler.

Subgenres

Main article: List of Western subgenres

Within the larger scope of the Western genre, there are several recognized subgenres. Some subgenres, such as

meat pie Westerns (Australia), ramen Westerns (Asia), and masala Westerns (India).[42]

Influence on other genres

Being

Yojimbo, which itself was inspired by Red Harvest, an American detective novel by Dashiell Hammett.[44] Kurosawa was influenced by American Westerns and was a fan of the genre, most especially John Ford.[45][46]

Despite the

Basmachi rebellion.[citation needed
]

Many elements of space-travel series and films borrow extensively from the conventions of the Western genre. This is particularly the case in the space Western subgenre of science fiction. Peter Hyams's Outland transferred the plot of High Noon to Io, moon of Jupiter. More recently, the space opera series Firefly used an explicitly Western theme for its portrayal of frontier worlds. Anime shows such as Cowboy Bebop, Trigun and Outlaw Star have been similar mixes of science-fiction and Western elements. The science fiction Western can be seen as a subgenre of either Westerns or science fiction. Elements of Western films can be found also in some films belonging essentially to other genres. For example, Kelly's Heroes is a war film, but its action and characters are Western-like.

John Wayne (1948)

The character played by Humphrey Bogart in noir films such as Casablanca and To Have and Have Not—an individual bound only by his own private code of honor—has a lot in common with the classic Western hero. In turn, the Western has also explored noir elements, as with the films Pursued and Sugar Creek.[citation needed]

In many of

interstellar teleporter portal across the galaxy, in Conestoga wagons, their captain sporting mustaches and a little goatee and riding a Palomino horse—with Heinlein explaining that the colonists would need to survive on their own for some years, so horses are more practical than machines.[citation needed
]

Rustler's Rhapsody.[citation needed
]

George Lucas's Star Wars films use many elements of a Western, and 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.[47]

Meanwhile, films such as The Big Lebowski, which plucked actor Sam Elliott out of the Old West and into a Los Angeles bowling alley, and Midnight Cowboy, about a Southern-boy-turned-gigolo in New York (who disappoints a client when he does not measure up to Gary Cooper), transplanted Western themes into modern settings for both purposes of parody and homage.[48]

Tom Mix in Mr. Logan, U.S.A., c. 1919

See also

References

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  4. ^ Fraser, Kristopher (February 14, 2023). "Cowboy Core Fashion Is Trending: Beyoncé, Harry Styles & More Create Buzz Around Western-inspired Looks". WWD. Archived from the original on March 29, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
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  8. ^ Adams, Cecil (June 25, 2004). "Did Western gunfighters really face off one-on-one?". Straight Dope. Archived from the original on August 18, 2020. Retrieved October 4, 2014. June 25, 2004
  9. ^ "Wild Bill Hickok fights first western showdown". History.com. July 21, 2014. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  10. ^ a b c Newman, Kim (1990). Wild West Movies. Bloomsbury.
  11. ^ Gruber, Frank The Pulp Jungle Sherbourne Press, 1967
  12. ^ "America's 10 Greatest Films in 10 Classic Genres". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on September 30, 2018. Retrieved June 6, 2010.
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  14. ^ Smith, Henry Nash (1970). Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth. Harvard University Press.
  15. ^ "Sioux ghost dance". Library of Congress. 1894. Archived from the original on January 22, 2022. Retrieved September 9, 2021.
  16. ^ "World's first Western movie 'filmed in Blackburn'". BBC News. October 31, 2019. Archived from the original on January 22, 2023. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  17. ^ "Kidnapping by Indians". BFI. Archived from the original on January 22, 2023. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
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  19. ^ "Bronco Billy Anderson Is Dead at 88". The New York Times. January 21, 1971. Archived from the original on October 15, 2019. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
  20. ^ New York Times Magazine (November 10, 2007).
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  22. ^ Gittell, Noah (June 17, 2014). "Superheroes Replaced Cowboys at the Movies. But It's Time to Go Back to Cowboys". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on July 21, 2022. Retrieved July 21, 2022.
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  25. ^ Butler, Nancy (January 27, 2023). "Inventing America: Spaghetti Westerns and Sergio Leone". Italy Segreta. Archived from the original on March 15, 2023. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
  26. ^ Gray, Tim (January 4, 2019). "Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns Made a Fistful of Dollars and Clint Eastwood a Star". Variety. Archived from the original on March 15, 2023. Retrieved March 15, 2023.
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Further reading

  • Buscombe, Edward, and Christopher Brookeman. The BFI Companion to the Western (A. Deutsch, 1988)
  • Everson, William K. A Pictorial History of the Western Film (New York: Citadel Press, 1969)
  • Kitses, Jim. Horizons West: The Western from John Ford to Clint Eastwood (British Film Institute, 2007).
  • Lenihan, John H. Showdown: Confronting Modern America in the Western Film (University of Illinois Press, 1980)
  • Nachbar, John G. Focus on the Western (Prentice Hall, 1974)
  • Simmon, Scott. The Invention of the Western Film: A Cultural History of the Genre's First Half Century (Cambridge University Press, 2003)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Westerns, Wild West in art and Native Americans in art.
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