The Western Genre Film Analysis

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Recommended: Characteristics of the western genre film

Genre theory is the application of studying films in order to allow viewers to categorize the films into different groups before they even watch the film. Genre is a type or category of film that allows viewers to have certain expectations about what the movie will be like before actually watching it. For example, the Western genre is set in the American frontier often centering on the life of a cowboy armed with a rifle who rides a horse and fights a gunslinger or bandit. Western genre is one of the oldest, most endur¬ing and flexible genres and one of the most characteristically American genres in their mythic origins (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014, Sec 4.2, p. 81). This paper will focus on the Western genre, specifically the film The Wild …show more content…

The year was 1969, it was during the pinnacle of the Vietnam War and a time of great civil unrest and turmoil in the United States. The evidence of this war ranged from the draft where young men were voluntold to enter the armed forces, Veterans were coming home with horrendous injuries and many soldiers never returned to their loved ones. The Wild Bunch main actors are William Holden (Pike), Ernest Borgnine (Dutch), Robert Ryan (Thorton), Edmond O’Brien (Sykes), Warren Oates (Lyle), James Sanchez (Angel) and Emilio Fernandez (Angel). The Wild Bunch is a western film that takes place in 1913, during the height of the Mexican Revolution and an outlaw gang called The Wild Bunch. A summary of the film begins and ends with two violent, bloody gun battles (Ebert, 2016). The outlaws look for one last score and they find it by striking a deal with a corrupt Mexican General. They are persuaded to hold up a train full of army munitions in exchange for $10,000 and a safe haven from a Mexican General and his troops. The whole time they are planning and carrying out their plot, they are being chased and hunted by a bounty hunter and his crew. They hold up the train, but it leads to a violent and bloody final confrontation

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