Hollywood Westerns Essay

In this essay, the author

• Explains that hollywood westerns focus on the concept of bringing the law to lawless, and that the movies that moved were the ones that garnered the most satisfaction and praise from movie-going audiences.
• Explains the origin of the western, stating that the genre's growth stemmed from various roots including arthurian legends, oral tradition, and frontier tales that essentially developed into folk-lore.
• Explains that the wild west shows were the most spectacular arena entertainment, probably since the era of the roman circuses. they were smash hits not only in america but throughout europe.
• Explains that no director nowadays is automatically classified as a western film director, rather they dabble across genres sometimes favouring one over another.
• Opines that westerns consisted of the good guys versus the bad guys. this clearly-demarcated distinction between good and evil changed as the western movie evolved and evolved.
• Explains that the idea of heroes and villains was not the only raw material of the west, but the westward expansion of america in the second half of 19th century also featured in this genre.
• Describes the most successful westerns of the 1930s and 1940s, including ‘stagecoach’, ‘my darling clementine’ and ‘duel in the sun’.
• Analyzes how the ending of howard hawk's 'red river' (1948) which saw john wayne and film debutante, montgomery clift, not shooting it out, was criticized for not being true to the genre.
• Opines that westerns are not to be appreciated purely in terms of their historical accuracy, but that the frontier between the civil war and the turn of the century would form the backdrop to most western films.
• Analyzes how john ford's 'the man who shot liberty valance' in 1962 infiltrated the genre with a darkening mood, which led to the veneration of film-makers.
• Explains that ‘how the west was won’ (1962) was the first western released in cinerama and featured a veritable ‘who’s who’ cast.
• Analyzes how akira kurosawa's 'the seven samurai' (1952) was re-worked into a film called the magnificent seven (1960) in hollywood.
• Explains that clint eastwood sang the lerner and loewe tune, ‘i talk to the trees’ in ‘paint your wagon’ and lee marvin’s version of ‘wandering star’ hit no. 1 on the british music charts.
• Explains that western movies enjoyed some sort of resurgence in the 1970’s, with releases such as mel books’ satirical ‘blazing saddles’ and ‘butch cassidy and the sundance kid’.
• Analyzes how we saw self-personification of the genre itself (john wayne in ‘the shootist’ in 1976), men at the end of their tether (william holden in sam peckinpah’s gruesome, ‘wild bunch’ (1969), or even those unaware that their time had come and gone.
• Explains that the westerns' position vis-à-vis hollywood was radically different from what it had been before the second world war. hollywood and audiences no longer seem interested in the last days of the frontier.
• Explains that with a new awakening among minority groups in america, spokesmen for the american indian movements began to complain that hollywood had maligned and degraded the native american on the screen.
• Analyzes how marlon brando's refusal to accept his second oscar for best actor in 'the godfather' sent sacheen littlefeather (a young indian girl) to read out his objections at the film industry’s treatment of indians.
• Analyzes how the complaint against gratuitous violence found its nadir in the spaghetti westerns under the leadership of films by sergio leone.
• Opines that the most successful western at the box-office with an inflation-adjusted revenue is still ‘duel in the sun’ with approximate takings of us$70-million.
• Explains that the traditional western has often been overlooked at awards time; only three have won oscars for best picture, including ‘cimarron’ (1933), dances with wolves (1990) and ‘the unforgiven.
• Opines that only john ford and sam peckinpah had the excellence to rise above this material, and make something new of it.
• Opines that when one talks about a western, such discussion is based in the past, but the genre remains alive in our memories.