The Western Movie Genre

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Recommended: The development of western movies

Westerns are the most important genre of the American film industry, a reflective tribute to the early days of the grand, wild American frontier. They are one of the oldest, most prevailing and versatile genres and one of the classically American genres in their mythic origins. The popularity of westerns has changed over time. Their most productive period was in the 1930s to the 1960s, and most lately in the 90s, there was a restoration of the genre.

This original American art form concentrates on the frontier west located North America. Westerns are usually arranged on the American frontier at some point in the last part of the 19th century subsequent to the Civil War, in a geographically western location with romantic, spanning frontier landscapes or rocky country ground. Nevertheless, Westerns may go on with the time of America's colonial era or ahead of the mid-20th century, or as far geographically as Mexico. Countless of western films utilized the Civil War, the Battle of the Alamo (1836) or the Mexican Revolution (1910) as a background.

The western film genre frequently presents the invasion of the wild and the submission of nature, for the sake of civilization, or the elimination of the territorial rights of the natives in the frontier. Detailed settings include lonesome remote forts, ranch houses, the secluded homestead, the saloon, the jail, the livery stable, the small-town street, or small frontier towns that constitute the boundaries of civilization. They may even include Native American land site or villages. Films such as Roy Rogers' Trigger, Gene Autry's Champion, William Boyd's (Hopalong Cassidy) Topper, the Lone Ranger's Silver and Tonto's Scout exemplify these icons.

Western films have also been identified a...

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Works Cited

Bazin, Andre. What is Cinema? Vol. II (Translated by Hugh Gray). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.

Buscombe, Edward (ed.). The BFI Companion to the Western. New York: Da Capo Press, 1991.

Everson, William. The Hollywood Western. New York: Citadel Press, 1992.

French, P. “Westerns”. CMCR/Centre for Mass Communication Research (n.d.) : 19 24 Jun.

2011 .

Hardy, Phil. The Western. London: Aurum Press, 1983.

Lund, Herta L. “Todays Embattled Cowboys”. National Review. 31 Dec. 1989. Vol.41.

Issue25: 26 Ebsco Host. Hinckley Library, Powell, Wy. 24 Jun.

2011 .

Miller, Don. Hollywood Corral. New York: Popular Library, 1976.

Pippin, Robert. Hollywood Westerns and American Myth: The Importance of Howard Hawks and John Ford for Political Philosophy. Yale University Press, 2010.

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