The Western Genre: An Analysis of its History and Rise and Fall as a Genre

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Recommended: Characteristics of the western genre film

The Classic Western genre is dead. Western films created now are not considered Classic Western, but are instead categorized in the Post-Western form. This happened because the overuse of filmic codes in the Western genre eventually led to predictability in the films. These “genre film cycles” occur because of the overuse of predictability. Film cycles are when a genre and its conventions become overused to the point of death to that specific genre. For example, if the film The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966) were shown in a theater today people wonder why they were watching it, because they already knew what to expect from the typical western codes, such as good guys versus bad guys, gunfights, horse chases, Indians, frontier land, plains, etc. If it were a re-run on television, people would enjoy watching the film with a sense of nostalgia because they know it was a genre that happened in the past that is now dead. These Westerns have been bent to the point where filmmakers have done every kind of story they could do in the Western structure of cinema. If the pleasure of cinema comes from only predictability, then Classic Westerns should be still premiering in theaters. However this is not true. Barrie Hanfling suggests a reason for the lack of Classic Westerns is because times have changed. When the filmmakers of the “old-style westerns (of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s) were born, transformation of the American’s western lands from ‘Wild West’...was the immediate past, and they had a certain feel for it” (Hanfling, 2001). In other words, the early filmmakers had the “Wild West” feel still in their minds when they were creating these films. When they died, so did that feel of the Wild West. Hanfling also says that filmmakers ... ... middle of paper ... ...now something of the past and it was starting to fade away, similar to the transition between the silent era and sound era. References Campbell, N. (2013). Post-Westerns. University of Nebraska Press. Hanfling, B. (2001). Westerns and the Trail of Tradition. (1st ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. Hirschberg, L. (2007, November 11). Coen Brothers Country. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/magazine/11portfolio-t.html?_r=0 Johnson, G. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue06/infocus/western.htm Nichols, B. (2010). Engaging Cinema: An Introduction to Film Studies. (1st ed.). New York, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Varner, P. (2008). Westerns in Cinema. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Vallis, G. (2014, March 15). Re: Rough draft introduction [Electronic mailing list message].

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