The Western as a Film Genre - 1449 Words

The Western as a Genre John Ford’s Stagecoach (United Artists) has been hailed as the official Western Classic. Released in 1939 after the lull in production of Westerns caused by the advent of sound and The Great Depression during the mid 1930’s, it is considered one of the key films that helped revived the A-Western in the 1940’s prior to WWII. Stagecoach has the classic Western recipe. The main staple of that recipe in Stagecoach were authentically dressed cowboys and town folk, the dress determined who or what they were; transportation in the form of horses, wagons, or stagecoaches; an authentic location, Monument Valley for example; and varying clashes some between Indians and settlers and some between individuals and†¦show more content†¦The demand couldn’t be filled by the American film industry so the theater owners turned in large part to the import of foreign films to keep the theaters in product. In 1907 the film industry took a risk by sending film troupes o ut west to film on location. This was an attempt to undermine the new influx of foreign made films, by giving the audience an experience that was extremely hard to copy. These authentically Western films became very popular and successful and by 1909 were being produced in California by the Bison Company. By 1910 the Western had become the first cinematic genre, and films were being produced on an industrial scale with the development of the detailed shooting script introduced by Thomas Ince of the Bison Company. Over the next 10 years the cowboy character was distilled down through Bronco Billy to four simple traits: traditional cowboy costume, underlying honesty, relish for action, and free and easy lifestyle that always allows him to be available for adventure. During this time the industry developed the Indian character further, and surprisingly we find explorations into Indian life in some of these films and not just the setup of whites verses Indians. The theme of the films with Indians portrayed in a good light was rare, and if they had a romantic relationship with a â€Å"white† person, normally someone died, preventing the intermingling of the races following the trend of discrimination still found in the U.S. Competition betweenShow MoreRelatedFilm Genre Of Western Films1169 Words   |  5 Pagesbrilliant movies, appearing through a variety of genres. However, for every generation there consistently exists a dominant movie trend that encapsulates that culture, frequently making appearances on the big screen. Early on in filmmaking history, western movies were one of the original major trending movie genres. Later, in the 1970’s, adventure was extraordinarily popular, then horror movies saw a significant rise toward the 1980’s. Each generation has its genre. As of recently, there is an observablyRead More How the Western Film Genre Has Developed over the Past Century2037 Words   |  9 PagesThe Western film genre is typically set in a secluded village in the middle of the desert, normally in the American West. The setting includes wooden buildings, tumble weed, cacti, trains, horses and carriages. The storyline for western films is usually the same, namely, a hero trave ls to a remote village, usually on a horse, and brings peace to the warring villagers. In a traditional Western film the clothing for the hero is usually a white hat, (this is to show purity). 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He adopts a thematic and ideological approach, which identifies only twoRead MoreBrokeback Mountain and the Western Genre Essay1000 Words   |  4 Pages The film genre of the Western has long since proven to be more about the conflict and showdowns that occur in the storyline. Usually the western genre incorporates traditional western motifs and icons and adheres to those common plot structures of the genre, but Brokeback Mountain is different from what is to be normally expected because it does not seem like a traditional and conventional Western film at all. Brokeback Mountain has several different twists to it, like the more modernRead MoreMovie Analysis : No Country For Old Men938 Words   |  4 Pagesin most Westerns creates a tone for a more contemporary version of the popularized American Westerns intertwined with a bit of thriller in the ‘Tracked’ scene of the 2007 Coen Brothers’ film, No Country for Old Men. I will prove that said scene establishes new aspects against the traditional west erns known internationally by incorporating Rick Altman’s analysis of semantic and syntactic themes in film genre in order to demonstrate the relationship between categorizing the film as a Western and findingRead MoreAnalysis Of A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night Essay1616 Words   |  7 PagesThe film ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night’, director Ana Lily Amirpour, is a mixture of genres such as the Spaghetti Western, the teenage romance, and the vampire genre. The clash of genres in this film brings out the idea of hybridity and duality, with the sounds and cinematography creating a sense of ambiguity, or the ‘in-between’. The underlying mix brings out a sense of horror for the overall feel of the film as it leaves audiences with a sense of fear and realisation that not everything isRead MoreTHE FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF THE WESTERN CINEMA1400 Words   |  6 PagesTHE FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF THE WESTERN CINEMA The western movies are film genre where the scene generally takes place in North America during the American conquest of the West in the last decades of the nineteenth century. This genre appears since the invention of the cinema in 1985 finding its inspiration from literature and painting arts of the American Wild West. This genre reached its first success in the mid-twentieth century during the golden age of Hollywood studios, before it had being reinventedRead MoreCodes and Conventions of Genres Essay1260 Words   |  6 PagesCodes and Conventions of Genres A genre is a particular type of commodity . It has characteristic features that are known to and recognised by the audiences because the same formula is reproduced many times. Genre is a French word meaning that refers to types or categories of media products. Soap operas, situation comedies, police series, quiz shows and news programmes are just some of the genres to be found in television. Genres are identified by the particular conventions