Hello, everyone, and welcome to Ministry of Cinema's web series, "Film Genres and Hollywood."
I'm Bradley Weatherholt and I'll be your host on this journey into genre filmmaking.
In this episode we ride along with cowboys and outlaws through the wild west as we explore
one of Hollywood's oldest and most seminal genres.
The western provides an excellent place to begin a course on Hollywood's genres since
the history of the western so closely mirrors the history of Hollywood genre filmmaking.
The flexibility of the genre makes the western difficult to universally describe.
However, at it's core westerns involve the American frontier. Typically in the later
half of the 19th century and about the ways of life for
cowboys, outlaws, native americans and settlers that populated this untamed land.
The western hero, the cowboy, is a mythical adaptation of Hispanic culture.
His valiance, free spirit, and sharp shot with a gun help mythologize the old west. Solidifying the
genre as a distinct american product.
Conventional history considered Edwin S. Porter's "The Great Train Robbery" as the first western film.
However, it is doubtful that contemporary audiences identified the film as such.
That said, the film contains many elements associated with the early western.
Good guys pitted against bad guys, shoot outs, trains, and wild outdoor settings.
Not remembered for his racial sensitivity, director D. W. Griffith tried his own hand
at early silent westerns. Producing a string of western themed narratives, including oftenly
offensive film, "The Squaw's Love".
Not long after, Cecil B. DeMille produced his first picture similarly titled to Griffith's,
"The Squaw Man"
"The Squaw Man" also holds the distinction for only film to be remade three times by
the same director. DeMille remaking the film in 1918 and 1931.
During the early decades of the 20th century, serial dime novels which starred popular real
life western figures like Billy The Kid and Jesse James.
Hollywood took the ready to be adapted material
and produced a wealth of cheap, formulaic films.
Perhaps the first great western star, William S. Hart
embodied the Hollywood notion of a cowboy.
Originally a Shakespearian actor, Hart was recruited by the New York Motion Picture Company
to direct and star in many prominent films of the early decades of the western.
At the time of greats like Hart, two very different types of western films were produced.
On one end, studios recycled similar plots, locations, actors, and even footage to maintain
a production quota for an insatiable demand from audiences. These cheap, low quality films
were marketed generally to the poor.
At the other end, studios produced standalone films with unique plots and mainstream stars
not only for the generic audiences, but the entire public.
With the 1930s, westerns thrived from the introduction of sound. Now westerns could
develop a uniquely American sense of dialogue.
By the end of the decade, John Ford, the western's great pioneering director, released "Stagecoach"
one of the most influential westerns ever made.
The film still featured similar action which highlighted cheaper quality westerns of the
time, but its masterful sense of mood as well as its epic range transcended run-of-the-mill
productions, elevating the western further into critical recognition.
"Stagecoach" star John Wayne, in a role which transformed his career and elevated him to
one of the worlds most famous men, was admired for his onscreen cool and masculine demeanor.
Wayne would become a western regular prominently featured in many box office hits in a career
spanning over 30 years.
Another lasting impact of "Stagecoach" was its use of Monument Valley, on the Arizona/Utah
border. The locations expansive western terrain became Hollywood's goto location for shooting.
After a hiatus during World War II, John Ford went back to Monument Valley with a classic,
"My Darling Clementine". Though only seven years after "Stagecoach",
"My Darling Clementine" released during a much different period for the genre.
At that time, westerns had infamously exploited sexuality with the now notorious sex westerns,
such as Howard Hughes's "The Outlaw", which showcased the not so subtle body of Jane Russell.
At the end of the decade, director Howard Hawks teamed up with Ford favorite John Wayne
in "Red River". Wayne and Hawks would later collaborate on 1959s "Rio Bravo", a much lighter,
but still acclaimed action adventure.
In the 1950s the world reeled from the aftermath of World War II and the recent red scare of
The Cold War. Westerns became more than just thrilling narratives, they now actively took
political or philosophical positions.
In 1952, "High Noon" provided a western backdrop for the McCarthy atmosphere which filled America's
political landscape. It also ticked away the dooming moments until nuclear annihilation.
The film's gravity and excellent cinematography make it one of the most acclaimed and discussed
westerns of all time.
Released in the same year as "High Noon", George Stevens's "Shane was a western chronicling
the life of the American frontier. The film actively sought to be more than just a western.
Renowned film theorist, André Bazin, argued that the film was a different breed of western.
One which looks for some additional interest to justify its existence. These interests
are many in "Shane", where moral and social questions shine on the screen with aesthetic mastery.
Later in the 50s, Ford and Wayne teamed up again for the Western's crowning achievement,
"The Searchers". When native americans kidnap the niece of confederate veterans Ethan Edwards,
the racist, neurotic cowboy begins and obsessive campaign to track down the girl and her abductors.
The films provocative imagery and expansive narrative provide unlimited material for interpretation.
One of the most accepted interpretations of the film involves Ethan's relationship with his niece.
Though never verbally expressed, the visual language of the film suggests a relationship
between Ethan and his niece's mother. The tension between Ethan and his brother's wife
hints at something much more. Most conclude that Ethan is in love but many go even further
deducing that Debra is actually not his niece at all, but his daughter.
Ethan's fervor in saving the girl is explained by his shame in betraying his brother and
his inability to assume the role of father in his daughter's life.
This interpretation among many others, illustrate the narrative and character complexity of the film.
"High Noon", "Shane", and "The Searchers" mark a vibrant period in the western genre.
In 1960, the public took a radically direction. With social unrest and cultural revolutions,
the 60s ushered in a time where westerns went out of style.
No longer was America's genocide handled so lightly.
American expansionism was second guessed as the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement
educated the public in the atrocities of white privilege. For westerns to survive they had
to assume an entirely different role.
In the 60s, the genre underwent its most significant reinvention. Italian studios appropriated
the American western and produced a string of successful, redefining films that we now
call “spaghetti” westerns.
Most prominent of these films were the ones helmed by the auteur director, Sergio Leone.
Leone's “The Dollars Trilogy” took a revolutionary approach to violence in editing. Leone would
masterfully extend a scene, building tension through long, wide angle shots, to be interrupted
suddenly with a burst of violence punctuated by quick close ups.
If history has three great western stars, William S. Hart and John Wayne being the first
two, then Clint Eastwood would be the third.
Eastwood rose to prominence with his edgy, laconic performance as The Man with No Name
in “The Dollars Trilogy”.
The character catapulted his career in the States, launching the acting career and directing
work of one of cinema's greatest.
The radical reinvention by Leone and the Italians forced Hollywood to adapt by producing westerns
with a different mood.
Even John Ford, the model of the old, established genre changed directions.
In "The Man WhoShot Liberty Valance", Ford adopted a darker tone.
Another collaboration with John Wayne, the film is easily the duo's most pensive work.
Sergio Leone himself lauded the film, naming it his favorite Ford film. The film where
Ford had finally learned about something called pessimism.
However, the film to take Hollywood westerns to an unprecedented level of pessimism was
1968's "The Wild Bunch".
Directed by Sam Peckinpah, "The Wild Bunch" is a violent but brilliant reimagining of
the western genre.
Like all redefining films of the genre, "The Wild Bunch" released at a perfect time. The
story shows the declining lives of western figures like cowboys and outlaws due to rapid
changes in technology at the time.
The story is fitting because it mirrors the decline that the western genre was experiencing
due to the rapid changes in film industry's technology.
The influence of Italian westerns on the film is palpable, particularly in the action sequences.
However, "The Wild Bunch" has a distinct American feel.
For instance, many interpret the film as a critique of America's involvement in Vietnam.
The most obvious example of this comes with the film's opening, where we see a colony
of ants devouring a scorpion. Soon a gang of bystanding children light the ants and
scorpion on fire.
The scene is often seen as a visual metaphor, where the powerful, yet defeated scorpion,
symbolic of America, and the organized and communal Vietcong are both inflamed and destroyed.
As if fire burning ants, "The Wild Bunch" completely broke down the western genre.
The deconstruction continued with films such as "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid", a
film with the innovative elements of "The Wild Bunch", but absent the pessimism.
Reinvention continued all the way into the early 70s with film such as Alejandro Jodorowsky’s
acid western, "El Topo".
The remainder of the 70s showed a remarkable decline in the western. The market changed
and the box office responded more favorably to blockbusters of dazzling effects, horror,
and science fiction.
And just when it appeared westerns could sink no lower, the 1980s were ushered in with one
of the genre's lowest points. Coming of the success of "The Deer Hunter", director Michael
Cimino was given the free reign to produce his western epic, "Heaven's Gate".
What resulted was a nightmare. Production was mismanaged, the film went way over budget,
and when it finally released critics and audiences shunned the film. It is one of the genre's
and Hollywood's biggest bombs and it marks a turning point where studios gained more
control at the expense of the director.
The only consistent light in the dark time of the genre came with the work of Clint Eastwood.
Starting in 1973, Eastwood began to direct and star in western classics which furthered
the cynical perspective newly introduced to the genre.
Beginning with "High Plains Drifter", Eastwood produced a string of westerns including
"The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "Pale Rider".
However, of the Eastwood iterations the most crowning achievement came in 1992 with the
Academy Award® winning "Unforgiven". A dark, ponderous film which revealed the underside
of the violent old west.
Since the 70s, the western has been in steady decline. with only a sprinkling of Eastwood
films, as well as a few notable projects of the 90s and early 21st century, the western
has lost most of the box office and cultural appeal.
This said, the narrative conventions and themes of the west are just as relevant today as
before. In fact, many other genres have borrowed from the western in their rise to prominence.
The most obvious example of this comes from Japanese samurai films. The samurai serve
as the cowboy of Japanese cinema with Akira Kurosawa as its John Ford and Toshiro Mifune
as its John Wayne.
Interestingly enough, the inspired would become the inspirational as legendary Japanese film
"Seven Samurai" would inspire a western remake in 1960s "Magnificent Seven".
Socially, politically, and theoretically, much can be said of the implications of the
western. From the Marxist Leone, to the ultra conservative Eastwood or John Wayne, all the
way to nihilistic Peckinpah, to the politically ambivalent John Ford, the western tradition
has been championed by a variety of philosophies which directly impacted the 20th century.
Let's not forget the early career of one of the most vocal politicians of the last century.
The western is one of Hollywood's most definitive genres and though it is no longer the mainstream
genre, the influence of western conventions is seen all throughout modern cinema.
We don't know if westerns will ever become the dominant genre of Hollywood again, but
we do know its presence and impact will never go away.