Neo-Westerns seem to be in conflict with the past.
1903 marked the year the American Western was born.
The Great Train Robbery, while only a 12 minute-long silent short, became the first of many films
whose genre would come to define old Hollywood well into the 1960's.
It was a staple of the American movie-going experience.
Back in its heyday, the Western's popularity was the equivalent of the superhero genre
nowadays.
It thrived in films, tv shows and even radio serials.
As with any other trend within the audiovisual medium, its status as the dominating genre
was not meant to last forever.
Eventually, the film genre decreased in popularity as filmgoers' attention shifted, newer technologies
were introduced, tastes changed, and social sensibilities evolved.
Westerns were still being produced but they weren't as much in demand.
From time to time, Westerns reminiscent of the classic ones are released and that quasi-mythic
time period is revisited but it's not the same anymore.
In the last two decades, there have been a few filmmakers revisiting the relic of old
Hollywood, looking at it through fresh eyes, offering different viewpoints and giving it
a contemporary update.
The Neo-Western.
There are a few different descriptions of the genre out there so for the sake of this
video, we will define it as follows: films that deal with the recurring themes of the
old westerns but set in a modern world.
Themes such as protectionism, the grey areas in the law, survival and the changing times
are prevalent.
And so are the external elements such as shootouts, standoffs, outlaws, gunslingers and horses,
but within a newer, more familiar and personal context.
The stories are grounded, realistic, gritty, mostly bleak and don't promise happy endings.
They compel us to look at an imperfect world and all its intricacies.
They feel like a self-aware epilogue to the folk stories of the old west.
Where the past is seen under a critical lens and the future is uncertain.
In today's video, we will be exploring the recurring themes shared by the films belonging
to the Neo-Western genre.
Some spoilers will follow.
- Oh, yeah, Charles, we got ourselves an X-Men fan.
You do know they're all bullshit, right?
Maybe a quarter of it happened, and not like this.
French film theorist Christian Metz believed that movie genres go through four cycles during
their lifespan.
The experimental stage is the beginning, where the genre's blueprints are created, its rules
are set, serving as a foundation for the next stage.
The classical stage follows by having the genre's rules become iconic and set as the
standards for the genre.
The tropes and formula are embraced.
The parody stage is when the genre's guiding principles are so well known that they can
be used to make fun of itself.
Finally, the deconstruction stage is when the genre evolves beyond its own conventions
and breaks its original rules, creating something that can't be defined as belonging to only
one category, but a fusion of genres.
Neo-westerns are born from the deconstruction stage.
They continue where the western left-off.
The re-evaluation of past ideals and exploration of moral ambiguities.
Hell or High Water perfectly illustrates the disaffection that comes from seeing how the
world has changed and what it's becoming.
The film often looks back at the way things were in the past and deals with a new reality
that forces its characters to evolve and operate in questionable grey areas.
The main characters: Toby and Tanner, establish their own brand of "frontier justice" in order
to fight the system that was supposed to protect them but took advantage of their family's
ranch.
-You know they loaned the least they could just enough to keep your mama poor on a guaranteed
return, thought they could swipe her land for 25,000$.
To further represent the disillusionment, whenever a character expresses an opinion
of their way of life, it's done so in a negative manner.
"21st century, I'm racing a fire to the river with a herd of cattle.
And I wonder why my kids won't do this shit for a living."
"What am I supposed to do with a ranch?"
"How's anyone supposed to make a living here?"
What might have been an ideal in the past is seen as a burden, it's no longer romanticized.
This can also be seen in Logan.
A film that is not only a neo-western but also dovetails into the deconstruction stage
of the superhero genre.
Logan is a man that is trying to steer clear from his past.
His superhero life may be idolized by others but all he can remember is the pain that came
from it.
He knows those stories are only dressed up versions of what really happened, which is
what makes him reject them as lies.
"In the real world, people die.
And no self-promoting asshole in a fucking leotard can stop it.
This is ice cream for bed-wetters."
Neo westerns are the realization and awareness that many of the stories and myths we've been
encouraged to believe might be false.
They might have been real in some capacity at a certain point in time, for a specific
person, but now, it's just a fairy tale.
They are the last stanza in a verse that serves to conclude our fascination with the old west.
When the stories are over, and you look back at them not through nostalgic eyes but with
an understanding that it's time to move on.
- A long time ago your ancestors was the indians until someone came along and killed them.
Broke em down made you into one of them.
The neo-western's protagonists are at a crucial moment in time when what they know and what
they've been used to, is changing, becoming something alien to them.
We get to see how they react to this changing world.
In Sicario, change comes in the form of the cartel violence that the main character Kate
is dealing with in Arizona.
She reacts by resisting what she's told she has to do to survive in this new world.
Logan presents us with a world where mutants are a dying bread; the surviving ones being
hunted or diseased.
Logan is hesitant to react but finally decides to fight to ensure Laura and the other mutants'
survival.
In Hell or High Water, Toby and Tanner are living the consequences of the housing crisis,
their anger and resentment towards the banks initiates their robbing spree.
The inevitability of change is one of the main themes of No Country for Old Men.
Ed Tom Bell is a sheriff on the verge of retirement that is trying to comprehend the violence
that's befallen his quiet Texas County.
It scares and confuses him.
He doesn't recognize the world around him anymore.
The relentless hitman Anton Chigurh is the main reason for Ed Tom's troubles, even though
they never meet.
He's the film's antagonist and an unwavering force of nature.
"-I'm not sure he's a lunatic -Yeah?
What would you call him?
-Well sometimes I think he's pretty much a ghost."
He's also more than just a random murderer.
When mentioning the novel, the movie was adapted from, the Coen brothers stated that:
"Quite clearly in the book, he's a personification of the world, which is an unforgiving and
capricious [place], [...] Chigurh had nothing to do with good and evil, but was nature incarnate."
He can't be bargained with or convinced to desist from his mission, he follows his own
rules and doesn't allow for people to interfere.
He's there to show that nature will always run its course.
We might welcome it, we might fear it, we might very well try to outrun it, but in the
end, things change regardless of our opinions or our meddling.
Even small rural areas disconnected from the fast-paced hustle and bustle of big cities
eventually feel the sting of time.
Ed Tom decides to retire because he feels overmatched but his uncle, being a former
lawman himself, reminds him that it's always been that way.
There's always been violence and darkness.
"What you got ain't nothing new.
This country is hard on people.
You can't stop what's comin'.
Ain't all waitin' on you.
That's vanity."
The natural cycle continues but it's always the hardest for those living during the transitional
periods.
-Hey, so what do you think of that son?
-That was pretty cowboy huh?
-No son, that was all Arapaho
During an interview where the western genre was being discussed, Quentin Tarantino stated
that more than any other genre, the western reflects the decade in which it was made.
Westerns closely embody the ideals, fears and sensitivities surrounding their release
date.
They have always been related to the American identity of the time.
Whether it was during World Wars or the Vietnam War, the different eras left their mark in
the way the characters and stories were written.
-You know the westerns of the 50's reflected an Eisenhower America in every way shape and
form and if they didn't reflect an Eisenhower America...they were weird they were an oddball
thing.
-The 70s reflected a Watergate era, reflected an era where you didn't believe in the myth
anymore..."
These days, the American identity is hard to pin down.
With such a rich melting pot of ideas, ethnicities, lifestyles, most of which didn't get to have
a say back when the old Westerns were big, it's no wonder that the American identity
can not be one sole thing for everyone.
This uncertainty and to an extent, re-evaluation of an identity is also reflected in neo-westerns.
Whether in Sicario, Hell or High Water or Wind River, screenwriter Taylor Sheridan forces
his characters to choose their own identity.
In Sicario, Kate sees what she has to become to thrive in the world that Alejandro and
her superiors live in.
She can't stick to her moral code if she wants to continue.
-You're not a wolf and this is the land of wolves now.
In Wind River the characters find themselves in a conflict of identity caused by the space
they reside.
The malaise of living in a land that's not meant to be inhabited all year long.
When you're left to your own devices, what are you ready to do to keep surviving?
-My family's people were forced here, stuck here for a century...that snow and silence...
is the only thing that hasn't been taken from them.
In Hell or Hight Water, Toby wants to pay his mother's debt and leave something behind
for his children.
The way he's achieving this is illegal, but he sees it as the only way to escape his inherited
cycle of poverty.
"It's like a disease passing from generation to generation, becomes a sickness, that's
what it is.
Infects every person you know, but not my boys.
Not anymore."
They carry within themselves an accumulated experience that is put to the test at a crucial
moment.
They get to weigh the value of what they want vs what they believe.
Logan is a man who has always been resisting what he was made to be.
He was also never able to fully let go an embrace being part of a family.
His encounter with Laura compels him to keep fighting and to teach his daughter that she
can be more than a weapon.
"Don't be what they made you"
Neo-Westerns teach us that identity doesn't necessarily have to be tied down to a time
and a place.
"Who we are" isn't limited to our past, our culture, our environment or the situations
around us.
All those elements may forge our character and inform our moral judgement.
Our identity can be determined by what we do with all that baggage.
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Today's music was made by Eduardo Gonzalez if you like his work you can find a link in
the description down below.
Until next time.