Genre – The Western

The era of the old West – the settling of the land, the cowboys and the cavalry versus the Indians, the establishment of law and order – lasted for approximately 50 years. However, the era of the Western film, which began almost at the beginning of the film industry itself has lasted nearly 40 years longer than the era it depicts. Mind you, there are those who say that this era is now, too, at an end. Perhaps it is or perhaps according to others, it waits to rise again.

But what accounts for the enormous popularity it enjoyed for so long?

At its best and probably its simplest, the Western can be seen as a modern morality tale, a clear-cut struggle between good and evil in which both sides are easily identifiable, good wearing the white hat and bad wearing the black one.

You knew where you stood with the Western and this reason alone perhaps helps to explain its appeal.

But more than anything else, it was and is America’s most significant contribution to the cinema, since it sprang exclusively from the country’s own roots. It was, as Peter Bogdanovitch (Film Director) said, “the essential American myth”, which was part of American culture before the cinema came along to exploit it.

From early in film history, the dramatic possibilities of the West were explored:-

1894 – Thomas Edison showed wild West items on his kinetograph

1903 – Edwin S. Porter made ‘The Great Train Robbery’ – possibly the first Western to tell a coherent story.

1908 – 1915 – Essenay (A film company) made a ‘Bronco Billy’ Western every week costing about $800 each and grossing around $50,000.

This last figure indicates to what extent the public loved the Western. Throughout the 1920’s the genre flourished.

“Western pictures made money – all of them. Regardless of what they were like, people went to see them” (William Clother – Cinematographer). The question is why?

Peter Bogdanovitch again:-
“It’s the only mythology America has. It was really what founded the country…..It’s part of the American Dream. The guy with the white hat riding into town is almost a metaphor for the taming of America, a kind of propaganda for the American way of life – you know, get rid of the Indians, get rid of the bad men and get the American Dream going”.

Or could it have been something even simpler – a desire to live the life of a Western hero, an individual untroubled by the pressure of modern society? Cowboy hats, horses and guns are all symbols deeplyin American culture and the Western reflects the heritage of a relatively young country.

The Western came of age in the 1920’s to the early 1930s. Studios such as RKO produced big budget hits such as ‘Cimarron’, which won an Academy Award. But after that, its status was rapidly relegated to that of ‘B’ movie. One reason was the introduction in cinemas of the double feature. Most exhibitors could not afford to rent two ‘A’ pictures what they wanted was one ‘S’, for which they paid a percentage of the box office take and one ‘B’ which cost them a flat and more modest fee. Thus, from the studio’s point of view, the more expensively the ‘B’ pictures could be produced, the greater the profit and not many films could be made more inexpensively than low budget Westerns.

So, from the early 1930’s, we had the Golden Age of the ‘B’ Western, churned out on virtually a conveyor belt with the storyline hardly differing from one picture to the next.

In 1939, things changed. It was an extraordinary year for the Western with most major studios making big-budget films. ‘Stagecoach’, directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne in his first major starring role, gave a new respectability to the genre. It proved that the Western could, as well as any other genre, combine human drama, fact and legend, gradeur and poetry. Perhaps the fact that America was soon at war helped sustain the new-found popularity of the Western with its escapism to idealised times past, and themes of triumph of good over evil and the fighting and pioneering spirit of Americans. Perhaps also this explained the role played by Indians. An enemy which was easily recognisable and vanquished was required, and they fit the bill perfectly. They were invariably shown (in films such as ‘Stagecoach’) as murderous assassins not much gifted with brains.

It could be said that invading aliens from the Sci-fi genre took over this role in the movies of the 1950’s: frightening but faceless, not really identifiable as people. Certainly from this period, the view of Indians had changed. Films such as ‘Broken Arrow’ put forward an alternative image of them as brave, considerate human beings with a culture of their own. Undoubtably the war, where native Americans fought side-by-side with white and black Americans, had much to do with a new enlightened approach. In addition, America was beginning to look at the plight of its Indians and was somewhat horrified by what it saw.

However, this change had other effects. Some blame it for weakening the simple appeal of the Western by chipping away at its basic, uncomplicated structure. It must also be said that this change coincided with the advent of television, which spelt the end for the Western ‘B’ movies and serials (such as Bronco Billy). The modern ‘A’ Western felt the need to embrace wider aspects of modern life, morality and psychology while telling tales of the old West in order to attract an audience. Some people call the 1950’s, the time the Western grew up.

Films such as ‘The Gunfighter’ explored the dark side of the Western and introduced the message that “them days is over”. ‘Shane’ and ‘High Noon’ also reflected the idea of better times gone by. Perhaps the fact that the Cold War and the era of anti-communist hysteria was in full flow had an effect on narrative. At this time, the image of a man risking everything for ideals seemed in some quarters to be vaguely suspect and sinister.

‘The Searchers’ (1956) directed by John Ford, was a much more sombre Western than ‘Stagecoach’, for example. It was the story of a search over ten years by two men, John Wayne and Jeff Hunter, for  white girl who had been kidnapped by Comanches and used as a squaw. Hunter’s intention is to rescue her, Wayne’s is to kill her because of her sexual besmirching by contact  with savages. It’s a moody, haunting film which is notable, amongst other things, for its understanding attitude towards Indians.

But this was a period where the old style Western had its last flowering. While the theme of winning the West continued in ‘The Big Country’ and taming it in ‘Gunfight at the OK Coral’, new, modern themes such as rodeo riders and teenage neurosis were being introduced. A more psychological approach vied with comedy and with sheer violence in the 1960’s as the Western sought a direction. By now, the ‘Spaghetti Western’, as created by Sergio Leone, was making its presence felt. Films such as ‘True Grit’, clinging on to old ideas, albeit with a touch of comedy, and ‘The Wild Bunch’ by Sam Peckinpah, which revelled in gang violence epitomised the struggle for direction.

By now, the Western had changed dramatically since ‘Stagecoach’.

Demythification began as previous heroes were retextualised as neurotic killers or worthless punks. Spoof Westerns such as ‘Blazing Saddles’, Mel Brooks 1974 followed, and excluding a small number of large scale movies, the genre has been generally dormant since.

Perhaps modern times don’t fit in with the Western ideal. In those days, the world accepted that “a man had to do what a man had to do”. Nowadays, we might wonder how we can avoid doing it but still come out ahead.

Charlton Heston said:
“The Western explores certain truths about the American character, about the way Americans perceive themselves. It’s about survival, honesty, courage…” but in a more cynical and more sophisticated age, do Americans still perceive themselves like that?

And as Peter Bogdanovitch said:
“The mythology of the West was related to some innocence in the country, some frontier thing that’s gone. For kids, everything moves faster now…Let’s face it, ‘Star Wars’ was really a Western, only they used space ships instead of horses. I think its all been taken over by other genres; they just don’t call them Westerns any more”.