Western film

Western films derive from the Wild West shows that began in the 1870s.^[3]: 48 Originally referred to as "Wild West dramas", the shortened term "Western" came to describe the genre.^[4] Although other Western films were made earlier, The Great Train Robbery (1903) is often considered to mark the beginning of the genre.^[2][5] Westerns were a major genre during the silent era (1894–1929) and continued to grow in popularity during the sound era (post–1929).


The genre reached its pinnacle between 1945 and 1965 when it comprised roughly a quarter of studio output.^[6] The advent of color and widescreen during this era opened up new possibilities for directors to portray the vastness of the American landscape.^[3]: 105 This era also produced the genre's most iconic figures, including John Wayne and Randolph Scott, who developed personae that they maintained across most of their films.^[7] Director John Ford is often considered the genre's greatest filmmaker.^[8]


With the proliferation of television in the 1960s, television Westerns began to supersede film Westerns in popularity.^[9] By the end of the decade, studios had mostly ceased to make Westerns. Despite their dwindling popularity during this decade, the 1960s gave rise to the revisionist Western, several examples of which became vital entries in the canon.^[10]


Since the 1960s, new Western films have only appeared sporadically. Despite their decreased prominence, Western films remain an integral part of American culture and national mythology.^[11][12]

Themes and settings[edit]

Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identifies Western films as one of eleven super-genres in his screenwriters' taxonomy, claiming that all feature length narrative films can be classified by these super-genres. The other ten super-genres are action, crime, fantasy, horror, romance, science fiction, slice of life, sports, thriller, and war.^[35]


Western films often depict conflicts with Native Americans. While early Eurocentric Westerns frequently portray the Native Americans as dishonorable villains, the later and more culturally neutral Westerns gave Native Americans a more sympathetic treatment. Other recurring themes of Westerns include treks (e.g. The Big Trail) or perilous journeys (e.g. Stagecoach) or groups of bandits terrorizing small towns such as in The Magnificent Seven.


The Western goes beyond simply a cinematic genre, and extends into defining the myth of the West in American culture.^{[15]: 21–22}


Early Westerns were mostly filmed in the studio, as in other early Hollywood films, but when location shooting became more common from the 1930s, producers of Westerns used desolate corners of Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, or Wyoming. These settings gave filmmakers the ability to depict vast plains, looming mountains, and epic canyons. Productions were also filmed on location at movie ranches.^[36]


Often, the vast landscape becomes more than a vivid backdrop; it becomes a character in the film. After the early 1950s, various widescreen formats such as Cinemascope (1953) and VistaVision used the expanded width of the screen to display spectacular western landscapes. John Ford's use of Monument Valley as an expressive landscape in his films from Stagecoach to Cheyenne Autumn (1965), "present us with a mythic vision of the plains and deserts of the American West, embodied most memorably in Monument Valley, with its buttes and mesas that tower above the men on horseback, whether they be settlers, soldiers, or Native Americans".^[37]