Essay on "Western Film"

Essay 9 pages (2650 words) Sources: 3 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Western Film

Motion picture directors have made numerous Western movies in the second half of the twentieth century until about the 90s when the genre had become a thing of the past among film fans. Numerous genres of movies have appeared over time, and, Westerns are certainly a genre to be remembered and praised through history. The western movie era had officially started in the early twentieth century and lasted well until the last decades of the century, with movie viewers having been fond of the type during the period. A typical western involves a great deal of shooting done by renegade cowboys or by hero-like sheriffs.

Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country is a 1962 controversial western film, and, it is also one of the last true westerns. Peckinpah meant to present the public with a different image of a typical western, as Ride the High Country is all about change and how it affects the western genre.

As a cliche, the director had the movie genre ending with the picture of two aging actors engaging in a not-so-dangerous mission of guarding a gold shipment. However, in spite of the predictably boring character of the assignment, the film doesn't lack distinctive western shootouts.

Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea, the two main characters, give performances that prove their mastery in acting. The two are accompanied by an additional character played by young Ronald Starr in their journey. The director managed to create a contrast between the two aging actors and Ronald Starr.

The young actor is meant to give a sense of change to the movie with his modern nature. Starr does not come as a replacement for his two older friends, as they have managed to prove that western actors had not lost their touch with the arrival of modern cinematography.

Unlike other western heroes, the actors in Ride the High Country are not living in a nearly abandoned western town. They actually live in early twentieth century's California, with technological advancements such as cars and impressive buildings for the time.

The fact that Peckinpah embodied all the new ingredients to the movie does not make it less of a western, but it presents the image of a dying old-fashioned west. Movies like Ride the High Country have appeared in a period when the whole world went through changes, and, it had been clear that the past needed to be left behind.

All in all, Ride the High Country is a movie meant to be enjoyed both by western fans, and by all people generally wanting to see a good movie.

The second half of the twentieth century seemed to be filled with directors wanting to detach their movies from what seemed normal until the time. Westerns had not quite died, but it had been obvious that they would not last for long. Some directors decided to take westerns further by adapting elements belonging to the genre to newer, more modern scripts.

The 1970s had been a period in which Americans had been addicted to revolting against the system and to doing things differently. Art has been taken to a whole new level during the decade, and the public seemed to have become fond of everything that was unusual.

McCabe and Mrs. Miller came as a response from Robert Altman to those that thought that the era of the western movies had finished. Even though the movie is considered to be on of the best westerns ever produced, its director, along with several other critics, has claimed that the movie is, in fact, an "anti-western." The reason for why the movie is not considered by some to be a western is because it has little in common with a typical western. Basically, the only thing that the movie takes from the western genre is the fact that the action is set somewhere in the west.

The main character of the movie, John McCabe (Warren Beatty) is presented during the first scenes as he arrives in a fictional town, named Presbyterian Church, in the state of Washington with the thought of setting up a business. Because of several rumors concerning McCabe being a fierce gunfighter, the town's people soon find themselves being subjected by the new-comer.

Despite the stories traveling through town, McCabe does not seem to have the archetypal characteristics that a western gunfighter would. On the contrary, he gives signs of being scared of a potential conflict between himself and another gunfighter.

McCabe sets up a brothel which he decides to manage along with another new-comer in the town of Presbyterian Church, Constance Miller (Julie Christie). Mrs. Miller is an opium addict, which, for a western, might be a premiere. Her addiction might have come as a result of the era, as various rebellion-oriented waves popularized drug abuse both in U.S. And around the world.

McCabe and Mrs. Miller certainly succeeds in surprising an audience wanting to see a western movie. McCabe is nothing of a western hero, as he is terrified at the thought that Harrison Shaugnessy's men are coming after him. Across the movie, the actor manages to convince the audience that the legends having been told by the town's people are just tales.

Director Robert Altman had thrived in iritating a western-obsessed audience during the movie, with all of the typical features relating to a western having been modified. Normally, the final scenes of a western are supposed to present the hero of the movie having a shootout with the bad guy on the main street of a desert town. However, Altman altered it greatly, with McCabe being chased by the bad guys during a snow storm.

Even though the western genre had become outdated in the last few decades, there are still writers and directors interesting in promoting it. In spite of still having their works inspired from the early westerns, the fact that the more recent productions have been made in a different time period had brought significant changes to the genre. During the recent decades, westerns have evolved a great deal, with the themes present is a movie or in a book relating to the genre being much more elaborate. The genre had changed to the point that it relates to deviant sexuality and a crime type more perverted than the innocent one present in early western productions.

The American author Cormac McCarthy is renowned for his out of the ordinary writings which cannot be categorized as belonging to a certain genre. His fifth book, Blood Meridian, initially lets readers believe that it has a form of revisionist western as a subject. However, the book deals with much more than just a western topic. The topic present in the novel deal with a series of subjects, somehow bringing it on the opposite side of the western genre, as it has an anti-western nature.

The novel has little things one can relate to as being ordinary. "Blood Meridian seems more concerned with what lies beyond boundaries than with what is contained by them." (Softing, Inger-Anne) Apparently, the author only intended to use the western theme as a method to attract more readers, as the genre is renowned worldwide. (Softing)

McCarthy abstained from giving a name to the main character, most probably because he wanted to use the "man with no name" concept which is present in several of Clint Eastwood's movies.

The novel follows the main character, the kid, during his bloody journey towards the west. Every sequence seemingly giving a western-like touch to the story is later turned into a scene which totally surprises the readers. McCarthy has the tendency to amplify every feeling, inducing panic in people. Mostly everything relating to the novel is excessive, and, excess is largely the symbol of the novel.

Being written in an era following the period of western glory, the novel has numerous modern element involved in it. McCarthy puts great accent on the difference between wilderness and civilization. The contrast that the novel displays is amazing, as it recreates the exact feeling of people being able to cross the frontier into the wilderness in a matter of minutes.

While the normal western movies related to the frontier as being the border between certain states and the wilderness, McCarthy considered it to be the difference existing between man in the civilized world, and man in the wilderness. He goes as far as presenting an image of a savage man, and claiming that almost anyone can reach such a state. Westerns have promoted the almost perfect image of a white man across time. In contrast, Indians and Mexicans had been pictured as being savage people overcame by vices. For McCarthy, man does not have to encounter wilderness in order to become savage, as savageness is something that all people have.

Westerns generally have women involved in the course of action at some point in the story. The role of the woman is usually used in a western to bring a nurturing presence to the story. Blood… READ MORE

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