word looked up : home / archive

 Western movie 

The Western movie is one of the classic American film genres. Westerns are films devoted to telling tales of the American West[?] (see Westward Expansion in History of the United States). While the western has been popular throughout the history of movies, as the United States progresses farther away from the period depicted, the western has begun to diminish in importance.

The genre was born in literature with Owen Wister[?]'s The Virginian[?] (1902), and was a distinct literary genre before the rise of motion pictures. But a genre in which description and dialogue are lean, and the landscape spectacular, is clearly better suited to a visual medium. Western movies, usually filmed on location in desolate corners of Arizona, Utah, Wyoming or Colorado, made the landscape not just a vivid backdrop but essentially a character in the movie.

Cowboys play a prominent role in Western movies, and often fights with American Indians are depicted. When the mistreatment of the Native American nations became more well known in the late 20th Century, the roles were often reversed, with the Natives being the sympathetic characters. Other recurring themes of westerns include treks travelling west, and groups of bandits terrorizing small towns.

In film, the western traces its roots back to The Great Train Robbery, a short silent film directed by Edwin S. Porter[?] and released in 1903. In the United States, the western has had an extremely rich history that spans many genres (comedy, drama, tragedy, parody, musical, etc.) The golden age of the western film is epitomised by the work of two directors: John Ford (who often used John Wayne for lead roles) and Howard Hawks.

During the 1960s and 1970s, there was a considerable revival with the "Spaghetti Westerns" or "Italo-Westerns", most notably those directed by Sergio Leone. These tended to be fairly low-budget affairs, shot in locations principally chosen for the cheapness of shooting film, and are characterised by high-action and violent content. Clint Eastwood became famous starring in these films, although they were also to provide a showcase for other such considerable talents as Lee van Cleef, James Coburn, and Klaus Kinski.

The western genre has been parodied on a number of occasions, famous examples being Support Your Local Sheriff[?], and Mel Brooks' classic Blazing Saddles, perhaps the final word on the subject.

The Saturday Afternoon Movie[?] was a pre-TV phenomenon in the US which often featured western series. "Singing cowboys[?]" were common (Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Rex Allen[?], each with a co-starring horse). Other B-movie series were Lash Larue[?] and the Durango Kid[?].

Notable figures in the Western

Notable Westerns


Climate, sun, cold, and all the life.html">life that he had lived since (so unlike any that he could cannot but think that he was better than the generality of Englishmen, them. His natural sensitiveness, a tincture of reserve, had been had made necessary; he was quicker to feel what was right at the was more aristocratic than that of a thousand Englishmen of good birth which, being his most un-English trait, was what perhaps chiefly made gentleman, to be sure, it is as deep in him as the marrow of his bones, generation after generation has contributed to develop and perfect.html">perfect you, under his plain, almost homely exterior. An American often gets as wear and attrition of a successful life, to some high station in middle does credit to it by his manners. Often you would not know the American Redclyffe, having delicate original traits in his character, it was developed, or any one class of them, as they ought to be, they will quicker sensibilities; nerves more easily impressed; and these are proceeds on the ground of perfect equality is better than that which is manners of the aristocracy of England. An American, be it said, seldom turns his best side outermost abroad; which they make, in a foreign country, does not so much wonder that not exactly why, but all our imputed peculiarities--our nasal lack of courtesy--do really seem to exist on a foreign shore; and even, of Englishmen, expectant of solecisms in manners, contributes to and defiance in the American must be allowed for; and.

 On wordlookup.net  

All is still licensed under the GNU FDL.
It uses material from the wikipedia.



logo

navig stuff

home
archive