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No genre of film is as uniquely
American as the Western. Images of rugged men wearing cowboy hats and
sitting astride snorting horses have symbolized America and its spirit
throughout the world, thanks in large part to the movies. For America itself, probably no
other genre better fits its own self-image of being a nation of tough,
courageous individualists ready to fight for the greater good. Even now, with the genre for the
most part in disfavor among filmmakers, we still have fond collective
memories of Westerns, even if we know that the reality was much harsher
and less clear-cut than the myths we created. How did the Western gain such a
hold on our consciousness and become one of the prime shapers of the
entire film industry? To answer that question, we must travel back to
the last part of the 19th century, when the mythology of the West was
created. When the West Was Really the
West The origin of Western films can
actually be traced to the late 1800s, when the Western novel became
popular. America had survived the Civil War,
conquered the Native Americans, and was in the process of expanding into
and shaping the destiny of the western half of the country. One of the ways to entice
Easterners to pack up and move west was to romanticize the location and
the journey. A whole category of fiction sprang
up in the 1870s, led by writers such as Ned Buntline and Charles King,
creating heroes out of real-life and fictional characters and setting
the standards for the genre. Buntline was instrumental in
popularizing such Western heroes as Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickock
and Wyatt Earp, romanticizing their exploits and creating heroes out of
otherwise ordinary (and in some cases, not-so-nice) men. Buntline and his contemporaries
updated classic storytelling techniques and created such icons as the
Gunslinger, the Shootout, the Cattle Baron and other now-common
characters and themes. At around the same time, with a
little help from the popularity of Western fiction, Wild West shows
became popular. Huge rodeo extravaganzas toured throughout the country,
bringing the codes of the West to the public at large. Buffalo Bill, Sitting Bull and
Annie Oakley became household names, akin to the movie stars of a later
era. Americans (and Europeans) couldn’t get enough of Western stories
and characters. Now, of course, one could argue
that this was probably America’s way of whitewashing its western
expansion and the degradation of the Native Americans, creating an
exciting, living example of our "manifest destiny." But back
then it was entertainment, pure and simple. These shows and the mythology they
were creating also became a powerful symbol for the country. At the turn
of the century, America was a budding world power, symbolized by Teddy
Roosevelt’s international policy of "speak softly and carry a big
stick." The popularity of Westerns and
their powerful icons fed into the collective consciousness, and the
image of the quiet, noble cowboy became a powerful symbol for America
and its people. It was only natural that the fledgling art of filmmaking
would quickly latch onto and transcend the images. Almost from the beginning of films,
writers and directors were cranking out Westerns. Thomas Edison was
making little Western featurettes as early as 1894, with titles such as
"Cripple Creek Bar-Room" (1898) and "Sioux Indian Ghost
Dance" (1898). Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show
spawned two popular films. The first known copyrighted Westerns were
both made in 1903, "Kit Carson" and the 21-minute epic
"The Pioneers." But the most famous of these early
Westerns, and the one now remembered as the "father" of the
genre, was "The Great Train Robbery" (1903). Produced by Edison and written and
directed by Edwin S. Porter, this 10-minute film was the first of note
to use intercutting and editing to create drama and tell its story. Based on the Wild West Show
melodrama formula, the film featured a train robbery, a chase, and a
climactic shootout between the good guys and the bad. But it caused a
sensation (in no small part due to the now-famous shot of a gunman
firing his gun right into the camera), and set the early standard for
the genre. As films grew more popular and
sophisticated, the Western quickly became a staple. Its archetypal
themes of American values, honoring the family unit and defending
one’s land, together with naturally cinematic elements such as
shootouts, horse chases and rugged vistas, proved irresistible to
emerging filmmakers. Giants such as D.W. Griffith
("The Redman and the Child" [1908]), Cecil B. DeMille
("The Squaw Man" [1914]) and Thomas Ince ("Custer’s
Last Fight" [1912]) all began their careers or gained prominence by
making Westerns. The genre also created some of the
earliest film stars. Two of the most popular were William S. Hart and
Tom Mix. Hart, born in the East but raised
by a Sioux nurse in the West, was a friend of such real-life Western
figures as Wyatt Earp and train robber Al Jennings. He strove for
realism in his films. Hart’s work was typified by
interesting characters with strong moral stances, romance and the
powerful relationship between a cowboy and his horse. Mix, a former lawman, soldier and
adventurer who first became famous as a trick-riding star in Wild West
Shows, went for more fantastic elements — gaudy outfits, amazing
stunts and fancy gunplay. Both men were among the most popular stars of
the silent era, but saw their careers wane with the advent of talkies. Although the quaint morality tales
of Hart, Mix and their brethren were immensely popular, with few
exceptions the Western really wasn’t taken seriously by critics until
1924, when Fox released the epic "The Iron Horse." Fancifully and majestically
depicting the creation of the Union Pacific Railroad, this nearly
three-hour film injected new life and importance into the category and
firmly established the career of the director who would become most
associated with the Western: John Ford. The son of Irish immigrants, Ford
was born in Maine as Sean Aloysius O’Fearna in 1895. Moving to
California as a young man to join his older brother in the film
industry, Ford began his career as a stuntman. One of his early jobs was playing
one of the Ku Klux Klan riders in D.W. Griffith’s epic "Birth of
a Nation" (1915). Moving behind the camera, Ford directed his first
two-reeler, "The Tornado," in 1917. Between 1917 and 1920 he directed
over 30 short films, most of them Westerns featuring silent cowboy star
Harry Carey ("Straight Shooting" [1917]). "The Iron Horse" was
Ford’s first full-length feature and made his reputation as an
important emerging filmmaker. Ford continued to make Westerns
until the advent of talkies, when he decided to move away from the genre
in order to escape typecasting by the studios. Ford made several different types
of films throughout the 1930s. His first Academy Award® for
direction came for the Irish drama "The Informer." Then, in 1939, with the Western
lagging in popularity and importance, Ford returned to the genre and
rescued it with the classic "Stagecoach," which also made a
star of the actor who like Ford, would come to most symbolize the
Western: John Wayne. "Stagecoach" set new
standards in storytelling, action and use of location, while still
staying true to the heroes of the West. In his brilliant career, Ford
directed over 120 movies, only a handful of which after 1930 were
Westerns. But many of those became classics: "My Darling Clementine"
(1946), "Fort Apache" (1948), "She Wore a Yellow
Ribbon" (1949), "The Searchers" (1956) and "The Man
Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962), just to name a few. Shooting virtually all of them in
majestic Monument Valley in Utah, Ford, more than any other director,
established the look and feel of the classic Western — good vs. evil
played out by strong, courageous people trying to do right, against a
background of stunning desert vistas. Ford even managed to change with
the times. His last Western, "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964),
featured sympathetic portrayals of Native Americans, a far cry from his
early films. Winner of four Best Director Oscars®
(although none for his Westerns), Ford inspired generations of
filmmakers, and his influence extends to such modern-day masters as
Steven Spielberg ("Empire of the Sun" [1987]), Clint Eastwood
("Unforgiven" [1992]) and Lawrence Kasdan ("Wyatt Earp"
[1985]). In the years between "The Iron
Horse" and "Stagecoach," the Western found itself taken
over by "B" pictures, low-budget films made by smaller studios
such as Republic and Monogram and the lower-level filmmakers at the
major studios. There were exceptions, of course,
and in fact the first Western to win the Academy Award® for
Best Picture was the RKO epic "Cimarron" (1931), based on a
novel by Edna Ferber (author of "Giant"). Oddly enough, it would be nearly 60
years before another Western won the prize. But with Westerns being
fairly popular and cheap to make, the studios generally relegated them
to their "B" units, and few notable Westerns were made during
the 1930s. The main contribution of these
"B" Westerns was twofold. First, it served as a training
ground for many writers, actors and directors who would later be major
contributors to the "Golden Age" of the Western in the 1940s. And second, it introduced another
classic: The Singing Cowboy. Gene Autry was the first and arguably the
most popular of these heroes, establishing the subgenre in 1935 with
"Tumbling Tumbleweeds" and leading the way for other stars
such as Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter and Dick Foran. Although the production values and
stories of these "B" Westerns were not great, they were
nevertheless a popular staple of movie houses throughout the 1930s and
into the 1940s. Rising filmmaking costs and the
advent of TV signaled the death-knell of the "B" Westerns,
although many of these old movies and serials later became regular fare
on afternoon and weekend local TV, making stars of heroes such as Autry,
Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy and Johnny Mack Brown all over again. The greatest Western icon of them
all also began his career in the "B" Westerns. John Wayne,
born Marian Michael Morrison in Winterset, Iowa in 1907, grew up in Los
Angeles and attended the University of Southern California on a football
scholarship. After dropping out of school for
financial reasons, Wayne began working at odd jobs in the movie business
before getting a career boost from director John Ford, who recommended
him for the lead in the Western epic "The Big Trail" (1930). Wayne went on to star in numerous
"B" westerns for Monogram and Republic throughout the 1930s,
until Ford again intervened and cast him as the Ringo Kid in
"Stagecoach" (1939), which established him as an "A"
list star. Wayne parlayed his success in
"Stagecoach" into one of the most storied careers in movie
history. Generally playing strong, noble men of action, he became the
country’s (and possibly the world’s) most beloved movie star and a
true American icon. From the 1940s through the 1960s,
he slipped easily between a series of hit Westerns, war movies and
action films, working with some of Hollywood’s greatest directors. Besides Ford, with whom he worked
on such other genre classics as "Fort Apache" (1948),
"She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" (1949), "Rio Grande"
(1950), "The Searchers" (1956) and "The Man Who Shot
Liberty Valance" (1962), Wayne also starred in Westerns directed by
Howard Hawks ("Red River" [1948], "Rio Bravo"
[1959]), Michael Curtiz ("The Comancheros" [1961]) and Henry
Hathaway ("The Sons of Katie Elder" [1965] and "True
Grit" [1969]). Wayne earned a Best Actor Academy
Award® for "True Grit," and fittingly the final
film of his long career was a Western, "The Shootist" (1976),
co-starring James Stewart ("The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"
[1962]) and Lauren Bacall ("The Big Sleep" [1946]). The success of
"Stagecoach" and other big-budget Westerns of 1939 like the
Errol Flynn-led "Dodge City" and "Destry Rides
Again," featuring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich, began a
"Golden Age" of great Westerns, which ran through the 1940s
and into the ’50s. With America heavily involved in
World War II, Westerns (and war movies) became Hollywood’s favored way
to drum up patriotism and make the home front feel more a part of the
conflict. The public couldn’t get enough. Errol Flynn returned to battle
1930s cowboy star Randolph Scott ("Frontier Marshal" [1939])
in "Virginia City" (1940) and played a dashing (if sanitized)
General Custer in "They Died with Their Boots On" (1941). Veteran director Raoul Walsh made
several notable Westerns during the 1940s, including
"Cheyenne" (1947), "Pursued" (1947), starring Robert
Mitchum, and "Colorado Territory" (1949). John Ford continued to make
towering contributions to the genre during the period, including
"Fort Apache" (1947), "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon"
(1949), "The Searchers" (1956) (all starring John Wayne) and
"My Darling Clementine" (1946), an epic retelling of the
legendary gunfight at O.K. Corral, with Henry Fonda as a stoic Wyatt
Earp. Fonda also starred in William Wellman’s "The Ox-Bow
Incident" (1943). Howard Hawks directed John Wayne to
two of his best performances in "Red River" (1948) and
"Rio Bravo" (1959). Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones
starred in the lavish Western romance "Duel in the Sun"
(1946), produced by David O. Selznick ("Gone with the Wind"
[1939]). Jane Russell brought sex into the
Western in Howard Hughes’ notorious film "The Outlaw"
(1943), which scandalized censors in its day. And while these and other such
"A" Westerns received critical and audience acclaim, Gene
Autry, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, Lash LaRue and other "B"
cowboy stars kept churning out their serials and horse operas, much to
the delight of matinee audiences. The 1950s brought a new territory
for the Western to conquer: TV. While local stations filled air time
with reruns of the old Republic and Monogram films and serials, the
three major networks found a ready audience for prime-time Westerns as
well. Throughout the 1950s, ’60s, and
into the 1970s, Westerns were as common as police shows, doctor series
and sitcoms. Each week, the country thrilled to
new episodes of "Gunsmoke" (1955-75, the longest-running
prime-time drama in history), "Maverick" (1957-62), "Have
Gun Will Travel" (1957-63), "The Rifleman" (1958-63),
"Rawhide" 1959-66, starring a young Clint Eastwood),
"Bonanza" (1959-73), "The Big Valley" (1965-69,
starring screen legend Barbara Stanwyck), "The Wild Wild West"
(1965-69) and literally hundreds of other shows. The success of the TV Western
signaled the death of the "B" movie Westerns, although some
cowboy stars like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were able to move into the
new medium and prolong their careers. The other effect the TV Westerns
had on the movies was to make them grander in scope (widescreen, more
realistic violence, stunts and special effects). The 1950s and early ’60s became
the age of the Western spectacle. The ’50s began with films like
"Broken Arrow" (1950), with Jeff Chandler heroically
portraying the famed Indian warrior Cochise, "The Gunfighter"
(1950), starring Gregory Peck as a famed gunslinger who can’t escape
his past, and John Ford’s sprawling yet intimate "Wagonmaster"
(1950). The genre hit a high point in 1952
with Fred Zinnemann’s powerful "High Noon," which earned a
well-deserved Best Actor Oscar® for star Gary Cooper, a
veteran of numerous Westerns. In 1953, George Stevens directed
the classic "Shane," starring Alan Ladd and Jack Palance. 1956 not only saw the John
Ford-John Wayne epic "The Searchers," but also "Gunfight
at the O.K. Corral," a star-studded retelling of the legend with
Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday. During this time, Western films
were also changing, stretching into new and often more serious
directions. Director Anthony Mann made
"Winchester ’73" (1950), "Bend of the River"
(1952), "The Naked Spur" (1953) and "The Man from
Laramie" (1955), unique, powerful films that helped reinvigorate
the genre and the career of James Stewart, who starred in all four. Henry Hathaway gave a new twist to
the standard revenge theme in "From Hell to Texas" (1958). And
William Wyler snuck in some timely Cold War themes to his sprawling epic
"The Big Country" (1958). Blood and Spaghetti — the
’60s The 1960s began with a bang (pun
intended), with John Sturges’ landmark "The Magnificent
Seven" (1960), based on Akira Kurosawa’s "The Seven
Samurai" (1954) and featuring one of the most famous Western music
themes in history. Other genre classics included John
Wayne’s directorial debut "The Alamo" (1960), Sam
Peckinpah’s "Ride the High Country" (1962) and the sprawling
all-star saga "How the West Was Won" (1962). Shot in Cinerama, the film,
directed by Henry Hathaway, Ford and George Marshall, featured dozens of
great Western stars, including Wayne, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck and
James Stewart. John Ford’s teaming of Stewart
and Wayne in "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962)
appeared to be Hollywood’s definitive word regarding Westerns — with
the old (antiquated) West meeting the (progressive) new. Italian director Sergio Leone
decided to remake another Kurosawa film, "Yojimbo" (1961), as
a Western. Leone cast American TV Western star Clint Eastwood as the
quiet hero. The result was "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964),
which not only made a star of Eastwood but ushered in a new era of even
more brutal, violent and powerful Westerns. Eastwood starred in two sequels for
Leone, "For a Few Dollars More" (1965) and the classic
"The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" (1966). Later, Leone
directed Henry Fonda as a steely, evil gunfighter in "Once Upon a
Time in the West" (1969). Leone’s style of intense closeups
and shocking violence grabbed audiences who had become bored with
Westerns and injected new life into the tiring genre. 1969 saw the release of three
classic Westerns that could not have been more different in their style
and tone. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" was a
light-hearted romp that told the story of two real-life notorious
outlaws. The film featured the Academy Award®-winning
song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" and made box-office
stars of Paul Newman and Robert Redford. "True Grit," directed by
Western veteran Henry Hathaway, was a classic Hollywood Western, and
earned star John Wayne his only Best Actor Oscar®. Then
there was "The Wild Bunch" (1969). Directed by Sam Peckinpah, and with
a powerful cast led by William Holden, Robert Ryan and Ernest Borgnine,
"The Wild Bunch" set new standards for big-screen violence
with artfully choreographed but extremely bloody shootouts, often shown
in slow-motion. With its (controversial) success,
"The Wild Bunch" seemed poised to lead the Western to new
heights in the 1970s. Little did anyone know that, in reality, it was in
many ways the last stand. The 1970s represented a time of
great innovation and experimentation in films, as a new generation of
filmmakers who had grown up on the films of Ford, Hawks, Kurosawa and
Wyler took the reins from the old masters and began moving the art into
new and exciting territories. They were helped by the strong
influence of the ’60s counterculture, America’s disaffection for
authority (thanks to Watergate and the Vietnam War) and an overall
relaxation in censorship standards. The Western was no exception to
this experimentation, but at the same time, the change in social mores
also began to make the Western seem tired and dated. There were some interesting
Westerns made in the decade. "Little Big Man" (1970), starred
Dustin Hoffman as a white man raised by Native Americans and told the
tragically comic story of America’s "manifest destiny" from
the Indians’ point of view. "Buffalo Bill and the
Indians" (1976), directed by Robert Altman and starring Paul Newman
as the legendary Wild West hero and showman, turned the Western into
almost a drawing-room comedy, playing against type. Altman also directed "McCabe
and Mrs. Miller" (1971), which featured Warren Beatty and Julie
Christie in an unusual twist on the standard "stranger comes into
town" story. The film was highlighted by Vilmos Zsigmond’s stark,
artistic cinematography. John Wayne closed out his stellar
film career by playing a dying gunfighter in the star-studded "The
Shootist" (1976), directed by Don Siegel ("Dirty Harry"
[1971]). And there was Mel Brooks’
"Blazing Saddles" (1974), which turned virtually every Western
convention on its head in a scathingly funny manner and wound up being
the top-grossing Western of the decade. Virtually the only man trying to
make traditional Westerns and being reasonably successful at it during
the 1970s was Clint Eastwood. After his success in Leone’s
so-called "Spaghetti Westerns," Eastwood returned to the U.S.
and solidified his star status by making several more Westerns that rank
as some of the best of the last 30 years. Among these are "Hang ’Em
High" (1968), "Two Mules for Sister Sara" (1970,
co-starring Shirley MacLaine ["Terms of Endearment" (1983)]),
"High Plains Drifter" (1973) and the classic "The Outlaw
Josey Wales" (1976). In 1980, Eastwood directed and
starred in "Bronco Billy," a film valentine to the old Wild
West shows. However, as the ’70s bled into
the ’80s, Westerns became fewer and fewer. Their power over the
public’s imagination was usurped by other genres, particularly science
fiction and action films, which transferred many of the traditional
Western themes and motifs to different, more exotic locations. The genre certainly wasn’t helped
by the relatively low box-office take of two highly anticipated,
big-budget films: "The Legend of the Lone Ranger" (1981),
which tried to be the definitive movie version of one of the Western’s
most beloved fictional characters, and "Heaven’s Gate"
(1980), Oscar®-winning director ("The Deer Hunter"
[1978]) Michael Cimino’s epic. As a result of the relatively low
box-office draw of these two movies, as well as films such as
"Butch and Sundance: The Early Days" (1979) and Walter
Hill’s acclaimed "The Long Riders" (1980), the Western came
to be perceived as death at the box office by the major studios. An era had ended, one that has
never been truly revived, despite various attempts to resurrect the
genre. The first attempt came in 1985,
when two major studio Westerns were released, to reasonable reviews and
decent box-office grosses. Clint Eastwood returned to the
genre with "Pale Rider," a slightly offbeat take on his
traditional quiet hero character. And Lawrence Kasdan co-wrote and
directed "Silverado," a spectacular, star-studded film packed
with traditional Western themes and plots, which launched or enhanced
the careers of such actors as Kevin Costner, Danny Glover, Jeff Goldblum
and Kevin Kline. A brief revival followed, with
films like "Sunset" (1988), starring James Garner as Wyatt
Earp and Bruce Willis as Tom Mix, and the "Brat Pack" Westerns
"Young Guns" (1988) and "Young Guns II" (1990),
which featured a solid performance by Emilio Estevez as Billy the Kid.
Still, Westerns weren’t seen as either commercially or critically
viable. Critical Acclaim — the ’90s
and Beyond That feeling changed to some extent
in late 1990. That’s when Kevin Costner, whose career had been
launched by "Silverado" and who had gone on to become one of
the world’s top box-office draws, took a huge career risk. Using his clout, he talked Orion
Pictures into financing an epic Western based on a book written by a
friend of his, Michael Blake, with Costner directing and starring in the
film. "Dances with Wolves," a
sprawling tale about a U.S. Cavalry officer who is befriended by and
becomes part of a noble Sioux tribe, opened in November 1990 to rave
reviews and amazing box office. When the dust had settled,
"Dances with Wolves" had become the biggest-grossing Western
in history, with over $180 million at the domestic box office. In addition, the film became only
the second Western in history to win the Academy Award® for
Best Picture, joining 1931’s "Cimarron." "Dances with
Wolves" won seven Oscars®, including Best Director for
Costner. Two years later, it was Clint
Eastwood’s turn. The man who almost singlehandedly
kept the traditional Western alive through the 1970s returned to a
screenplay written by David Webb Peoples (co-screenwriter of "Blade
Runner" [1982]) he’d first found and purchased around 1980, then
held until he felt he was old enough and experienced enough to do it
justice. Finally by 1992, he was ready.
Directing the film and starring as an aging gunfighter trying to put his
violent past behind him, Eastwood received the best reviews of his
career. The public loved it as well, to the tune of over $100 million at
the box office. The following March, for the second
time in three years, a Western won the Best Picture Oscar®,
with "Unforgiven" taking home four in all, including Best
Director for Eastwood and Best Supporting Actor for Gene Hackman. However, despite the success of
"Dances with Wolves" and "Unforgiven," the Western
has remained essentially dormant. TV has created a few landmarks,
such as the miniseries "Lonesome Dove" (1989) and its sequel,
"Return to Lonesome Dove" (1993) and the telefilm
"Purgatory" (1999). Two films about Wyatt Earp were
released within six months of each other, "Tombstone" (1993),
with Kurt Russell playing Earp, and Lawrence Kasdan’s epic "Wyatt
Earp" (1994) with Kevin Costner starring as the legendary lawman,
but neither picture was a huge success. Ironically, two of the most
successful Westerns of the 1990s were inspired by TV shows from the
1960s: "Maverick" (1994), based on the lighthearted 1957-62
series and featuring a star-studded cast headed by Mel Gibson and Jodie
Foster, and "Wild Wild West" (1999), based on the 1965-69
science-fiction Western series and starring box-office superstar Will
Smith as Secret Service Agent Jim West. How the Western will fare in the
future is difficult to tell. Comedies are perennial favorites, but other
genres (horror, science fiction, Westerns) are more vulnerable. Bottom line: a good, fresh story
with likable characters and actors to play those roles will help ensure
the Western, like the American spirit it represents, will ride on. Or
read the other essay I found from the same source: Small
Screen to the Big Screen. Essay
Content © 1999 Warner Home Video.
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