The western as a genre was dead until 1989 but was revived by, of all things, a made for TV mini series directed by an Englishman. That series was Lonesome Dove, a four part drama, that rekindled an American love for the western. It was made for the small screen but it had epic ambitions [...]
Entries Tagged as 'westerns'
Westerns – Part 5 – Rebirth
February 3rd, 2010 · No Comments · Cinematography, Film Criticism and Analysis, Film Directing, Film History, Film Narrative, Genre
Tags: clint eastwood·dances with wolves·gettysburg·glory·gods and generals·into the west·kevin costner·lonesome dove·open range·robert duvall·tommy lee jones·unforgiven·westerns
Westerns – Part 4 – Demise
February 3rd, 2010 · No Comments · Film General
The western died out in the early 1980s following the monumental disaster of Heaven’s Gate (1980). Not only did it bring a film studio to its knees financially but it made other studios extremely wary of investing in the genre. The underlying reasons though are not so much about the financial profligacy of the film [...]
Tags: butch cassidy and the sundance kid·heavens gate·the missouri breaks·the wild bunch·tom horn·westerns
Westerns – Part 3 – Easterns
February 3rd, 2010 · No Comments · Cinematography, Film Authorship, Film Criticism and Analysis, Film Directing, Film History, Film Narrative, Film Sound, Genre
John Ford’s westerns have influenced so many directors throughout the world so it was not so much of a surprise when “westerns” started being made outside the Hollywood system.
The most famous mutation of the traditional western was the spaghetti western. These were films made largely in Europe (Spain being the most believable location to double [...]
Tags: fistful of dollars·kurosawa·once upon a time in the west·segio leone·sergio corbucci·spaghetti westerns·the great silence·the magnificent seven·westerns
Westerns – Part 2 – John Ford
February 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · Cinematography, Film Authorship, Film Criticism and Analysis, Film Directing, Film History, Genre
Westerns have been around since the era of silent film. They have been the staple of early cinema and early TV. I can remember watching many western series on the box during the sixties such as Wagon Train, Gunsmoke, Rawhide and many more.
But the western started to become more of an art form in cinema [...]
Tags: cheyenne autumn·fort apache·John Ford·my darling clementine·she wore a yellow ribbon·the man who shot liberty valance·the searchers·westerns
Westerns – Part 1
February 1st, 2010 · No Comments · Film Criticism and Analysis, Film Narrative, Genre, Screenwriting
I haven’t really posted anything about genres so far so I thought I would start with one of my favourite genres – the western. Genres are a way of categorizing films that have a loose set of similar characteristics. They are inevitably vague with flexible boundaries but include sets of conventions that recur in many [...]
Tags: american dream·cowboys·Genre·Hollywood·John Ford·westerns