Revisionist Western

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The Revisionist Western, Modern Western or Anti Western traces to the late 1960s and early 1970s as a sub-genre of the Western movie.

Some post WWII Western films began to question the ideals and style of the "traditional" Western. Elements include a darker, more cynical tone, with focus on the lawlessness of the time period, favoring "realism" over "romanticism". Anti-heroes are common, as are stronger roles for women and more sympathetic portrayal of American Indians and Mexicans, and critical views of big business, the American government, masculine figures (including the military and their policies), and a turn to greater historical authenticity.

Contents

[edit] Beginnings

As is the case with film noir, many filmmakers responsible for early Revisionist Western were unaware they were part of a larger trend in filmmaking and, as such, did not necessarily consider their films "revisionist."

1953's Shane is such a film, with its handsome filmmaking and conservative values, but its ambiguous ending questions the viability of the traditional western hero. 1956's The Searchers starred John Wayne, the typical Western movie hero in what would appear on the surface to be a standard "Cowboys and Indians" conflict. Some critics and audiences, however, found the film subtly critical of the standard Wayne archetype. Martin Scorsese, for instance, cites The Searchers as an influence on his Taxi Driver (1976). Fred Zinnemann's movie High Noon (1952) is widely considered the first revisionist western.[by whom?]

[edit] Hollywood Revisionist Westerns

Main article: Acid Western

Most Westerns from the 1960s to the present have revisionist themes. Many were made by emerging major filmmakers who saw the Western as an opportunity to expand their criticism of American society and values into a new genre. Films in this category include Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country (1962) and The Wild Bunch (1969), Arthur Penn's Little Big Man (1970) and Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971).

Since the late 1960s, independent filmmakers have produced revisionist and hallucinogenic films, later identified as acid westerns, that radically turn the usual trappings of the western genre inside out to critique capitalism and the counterculture. Monte Hellman's The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind (1966), Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo (1970), Robert Downey Sr.'s Greaser's Palace (1972), Alex Cox's Walker (1987), and Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man (1995) fall under this category.[1]

Other films, such as those directed by Clint Eastwood were made by professionals familiar with the Western as a criticism and expansion against and beyond the genre. Eastwood's film The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) made use of strong supporting roles for women and Native Americans. In addition, the film gave a fairly accurate (and long taboo) portrayal of the brutal treatment accorded Southern familes in the border states by Unionist militias. It was also the first film to attempt an accurate address of the historical role of the Missouri Riders or border ruffians in the war, as well as the connection between the Southern irregulars and post-war outlaws. The classic historical film of the James-Younger Gang, The Long Riders (1980), Ang Lee's spectacular Ride with the Devil (1999), and more recently The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), provide the only films of any caliber to deal forthrightly with these hard issues. These films go a long way toward revising the traditional depiction of those fighting for the Confederacy, and humanize those caught up in the war and the Southern side, and in its aftermath as "Southerners", and are strictly revisionist in that sense.[citation needed] Jeffrey Wright's convincing portrayal of "Black Confederate" Daniel Holt riding with the Missouri Bushwhackers in Ride with the Devil breaches another taboo subject, albeit a liberal one. Unforgiven (1992), which Eastwood directed from an original screenplay by David Webb Peoples, dramatically criticized the typical Western use of violence to promote false ideals of manhood and to subjugate women and minorities.

[edit] Spaghetti Westerns

Main article: Spaghetti Western

Foreign markets, which had imported the Western since their silent film inception, began creating their own Westerns early on. However, a unique brand of western emerged in Europe in the 1960s as an off-shoot of the Revisionist Western.

The Spaghetti Western became the nickname, originally disparagingly, for this broad sub-genre, so named because of their Italian background, directing, producing and financing. Originally they had in common the Italian language, low budgets, and a recognizable highly fluid, violent, minimalist cinematography that helped eschew (some said "demythologize") many of the conventions of earlier Westerns. They were often made in Spain, especially Andalucia, whose dry ruggedness resembled the American south west. Director Sergio Leone played a seminal role in this movement, striving for greater realism in both the characters and the costumry. A subtle theme of the conflict between Anglo and Hispanic cultures plays through all these movies. Leone conceived of the Old West as a dirty place filled with morally ambivalent figures, and this aspect of the spaghetti Western came to be one of its universal attributes (as seen in a wide variety of these films, beginning with the first spaghetti Western, "Gunfight at Red Sands" (1964), and visible elsewhere in those starring John Philip Law ("Death Rides a Horse" or Franco Nero, and in the "Trinity" series. In this sense, the spaghetti Westerns brought a stark refreshing realism to the "western" genre, which had long since become boring and unbelievable, not the least for the pressed shirts and khaki trousers (which no one in the Old West wore, anyway). And it was for this reason, and the greater interest generated by the universally ambivalent heros of the spaghetti Westerns, that this genre revived American public interest in the Western.

[edit] Red Western

Main article: Ostern
See also: Gibanica Western

The Ostern or Red Western, was the Soviet Bloc's reply to the Western, and arose in around the same period as the Revisionist Western. While many Red Westerns concentrated on aspects of Soviet/East European history, some others like the Czech Lemonade Joe (1964) and the East German The Sons of the Great Mother Bear (1966) tried to demythologise the Western myth in different ways: Lemonade Joe by sending up the more ridiculous aspects of marketing, and The Sons of the Great Mother Bear by showing how American natives were exploited repeatedly, and is taken from the native, rather than white settler viewpoint.

A Man from the Boulevard des Capucines (1987) was a reflexive satire on the Western film itself. It was also highly unusual in being one of the few examples in Soviet film of a) post-modernism, and b) a major film directed by a woman.

[edit] List of Revisionist Western films and games

[edit] Films

[edit] 1940s

[edit] 1950s

[edit] 1960s

[edit] 1970s

[edit] 1980s

[edit] 1990s

[edit] 2000s

[edit] Games

[edit] References

  1. ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (1996-06). "A gun up your ass: an interview with Jim Jarmusch". Cineaste vol. 22, no. 2. http://www.sfgoth.com/~kali/onsite10.html. 
  2. ^ GameSpot Video: Gun Developer Interview
  3. ^ GameSpot Video: Gun Video Review
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