| Part of a series on |
| Westerns |
|---|
 |
Acid Western is a subgenre of theWestern film that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s that combines the metaphorical ambitions of critically acclaimed Westerns, such asShane andThe Searchers, with the excesses of thespaghetti Westerns and the outlook of thecounterculture of the 1960s, as well as the increase inillicit drug taking of, for example,cannabis andLSD. Acid Westerns subvert many of the conventions of earlier Westerns to "conjure up a crazed version of autodestructive white America at its mostsolipsistic, hankering after its own lost origins".[1]
Film criticPauline Kael coined the term "acid Western" in a review ofAlejandro Jodorowsky's filmEl Topo, published in the November 1971 issue ofThe New Yorker.[2]
Jonathan Rosenbaum expanded upon the idea in his June 1996 review ofJim Jarmusch's filmDead Man, a subsequent interview with Jarmusch forCineaste,[3] and later in the bookDead Man, from BFI Modern Classics. In the book, Rosenbaum illuminates several aspects of this re-revisionist Western: fromNeil Young's haunting score, to the role of tobacco, toJohnny Depp's performance, to the film's place in the acid Western genre. In the chapter "On the Acid Western", Rosenbaum addresses not only the hallucinogenic quality of the film's pace and its representation of reality, but also argues that the film inherits an artistic and political sensibility derived from the 1960s counterculture which has sought to critique and replacecapitalism with alternative models of exchange.[4]
In the traditionalWestern, the journey west is seen as a road to liberation and improvement, but in the acid Western, it is the reverse, a journey towards death.
Rosenbaum used the term "acid Western" to describe a "cherished counterculture dream" from the 1960s and 1970s "associated with people likeMonte Hellman,Dennis Hopper,Jim McBride, andRudy Wurlitzer, as well as movies likeGreaser's Palace.Alex Cox tapped into something similar in the 1980s withWalker."[3]
Monte Hellman'scult filmThe Shooting (1966) could be considered the first acid Western.[5][6] The film starsWill Hutchins,Warren Oates, andJack Nicholson and was anonymously financed byRoger Corman.The Shooting subverts the usual priorities of the Western to capture a sense of dread and uncertainty that characterized the counterculture of the late 1960s.
Hellman followed up withRide in the Whirlwind (1966). ScreenwriterRudolph Wurlitzer is considered "the individual most responsible for exploring this genre, having practically invented it himself in the late '60s and then helped to nurture it in the scripts of others", such as McBride'sGlen and Randa, Hellman'sTwo-Lane Blacktop, Cox'sWalker, andSam Peckinpah'sPat Garrett and Billy the Kid.[4] Wurlitzer worked on the script ofGone Beaver, which Rosenbaum describes as "a visionary script" for Jim McBride. It was an ambitious big-budget Western about early American trappers and Indians, for which a virtually invented language of "trapper talk" was devised. The film was aborted one day before production.[7] Wurlitzer's unproduced 1970s screenplayZebulon inspired Jarmusch'sDead Man. Wurlitzer later transformed his script into thenovelThe Drop Edge of Yonder.
Rosenbaum callsDead Man a "much-delayed fulfillment" of the acid Western, "formulating a chilling, savage frontier poetry to justify its hallucinated agenda."[1] More recently,Jan Kounen'sBlueberry from 2004 was cited as an example of the genre.[8]
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(April 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
