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Therevisionist Western is a sub-genre of theWestern fiction.[1][2][3] Called a post-classical variation of the traditional Western, the revisionist subverts the myth and romance of the traditional by means of character development and realism to present a less simplistic view of life in the "Old West". While the traditional Western always embodies a clear boundary betweengood and evil, the revisionist Western does not.
Revisionist themes have existed since the early 20th century but it was not until 1968, when theHays Code restrictions were relaxed, that revisionism finally supplanted the traditional. Although many earlier Westerns are labelled as revisionist, the distinction between them is often blurred by variable themes and plot devices. Some are labelledpsychological Westerns, which is closely related to and sometimes overlaps with thepsychological drama andpsychological thriller genres because of their focus on character, at the expense of the action and thrills that predominate in the traditional. Other revisionist films, in which action and adventure remain prominent, are labelledIndian Westerns oroutlaw/gunfighter Westerns because, instead of thetraditional hero, the protagonist is aNative American, anoutlaw, or agunfighter. The termanti-Western is generally used in reference to particularly gruesome and/or nihilistic examples of the genre. Thespaghetti Westerns of the 1960s, not bound by the Hays Code, were strongly revisionist by presenting morally ambiguous stories featuring ananti-hero or asympathetic villain. From 1969, revisionism has prevailed in Western film production.
The traditional Western typically features a strong male lead character, often a lawman or cavalry officer, who takes direct action on behalf of supposedly civilized people against those deemed to be uncivilized (see also:Civilizing mission). The former are portrayed as honest townsfolk or travelers, and the latter asoutlaws or hostileNative Americans.[4][5]
In the revisionist Western, the traditional format and themes are subverted by such devices as theNative American protagonist;strong female characters; theoutlaw protagonist; plots that are pre-eminently concerned with survival in a wild environment; or the presentation of amorally ambiguous storyline without definite heroes, these often featuring the so-calledanti-hero or asympathetic villain. The object is to blur the traditionally clear boundaries between "right" and "wrong" (the "good guy" against the "bad guy") by emphasizing the need for survival amidst ambiguity.[6][7]
The traditional Western treats characters in simplistic terms as good or bad with minimalcharacter development. The psychological Western, which began in the 1940s and was hugely popular through the 1950s and 1960s, prioritizes character development ahead of action whilst retaining most of the traditional aspects. For the most part, the psychological Western morphed into the revisionist Western as censorship restrictions were relaxed and removed in the 1960s.[8]
Shane (1953), directed byGeorge Stevens, is a psychological Western.[9][10] The title character (Alan Ladd) seems at first to be a traditional Western drifter riding across a traditional Western landscape but it is soon apparent that he has entered a complex setting which is populated by, asKim Newman puts it, "believable characters with mixed motives".[11] Even though rancher Ryker (Emile Meyer) is ostensibly the villain of the piece, he makes the point that he has striven for thirty years to develop the cattle range which is now being taken over by fence-building "sodbusters", many of whom have the mixed motives noted by Newman.[12] Despite the complexity of its characters,Shane is nevertheless filmed in a conventional setting and ends with the hero outshooting and killing the three main villains. There is, however, an element of revisionism in the ending when the disillusioned Shane admits to Ryker that he knows his day as a gunfighter is over. Shane rides away to an uncertain future, possibly to die (he is wounded), and it is farmer Starrett (Van Heflin) and his family who endure.[13]
Fifteen years after Stevens'sShane,Sergio Leone directedOnce Upon a Time in the West, a revisionist Western[14][15] which completely subverts the traditional with complex characters and multiple plot devices, the key one being revenge – the motive of enigmatic gunfighter Harmonica (Charles Bronson). As inShane, it is not the gunfighters who "inherit the West" but in this case the compassionate town-building ex-prostitute Jill (Claudia Cardinale). By the end of the film, all of the antagonists except Harmonica are dead and, like Shane, he rides away to an uncertain future.[16]
Opinion is divided on the origin of the revisionist or psychological Western but it is generally agreed that there were hints of a darker perspective in some films of the 1930s such asWestward Ho (1935), directed byRobert N. Bradbury and starringJohn Wayne, in which the hero leads a band ofvigilantes on a quest for revenge.Westward Ho is the earliest film inAllMovie's list of revisionist Westerns.[17] The earliest films classified by AllMovie as psychological Westerns areThe Ox-Bow Incident andThe Outlaw (both 1943).[18]
The Outlaw/Gunfighter sub-genre focused on outlaws and gunfighters as human beings rather than using them as stock characters, often dressed in black, as in traditional Westerns. The aim was to examine the impact of gunfights on the participants by revealing their neuroses and redeeming characteristics. AllMovie's earliest films of this type are two silents:The Road Agent (1926), directed byJ. P. McGowan and starringAl Hoxie; andJesse James (1927), directed byLloyd Ingraham and starringFred Thomson.[19]
In a similar vein, the Indian Western seeks to reverse negative stereotypes by sympathetic portrayal of Native Americans who, in the traditional Western, are nearly always the enemy of the "heroic" white settlers and cavalry. In the Indian Western, roles can be reversed with peaceful Native Americans driven to fight against white aggression. Usually, however, the Native American hero or heroine is played bybrownface whites such asBurt Lancaster andJean Peters inApache (1954). InDances With Wolves, the female lead wasMary McDonnell playing a white who had been raised by theLakota.[20] There had been earlier films which portrayed Native Americans sympathetically, but the breakthrough for this sub-genre wasBroken Arrow (1950), directed byDelmer Daves and starringJames Stewart, withJeff Chandler asCochise. Kim Newman wrote that Chandler's performance established Cochise as "the 1950s model of an Indian hero" and the film inspired goodwill to other Native American chiefs such asSitting Bull,Crazy Horse andGeronimo – as a result, "it became fashionable for Westerns to be pro-Indian".[21]
Many of the films were produced in the 1950s during the milieu ofMcCarthyism and attempted to strike back againstblacklisting of the film industry at that time, notablyHigh Noon (1952) starringGary Cooper.[22] By the time of the loosening, and later abandonment, of the restrictiveHays Code in the 1960s, many directors of theNew Hollywood generation such asSam Peckinpah,George Roy Hill, andRobert Altman focused on the Western and each produced their own classics in the genre, including Peckinpah'sThe Wild Bunch (1969), Hill'sButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and Altman'sMcCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971).[8]
Meanwhile, European directors such asSergio Leone andSergio Corbucci had been making Western films unencumbered by American expectations nor Hays Code inspired censorship, and thesespaghetti Westerns also provided a new perspective on the Western genre. Early examples of this sub-genre are Leone'sA Fistful of Dollars, starringClint Eastwood, and Corbucci'sMinnesota Clay, starringCameron Mitchell, both made in 1964.[23]
The revisionist and psychological Westerns have been carried forward from their own standard settings into theneo-Western, a notable of which is theCoen brothers'No Country for Old Men (2007), based on the work ofCormac McCarthy, an author known for writing revisionist Western literature, such as the novelBlood Meridian.[24]
European countries, which had imported Western productions since theirsilent film inception, began creating their own versions and, in 1964,Sergio Leone'sA Fistful of Dollars became an international hit initiating the spaghetti Western formula.[25] Although they were mostly shot in Spanish locations, featured U.S. actors, and were co-produced by European and U.S. producers, many of the most successful directors were Italian, resulting in these films being known by the misnomer Spaghetti Western. Leone is often credited with initiating the growth of these co-produced European Westerns as he played a seminal role due to the financial success ofA Fistful of Dollars. Scholars such as Austin Fisher have begun to pay attention to how in this popular genre Italian directors such asDamiano Damiani,Sergio Sollima andSergio Corbucci, in responding to international and national events, chose the Western as a way to represent Leftist doctrine in the second half of the 1960s, interpreting the conflict between Mexico and the U.S. through the lens of Italian politics.[26] Leone popularized the morally ambivalent gunfighter through his representation of "The Man with No Name," Clint Eastwood's gritty anti-hero who was copied again and again in Spaghetti Westerns in characters such asDjango andRingo and which came to be one of its universal attributes.[27]
Beginning in the late 1960s, independent filmmakers produced revisionist andhallucinogenic films, later retroactively identified as the separate but related subgenre of "acid Westerns," that radically turn the usual trappings of the Western genre inside out to critique bothcapitalism and thecounterculture.[28]Monte Hellman'sThe Shooting andRide in the Whirlwind (1966),Alejandro Jodorowsky'sEl Topo (1970),Roland Klick'sDeadlock (1970),[29][30]Robert Downey Sr.'sGreaser's Palace (1972),Alex Cox'sWalker (1987), andJim Jarmusch'sDead Man (1995) fall into this category.[31] Films made during the early 1970s are particularly noted for their hyper-realistic photography and production design.[32] Other films, such as those directed byClint Eastwood, were made by professionals familiar with the Western as a criticism and expansion against and beyond the genre. Eastwood'sThe Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) andUnforgiven (1992) made use of strong supporting roles for women andNative Americans.[33]
This list is not exhaustive. It includes major films labelled revisionist Western, anti-Western, psychological Western, Indian Western, outlaw Western, gunfighter Western, or spaghetti Western. By 1970, revisionism had supplanted the traditional as the predominant Western sub-genre and so the list highlights the films released until then to illustrate the development of the concept.
Subsequently, revisionist themes have prevailed in Western film production. Major releases from 1971 to the present include:
He called his film an "'anti-Western' because the film turns a number of Western conventions on their sides"
The Western hero himself epitomizes the animus archetype. He is a character that is completely and utterly masculine... In turn, the Native American is often portrayed as the shadow archetype, the representative of savage, wild emotions, and the dark adversary for the hero in their oedipal rivalry over the maternal landscape.
[Robert] Warshow defines the Western in terms of its hero, a lone man of honor, whose six-gun, tempered with his sense of justice and rectitude, wins the West on behalf of society. Although the hero acts in the interests of society, he acts alone and by his own code of honor. Secondary characters... merely provide background for the exploits and character of the hero.
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