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TheWestern is agenre offiction typicallyset in theAmerican frontier (commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West") between theCalifornia Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, and commonly associated withfolk tales of theWestern United States, particularly theSouthwestern United States, as well asNorthern Mexico andWestern Canada.[1][2]: 7
The frontier is depicted in Western media as a sparsely populated hostile region patrolled bycowboys,outlaws,sheriffs, and numerous otherstockgunslinger characters. Western narratives often concern the gradual attempts to tame the crime-ridden American West using wider themes ofjustice, freedom, rugged individualism,manifest destiny, and the national history and identity of theUnited States.Native American populations were often portrayed as averse foes orsavages.
Originating invaquero heritage andWestern fiction, the genre popularized theWestern lifestyle,country-Western music, andWestern wear globally.[3][4] Throughout the history of the genre, it has seen popular revivals and been incorporated into various subgenres.
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The classic Western is amorality drama, presenting the conflict betweenwilderness andcivilization.[1] Stories commonly center on the life of a maledrifter,cowboy, orgunslinger who rides a horse and is armed with arevolver orrifle. The male characters typically wear broad-brimmed and high-crownedStetson hats,[5]neckerchiefbandannas,vests, andcowboy boots withspurs. While many wear conventional shirts and trousers, alternatives includebuckskins anddusters.
Women are generally cast in secondary roles aslove interests for the male lead; or in supporting roles assaloon girls,prostitutes or as the wives ofpioneers andsettlers. The wife character often provides a measure ofcomic relief. Other recurring characters includeNative Americans of various tribes described as Indians or Red Indians,[6]African Americans,Chinese Americans,Spaniards,Mexicans,law enforcement officers,bounty hunters,outlaws,bartenders,merchants,gamblers,soldiers (especially mountedcavalry), and settlers (farmers,ranchers, and townsfolk).
The ambience is usually punctuated with aWestern musicscore, includingAmerican folk music andSpanish/Mexican folk music such ascountry,Native American music,New Mexico music, andrancheras.
Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in anarid, desolate landscape ofdeserts andmountains. Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting a "mythic vision of the plains and deserts of the American West".[7] Specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways, wilderness, and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a stock plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution, which is often dispensed through ashootout orquick draw duel.[8][9][10]
The Western genre sometimes portrays the conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature in the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original, Native American, inhabitants of the frontier.[11] The Western depicts a society organized around codes ofhonor and personal, direct or private justice–"frontier justice"–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are often played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personalrevenge orretribution against someone who has wronged them (e.g.,True Grit has revenge and retribution as its main themes). This Western depiction of personal justice contrasts sharply with justice systems organized around rationalistic, abstract law that exist in cities, in whichsocial order is maintained predominantly through relatively impersonal institutions such ascourtrooms. The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a seminomadic wanderer, usually a cowboy or a gunfighter.[11] A showdown orduel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns.[citation needed]
In some ways, such protagonists may be considered the literary descendants of theknights-errant, who stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as theArthurian romances.[11] Like the cowboy or gunfighter of the Western, the knight-errant of the earlier European tales and poetry was wandering from place to place on his horse, fighting villains of various kinds, and bound to no fixed social structures, but only to his own innate code of honor. Like knights-errant, the heroes of Westerns frequently rescuedamsels in distress. Similarly, the wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with theronin in modern Japanese culture.[citation needed]
The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, although some notable examples (e.g. the later Westerns of John Ford orClint Eastwood'sUnforgiven, about an oldcontract killer) are more morally ambiguous. Westerns often stress the harshness and isolation of the wilderness, and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Western films generally have specific settings, such as isolated ranches, Native American villages, or small frontier towns with a saloon. Oftentimes, these settings appear deserted and without much structure. Apart from the wilderness, the saloon usually emphasizes that this is theWild West; it is the place to go for music (raucous piano playing), women (oftenprostitutes), gambling (draw poker or five-card stud), drinking (beer,whiskey, ortequila if set in Mexico), brawling, and shooting. In some Westerns, where civilization has arrived, the town has a church, a general store, a bank, and a school; in others, where frontier rules still hold sway, it is, asSergio Leone said, "where life has no value".[citation needed]
Author and screenwriterFrank Gruber identified seven basic plots for Westerns:[12]
Gruber noted that good writers use dialog and plot development to expand these basic plots into believable stories.
TheAmerican Film Institute defines Western films as those "set in the American West that [embody] the spirit, the struggle, and the demise of thenew frontier".[13] Originally, these films were called "Wild West dramas", a reference toWild West shows likeBuffalo Bill Cody's.[14] The term "Western", used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article inMotion Picture World magazine.[14]
Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th-century popularWestern fiction, and were firmly in place before film became a popular art form.[15][page needed] Western films commonly feature protagonists such as cowboys, gunslingers, and bounty hunters, who are often depicted as seminomadic wanderers who wearStetson hats,bandannas, spurs, andbuckskins, use revolvers or rifles as everyday tools of survival and as a means to settle disputes using frontier justice. Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds.[16]
The first films that belong to the Western genre are a series of short single reel silents made in 1894 byEdison Studios at theirBlack Maria studio inWest Orange, New Jersey. These featured veterans ofBuffalo Bill's Wild West show exhibiting skills acquired by living in the Old West – they includedAnnie Oakley (shooting) and members of theSioux (dancing).[17]
The earliest known Western narrative film is the British shortKidnapping by Indians, made byMitchell and Kenyon inBlackburn, England, in 1899.[18][19]The Great Train Robbery (1903, based on the earlier British filmA Daring Daylight Burglary),Edwin S. Porter's film starringBroncho Billy Anderson, is often erroneously cited as the first Western, though George N. Fenin andWilliam K. Everson point out (as mentioned above) that the "Edison company had played with Western material for several years prior toThe Great Train Robbery". Nonetheless, they concur that Porter's film "set the pattern—of crime, pursuit, and retribution—for the Western film as a genre".[20] The film's popularity opened the door for Anderson to become the screen's first Western star; he made several hundred Western film shorts. So popular was the genre that he soon faced competition fromTom Mix andWilliam S. Hart.[21]
Western films were enormously popular in thesilent film era (1894–1927). With the advent of sound in 1927–1928, the major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns,[22] leaving the genre to smaller studios and producers. These smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in the 1930s. An exception was The Big Trail, a 1930 American pre-Code Western early widescreen film shot on location across the American West starring 23-year-old John Wayne in his first leading role and directed by Raoul Walsh. The epic film noted for its authenticity was a financial failure due to Depression era theatres not willing to invest in widescreen technology. By the late 1930s, the Western film was widely regarded as a pulp genre in Hollywood, but its popularity was dramatically revived in 1939 by major studio productions such asDodge City starringErrol Flynn,Jesse James withTyrone Power,Union Pacific withJoel McCrea,Destry Rides Again featuringJames Stewart andMarlene Dietrich, and especiallyJohn Ford's landmark Western adventureStagecoach starringJohn Wayne, which became one of the biggest hits of the year. Released through United Artists,Stagecoach made John Wayne a mainstream screen star in the wake of a decade of headlining B Westerns. Wayne had been introduced to the screen 10 years earlier as theleading man in directorRaoul Walsh's spectacularwidescreenThe Big Trail, which failed at the box office in spite of being shot on location across the American West, including theGrand Canyon,Yosemite, and the giantredwoods, due in part to exhibitors' inability to switch over to widescreen during theGreat Depression. After renewed commercial successes in the late 1930s, the popularity of Westerns continued to rise until its peak in the 1950s, when the number of Western films produced outnumbered all other genres combined.[23]
The period from 1940 to 1960 has been called the "Golden Age of the Western".[24] It is epitomized by the work of several prominent directors includingRobert Aldrich,Budd Boetticher,Delmer Daves,John Ford, and others. Some of the popular films during this era includeApache (1954),Broken Arrow (1950), andMy Darling Clementine (1946).[25]
The changing popularity of the Western genre has influenced worldwide pop culture over time.[26][27] During the 1960s and 1970s,Spaghetti Westerns fromItaly became popular worldwide; this was due to the success ofSergio Leone's storytelling method.[28][29] After having been previously pronounced dead, a resurgence of Westerns occurred during the 1990s with films such asDances with Wolves (1990),Unforgiven (1992), andGeronimo (1993), as Westerns once again increased in popularity.[30][31]
When television became popular in the late 1940s and 1950s, Television Westerns quickly became an audience favorite.[32][page needed] Beginning with rebroadcasts of existing films, a number of movie cowboys had their own TV shows. As demand for the Western increased, new stories and stars were introduced. A number of long-running TV Westerns became classics in their own right, such as:The Lone Ranger (1949–1957),Death Valley Days (1952–1970),The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955–1961),Cheyenne (1955–1962),Gunsmoke (1955–1975),Maverick (1957–1962),Have Gun – Will Travel (1957–1963),Wagon Train (1957–1965),The Rifleman (1958–1963),Rawhide (1959–1966),Bonanza (1959–1973),The Virginian (1962–1971), andThe Big Valley (1965–1969).The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp was the first Western television series written for adults,[33] premiering four days beforeGunsmoke on September 6, 1955.[34]: 570, 786 [35]: 351, 927
The peak year for television Westerns was 1959, with 26 such shows airing during primetime. At least six of them were connected in some extent toWyatt Earp:The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp,Bat Masterson,Tombstone Territory,Broken Arrow,Johnny Ringo, andGunsmoke.[36] Increasing costs of American television production weeded out most action half-hour series in the early 1960s, and their replacement by hour-long television shows, increasingly in color.[37][page needed] Traditional Westerns died out in the late 1960s as a result of network changes indemographic targeting along with pressure from parental television groups. Future entries in the genre would incorporate elements from other genera, such as crime drama and mystery whodunit elements. Western shows from the 1970s includedHec Ramsey,Kung Fu,Little House on the Prairie,McCloud,The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, and the short-lived but highly acclaimedHow the West Was Won that originated from a miniseries with the same name. In the 1990s and 2000s, hour-long Westerns and slickly packaged made-for-TV movie Westerns were introduced, such asLonesome Dove (1989) andDr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Also, new elements were once again added to the Western formula, such as thespace Western,Firefly, created by Joss Whedon in 2002.Deadwood was a critically acclaimed Western series that aired onHBO from 2004 through 2006.Hell on Wheels, a fictionalized story of the construction of thefirst transcontinental railroad, aired onAMC for five seasons between 2011 and 2016.Longmire is a Western series that centered onWalt Longmire, a sheriff in fictional Absaroka County,Wyoming. Originally aired on theA&E network from 2012 to 2014, it was picked up byNetflix in 2015 until the show's conclusion in 2017.
AMC andVince Gilligan's critically acclaimedBreaking Bad is a much more modern take on the Western genre. Set inNew Mexico from 2008 through 2013, it followsWalter White (Bryan Cranston), a chemistry teacher diagnosed with Stage III Lung Cancer who cooks and sells crystalmeth to provide money for his family after he dies, while slowly growing further and further into the illicit drug market, eventually turning into a ruthless drug dealer and killer. While the show has scenes in a populated suburban neighborhood and nearbyAlbuquerque, much of the show takes place in the desert, where Walter often takes his RV car out into the open desert to cook his meth, and most action sequences occur in the desert, similar to old-fashioned Western movies. The clash between the Wild West and modern technology like cars and cellphones, while also focusing primarily on being acrime drama makes the show a unique spin on both genres. Walter's reliance on the desert environment makes the Western-feel a pivotal role in the show, and would continue to be used in the spinoff seriesBetter Call Saul.[38]
The neo-Western dramaYellowstone was streamed from 2018–2024.
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West, most commonly between 1860 and 1900. The first critically recognized Western wasThe Virginian (1902) byOwen Wister.[39] Other well-known writers of Western fiction includeZane Grey, from the early 1900s,Ernest Haycox,Luke Short, andLouis L'Amour, from the mid 20th century. Many writers better known in other genres, such asLeigh Brackett,Elmore Leonard, andLarry McMurtry, have also written Western novels. The genre's popularity peaked in the 1960s, due in part to the shuttering of many pulp magazines, the popularity oftelevised Westerns, and the rise of the spy novel. Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s and reached a new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside of a few Western states, now only carry a small number of Western novels and short-story collections.[40]
Literary forms that share similar themes include stories of the American frontier, thegaucho literature ofArgentina, and tales of the settlement of the Australian Outback.
A number of visual artists focused their work on representations of the American Old West. American West-oriented art is sometimes referred to as "Western Art" by Americans. This relatively new category of art includes paintings, sculptures, and sometimes Native American crafts. Initially, subjects included exploration of the Western states and cowboy themes.Frederic Remington andCharles M. Russell are two artists who captured the "Wild West" in paintings and sculpture.[41] After the death of RemingtonRichard Lorenz became the preeminent artist painting in the Western genre.[42]
Some art museums, such as theBuffalo Bill Center of the West in Wyoming and theAutry National Center in Los Angeles, feature American Western Art.[43]
Withanime andmanga, the genre tends towards the science-fiction Western – e.g.,Cowboy Bebop (1998 anime),Trigun (1995–2007 manga), andOutlaw Star (1996–1999 manga). Although contemporary Westerns also appear, such asKoya no Shonen Isamu, a 1971shonenmanga about a boy with a Japanese father and a Native American mother, orEl Cazador de la Bruja, a 2007 anime television series set in modern-day Mexico.Part 7 of the manga seriesJoJo's Bizarre Adventure is based in the American Western setting. The story follows racers in a transcontinental horse race, the "Steel Ball Run".Golden Kamuy (2014–2022) shifts its setting to the fallout of theRusso-Japanese War, specifically focusing onHokkaido andSakhalin, and featuring theAinu people and other local tribes instead of Native Americans, as well other recognizable Western tropes.
Western comics have included serious entries, (such as the classic comics of the late 1940s and early 1950s (namelyKid Colt, Outlaw,Rawhide Kid, andRed Ryder) or more modern ones asBlueberry), cartoons, and parodies (such asCocco Bill andLucky Luke). In the 1990s and 2000s, Western comics leaned towards thefantasy,horror andscience fiction genres, usually involving supernatural monsters, or Christian iconography as inPreacher. More traditional Western comics are found throughout this period, though (e.g.,Jonah Hex andLoveless).
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Video game Westerns emerged in the 1970s. These games and drew on the imagery of a mythic West portrayed in stories, films, television shows, and other assorted Western-themed toys.[44]
When game developers went to the imaginary West to create new experiences, they often drew consciously or unconsciously from Western stories and films. The 1971 text-based,Mainframe computer gameThe Oregon Trail was first game to use the West as a setting, where it tasked players to lead a party of settlers moving westward in a covered wagon from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. The game only grew popular in the 1980s and 1990s as an educational game. The first video game Westerns to engage the mass public arrived inarcade games focused on the gunfighter in Westerns based on depictions in television shows, films andElectro-mechanical games such asDale Six Shooter (1950), andSega'sGun Fight (1970). The first of these games wasMidway'sGun Fight, an adaptation ofTaito'sWestern Gun (1975) which featured two players against each other in a duel set on a sparse desert landscape with a few cacti and a moving covered wagon to hide behind.Atari'sOutlaw (1976) followed which explicitly framed the shootouts between "good guys" and "outlaws" also borrowing from gunfighter themes and imagery.[44] Earlyconsole games such asOutlaw (1978) for theAtari 2600 andGun Fight (1978) for theBally Astrocade were derivative of Midway'sGun Fight. These early video games featured limitedgraphical capabilities, which had developers create Westerns to the most easily recognizable and popular tropes of the gunfighter shootouts.[44]
Westernradio dramas were very popular from the 1930s to the 1960s. There were five types of Western radio dramas during this period: anthology programs, such asEmpire Builders andFrontier Fighters; juvenile adventure programs such asRed Ryder andHopalong Cassidy; legend and lore likeRed Goose Indian Tales andCowboy Tom's Round-Up; adult Westerns likeFort Laramie andFrontier Gentleman; and soap operas such asCactus Kate.[45]: 8 Some popular shows includeThe Lone Ranger (first broadcast in 1933),The Cisco Kid (first broadcast in 1942),Dr. Sixgun (first broadcast in 1954),Have Gun–Will Travel (first broadcast in 1958), andGunsmoke (first broadcast in 1952).[46] Many shows were done live, while others were transcribed.[45]: 9–10
Westerns have been showcased in short-episodic web series. Examples includeLeague of STEAM,Red Bird, andArkansas Traveler.
Within the larger scope of the Western genre, there are several recognized subgenres. Some subgenres, such asspaghetti Westerns, maintain standard Western settings and plots, while others take the Western theme and archetypes into different supergenres, such asneo-Westerns orspace Westerns. For a time, Westerns made in countries other than the United States were often labeled by foods associated with the culture, such as spaghetti Westerns (Italy),meat pie Westerns (Australia), ramen Westerns (Asia), and masala Westerns (India).[47]
Beingperiod drama pieces, both the Western andsamurai genre influenced each other in style and themes throughout the years.[48]The Magnificent Seven was a remake ofAkira Kurosawa's filmSeven Samurai, andA Fistful of Dollars was a remake of Kurosawa'sYojimbo, which itself was inspired byRed Harvest, an American detective novel byDashiell Hammett.[49] Kurosawa was influenced by American Westerns and was a fan of the genre, most especiallyJohn Ford.[50][51]
Despite theCold War, the Western was a strong influence on Eastern Bloc cinema, which had its own take on the genre, the so-calledRed Western or Ostern. Generally, these took two forms: either straight Westerns shot in the Eastern Bloc, or action films involving theRussian Revolution, theRussian Civil War, and theBasmachi rebellion.[52]
Many elements of space-travel series and films borrow extensively from the conventions of the Western genre. This is particularly the case in thespace Western subgenre of science fiction.Peter Hyams'sOutland transferred the plot ofHigh Noon to Io, moon of Jupiter. More recently, thespace opera seriesFirefly used an explicitly Western theme for its portrayal of frontier worlds.Anime shows such asCowboy Bebop,Trigun andOutlaw Star have been similar mixes of science-fiction and Western elements. The science fiction Western can be seen as a subgenre of either Westerns or science fiction. Elements of Western films can be found also in some films belonging essentially to other genres. For example,Kelly's Heroes is a war film, but its action and characters are Western-like.
The character played byHumphrey Bogart innoir films such asCasablanca andTo Have and Have Not—an individual bound only by his own private code of honor—has a lot in common with the classic Western hero. In turn, the Western has also explored noir elements, as with films such asColorado Territory[53] andPursued.[54][53]
In many ofRobert A. Heinlein's books, the settlement of other planets is depicted in ways explicitly modeled on American settlement of the West. For example, in hisTunnel in the Sky, settlers set out to the planet New Canaan, via aninterstellar teleporter portal across the galaxy, inConestoga wagons, their captain sporting mustaches and a little goatee and riding aPalomino horse—with Heinlein explaining that the colonists would need to survive on their own for some years, so horses are more practical than machines.[55]
Stephen King'sThe Dark Tower is a series of seven books that meshes themes of Westerns,high fantasy, science fiction, and horror. The protagonistRoland Deschain is a gunslinger whose image and personality are largely inspired by the Man with No Name from Sergio Leone's films. In addition, thesuperhero fantasy genre has been described as having been derived from the cowboy hero, only powered up to omnipotence in a primarily urban setting.
The Western genre has been parodied on a number of occasions, famous examples beingSupport Your Local Sheriff!,Cat Ballou,Mel Brooks'sBlazing Saddles, andRustler's Rhapsody.[56]
George Lucas'sStar Wars films use many elements of a Western, and Lucas has said he intended forStar Wars to revitalize cinematic mythology, a part the Western once held. TheJedi, who take their name fromJidaigeki, are modeled after samurai, showing the influence of Kurosawa. The characterHan Solo dressed like an archetypal gunslinger, and theMos Eisley cantina is much like an Old West saloon.[57]
Meanwhile, films such asThe Big Lebowski, which plucked actorSam Elliott out of the Old West and into a Los Angeles bowling alley, andMidnight Cowboy, about a Southern-boy-turned-gigolo in New York (who disappoints a client when he does not measure up to Gary Cooper), transplanted Western themes into modern settings for both purposes of parody and homage.[58]
By the 1840s, of course, adults were already reading tales of adventure involving Red Indians
[T]he principal archetype of the genre, the Western hero, is analyzed within the context of his various personas: the chivalrous cowboy, the honorable marshal, the lone crusader, and the rebel outlaw... He is more comfortable living in the open fronteir than in the cities, and most importantly, he does not conform to the laws and customs of civilized society. He answers only to his own code of honor and enforces his own personal brand of justice... [W]riters established the cowboy hero as the legendary icon of the West. They dressed him in chaps and a ten-gallon hat, straddled him atop a horse, armed him with a revolver, and set him loose on the Western plains.
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