Western Movies Since 1960 Essay -- essays research papers fc

A NOT-SO-ACCURATE prophet once wrote, "As recently as 1972, thither were a tremendous number of quality westerns being made . . . and since there tickms to be a ten-year cycle in occidental movie making, Id say well see more in about 1982." 1 In 1982 only two westerlys were released, and neither was exactly a major success. Barbarosa, starring Willie Nelson, drew some healthy reviewsand some very damaging onesbut nobody went to see the film. The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez appe atomic number 18d first on PBS television, then later went into general release. Today the Western seems to be deader than the California Med-fly. Critics and aficionados of the form can only hear, as with Arnolds sea of faith, its long receding roar. Everything except fluoride in the water has been blamed for the death of the Western. charge critics themselves have come under attack of late. Stephen Tatum, writing in 1983, called critics such as Brian Garfield and Don Graham "shootists," indicting them for a variety of sins. They are said to ca-ca a "fundamentalist," transcendent conception of the Western. They are "redeemer" critics who wish to stop the clock, deny history, and halt the inevitable evolution of genres. Not only that, Garfield and Graham are moreover accused of being "authoritarian" and suspiciously close to the "moral majority" position. It seems quite possible, however, that the roots of the Westerns decline lie deeper than in the likes and animadversions of benighted critics. The Western has lost its audience. An total generation of moviegoers has seen one big-screen Western in their lives, and that, sadly, is Blazing Saddles (1974). For this generation, who as children were glutted with television Westerns, such a legacy makes the Western an unthinkable form. Blazing Saddles is the final debunking of a long tradition and exposes the Westerns moral preachiness, its presumed insensitivity to blacks, reds, women, a nd other minorities, its good-guy-bad-guy schematic oppositions. Blazing Saddles took the Western into the terrain of the scatological, and from that defamation, nothing could be regained for an entire generation. By the early 1980s, the Western seemed hopelessly irrelevant to the largest share of the moviegoing audiencethe teen market. How could it ever compete with the simpleminded eighth-grade prurient v... ...k Rawson Associates, 1982. Highly opinionated and vigorously written. especially valuable for its insistence upon the importance of the writer in the creation of good Westerns. Graham, Don. Cowboys and Cadillacs How Hollywood Looks at Texas. Austin Texas Monthly Press, 1983. Focuses on changes in the Western as reflected in its preoccupation with Texas and its various myths. Hardy, Phil. The Western. New York William Morrow, 1983. A large, handsome book containing lively annotations of Westerns through 1983. Invaluable for anybody wanting either quick reference or the big picture. Hyams, Jay. The Life and Times of the Western Movie. New York Gallery Books, 1983. Useful if unexciting survey of the Western from its beginnings to 1983. Lenihan, John H. Showdown Confronting Modern America in the Western Film. Urbana University of Illinois Press, 1980. Definitive study of how the postWorld War II Western reflects such contemporary issues as civil rights, the Cold War, and Viet Nam. Pilkington, William T., and Don Graham, eds. Western Movies. Albuquerque University of New Mexico Press, 1979. Contains explications of several major films released during the 1960s and 70s.