Recent Westerns

2008 Performing Arts

Author : Robert Spindler
Release : 2008
Genre : Performing Arts
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Recent Westerns by : Robert Spindler

Download or read book Recent Westerns written by Robert Spindler. This book was released on 2008. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shanghai Noon, Open Range, Cold Mountain, The Missing, The Proposition, Brokeback Mountain, Deadwood, Broken Trail, 3:10 to Yuma, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, No Country for Old Men. These recent films, all produced during the last ten years were either commercial or critical successes or both. Involving such big names as Jackie Chan, Nicole Kidman, Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, Russel Crowe, and Brad Pitt, they are all in some way or the other connected to the oldest film genre of all: the Western. Does this prove that the Western is still not dead yet, that there is a life after Kevin Costner's Dances With Wolves and Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven? In Recent Westerns, Robert Spindler provides a concise overview of the Western genre and its historical background. He introduces all of the major Westerns produced since the year 2000. Four of these, Open Range, The Missing, 3:10 to Yuma, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, are picked out for an in-depth analysis. Covering such aspects as the Western formula, violence, mythology, ethnicity, gender, Wild West heroes, outlaws, etc., this essential guide to the contemporary Western illustrates the genre's present appearance in a comprehensive and compact form.

Late Westerns

2018-12-01 Performing Arts

Author : Lee Clark Mitchell
Release : 2018-12-01
Genre : Performing Arts
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 697/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Late Westerns by : Lee Clark Mitchell

Download or read book Late Westerns written by Lee Clark Mitchell. This book was released on 2018-12-01. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than a century the cinematic Western has been America's most familiar genre, always teetering on the verge of exhaustion and yet regularly revived in new forms. Why does this outmoded vehicle--with the most narrowly based historical setting of any popular genre--maintain its appeal? In Late Westerns Lee Clark Mitchell takes a position against those critics looking to attach "post" to the all-too-familiar genre. For though the frontier disappeared long ago, though men on horseback have become commonplace, and though films of all sorts have always, necessarily, defied generic patterns, the Western continues to enthrall audiences. It does so by engaging narrative expectations stamped on our collective consciousness so firmly as to integrate materials that might not seem obviously "Western" at all. Through plot cues, narrative reminders, and even cinematic frameworks, recent films shape interpretive understanding by triggering a long-standing familiarity audiences have with the genre. Mitchell's critical analysis reveals how these films engage a thematic and cinematic border-crossing in which their formal innovations and odd plots succeed deconstructively, encouraging by allusion, implication, and citation the evocation of generic meaning from ingredients that otherwise might be interpreted quite differently. Applying genre theory with close cinematic readings, Mitchell posits that the Western has essentially been "post" all along.

Contemporary Westerns

2013-10-10 Performing Arts

Author : Andrew Patrick Nelson
Release : 2013-10-10
Genre : Performing Arts
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 57X/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Contemporary Westerns by : Andrew Patrick Nelson

Download or read book Contemporary Westerns written by Andrew Patrick Nelson. This book was released on 2013-10-10. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though one of the most popular genres for decades, the western started to lose its relevance in the 1960s and 1970s, and by the early 1980s it had ridden into the sunset on screens both big and small. The genre has enjoyed a resurgence, however, and in the past few decades some remarkable westerns have appeared on television and in movie theaters. From independent films to critically acclaimed Hollywood productions and television series, the western remains an important part of American popular culture. Running the gamut from traditional to revisionist, with settings ranging from the old West to the “new Wests” of the present day and distant future, contemporary westerns continue to explore the history, geography, myths, and legends of the American frontier. In Contemporary Westerns: Film and Television since 1990, Andrew P. Nelson has collected essays that examine the trends and transformations in this underexplored period in Western film and television history. Addressing the new Western, they argue for the continued relevance and vibrancy of the genre as a narrative form. The book is organized into two sections: “Old West, New Stories” examines Westerns with common frontier locales, such as Dances with Wolves, Unforgiven, Deadwood, and True Grit. “New Wests, Old Stories” explores works in which familiar Western narratives, characters, and values are represented in more modern—and in one case futuristic—settings. Included are the films No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood, as well as the shows Firefly and Justified. With a foreword by Edward Buscombe, as well as an introduction that provides a comprehensive overview, this volume offers readers a compelling argument for the healthy survival of the Western. Written for scholars as well as educated viewers, Contemporary Westerns explores the genre’s evolving relationship with American culture, history, and politics.

The Sagebrush Trail

2015-04-16 History

Author : Richard Aquila
Release : 2015-04-16
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 544/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The Sagebrush Trail by : Richard Aquila

Download or read book The Sagebrush Trail written by Richard Aquila. This book was released on 2015-04-16. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sagebrush Trail is a history of Western movies but also a history of twentieth-century America. Richard Aquila’s fast-paced narrative covers both the silent and sound eras, and includes classic westerns such as Stagecoach, A Fistful of Dollars, and Unforgiven, as well as B-Westerns that starred film cowboys like Tom Mix, Gene Autry, and Hopalong Cassidy. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 traces the birth and growth of Westerns from 1900 through the end of World War II. Part 2 focuses on a transitional period in Western movie history during the two decades following World War II. Finally, part 3 shows how Western movies reflected the rapid political, social, and cultural changes that transformed America in the 1960s and the last decades of the twentieth century. The Sagebrush Trail explains how Westerns evolved throughout the twentieth century in response to changing times, and it provides new evidence and fresh interpretations about both Westerns and American history. These films offer perspectives on the past that historians might otherwise miss. They reveal how Americans reacted to political and social movements, war, and cultural change. The result is the definitive story of Western movies, which contributes to our understanding of not just movie history but also the mythic West and American history. Because of its subject matter and unique approach that blends movies and history, The Sagebrush Trail should appeal to anyone interested in Western movies, pop culture, the American West, and recent American history and culture. The mythic West beckons but eludes. Yet glimpses of its utopian potential can always be found, even if just for a few hours in the realm of Western movies. There on the silver screen, the mythic West continues to ride tall in the saddle along a “sagebrush trail” that reveals valuable clues about American life and thought.

The New Western

2016-02-19 Performing Arts

Author : Scott F. Stoddart
Release : 2016-02-19
Genre : Performing Arts
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 208/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis The New Western by : Scott F. Stoddart

Download or read book The New Western written by Scott F. Stoddart. This book was released on 2016-02-19. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American moviegoers have long turned to the Hollywood Western for reassurance in times of crisis. During the genre's heyday, the films of John Ford, Howard Hawks and Henry Hathaway reflected a grand patriotism that resonated with audiences at the end of World War II. The tried-and-true Western was questioned by Ford and George Stevens during the Cold War, and in the 1960s directors like Sam Peckinpah and George Roy Hill retooled the genre as a commentary on American ethics during the Vietnam War. Between the mid-1970s and early 1990s, the Western faded from view--until the Gulf War, when Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves (1990) and Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992) brought it back, with moral complexities. Since 9/11, the Western has seen a resurgence, blending its patriotic narrative with criticism of America's place in the global community. Exploring such films as True Grit (2010) and Brokeback Mountain (2005), along with television series like Deadwood and Firefly, this collection of new essays explores how the Western today captures the dichotomy of our times and remains important to the American psyche.

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