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{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2022}}
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{{Westerns sidebar |Subgenres}}
{{Westerns sidebar |Subgenres}}
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The '''revisionist Western''' (also called the '''anti-Western''') is a sub-[[genre]] of the [[Western (genre)|Western]] film.<ref>Such as by director [[Robert Altman]] about his 1971 film ''[[McCabe & Mrs. Miller]]'', as cited in {{cite book |last=Shapiro |first=Michael J. |title=Cinematic Thinking: Philosophical Approaches to the New Cinema |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-8047-5800-0 |editor1-last=Phillips |editor1-first=James |page=55 |chapter=Robert Altman: The West as Countermemory |quote=He called his film an "'anti-Western' because the film turns a number of Western conventions on their sides" |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=coSaAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA55}}</ref><ref>Ben Sachs, [https://chicagoreader.com/film/the-sisters-brothers/ "The Sisters Brothers"], ''[[Chicago Reader]]'', September 27, 2018: "Neither a nostalgic throwback to traditional westerns nor a revisionist antiwestern, [...]"</ref><ref>Brent McKnight, [https://www.popmatters.com/on-robert-altmans-subversive-anti-western-mccabe-mrs-miller-2495407993.html "On Robert Altman's Subversive Anti-western, 'McCabe & Mrs. Miller'"], ''[[PopMatters]]'', November 21, 2016: "[...] Robert Altman's revisionist anti-western, ''McCabe & Mrs. Miller'', [...]"</ref> 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 "[[American frontier|Old West]]". While the traditional Western always embodies a clear boundary between good and evil, the revisionist Western does not.


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The '''revisionist Western''', also called the '''anti-Western''', is a sub-[[genre]] of the [[Western (genre)|Western]] film.<ref>Such as by director [[Robert Altman]] about his 1971 film ''[[McCabe & Mrs. Miller]]'', as cited in {{cite book |author-last=Shapiro |author-first=Michael J. |year=2008 |chapter=Robert Altman: The West as Countermemory |editor-last=Phillips |editor-first=James |title=Cinematic Thinking: Philosophical Approaches to the New Cinema |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |page=55 |isbn=978-0-8047-5800-0 |quote=He called his film an "'anti-Western' because the film turns a number of Western conventions on their sides" |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=coSaAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA55}}</ref><ref>Ben Sachs, [https://chicagoreader.com/film/the-sisters-brothers/ "The Sisters Brothers"], ''[[Chicago Reader]]'', September 27, 2018: "Neither a nostalgic throwback to traditional westerns nor a revisionist antiwestern, [...]"</ref><ref>Brent McKnight, [https://www.popmatters.com/on-robert-altmans-subversive-anti-western-mccabe-mrs-miller-2495407993.html "On Robert Altman's Subversive Anti-western, 'McCabe & Mrs. Miller'"], ''[[PopMatters]]'', November 21, 2016: "[...] Robert Altman's revisionist anti-western, ''McCabe & Mrs. Miller'', [...]"</ref> 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 "[[American frontier|Old West]]". While the traditional Western always embodies a clear boundary between [[good and evil]], the revisionist Western does not.
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Revisionist themes have existed since the early 20th century but it was not until 1968, when the [[Hays Code]] restrictions were relaxed, that revisionism finally supplanted the traditional. Although many earlier Westerns are labelled revisionist, the distinction between them is often blurred by variable themes and plot devices. Some are labelled '''psychological Westerns''' which is closely related to and sometimes overlaps with the [[psychological drama]] and [[psychological 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 labelled '''Indian Westerns''' or '''outlaw/gunfighter Westerns''' because, instead of the [[hero|traditional hero]], the protagonist is a [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]], an [[outlaw]] or a [[gunfighter]]. The [[spaghetti Western]]s of the 1960s, not bound by the Hays Code, were strongly revisionist by presenting morally ambiguous stories featuring an [[anti-hero]] or a [[sympathetic villain]]. From 1969, revisionism has prevailed in Western film production.

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[[Revisionism (fictional)|Revisionist themes]] have existed since the early 20th century but it was not until 1968, when the [[Hays 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 labelled '''psychological Westerns''', which is closely related to and sometimes overlaps with the [[psychological drama]] and [[psychological 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 labelled '''Indian Westerns''' or '''outlaw/gunfighter Westerns''' because, instead of the [[hero|traditional hero]], the protagonist is a [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]], an [[outlaw]], or a [[gunfighter]]. The [[spaghetti Western]]s of the 1960s, not bound by the Hays Code, were strongly revisionist by presenting morally ambiguous stories featuring an [[anti-hero]] or a [[sympathetic villain]]. From 1969, revisionism has prevailed in Western film production.


==Concept==
==Concept==
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 uncivilised. The former are portrayed as honest townsfolk or travelers, the latter as outlaws or hostile [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]]s.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}
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 as [[outlaw]]s or hostile [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]].<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Indick |author-first=William |year=2014 |title=The Psychology of the Western: How the American Psyche Plays Out on Screen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NE0-EAAAQBAJ |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |isbn=978-0-7864-9211-4 |page=17 |quote=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.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author-last=Lenihan |author-first=John H. |year=1980 |title=Showdown: Confronting Modern America in the Western Film |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E3TaxS2uWxQC |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |isbn=978-0-252-01254-9 |page=22 |quote=[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.}}</ref>


In the revisionist Western, the traditional format and themes are subverted by such devices as the Native American protagonist; strong female characters; the outlaw protagonist; plots that are pre-eminently concerned with survival in a wild environment; or the presentation of a morally ambiguous storyline without definite heroes, these often featuring the so-called [[anti-hero]] or a [[sympathetic 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nelson |first=Andrew Patrick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V1BQCgAAQBAJ&newbks=0 |title=Still in the Saddle: The Hollywood Western, 1969–1980 |date=2015-08-03 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-5302-5 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Picariello |first=Damien K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dODFEAAAQBAJ&newbks=0 |title=The Western and Political Thought: A Fistful of Politics |date=2023-06-17 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-031-27284-4 |pages=29 |language=en}}</ref>
In the revisionist Western, the traditional format and themes are subverted by such devices as the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] protagonist; [[strong female character]]s; the [[outlaw]] protagonist; plots that are pre-eminently concerned with survival in a wild environment; or the presentation of a [[Moral ambiguity|morally ambiguous]] storyline without definite heroes, these often featuring the so-called [[anti-hero]] or a [[sympathetic 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.<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Nelson |author-first=Andrew Patrick |year=2015 |title=Still in the Saddle: The Hollywood Western, 1969–1980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V1BQCgAAQBAJ |publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]] |isbn=978-0-8061-5302-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author-last=Picariello |author-first=Damien K. |year=2023 |title=The Western and Political Thought: A Fistful of Politics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dODFEAAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Springer Nature]] |page=29 |isbn=978-3-031-27284-4}}</ref>


The traditional Western treats characters in simplistic terms as good or bad with minimal character 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.<ref name=":0" />
The traditional Western treats characters in simplistic terms as good or bad with minimal [[Characterization|character 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.<ref name=":0" />


''[[Shane (film)|Shane]]'' (1953), directed by [[George Stevens]], is a psychological Western.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schaefer |first=Jack |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tErIXXrGom4C&newbks=0 |title=Shane |last2=Green |first2=Frank |date=1994 |publisher=Heinemann |isbn=978-0-435-97520-3 |pages=2 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Indick |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NE0-EAAAQBAJ&newbks=0 |title=The Psychology of the Western: How the American Psyche Plays Out on Screen |date=2014-11-21 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-9211-4 |pages=27–28 |language=en}}</ref> 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, as [[Kim Newman]] puts it, "believable characters with mixed motives".{{sfn|Newman|1990|p=44}} Even though rancher Riker ([[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.{{sfn|Newman|1990|p=86}} 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 Riker 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.{{sfn|Newman|1990|p=93}}
''[[Shane (film)|Shane]]'' (1953), directed by [[George Stevens]], is a psychological Western.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Schaefer |first1=Jack |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tErIXXrGom4C |title=Shane |last2=Green |first2=Frank |date=1994 |publisher=Heinemann |isbn=978-0-435-97520-3 |pages=2 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Indick |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NE0-EAAAQBAJ |title=The Psychology of the Western: How the American Psyche Plays Out on Screen |date=2014-11-21 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-9211-4 |pages=27–28 |language=en}}</ref> 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, as [[Kim Newman]] puts it, "believable characters with mixed motives".{{sfn|Newman|1990|p=44}} 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.{{sfn|Newman|1990|p=86}} 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.{{sfn|Newman|1990|p=93}}


Fifteen years after Stevens's ''Shane'', [[Sergio Leone]] directed ''[[Once Upon a Time in the West]]'', a revisionist Western<ref>{{Cite book |last=Matheson |first=S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1DK5vvMVXOoC&newbks=0 |title=Love in Western Film and Television: Lonely Hearts and Happy Trails |date=2012-12-28 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-137-27294-2 |pages=58 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Michael K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P9ilCgAAQBAJ&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PT152&dq=%22Once+Upon+a+Time+in+the+West%22+%22revisionist+western%22&hl=en |title=Hoo-Doo Cowboys and Bronze Buckaroos: Conceptions of the African American West |date=2014-01-08 |publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1-62846-907-3 |language=en}}</ref> 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 in ''Shane'', 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.{{sfn|Newman|1990|pp=39–40}}
Fifteen years after Stevens's ''Shane'', [[Sergio Leone]] directed ''[[Once Upon a Time in the West]]'', a revisionist Western<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Matheson |author-first=S. |year=2012 |title=Love in Western Film and Television: Lonely Hearts and Happy Trails |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1DK5vvMVXOoC |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-1-137-27294-2 |page=58}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author-last=Johnson |author-first=Michael K. |year=2014 |title=Hoo-Doo Cowboys and Bronze Buckaroos: Conceptions of the African American West |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P9ilCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT152 |publisher=[[University Press of Mississippi]] |isbn=978-1-62846-907-3}}</ref> 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 in ''Shane'', 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.{{sfn|Newman|1990|pp=39–40}}


==Development==
==Development==
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 as ''[[Westward Ho (1935 film)|Westward Ho]]'' (1935), directed by [[Robert N. Bradbury]] and starring [[John Wayne]], in which the hero leads a band of [[vigilantism|vigilantes]] on a quest for revenge. ''Westward Ho'' is the earliest film in [[AllMovie]]'s list of revisionist Westerns.<ref name="RW12">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/subgenre/revisionist-western-d629/releaseyear-desc/12 |title=Revisionist Western |work=AllMovie |page=12 |access-date=23 January 2022}}</ref> The earliest films classified by AllMovie as psychological Westerns are ''[[The Ox-Bow Incident]]'' and ''[[The Outlaw]]'' (both 1943).<ref name="PW7">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/subgenre/psychological-western-d1669/releaseyear-desc/7 |title=Psychological Western |work=AllMovie |page=7 |access-date=23 January 2022}}</ref>
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 as ''[[Westward Ho (1935 film)|Westward Ho]]'' (1935), directed by [[Robert N. Bradbury]] and starring [[John Wayne]], in which the hero leads a band of [[Vigilantism|vigilantes]] on a quest for revenge. ''Westward Ho'' is the earliest film in [[AllMovie]]'s list of revisionist Westerns.<ref name="RW12">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/subgenre/revisionist-western-d629/releaseyear-desc/12 |title=Revisionist Western |work=AllMovie |page=12 |access-date=23 January 2022}}</ref> The earliest films classified by AllMovie as psychological Westerns are ''[[The Ox-Bow Incident]]'' and ''[[The Outlaw]]'' (both 1943).<ref name="PW7">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/subgenre/psychological-western-d1669/releaseyear-desc/7 |title=Psychological Western |work=AllMovie |page=7 |access-date=23 January 2022}}</ref>


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 by [[J. P. McGowan]] and starring [[Al Hoxie]]; and ''[[Jesse James (1927 film)|Jesse James]]'' (1927), directed by [[Lloyd Ingraham]] and starring [[Fred Thomson]].<ref name="OG12">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/subgenre/outlaw-gunfighter-film-d972/releaseyear-desc/12 |title=Outlaw/Gunfighter Western |work=AllMovie |page=12 |access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref>
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 by [[J. P. McGowan]] and starring [[Al Hoxie]]; and ''[[Jesse James (1927 film)|Jesse James]]'' (1927), directed by [[Lloyd Ingraham]] and starring [[Fred Thomson]].<ref name="OG12">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/subgenre/outlaw-gunfighter-film-d972/releaseyear-desc/12 |title=Outlaw/Gunfighter Western |work=AllMovie |page=12 |access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref>
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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 by [[brownface]] whites such as [[Burt Lancaster]] and [[Jean Peters]] in ''[[Apache (film)|Apache]]'' (1954). In ''[[Dances with Wolves]]'', the female lead was [[Mary McDonnell]] playing a white who had been raised by the [[Lakota people|Lakota]].<ref name="IW5">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/subgenre/indian-western-d1670/releaseyear-desc/5 |title=Indian Western |work=AllMovie |page=5 |access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref> There had been earlier films which portrayed Native Americans sympathetically, but the breakthrough for this sub-genre was ''[[Broken Arrow (1950 film)|Broken Arrow]]'' (1950), directed by [[Delmer Daves]] and starring [[James Stewart]], with [[Jeff Chandler]] as [[Cochise]]. 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 as [[Sitting Bull]], [[Crazy Horse]] and [[Geronimo]] – as a result, "it became fashionable for Westerns to be pro-Indian".{{sfn|Newman|1990|pp=70–71}}
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 by [[brownface]] whites such as [[Burt Lancaster]] and [[Jean Peters]] in ''[[Apache (film)|Apache]]'' (1954). In ''[[Dances with Wolves]]'', the female lead was [[Mary McDonnell]] playing a white who had been raised by the [[Lakota people|Lakota]].<ref name="IW5">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/subgenre/indian-western-d1670/releaseyear-desc/5 |title=Indian Western |work=AllMovie |page=5 |access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref> There had been earlier films which portrayed Native Americans sympathetically, but the breakthrough for this sub-genre was ''[[Broken Arrow (1950 film)|Broken Arrow]]'' (1950), directed by [[Delmer Daves]] and starring [[James Stewart]], with [[Jeff Chandler]] as [[Cochise]]. 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 as [[Sitting Bull]], [[Crazy Horse]] and [[Geronimo]] – as a result, "it became fashionable for Westerns to be pro-Indian".{{sfn|Newman|1990|pp=70–71}}


Many of the films were produced in the 1950s during the milieu of [[McCarthyism]] and attempted to strike back against [[Hollywood blacklist|blacklisting]] of the film industry at that time, notably ''[[High Noon]]'' (1952) starring [[Gary Cooper]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frankel |first=Glenn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sZQyEAAAQBAJ&newbks=0 |title=High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic |date=2018-02-06 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-1-62040-949-7 |pages=xvii |language=en}}</ref> By the time of the loosening, and later abandonment, of the restrictive [[Hays Code]] in the 1960s, many directors of the [[New Hollywood]] generation such as [[Sam Peckinpah]], [[George Roy Hill]], and [[Robert Altman]] focused on the Western and each produced their own classics in the genre, including Peckinpah's ''[[The Wild Bunch]]'' (1969), Hill's ''[[Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid]]'' (1969), and Altman's ''[[McCabe & Mrs. Miller]]'' (1971).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Mask |first=Mia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3HqpEAAAQBAJ&newbks=0 |title=Black Rodeo: A History of the African American Western |date=2023-02-28 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-05402-0 |language=en}}</ref>
Many of the films were produced in the 1950s during the milieu of [[McCarthyism]] and attempted to strike back against [[Hollywood blacklist|blacklisting]] of the film industry at that time, notably ''[[High Noon]]'' (1952) starring [[Gary Cooper]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frankel |first=Glenn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sZQyEAAAQBAJ |title=High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic |date=2018-02-06 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-1-62040-949-7 |pages=xvii |language=en}}</ref> By the time of the loosening, and later abandonment, of the restrictive [[Hays Code]] in the 1960s, many directors of the [[New Hollywood]] generation such as [[Sam Peckinpah]], [[George Roy Hill]], and [[Robert Altman]] focused on the Western and each produced their own classics in the genre, including Peckinpah's ''[[The Wild Bunch]]'' (1969), Hill's ''[[Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid]]'' (1969), and Altman's ''[[McCabe & Mrs. Miller]]'' (1971).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Mask |first=Mia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3HqpEAAAQBAJ |title=Black Rodeo: A History of the African American Western |date=2023-02-28 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-05402-0 |language=en}}</ref>


Meanwhile, European directors such as [[Sergio Leone]] and [[Sergio Corbucci]] had been making Western films unencumbered by American expectations nor Hays Code inspired censorship, and these [[spaghetti Western]]s also provided a new perspective on the Western genre. Early examples of this sub-genre are Leone's ''[[A Fistful of Dollars]]'', starring [[Clint Eastwood]], and Corbucci's ''[[Minnesota Clay]]'', starring [[Cameron Mitchell (actor)|Cameron Mitchell]], both made in 1964.<ref name="SW15">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/subgenre/spaghetti-western-d600/releaseyear-desc/15 |title=Spaghetti Western |work=AllMovie |page=15 |access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref>
Meanwhile, European directors such as [[Sergio Leone]] and [[Sergio Corbucci]] had been making Western films unencumbered by American expectations nor Hays Code inspired censorship, and these [[spaghetti Western]]s also provided a new perspective on the Western genre. Early examples of this sub-genre are Leone's ''[[A Fistful of Dollars]]'', starring [[Clint Eastwood]], and Corbucci's ''[[Minnesota Clay]]'', starring [[Cameron Mitchell (actor)|Cameron Mitchell]], both made in 1964.<ref name="SW15">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/subgenre/spaghetti-western-d600/releaseyear-desc/15 |title=Spaghetti Western |work=AllMovie |page=15 |access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref>


The revisionist and psychological Westerns have been carried forward from their own standard settings into the [[neo-western|neo-Western]], a notable of which is the [[Coen brothers]]' ''[[No Country for Old Men (film)|No Country for Old Men]]'' (2007), based on the work of [[Cormac McCarthy]], an author known for writing revisionist Western literature, such as the novel ''[[Blood Meridian]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McMahon |first=Jennifer L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T3GITaS-nqwC&newbks=0 |title=The Philosophy of the Western |last2=Csaki |first2=B. Steve |date=2010-05-28 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-2591-6 |pages=222–223 |language=en}}</ref>
The revisionist and psychological Westerns have been carried forward from their own standard settings into the [[neo-western|neo-Western]], a notable of which is the [[Coen brothers]]' ''[[No Country for Old Men (film)|No Country for Old Men]]'' (2007), based on the work of [[Cormac McCarthy]], an author known for writing revisionist Western literature, such as the novel ''[[Blood Meridian]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=McMahon |first1=Jennifer L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T3GITaS-nqwC |title=The Philosophy of the Western |last2=Csaki |first2=B. Steve |date=2010-05-28 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-2591-6 |pages=222–223 |language=en}}</ref>


==Spaghetti Westerns==
==Spaghetti Westerns==
{{Main|Spaghetti Western}}
{{Main|Spaghetti Western}}
European countries, which had imported Western productions since their [[silent film]] inception, began creating their own versions and, in the 1964, [[Sergio Leone|Sergio Leone's]] ''[[A Fistful of Dollars]]'' became an international hit initiating the spaghetti Western filone.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://italiancinema-mumbai.tumblr.com/post/8292744960/introduction-to-italian-cinema-part2 |title=Introduction to the history of Italian Cinema (part 2) |access-date=23 December 2022}}</ref> 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 of ''A Fistful of Dollars.'' Scholars such as Austin Fisher have begun to pay attention to how in this popular genre Italian directors such as [[Damiano Damiani]], [[Sergio Sollima]] and [[Sergio 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fisher |first=Austin |title=Radical Frontiers in the Spaghetti Western: Politics and Violence in Italian Cinema |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-84885-578-6 |pages=1–2}}</ref> 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 as [[Django (1966 film)|Django]] and [[A Pistol for Ringo|Ringo]] and which came to be one of its universal attributes.<ref>{{cite book |title=Spaghetti Westerns |last=Hughes |first=Howard |year=2001 |pages=7–8 |publisher=Pocket Essentials |isbn=1-903047-42-0}}</ref>
European countries, which had imported Western productions since their [[silent film]] inception, began creating their own versions and, in 1964, [[Sergio Leone|Sergio Leone's]] ''[[A Fistful of Dollars]]'' became an international hit initiating the spaghetti Western filone.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://italiancinema-mumbai.tumblr.com/post/8292744960/introduction-to-italian-cinema-part2 |title=Introduction to the history of Italian Cinema (part 2) |access-date=23 December 2022}}</ref> 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 of ''A Fistful of Dollars.'' Scholars such as Austin Fisher have begun to pay attention to how in this popular genre Italian directors such as [[Damiano Damiani]], [[Sergio Sollima]] and [[Sergio 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.<ref>{{cite book |last=Fisher |first=Austin |title=Radical Frontiers in the Spaghetti Western: Politics and Violence in Italian Cinema |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-84885-578-6 |pages=1–2}}</ref> 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 as [[Django (1966 film)|Django]] and [[A Pistol for Ringo|Ringo]] and which came to be one of its universal attributes.<ref>{{cite book |title=Spaghetti Westerns |last=Hughes |first=Howard |year=2001 |pages=7–8 |publisher=Pocket Essentials |isbn=1-903047-42-0}}</ref>


==Counterculture==
==Counterculture==
Beginning in the late 1960s, independent filmmakers produced revisionist and [[hallucinogen]]ic films, later retroactively identified as the separate but related subgenre of "[[acid Western]]s,” that radically turn the usual trappings of the Western genre inside out to critique both [[capitalism]] and the [[counterculture]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Matheson |first=Sue |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AIQrDwAAQBAJ&newbks=0 |title=A Fistful of Icons: Essays on Frontier Fixtures of the American Western |date=2017-07-13 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-9804-8 |pages=231–241 |language=en}}</ref> [[Monte Hellman]]'s ''[[The Shooting]]'' and ''[[Ride in the Whirlwind]]'' (1966), [[Alejandro Jodorowsky]]'s ''[[El Topo (1970 film)|El Topo]]'' ([[1970 in film|1970]]), [[Roland Klick]]'s ''[[Deadlock (1970 film)|Deadlock]]'' (1970),<ref name="Deadlock">{{cite web | url=https://mubi.com/films/deadlock-1970 | title=Deadlock }}</ref><ref name="Roland Klick: Celebration">{{cite web | url=https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/roland-klick-celebration | title=Roland Klick: Celebration | date=September 2, 2019 }}</ref> [[Robert Downey Sr.]]'s ''[[Greaser's Palace]]'' ([[1972 in film|1972]]), [[Alex Cox]]'s [[Walker (film)|''Walker'']] ([[1987 in film|1987]]), and [[Jim Jarmusch]]'s ''[[Dead Man]]'' ([[1995 in film|1995]]) fall into this category.<ref name="Cineaste">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/1996/04/a-gun-up-your-ass-an-interview-with-jim-jarmusch-tk/ |title=A Gun Up Your Ass: An Interview with Jim Jarmusch |magazine=[[Cineaste (magazine)|Cineaste]] |volume=22 |number=2 |date=Spring 1996 |first=Jonathan |last=Rosenbaum |author-link=Jonathan Rosenbaum |access-date=1 September 2014}}</ref> Films made during the early 1970s are particularly noted for their hyper-realistic photography and production design.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.philipbrophy.com/projects/rstff/RewrittenWesterns_C.html |title=Rewritten Westerns: Rewired Westerns |last=Brophy |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Brophy |magazine=Stuffing |number=1 |year=1987 |location=[[Melbourne]] |access-date=1 September 2014}}</ref> Other films, such as those directed by [[Clint Eastwood]], were made by professionals familiar with the Western as a criticism and expansion against and beyond the genre. Eastwood's ''[[The Outlaw Josey Wales]]'' ([[1976 in film|1976]]) and ''[[Unforgiven]]'' ([[1992 in film|1992]]) made use of strong supporting roles for women and [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Buscombe |first=Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dmr8DwAAQBAJ&newbks=0 |title=Unforgiven |date=2019-07-25 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-83902-104-6 |language=en}}</ref>
Beginning in the late 1960s, independent filmmakers produced revisionist and [[hallucinogen]]ic films, later retroactively identified as the separate but related subgenre of "[[acid Western]]s,” that radically turn the usual trappings of the Western genre inside out to critique both [[capitalism]] and the [[counterculture]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Matheson |first=Sue |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AIQrDwAAQBAJ |title=A Fistful of Icons: Essays on Frontier Fixtures of the American Western |date=2017-07-13 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-9804-8 |pages=231–241 |language=en}}</ref> [[Monte Hellman]]'s ''[[The Shooting]]'' and ''[[Ride in the Whirlwind]]'' (1966), [[Alejandro Jodorowsky]]'s ''[[El Topo (1970 film)|El Topo]]'' ([[1970 in film|1970]]), [[Roland Klick]]'s ''[[Deadlock (1970 film)|Deadlock]]'' (1970),<ref name="Deadlock">{{cite web | url=https://mubi.com/films/deadlock-1970 | title=Deadlock }}</ref><ref name="Roland Klick: Celebration">{{cite web | url=https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/roland-klick-celebration | title=Roland Klick: Celebration | date=September 2, 2019 }}</ref> [[Robert Downey Sr.]]'s ''[[Greaser's Palace]]'' ([[1972 in film|1972]]), [[Alex Cox]]'s [[Walker (film)|''Walker'']] ([[1987 in film|1987]]), and [[Jim Jarmusch]]'s ''[[Dead Man]]'' ([[1995 in film|1995]]) fall into this category.<ref name="Cineaste">{{cite magazine |url=http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.net/1996/04/a-gun-up-your-ass-an-interview-with-jim-jarmusch-tk/ |title=A Gun Up Your Ass: An Interview with Jim Jarmusch |magazine=[[Cineaste (magazine)|Cineaste]] |volume=22 |number=2 |date=Spring 1996 |first=Jonathan |last=Rosenbaum |author-link=Jonathan Rosenbaum |access-date=1 September 2014}}</ref> Films made during the early 1970s are particularly noted for their hyper-realistic photography and production design.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.philipbrophy.com/projects/rstff/RewrittenWesterns_C.html |title=Rewritten Westerns: Rewired Westerns |last=Brophy |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Brophy |magazine=Stuffing |number=1 |year=1987 |location=[[Melbourne]] |access-date=1 September 2014}}</ref> Other films, such as those directed by [[Clint Eastwood]], were made by professionals familiar with the Western as a criticism and expansion against and beyond the genre. Eastwood's ''[[The Outlaw Josey Wales]]'' ([[1976 in film|1976]]) and ''[[Unforgiven]]'' ([[1992 in film|1992]]) made use of strong supporting roles for women and [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Buscombe |first=Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dmr8DwAAQBAJ |title=Unforgiven |date=2019-07-25 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-83902-104-6 |language=en}}</ref>


==List of revisionist Western films==
==List of revisionist Western films==
Line 204: Line 205:


===Later films===
===Later films===
Subsequently, revisionist themes have prevailed in Western film production. Major releases from 1971 to the present include:
Subsequently, revisionist themes have prevailed in Western film production. Major releases from 1971 to the present include:


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{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
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* ''[[True Grit (2010 film)|True Grit]]'' (2010)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/true-grit-vm982759672 | last=Manning | first=Joseph |title=True Grit (2010) |work=AllMovie |access-date=6 May 2023}}</ref>
* ''[[True Grit (2010 film)|True Grit]]'' (2010)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/true-grit-vm982759672 | last=Manning | first=Joseph |title=True Grit (2010) |work=AllMovie |access-date=6 May 2023}}</ref>
* ''[[Django Unchained]]'' (2012)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/django-unchained-v538627 |last=Buchanan |first=Jason |title=Django Unchained (2012) |work=AllMovie |access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref>
* ''[[Django Unchained]]'' (2012)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/django-unchained-v538627 |last=Buchanan |first=Jason |title=Django Unchained (2012) |work=AllMovie |access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref>
* ''[[A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night |A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night]]'' (2014)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/24/a-girl-walks-home-alone-at-night-dvd-blu-ray |last=Lyne |first=Charlie |title=A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night: ‘the first Iranian vampire western’ |work=TheGuardian |access-date=2 June 2024}}</ref>
* ''[[A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night]]'' (2014)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/24/a-girl-walks-home-alone-at-night-dvd-blu-ray |last=Lyne |first=Charlie |title=A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night: 'the first Iranian vampire western' |work=TheGuardian |access-date=2 June 2024}}</ref>
* ''[[The Hateful Eight]]'' (2015)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-hateful-eight-v593346 |last=Gelb |first=Daniel |title=The Hateful Eight (2015) |work=AllMovie |access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref>
* ''[[The Hateful Eight]]'' (2015)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-hateful-eight-v593346 |last=Gelb |first=Daniel |title=The Hateful Eight (2015) |work=AllMovie |access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref>
* ''[[Brimstone (2016 film)|Brimstone]]'' (2016)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/brimstone-v667088 |last=Ciampoli |first=Tom |title=Brimstone (2016) |work=AllMovie |access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref>
* ''[[Brimstone (2016 film)|Brimstone]]'' (2016)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.allmovie.com/movie/brimstone-v667088 |last=Ciampoli |first=Tom |title=Brimstone (2016) |work=AllMovie |access-date=31 March 2022}}</ref>
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* Articles in ''Western American Literature'' on the "[https://westernamericanliterature.com/postwestern/ Postwestern]"
* Articles in ''Western American Literature'' on the "[https://westernamericanliterature.com/postwestern/ Postwestern]"
* Articles in ''Western American Literature'' on "[https://westernamericanliterature.com/western-film-and-tv/ Western film and TV]"
* Articles in ''Western American Literature'' on "[https://westernamericanliterature.com/western-film-and-tv/ Western film and TV]"
* Example: '[https://www.newnovel.co.uk/wild-hearts WILD HEARTS ROAM FREE]<ref>{{cite book | url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09Z9XNV65 | title=Wild Hearts Roam Free: An American tale set in the new Wild West: 1: Amazon.co.uk: Morey, J S: 9798815216136: Books | website=Amazon UK | date=May 2022 | publisher=Independently published | isbn=979-8-8152-1613-6 }}</ref>' by author J S Morey, Sercombe Morey Publishing (Independent),ISBN 979-881521613
* Example: '[https://www.newnovel.co.uk/wild-hearts WILD HEARTS ROAM FREE]<ref>{{cite book | url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09Z9XNV65 | title=Wild Hearts Roam Free: An American tale set in the new Wild West: 1: Amazon.co.uk: Morey, J S: 9798815216136: Books | website=Amazon UK | date=May 2022 | publisher=Independently published | isbn=979-8-8152-1613-6 }}</ref>' by author J S Morey, Sercombe Morey Publishing (Independent), ISBN 979-881521613


{{Western (genre)}}
{{Western (genre)}}

Revision as of 15:45, 18 August 2024

"Anti-Western (genre)" redirects here. For the political terminology, see Anti-Western sentiment.

Part of a series on
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The revisionist Western, also called the anti-Western, is a sub-genre of the Western film.[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 between good and evil, the revisionist Western does not.

Revisionist themes have existed since the early 20th century but it was not until 1968, when the Hays 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 labelled psychological Westerns, which is closely related to and sometimes overlaps with the psychological drama and psychological 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 labelled Indian Westerns or outlaw/gunfighter Westerns because, instead of the traditional hero, the protagonist is a Native American, an outlaw, or a gunfighter. The spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s, not bound by the Hays Code, were strongly revisionist by presenting morally ambiguous stories featuring an anti-hero or a sympathetic villain. From 1969, revisionism has prevailed in Western film production.

Concept

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 as outlaws or hostile Native Americans.[4][5]

In the revisionist Western, the traditional format and themes are subverted by such devices as the Native American protagonist; strong female characters; the outlaw protagonist; plots that are pre-eminently concerned with survival in a wild environment; or the presentation of a morally ambiguous storyline without definite heroes, these often featuring the so-called anti-hero or a sympathetic 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 minimal character 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 by George 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, as Kim 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's Shane, Sergio Leone directed Once 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 in Shane, 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]

Development

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 as Westward Ho (1935), directed by Robert N. Bradbury and starring John Wayne, in which the hero leads a band of vigilantes on a quest for revenge. Westward Ho is the earliest film in AllMovie's list of revisionist Westerns.[17] The earliest films classified by AllMovie as psychological Westerns are The Ox-Bow Incident and The 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 by J. P. McGowan and starring Al Hoxie; and Jesse James (1927), directed by Lloyd Ingraham and starring Fred 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 by brownface whites such as Burt Lancaster and Jean Peters in Apache (1954). In Dances with Wolves, the female lead was Mary McDonnell playing a white who had been raised by the Lakota.[20] There had been earlier films which portrayed Native Americans sympathetically, but the breakthrough for this sub-genre was Broken Arrow (1950), directed by Delmer Daves and starring James Stewart, with Jeff Chandler as Cochise. 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 as Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Geronimo – 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 of McCarthyism and attempted to strike back against blacklisting of the film industry at that time, notably High Noon (1952) starring Gary Cooper.[22] By the time of the loosening, and later abandonment, of the restrictive Hays Code in the 1960s, many directors of the New Hollywood generation such as Sam Peckinpah, George Roy Hill, and Robert Altman focused on the Western and each produced their own classics in the genre, including Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969), Hill's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971).[8]

Meanwhile, European directors such as Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci had been making Western films unencumbered by American expectations nor Hays Code inspired censorship, and these spaghetti Westerns also provided a new perspective on the Western genre. Early examples of this sub-genre are Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, starring Clint Eastwood, and Corbucci's Minnesota Clay, starring Cameron Mitchell, both made in 1964.[23]

The revisionist and psychological Westerns have been carried forward from their own standard settings into the neo-Western, a notable of which is the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men (2007), based on the work of Cormac McCarthy, an author known for writing revisionist Western literature, such as the novel Blood Meridian.[24]

Spaghetti Westerns

Main article: Spaghetti Western

European countries, which had imported Western productions since their silent film inception, began creating their own versions and, in 1964, Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars became an international hit initiating the spaghetti Western filone.[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 of A Fistful of Dollars. Scholars such as Austin Fisher have begun to pay attention to how in this popular genre Italian directors such as Damiano Damiani, Sergio Sollima and Sergio 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 as Django and Ringo and which came to be one of its universal attributes.[27]

Counterculture

Beginning in the late 1960s, independent filmmakers produced revisionist and hallucinogenic 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 both capitalism and the counterculture.[28] Monte Hellman's The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind (1966), Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo (1970), Roland Klick's Deadlock (1970),[29][30] Robert Downey Sr.'s Greaser's Palace (1972), Alex Cox's Walker (1987), and Jim Jarmusch's Dead 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 by Clint Eastwood, were made by professionals familiar with the Western as a criticism and expansion against and beyond the genre. Eastwood's The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and Unforgiven (1992) made use of strong supporting roles for women and Native Americans.[33]

List of revisionist Western films

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

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.

1901–1950

1951–1955

1956–1960

1961–1970

Later films

Subsequently, revisionist themes have prevailed in Western film production. Major releases from 1971 to the present include:

See also

References

  1. ^ Such as by director Robert Altman about his 1971 film McCabe & Mrs. Miller, as cited in Shapiro, Michael J. (2008). "Robert Altman: The West as Countermemory". In Phillips, James (ed.). Cinematic Thinking: Philosophical Approaches to the New Cinema. Stanford University Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-8047-5800-0. He called his film an "'anti-Western' because the film turns a number of Western conventions on their sides"
  2. ^ Ben Sachs, "The Sisters Brothers", Chicago Reader, September 27, 2018: "Neither a nostalgic throwback to traditional westerns nor a revisionist antiwestern, [...]"
  3. ^ Brent McKnight, "On Robert Altman's Subversive Anti-western, 'McCabe & Mrs. Miller'", PopMatters, November 21, 2016: "[...] Robert Altman's revisionist anti-western, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, [...]"
  4. ^ Indick, William (2014). The Psychology of the Western: How the American Psyche Plays Out on Screen. McFarland & Company. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-7864-9211-4. 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.
  5. ^ Lenihan, John H. (1980). Showdown: Confronting Modern America in the Western Film. University of Illinois Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-252-01254-9. [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.
  6. ^ Nelson, Andrew Patrick (2015). Still in the Saddle: The Hollywood Western, 1969–1980. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-5302-5.
  7. ^ Picariello, Damien K. (2023). The Western and Political Thought: A Fistful of Politics. Springer Nature. p. 29. ISBN 978-3-031-27284-4.
  8. ^ a b Mask, Mia (February 28, 2023). Black Rodeo: A History of the African American Western. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-05402-0.
  9. ^ Schaefer, Jack; Green, Frank (1994). Shane. Heinemann. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-435-97520-3.
  10. ^ Indick, William (November 21, 2014). The Psychology of the Western: How the American Psyche Plays Out on Screen. McFarland. pp. 27–28. ISBN 978-0-7864-9211-4.
  11. ^ a b Newman 1990, p. 44.
  12. ^ Newman 1990, p. 86.
  13. ^ Newman 1990, p. 93.
  14. ^ Matheson, S. (2012). Love in Western Film and Television: Lonely Hearts and Happy Trails. Springer Nature. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-137-27294-2.
  15. ^ Johnson, Michael K. (2014). Hoo-Doo Cowboys and Bronze Buckaroos: Conceptions of the African American West. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-1-62846-907-3.
  16. ^ Newman 1990, pp. 39–40.
  17. ^ a b c d "Revisionist Western". AllMovie. p. 12. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Psychological Western". AllMovie. p. 7. Retrieved January 23, 2022.
  19. ^ "Outlaw/Gunfighter Western". AllMovie. p. 12. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  20. ^ "Indian Western". AllMovie. p. 5. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  21. ^ Newman 1990, pp. 70–71.
  22. ^ Frankel, Glenn (February 6, 2018). High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. xvii. ISBN 978-1-62040-949-7.
  23. ^ "Spaghetti Western". AllMovie. p. 15. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  24. ^ McMahon, Jennifer L.; Csaki, B. Steve (May 28, 2010). The Philosophy of the Western. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 222–223. ISBN 978-0-8131-2591-6.
  25. ^ "Introduction to the history of Italian Cinema (part 2)". Retrieved December 23, 2022.
  26. ^ Fisher, Austin (2014). Radical Frontiers in the Spaghetti Western: Politics and Violence in Italian Cinema. Bloomsbury. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-1-84885-578-6.
  27. ^ Hughes, Howard (2001). Spaghetti Westerns. Pocket Essentials. pp. 7–8. ISBN 1-903047-42-0.
  28. ^ Matheson, Sue (July 13, 2017). A Fistful of Icons: Essays on Frontier Fixtures of the American Western. McFarland. pp. 231–241. ISBN 978-0-7864-9804-8.
  29. ^ a b "Deadlock".
  30. ^ a b "Roland Klick: Celebration". September 2, 2019.
  31. ^ Rosenbaum, Jonathan (Spring 1996). "A Gun Up Your Ass: An Interview with Jim Jarmusch". Cineaste. Vol. 22, no. 2. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
  32. ^ Brophy, Philip (1987). "Rewritten Westerns: Rewired Westerns". Stuffing. No. 1. Melbourne. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
  33. ^ Buscombe, Edward (July 25, 2019). Unforgiven. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-83902-104-6.
  34. ^ a b c d e f g "Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film". AllMovie. p. 8. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  35. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film". AllMovie. p. 7. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  36. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film". AllMovie. p. 6. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  37. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Psychological Western". AllMovie. p. 6. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  38. ^ Erickson, Hal. "Broken Arrow (1950)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  39. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Revisionist Western". AllMovie. p. 11. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  40. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Psychological Western". AllMovie. p. 5. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  41. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film". AllMovie. p. 5. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  42. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Psychological Western". AllMovie. p. 4. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  43. ^ a b c d e f g "Psychological Western". AllMovie. p. 3. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  44. ^ Newman 1990, pp. 92, 156.
  45. ^ The Magnificent Seven at AllMovie
  46. ^ Sergeant Rutledge at AllMovie
  47. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Revisionist Western". AllMovie. p. 10. Retrieved January 28, 2022.
  48. ^ "Indian Western". AllMovie. p. 3. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
  49. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Outlaw (Gunfighter) Film". AllMovie. p. 4. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  50. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Revisionist Western". AllMovie. p. 9. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  51. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Revisionist Western". AllMovie. p. 8. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  52. ^ "Indian Western". AllMovie. p. 2. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
  53. ^ a b c d "Revisionist Western". AllMovie. p. 7. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
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  55. ^ Erickson, Hal. "McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  56. ^ Bozzola, Lucia. "Jeremiah Johnson (1972)". AllMovie. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  57. ^ Brenner, Paul. "Chato's Land". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  58. ^ Deming, Mark. "The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  59. ^ Erickson, Hal. "The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid (1972)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  60. ^ Brenner, Paul. "Joe Kidd (1972)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  61. ^ Brenner, Paul. "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  62. ^ Rasmussen, Linda. "Ulzana's Raid (1972)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  63. ^ Bozzola, Lucia. "High Plains Drifter (1973)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  64. ^ Bozzola, Lucia. "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  65. ^ Bozzola, Lucia. "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976)". AllMovie. Retrieved January 11, 2024.
  66. ^ Bozzola, Lucia. "The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  67. ^ Brenner, Paul. "The Long Riders (1980)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  68. ^ Deming, Mark. "Pale Rider (1985)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  69. ^ Blaise, Judd. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  70. ^ Bozzola, Lucia. "Unforgiven (1992)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  71. ^ Erickson, Hal. "The Ballad of Little Jo (1993)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 17, 2023.
  72. ^ Brenner, Paul. "Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  73. ^ Ramsey, Lucinda. "Tombstone (1993)". AllMovie. Retrieved September 13, 2019.
  74. ^ Williams, Karl. "The Quick and the Dead (1995)". AllMovie. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
  75. ^ Buchanan, Jason. "3:10 to Yuma (2007)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  76. ^ Dominik, Andrew. "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  77. ^ Buchanan, Jason. "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  78. ^ Manning, Joseph. "True Grit (2010)". AllMovie. Retrieved May 6, 2023.
  79. ^ Buchanan, Jason. "Django Unchained (2012)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  80. ^ Lyne, Charlie. "A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night: 'the first Iranian vampire western'". TheGuardian. Retrieved June 2, 2024.
  81. ^ Gelb, Daniel. "The Hateful Eight (2015)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  82. ^ Ciampoli, Tom. "Brimstone (2016)". AllMovie. Retrieved March 31, 2022.
  83. ^ Collura, Scott. "Logan Was Influenced by the Classic Western Shane". IGN. Retrieved June 2, 2024.
  84. ^ "Hostiles movie review & film summary (2017) | Roger Ebert". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
  85. ^ Kenny, Kenny (March 15, 2019). "Never Grow Old". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
  86. ^ Russell, Callum (February 5, 2022). "Listen Up...'The Power of the Dog' is a western revisionist masterpiece". Far Out Magazine. Retrieved February 5, 2022.

Bibliography

  1. ^ Wild Hearts Roam Free: An American tale set in the new Wild West: 1: Amazon.co.uk: Morey, J S: 9798815216136: Books. Independently published. May 2022. ISBN 979-8-8152-1613-6. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
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