100 WesternsThe Western is one of Hollywood cinema's most potent and enduring genres, bound up with America's understanding of itself as a frontier nation. Edward Buscombe provides an illuminating guide to a hundred key films of the genre, from "Bad Day at Black Rock" to "The Wild Bunch", by way of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "A Fistful of Dollars", "The Searchers" and "The Magnificent Seven". Each entry includes a plot synopsis, major credits, and a commentary on the film's significance and its production and exhibition history. Edward Buscombe's introduction to the volume addresses the perennial appeal of the Western, exploring its 19th century popular culture, and its relationship to the economic structure of Hollywood. He considers the defining features of the Western - the concept of the frontier, and the key role of masculinity - and traces its main cycles, from the epic Westerns of the 1920s and singing cowboys of the 1930s to the Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s and its marked decline from the 1970s, as well as the contribution of major auteurs such as Ford, Mann, Peckinpah, Leone and Eastwood. |
Contents
Across the Wide Missouri William Wellman 1950 | 1 |
The Battle at Elderbush Gulch D W Griffith 1913 | 7 |
The Big Trail Raoul Walsh 1930 | 13 |
Copyright | |
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André de Toth Anthony Mann Apache attack bandits Bill Billy Blondie brother Budd Boetticher Burt Burt Kennedy captured cattle character Charles Chuncho Clementine Clint Eastwood Comanche comedy confrontation Costner cowboys Delmer Daves desert Dimitri Tiomkin director Django Don Siegel Dude Dunson Earp eventually father fight film final forced Ford's Frank Frenchy gang genre George girl Griff gunfighter Harry hero High Noon 1952 Hollywood horse Howard Hawks Indians Jack Jake James Stewart Jesse John Ford John Wayne Johnny Josey Kevin Costner killed landscape later Leone's Mexican Monco Monte murdered novel outlaw Peckinpah performance played Prod railroad ranch rancher Randolph Scott rescue revenge ride Robert role saloon Sam Peckinpah scene Score Sergio Leone Shane sheriff shoots shot stagecoach star story Texas there's town trail Train Robbery Tuco Wade wagon wants Western wife William woman wounded Wyatt young