Ride, Boldly Ride: The Evolution of the American WesternThis comprehensive study of the Western covers its history from the early silent era to recent spins on the genre in films such as No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, True Grit, and Cowboys & Aliens. While providing fresh perspectives on landmarks such as Stagecoach, Red River, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and The Wild Bunch, the authors also pay tribute to many under-appreciated Westerns. Ride, Boldly Ride explores major phases of the Western’s development, including silent era oaters, A-production classics of the 1930s and early 1940s, and the more psychologically complex portrayals of the Westerner that emerged after World War II. The authors also examine various forms of genre-revival and genre-revisionism that have recurred over the past half-century, culminating especially in the masterworks of Clint Eastwood. They consider themes such as the inner life of the Western hero, the importance of the natural landscape, the roles played by women, the tension between myth and history, the depiction of the Native American, and the juxtaposing of comedy and tragedy. Written in clear, engaging prose, this is the only survey that encompasses the entire history of this long-lived and much-loved genre. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 9 | |
Not at Home on the Range Women against the Frontier in The Wind | 38 |
He Went That Away The Comic Western and Ruggles of Red Gap | 59 |
Landscape and StandardSetting in the 1930s Western The Big Trail and Stagecoach | 79 |
IndianFighting NationBuilding and Homesteading in the AWestern Northwest Passage and The Westerner ... | 101 |
Howard Hawks and John Wayne Red River and El Dorado | 128 |
The Postwar Psychological Western 1946 1956 My Darling Clementine to Jubal | 156 |
John Fords Later Masterpieces The Searchers and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance | 185 |
The Existential and Revisionist Western Comanche Station to The Wild Bunch and Beyond ... | 216 |
Eastwood and the American Western High Plains Drifter The Outlaw Josey Wales and Unforgiven ... | 238 |
Coda From Lonesome Dove 1989 to Cowboys and Aliens 2011 | 269 |
Notes | 281 |
| 301 | |
| 311 | |
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Ride, Boldly Ride: The Evolution of the American Western Mary Lea Bandy,Kevin Stoehr Limited preview - 2012 |
Common terms and phrases
A-Westerns action actor American Apache Big Trail Boetticher’s Buscombe cattle chapter character cinematic civilization Clint Eastwood Comanche comedy comic Courtesy cowboy Darling Clementine depiction desert director Doniphon Dorado Dunson epic erns especially film noir film’s filmmakers Ford’s frontier Garth Gish Griffith’s gunfighter gunslinger Hallie Harden Harry Carey Hawks Hawks’s Hell’s Hinges hero High Plains Drifter Hollywood homesteaders horse human Ibid Indian John Ford John Wayne Jubal kill Kitses land landscape later Letty Lige Mann’s Modern Art Monument Valley moral movie Munny Museum of Modern narrative Native natural Northwest Passage novel ofthe Old West Outlaw Josey Wales parody played protagonist psychological ranch ranchers Red River ride role Ruggles saloon scenes script Searchers sheriff Shot Liberty Valance silent Westerns Stagecoach starring Stoddard story Straight Shooting tells theme Thornton tion town traditional Unforgiven Vidor’s viewer villains violence visual wagon Wayne’s Western film Western genre Wild Bunch wilderness Wind Wyler’s