The Western tells of the European settlers' takeover of North America's "Wild West" in the second half of the 19th century. The newcomers displace the original inhabitants ("Indians"), claim ownership of land ("the farm") and resources ("staking a claim" in the gold rush), and create new political structures ("sheriff", "state") along the ever-westward-moving line of settlement ("the frontier").
Models
Most of the genre's clichés can be traced historically to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which toured internationally from 1883 onwards and reached Germany in 1889. In Germany the popular image of the Wild West was later shaped above all by Karl May's Wild West novels; Winnetou I appeared in 1893.
For the media age, the cinema and television of the 1940s to 1960s set the style. Later Westerns deepen, vary or ironise these clichés.
Well-known films and series
- Gunsmoke / Rauchende Colts — 1955–1975, TV
- Bonanza — 1959–1973, TV
- Red River — 1948, John Ford with John Wayne in the lead
- High Noon — 1952, Fred Zinnemann
- Once Upon a Time in the West — 1968, Sergio Leone
Famous figures
- Buffalo Bill (1846–1917) — bison hunter, took Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show on its international tour from 1883
- Winnetou and Old Shatterhand — c. 1890, novels by Karl May
- Zorro — 1919, pulp novel
Clichés
At the heart of the outer plot stands the power struggle between two men. Both the good hero and the bad hero live at the edge — if not outside — the law ("outlaw") and society ("the stranger"). The villain wants to seize what is not his. The hero defends, sometimes only reluctantly, the community. The plot moves towards a decisive confrontation ("showdown"), played out either as a great gunfight between gang and town or as a duel between the two heroes on Main Street, exactly at twelve noon ("High Noon"). The bad hero meets his just punishment; the good hero rides off into the sunset.
The third main figure is the sheriff. Sometimes he is identical with the good or the bad hero. Ideally he is the wise representative of law and order who nevertheless needs the good hero's help to defend the community against the threat the villain poses — much as the wise king in fairy tales needs the help of the good knight.
Women in Westerns are mostly secondary figures. Even when the two heroes fight over a woman, she is the object of contention or ornament rather than a driver of the action. In a Western, anything that can be plundered may become an object of contention.
As a quintessentially male genre, the Western celebrates "manly virtues": honesty, integrity, courage, fighting spirit, male friendship, freedom of movement, loyalty. The Western hero is a loner who does what he believes is right.
The inner plot, where it exists, shows the good hero's inner conflicts. What drove him to ride alone ("the lonesome rider") through the country? How does he experience the existential loneliness of the wide prairie? Why did he leave the last town and why is he arriving in this one now? Does he carry a dark secret, is he wanted for a crime ("Wanted")? What motivates him to take sides for the good cause and fight the fight? Will he stay afterwards or move on?
Locations (non-geographic)
Desert / prairie: empty, dry, vast, free-roaming buffalo herds
- Campfire
Small town
- Saloon: central meeting place with bar, restaurant, gaming tables, brothel and entertainment (piano player, dancers)
- Bank
- Sheriff's office with attached jail
- Horse / stagecoach station
- Telegraph office
Farm
Gold mine
Figures
- Sheriff, deputies
- Cowboy
- Bartender
- Saloon girl
- Gunfighter
- Native American
- Undertaker
- Farmer
- Soldier
- Card sharp
- The villainous (family) clan that controls the town
- Snake-oil merchant
- Fine lady (in white)
- Bounty hunter
- Wanted criminal
Animals
- Horses
- Coyotes
- Vultures
- Snakes (rattlesnakes)
Scenes
- Bank robbery
- Poker game
- Building the railroad
- Native Americans raid a town; settlers raid a Native village
- Fight over a gold strike, nuggets
- Stagecoach / train robbery
- Pursuit on horseback
- Ambush
- Gunfight
- Lynch mob hangs someone; the innocent rescued from the gallows in the last second
- Native scout puts ear to the ground and counts the riders heading west
- Train / stagecoach pulls in
- Bad gang rides into town
- A stranger arrives in town (could be the bad or the good hero), on horseback, on foot, by train or stagecoach. How does the town react?
- Sit in a circle, smoke and pass the peace pipe
- Make a blood-brother oath
- Sell or drink "firewater" (Native Americans)
- Western dances
Single actions
- Standing at the saloon bar drinking whiskey
- Practising or showing off lasso tricks
- Preparing the gallows, tying the knot, throwing the rope over the beam
- Playing the harmonica
- Standing tied to the torture stake
- Panning for gold by the river, picking out nuggets
- Chewing and spitting tobacco
- Spinning the revolver's chamber (as in Russian roulette) or checking ammunition; cleaning the revolver; target practice
- Dismounting, hitching the horse outside the saloon, saddling up, springing into the saddle and riding off
- Lying in wait, scouting the enemy
Details
- Saloon swing doors — double doors that leave the head and feet of an arrival visible; pushed open with a shove; swing back with a characteristic creak — probably the defining Western cliché on improv stages :-)
- Cowboys' wide-legged walk
- Riding Western style with only one hand on the reins
- Cowboy hats
- Sheriff's star — pinned on solemnly, or torn off and hurled to the ground in fury
- Jingling spurs
- Cactus in the desert
- "Wanted" posters
- Spittoon
- Tumbleweeds rolling through ghost towns (effectively played by a flexible, athletic human prop ;-)
Sub-genres: Italo-Western and Western comedy
Western comedies are best known through the Terence Hill / Bud Spencer films. A signature feature is the brawls in which the bad boys end up beating each other up because the good boys duck in time. Native Americans rarely appear in such films.
External links
- Western on Wikipedia
- Spaghetti Western on Wikipedia