Case Study on a Genre (The Western Genre)

CASE STUDY ON A GENRE

Genres haven't always been the way you see them today, Horror for example. Back when the first Horror films were coming out obviously they were scary for people. However if the same type of plots were used constantly, people would become bored with seeing the same types of things happening again and again. You would be disappointed if the last Horror film you saw had almost exactly the same type of plot as the one you just went to watch; therefore the genre has to adapt and change.

You don't want a film which is exactly like another - in the same genre; you want one with the typical conventions of that specific genre except with a twist. You would not be particularly very scared if you knew which characters were going to die first or where the killer was going to come out from. This is why genre's need to be modernized or innovated.

If genre's were to stay the same they would cease to exist, only to resurface later on with something which separates it from what it previously was. A good example of this is the 'western' genre..

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Case Study: The Western Genre

The 'Western' is a genre which has mesmerized film audiences. Partially down to its fabled, almost fictitious, context. Because it is set in deserted places removed from the rules of present-day civilization, it grants filmmakers to delve into moral/social uncertainties without mention to current issues. Back when westerns were first made the audience knew there was going to be an imminent fight between good and evil. Emerging triumphant from the fight would be the bold and courageous cowboy. However since then and now, the western genre has experienced an array of transitions and transformations in its cinematic history.

Between the 1920s and 30s, an expanse of westerns were made, many using the same type of plot perhaps with slight tweaks. It was considered one of the most popular cinematic genres from that time.

Four key elements of the Western Genre were identified by Alan Lovell, as indicated in The Cinema Book:

• A structure drawn from the 19th century melodramatic literature, involving a virtuous hero and a wicked villain who menaces a virginal heroine.
• An action story, composed of violence, chases and crimes appropriate to a place like the American West in the 19th Century
• The introduction of the history of the migration westwards and the opening of the frontier signalled in such films as The Covered Wagon (1924) and The Iron Horse (1924).
• The revenge structure, which was present by the time of Billy The Kid (1930).

These four points were the basis from which westerns were developed and from which all consequent westerns have surfaced.

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From 1939 the 'modern' westerns started to emerge, Stagecoach being the first. The Protagonist was an Outlaw who befriended a prostitute, things never seen before within the western genre. After this however an array of westerns, similar to this, started to appear. These were directed by John Ford (Director of Stagecoach) and were almost always starring John Wayne, who appeared in many western films. This period has often been referred to as the 'classical' period of the western genre, and then after it's pinnacle, the western genre faced a tipping point in the late 1950s.

From this came the 'spaghetti westerns', named this because of the films' Italian producers. Notable Directors were Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci, and the films usually starred Clint Eastwood. A Fistful of Dollars (1964) is an example; the Antagonists in this film were usually Mexican Bandits, and this is the same for the sequels of the film. The Protagonist was usually a violent loner, who didn't care too much about romance, and was a drifter who travelled from town to town.

After this period however the genre again lost the interest of the audience. The late 1970s, 80s and early 90s was a period in which the genre lacked appeal to the present-day audiences at the time. But towards the end of this period 'new' westerns were made, again applying different conventions and tweaks to separate the film from previous westerns. In 1990 a film named Dances With Wolves was Kevin Costner's attempt to make the western politically correct. It casted the previous Antagonists, Native Americans (Indians), in a much more positive light.

This shows how one genre can go through a series of changes, and gives a coherent reminder of how one genre has had to adapt to survive.