SBA Practice

From “A Western is a Western is a Western”, by Stuart J. Kobak. http://www.filmsondisc.com/features/western/western.htm

Accessed March 3, 2010.

There are elements that must be found in a film to label it a Western. It is fair to insist that a Western have a reasonable amount of action and at minimum a modicum of shoot-em-up. Conflict resides in the guts of all Westerns. We need good guys and bad guys, although the differences can sometimes be blurred. Capturing a sense of the great outdoors is fundamental precept of the greater number of Westerns. Often a chase is the driving force behind a Western's plot. A changing way of life is frequently the focus of genre treatment and pioneers are found as unsung heroes.

There is really no firm description that can lasso the genre. No Western will have each and every element in evidence. Not all Westerns are created equal and all are not equally Westerns. When enough of the essential nature of the genre is present in a film, it isn't too great a stretch to call it a Western. Western or Eastern, Adventure, or Drama: the mere labels do not make the reality of a film. The sum of its elements alone determine in what genre it most comfortably fits. After all, a Western is a Western is a Western. 


Give me the frontier spirit, boots and spurs, broad brimmed hats, horses and Indians, six shooters, repeating Winchesters or bows and arrows and the spirit of the Western spreads out its sweeping vistas before my eyes. When the hero and bad man face off in typical genre confrontation, I could care less if the shoot-out takes place in Tombstone, Alaska, or Australia. As long as the essential Western spirit rears up against a purple sky, its a Western for me. I don't care if the frontier is the East Coast of America or the West Coast or whether it's 1765 or 1875. The Western genre is defined by Pike Bishop uttering the fateful "We want Angel," that precipitates the Boschlike carnage at the climax of The Wild Bunch; or it's Ethan Edwards' refrain "That'll be the day," in Ford's master work The Searchers.