When was the Western film genre defined?

western, a genre of novels and short stories, motion pictures, and television and radio shows that are set in the American West, usually in the period from the 1850s to the end of the 19th century.

What makes a western genre?

Western is a literature, film, and television genre. Westerns are primarily set in the American Old West between the late eighteenth century and late nineteenth century and tell the stories of cowboys, settlers, and outlaws exploring the western frontier and taming the Wild West.

What makes a great western movie?

Visual sweep and impact: Good use of the American west’s big skies, open plains, towering mountains and general natural splendor is a hallmark of great westerns, such as Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, Red River and, more recently, Jeremiah Johnson and The Horse Whisperer.

What was the first Western?

It might be hard to believe, but the movie that bears the distinction of being the first Western ever filmed was made in 1903. The twelve minute long “The Great Train Robbery”, a silent movie, was an immediate hit with audiences and paved the way for scores of other movies set in the mythical “Old West”.

What was one of the major influences in the western genre?

Influences on the Western: [No wonder that westerns were inspired by samurai and Arthurian legends, i.e., Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961) served as the prototype for Clint Eastwood’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964), and Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai (1954) was remade as John Sturges’ The Magnificent Seven (1960).

What is a movie theme?

Webster’s Encyclopedic Unbridged Dictionary of the English Language defines theme as “a subject of discourse, discussion, meditation, or composition; topic: . . .”3 In other words, a theme is the idea, premise, or purpose of a movie. It is the whole reason why movies are made. The theme is the heart of the movie.

Why is Star Wars a western?

Peter Hyams, director of Outland, said that studio heads in the 1980s were unwilling to finance a Western, so he made a space Western instead. Space operas such as the Star Wars film series also took strong cues from Westerns; Boba Fett, Han Solo and the Mos Eisley cantina, in particular, were based on Western themes.

Why were Westerns popular in the 1950s?

Westerns sought to teach the good values of honesty and integrity, of hard work, of racial tolerance, of determination to succeed, and of justice for all. They were, in a sense, modern morality plays where heroes, strong, reliable, clear-headed and decent, fought their adversaries in the name of justice.

Why are they called westerns?

The American Film Institute defines Western films as those “set in the American West that [embody] the spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier.” The term “Western”, used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World magazine.