Michael writes:
> This narrative arc seems too smooth.
It was a simplification. LBOsters interested in more detail should seek out Jim Kitses HORIZONS WEST just re-published by bfi.
> You leave out the counterexamples in
the bridge period: the classic, sunny,
non-revisionist Silverado (1985),
which was a commercial success and
nominated for oscars, and the similarly
nostalgic and sunny westernesque Back to
the Future III (1990).
I also left out CAT BALLOU (1965), BLAZiNG SADDLES (1974) and CITY SLICKERS (1991). For me, these comedy Westerns stand outside the line of argument engaged in by these other films.
Other notable Westerns from the time include ULZANA'S RAID (1972) by Robert Aldrich and THE LONG RIDERS (1980); GERONIMO (1993) and WILD BILL (1995) all by Walter Hill.
> And before that, the Sergio Leone Westerns of
the 1960s, esp. the Man with No Name trilogy
and Once Upon a Time in the West, which I
would consider an updating of the classic
tradition and by no means a reaction against it.
For me, Leone's work is more samurai movie meets the Western meets commedia dell'arte meets Marx (Karl not Groucho). DUCK, YOU SUCKER (1971) also appears to be a Western about the collaboration during WWII more than about life in the American West (which is not to damn the film; it is a favorite of mine).
By the time of MY NAME IS NOBODY (1973), not signed by Leone, but fairly certainly his, the spaghetti Western was both more comedic and more European than it had ever been.
> But of course this is even more support for your
underlying argument that the Searchers was by no
means the end of the tradition.
THE SEARCHERS seems to loom large in any discussion of the Western. While I am not a fan of John Ford, I will credit him with the ability to channel the zeitgeist and put it on screen. The moral confusions and equivalencies of the times are certainly present in the narrative.
Maureen O'Hara recent claims that Ford was gay, (or at least deeply and disturbingly attracted to Woody Strode) make a problematic filmmaker even more so.
Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister