PRESENTATION OUTLINE
GENRE
a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form, content, technique, or the like.
Identify 5 genres
in music
Identify 5 genres
in books
Film genres
- Action
- Comedy
- Western
- Romance
- Teen
- Romantic Comedy
Film genres
- Documentary
- Science Fiction
- Horror
- Thriller
- Musical
- Fantasy
Film genres
- Family
- Film Noir
- Disaster
- Adventure
- Epic
- Detective
Westerns are one of the major defining genres of the American film industry
A eulogy to the early days of the American frontier examining the borderline between
civilization and the wilderness.
Their most prolific era was
1930s to the 1960s,
in the 90s there was a resurgence.
Usually, the central plot of the western film is the classic,
simple goal of maintaining law and order on the frontier
good vs. bad,
virtue vs. evil,
white hat vs. black hat,
man vs. man,
sheriff vs. gunslinger,
social law and order vs. anarchy
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
Rhythm of the Saddle (1938)
Singing Cowboys
- Gene Autry
- Bing Crosby
- Roy Rogers
Director John Ford redesigned the western film in the sound era focusing on grand landscapes and character development
Actors such as John Wayne, Errol Flynn and Henry Fonda found their early successes in the Western genre
By the end of his career, John Ford had made 15 sound Westerns, and numerous silent westerns.
Henry Fonda would eventually star in 8 John Ford films, and 21 westerns in total
Western sub-genres
- Epic western
- Noir Western
- Sex western
- Comedy western
Italian director Sergio Leone produced a trio of low-budget western films made in Europe (Spain and Italy) in the mid-60s,
but not released in the US until 1967
A Fistful of Dollars
(1964)
For a Few Dollars More
(1965)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
the spaghetti western
- More violent
- Revenge-seeking bandits & bounty hunters
- Music from Ennio Morricone
- Wide-screen closeups
- Over dubbed audio
