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A 13 page paper which traces the historical and artistic development of the film Western, and also describes the major generic conventions of the Western. Bibliography lists 4 sources. TGwesterns.rtf
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13 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGwesterns.rtf
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cinema itself" (Schatz 25). Just as cinema has always served as a cultural mirror, the Western has historically been a reflection of the predominant attitudes a particular society holds
most dear. The Western is a uniquely American concept, which comes as no surprise since most early history involved westward expansionism. This earliest of cinematic genres is rooted
in early American folklore, where stories of Indian captivity would hold listeners spellbound around many an evening campfire (Schatz 25). Novels such as James Fenimore Coopers The Last of
the Mohicans and Pathfinder were popular idealized versions of the civilization of the American western frontier by the white pioneer and accepted by the late-nineteenth century as historical fact (Schatz
25). Around the 1880s, the Western was seemingly everyones favorite form of escapism, with dime-store novels chronicling the exploits of real-life Western outlaws such as Jesse James, Billy the Kid,
and Wild Bill Hickok and even invented a few fictional counterparts that more than sufficiently fit the bill like Deadwood Dick (Buscombe 286). Buffalo Bill Codys Wild West Show
of 1883 marked its entertainment popularity zenith (Buscombe 286). This show included such realistic narratives loosely based on history as the Battle of Summit Springs, a reenactment that showcased
Cody rescuing poor white damsel Indian captives in distress (Buscombe 286). Then in 1902, The Virginian by Owen Wister "provided the definitive portrait of the cowboy hero, a combination
of natural gentleman and resolute man of action" (Buscombe 286). But it was Thomas Edisons advent of celluloid that really brought the Western genre to life, and it became
for the America of the early twentieth century a vast cultural landscape upon which to sketch the conflict between the individual and industrialized society. Western film historian Thomas Shatz
...