What Studio Franchises Can Learn From the Rise, Fall and Rise of the Western

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GaryCooper
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What Studio Franchises Can Learn From the Rise, Fall and Rise of the Western

Post by GaryCooper »


There's some pretty good Westerns out there if you're willing to look for 'em. Not as plentiful but there.
G.C.
Movies are written in sand: applauded today, forgotten tomorrow.
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Lomm
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Re: What Studio Franchises Can Learn From the Rise, Fall and Rise of the Western

Post by Lomm »

The obvious is the superhero film franchises. All of them. :lol:
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C*i*g*a*rTheJoe
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Re: What Studio Franchises Can Learn From the Rise, Fall and Rise of the Western

Post by C*i*g*a*rTheJoe »

It's dead. I wrote this 15 years ago - October 20, 2008.

One thing about Westerns that I've been contemplating about and trying to put a finger on is what exactly is different about todays Westerns. For some reason they don't seem the same as the Classics. You'll you read comments that various posters say about some of the few Westerns that come out comments like "they don't make them like they used to", or "they don't know how to make them anymore". Besides some of the obvious differences i.e. steady/shaky cam, cgi and blue screen, what else is making them seem different?

I think I've finally got it figured out and what it is is that is difference is that Westerns that were made in the 1939-1973 "Golden Age of The Western" (both in film & TV) have a certain pallet, part of it is a look that we who lived through that period or those of us that are Western Aficionados or just have seen a lot of Westerns recognize as being the "correct look" for a Western a feel that is the "correct feel" for a Western and certain traits that comprise the "correct deportment's" for a Western. Once you get those conventions correct then you can, within those conventions, try and push the envelope in a creative way.

Granted that during that time period for the Golden Age Western there was a gradual flexibility in character motivations between 1939 and and the early 1960's, look at the controversy surrounding the psychological Westerns and notably "High Noon". Later a more jarring one with coming of the anti hero in the Spaghetti Westerns, but the conventional look stayed generally within the same boundaries. We also had a more realistic depiction of violence ratcheted up over that period.

Our stable of actors that could make a convincing lead in a Western are limited. In the Golden Age the lead actor had a weary weathered leathery look and was usually in his thirties or older and was show to be wise beyond his years. The actors in their twenties played the young hot heads or the naive and inexperienced kids who usually made a fatal mistake and got blown away early. Now a days the scheme is turned on its head, its the young adults and teens who are showed to be more knowledgeable than their elders, it may be playing to today's audience demographics but it doesn't ring true.

On top of all that you had a stable of conventional character actors who made a career of just appearing in film Westerns and in TV Westerns who also contributed to that same "correct look" over the transitional change from cowboy as boy scout to cowboy as antihero in the span of their lives.

Forget the hewing close to historical accuracy BS, or trying to hard to get the archaic speech patterns correct, the more modern directors attempt to make a Western too true to the actual historical West the farther they get away from the classic Western and its look.

Watching a Western should be like slipping into a comfortable old pair of shoes.
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