FILM-TRIP

THE ESSENTIAL WESTERNS

Is the western dead, eviscerated by its inherent racism and cockeyed historiography?  I ask this question not of the so-called modern western, mind you, but of the westerns of Ford and Hawks and Mann and the other iconic figures of yesteryear.  In other words, can we still treat the westerns listed on this page as we would other films, acknowledging their faults while praising their vigor and vision and beauty?  Are we able to go beyond their often patently false--and sometimes inexcusable--rendering of history to find truths, truths about ourselves, about America, about moral choices?  I feel we can. The western, perhaps more than any other genre, relates objects (landscape, especially) to character.  The conventions of the western are generally such that the character finds himself (almost always a man) in a hostile place where he is forced to examine himself and his relationship to other human beings.  

THE SINGING COWBOYS
GENE AUTRY
ROY ROGERS q

A TV MASTERPIECE
LONESOME DOVE

THE STUNTMAN
YAKIMA CANUTT