How the Western Was Lost (and Why It Matters)...

[denorios]

As superheroes, sequels, and international appeal influence Hollywood studios, films from the frontier are riding off into the sunset-just when America needs them most.

I for one would be immensely sorry to see the Western genre die a death. I love Westerns - whether it's film, TV, history books. It's a fascinating era, and the very iconography

Comments

[rionaleonhart]

I wish you had the means to play Red Dead Redemption! I think you'd really enjoy it. The Western genre didn't really grab me until I played that videogame, but actually being able to explore the world of the Old West myself really made me fall in love with it.

[denorios]

Me too - I would love to play that game, but unless they ever bring it out for PC there's no way. I'm not going to buy a whole gaming platform/console just for one game.

*sighs*

[slavelabour]

*hi-five* I came here to mention RDR, too. :)

[farad]

Gosh, I hope not - I'm trying to write one now (not based on fandom!)

And I do love me some fandom!

[slavelabour]

It's a good article, but I noticed they mention Heaven's Gate, which is famous for being so bloated in production it was destined to fail, and took down United Artists along with it. My fave scriptwriters have been mentioning the oncoming disaster of The Lone Ranger since last year. They knew full well the problems in production, and there was NO WAY for it to be considered a success (financially or critically). I can't consider this a blow to the western genre when that almost seems incidental based on how badly production was handled. The same thing keeps happening to films and then people moan about how it's not a success, when it should have been aborted long before release. The writing/production system in Hollywood is broken right now. There's a fascinating book about a lot of that here, on the making of John Carter (which I un-ironically enjoyed more than the reviewers would have had me believe).

I still think the most recent groundbreaking western to appeal to the younger generation came in the form of Red Dead Redemption.