How the Western Film Genre Has Developed over the Past Century

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Recommended: Characteristics of the western genre film

The Western film genre is typically set in a secluded village in the middle of the desert, normally in the American West. The setting includes wooden buildings, tumble weed, cacti, trains, horses and carriages. The storyline for western films is usually the same, namely, a hero travels to a remote village, usually on a horse, and brings peace to the warring villagers.

In a traditional Western film the clothing for the hero is usually a white hat, (this is to show purity). The hero would also wear a brightly coloured shirt , a pair of jeans and cowboy boots with spurs on the back of them. The hero is also very clean and also normally tall and good looking. A traditional Western includes things like white settlers living in a town and a white hero fights white baddies and usually the hero wins. In a traditional western the Native Americans attack the towns where religious and peaceful people live. This makes the Native Americans look like bad people and the whites as good people.

The first Western film ever made was called ‘The Great Train Robbery‘. It was made by ‘The Lumiere Brothers’ in 1903.This film was a high quality film, because they used some panning with the camera. This was unusual in its time because the cameras that they had, had to be put on a fixed point because they were too heavy to lift. This meant that they couldn’t move in for close-ups. Consequently it made it harder for the audience to understand the characters feelings and to understand the storyline. If the camera can move in on the villain when he is plotting something or pulling a gun out ready for a fight it is much easier for the audience to follow. ’The Great Train Robbery’ was a simple one-reeler action picture, about 10 minutes long, with...

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...eserts, wooden buildings, small towns and cacti for the setting, western music and wind sounds for the backing music, and crane shots and panning for the camera shots. Shooting games are very popular with boys and so using the Western as a basis for these games should mean that many of them will be sold.

Westerns have, and always will, be very popular. The storylines, the shoot-outs and the all action drama are popular with men. The handsome hero and the better roles for women in the films means that more women were attracted to Westerns. The advances in technology meant that lots of people came to see the films just to see the camera shots and the sound. The change of storylines which showed the Native Americans to be nice people also kept peoples interest in Westerns. This is why they are still used today to sell products such as jeans and computer games.

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