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Western film genre
Western film genre
Western movie genre characteristics
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Shane
Shane is a movie about a group of small town farmers who are being picked on by some cowboys. Then Shane mysteriously comes into view and tries to do the right thing by helping the farmers. Jack Schaefer wrote the script and the film was produced by George Stevens. Paramount Pictures released the movie in 1952.
The characters in the movie were as follows. The main character in the film was (you guessed it) Shane, “the outsider” in this movie. Shane eventually stays with Joe Starret, his wife Marian and their son Joey. The man whom the farmers were against was Rufe Ryker, an older cowboy who seemed to be fairly mad at the entire world. Once Ryker found out about Shane, he brought in a hired gun from Cheyenne, who went by the name Wilson.
The plot of this movie is about the struggle between the farmers and the cowboys. The farmers all want to start up crops, but the cowboys want to run their cattle through the open space so they can feed. Obviously, the two sides don’t agree. The cowboys end up attempting to use strong-arm tactics to get their way. They even try to scare the farmers off the land by burning down one of the homes of the farmers. Eventually, Shane, a former gunfight, realizes what he must do. He rides into town and kills all of the cowboys, including Wilson, the hired gun.
Shane is by all means a western because it contains all the conventions of one. Open space, bad guys (the cowboys), and lots of guns, lawless land, and a whole bunch of horses.
There were a couple of conflicts in this movie. The biggest conflict was that between the farmers and the cowboys. A sub-conflict was the beef between Wilson and Shane. Narration of this film was done in third person. I think the only characters that added to the film were Shane, Mrs. Starrett and Wilson. The kid was a pretty miserable actor and was only good for his wide-eyed facial expressions when gunshots rang out. Everyone else was pretty much weak. The film was set in the Wyoming. The time frame was over a couple of weeks, I’d say less than a month.
McCarthy’s plot is built around a teenage boy, John Grady, who has great passion for a cowboy life. At the age of seventeen he begins to depict himself as a unique individual who is ambitious to fulfill his dream life – the life of free will, under the sun and starlit nights. Unfortunately, his ambition is at odds with the societal etiquettes. He initiates his adventurous life in his homeland when he futilely endeavors to seize his grandfather’s legacy - the ranch. John Grady fails to appreciate a naked truth that, society plays a big role in his life than he could have possibly imagined. His own mother is the first one to strive to dictate his life. “Anyway you’re sixteen years old, you can’t run the ranch…you are being ridiculers. You have to go to school” she said, wiping out any hopes of him owning the ranch (p.15). Undoubtedly Grady is being restrained to explore his dreams, as the world around him intuitively assumes that he ought to tag along the c...
Many westerns contain some of the same elements. For instance, almost every western ever made involves a sheriff. He is usually the peace-keeper of a small town overrun by outlaws and cowboys, which he eventually chases out of town or kills. Another element of westerns is a gunslinger. A gunslinger is usually a young man who makes his living shooting other men in showdowns, a classic example is Billy the Kid. Railroads are also a recurring image in westerns. Since the railroad was the major mode of transportation in the old west, it is always present in westerns. Finally, westerns always have a villain. The villain, usually a man, dresses very slick and will stop at nothing in his quest for power. In addition, the villain usually has a gang to carry out his dastardly deeds. The gang is usually full of incompetent, but loyal thugs, who would love to destroy a small town just for the pleasure of wanton destruction. The elements of a western are very simple, but easily manipulated into a very interesting plot.
Mallory is about to have her baby. It really brings them all together to get over their difference and help Mrs. Mallory give birth and Doc Boone sober up before becoming the medical lead on the birthing. This tightens the community and makes them more centered to each other cause now they can all relate to something that happened on the trip that was intense. This also brings more in common with Peacock the whiskey salesmen because he’s a father of five wanting to get back to his family in Kansas and has been through raising children and birthing many times. His wisdom and kindness to the situation brings him to have more of a fatherly figure stance. Lastly in the movie they all are attacked by the apache’s kinda how their all attacked in a way by the original western town they came from, because of drinking, pregnancy, prostitution, crime, embezzling, gambling. “Two people save from civilization”, like Doc Boone said although it’s kinda like almost all of them were making them the center of the
The times are changing and he's unwilling to give up the past. The world is becoming modernized and people like him, cowboys and ranchers, are slowly disappearing. He runs away from home because he desires to find peace within himself as well as a place where he can feel he belongs. Here begins the adventure of John Grady and his best friend Lacey Rawlins. It is important to note here the means of travel. The story is taking place after World War II, a time when cars are fairly common, yet these boys decide to go on horseback, like in the fading old days. This is just another concept of how they are unwilling to give up a fading past. When they first begin their journey, the boys are having a good time. In a sense they?re two buddies on a road trip with no real motive. Rawlins even mentions, ?You know what?I could get used to this life.? Then they meet Blevins, the foil in the plot that veers the two boys of their course and also has plays a role in the lasting change of their personality. Their meeting with him gives an insight into Grady?s character. Rawlins is against letting Blevins come along with them, but because of John?s kind nature he ends up allowing Blevins to come. It?s because of this kindness and sense of morality, he gets into trouble later on.
Shane' focuses on the Starret family, the father in the film, is defiant throughout, insisting the Rykers will not drive him out. The western themes evident in Shane' are obviously the typical western setting. There is the dusty border town inhabited by the Rykers. It is not your usual western town, compared to Tonto in Stagecoach'. The town in Shane' is in comparison desolate and not many buildings have been erected, whereas in Stagecoach' they have. The emptiness represents an eerie and unsafe location. Even though the town is so deserted it still has the main wooden buildings visual in most western films. There is the saloon, mostly occupied by Ryker and his men, The Grayston general store which is bordered off only by the saloon doors, the blacksmiths, where Tory is visiting (before he gets murdered by gun-slinging Wilson) and finally a hotel.
Billy and Wyatt of them go through a series of adventures, first stopping off at a motel where they're rejected, regardless of the glowing vacancy sign. This shows that their culture is not accepted in the rest of the world. They leave the motel and camp out in the wilderness. At a point, Wyatt's bike gets a flat, and they stop at a farm to fix it. It is at this point that the film makes a comparison of the bikers to cowboys. As Wyatt is fixing his tire a man in the background is shoeing his horse. This is making the point that Wyatt is the new version of the cowboy and his chopper is the new cowboy’s horse. During this scene there is an exchange between Wyatt and the farmer where Wyatt tells the farmer how much he admires his farm because he built it with his own hands. This is the first time that you get an idea of Wyatt’s values.
The movie is about two cowboys Jack and Ennis whose job it is to protect sheep on a mountain called Brokeback during the summer of 1963 in Wyoming. During the summer Jack and Ennis fall in love. But at the end of the summer they part ways and continue on seeing each other at various times in their lives. Jack goes on to marry a woman named Lureen Newsome and they have a son together. Ennis himself marries a woman named Alma and they have two daughters together. But Alma finds out about Jack and what see saw she can’t forget and she eventually leaves Ennis and remarries. Jack finally decides that he wants to leave his wife for Ennis ...
They ended up driving in the woods; through the dirt road and suddenly the grandmother remembers that the plantation exists in Tennessee. The grandmother moved her feet because of fear, the cat randomly came out of the basket and jumped to Bailey’s neck. Bailey lost control of driving and the car flipped, the family was alright but Bailey’s wife had a broke her shoulder. The grandmother decides not to tell anyone that the plantation was in Tennessee and not Georgia because Bailey was extremely angry. After a while of waiting, a car stops and three men come out of it. The grandmother starts scream out loud because she figures out that it’s The Misfit and his two helpers; Bobby Lee and
The main character is a boy who runs away from society, he escapes from his family, thus he does not show any feelings for them, and also he does not want to obey any rule. Huck is isolated, as well as the other characters who live along the Mississippi river, so he rejects society and he is more acquainted with the wilderness that surrounds him.
In the beginning of the story Jack and his sister are the two survivors of an Native American attack. Amidst all the chaos, a native american from the Cheyenne tribe adopts him(his sister runs away) and treats Jack as one of their own. A very important part in the plot was when Jack saved the his peer and was given the name Little Big man in a traditional ceremony. After this trouble
What is a cowboy? Who are they? Elmer Kelton’s novel The Day the Cowboys Quit and The Old Chisholm Trail depict cowboys as workers who round-up cattle and relocate them from one place to another as needed. Like everyday workers, cowboys have their own unique personalities. Ranging from hot temper to calm and understanding. For the most part, cowboys have their own issues just as any workplace would. When this occurs there needs to be a leader to take charge in order to fix or control a situation. The way that cowboys respond in times of trouble is when they demonstrate how qualified they are to be a leader. According to Elmer Kelton’s novel The Day the Cowboys Quit and the film The Old Chisholm Trail, there are cowboys that set themselves apart by showing strong leadership skills such as dependability, loyalty, respect, and open-mindedness.
A typical Western would usually be set in the late 19th century in the mid-west of America in a remote town. The town is usually small, lonely and unwelcoming. Typically a western set looks like it is in the middle of a desert with sand, cacti and tumbleweed which gives a desert look, there are usually never any lakes or rivers around these features make the place look really hot and deserted. The buildings are generally timber board houses with swinging doors and outside the buildings are places to keep their horses, there is also always a General Store and a Saloon. Horses and carriages and cattle are used to give a western feel. The cowboys are typically dressed in western style clothing for example they wear simple shirts and jeans they may also wear ponchos, waist coats, hats, boots with spurs, guns and a belt to hold the gun and bullets, Hero's tend to wear lighter clothing and the villain’s tend to wear darker clothing.
The film opens with an establishing shot of the Texas landscape of the wide open emptiness and the vast plains. A narration breaks the silence by informing you about the way things used to be. Tommy Lee Jones’ character, an experienced lawman, named Sheriff Ed Tom Bell. The sheriff pontificates on the easy, breezy times of lawfulness in the past, while
“All the Pretty Horses”, a novel written by Cormac McCarthy tells the tale about a man and his friend travelling the plains of Mexico after leaving their homes in Texas. As the novel’s name alludes to, horses are a central theme in the story as they represent manhood and freedom when John Grady, the protagonist, and his friend Rawlins get thrown in jail. McCarthy’s novel became critically-acclaimed which gained him more recognition, as well as a movie adaptation directed by Billy Bob Thornton. Even though Thornton’s adaption has the basics of the novel’s story it does not appropriately grasps its depth. While Thornton’s version stays faithful to the dialogue from the book’s included scenes it does fall short by having an erratic pace, having
One of the most interesting scenes in the movie is when Billy and Dime meet with the owner of the Cowboys, Oglesby, who cut their deal for the movie adaptation of the story for 5,500 from the originally agreed upon 100,000. This was a huge setback but it truly did portray how America’s institutions of power function, in a way, against these war heroes. In this scene, Oglesby really does come off as a villain in this movie, among others too. The interesting thing about this is also that this is a movie (isn’t based on a true story but on a deeply