Book description
From the very beginnings of cinema in America the Western has been
a central genre. The hazardous lives of the settlers, their conflict
with Native Americans (the Indians), the lawless frontier towns,
outlaws and cattle rustlers, all found their way into the new medium
of film. Folk heroes and heroines, such as Jesse and Frank James, Wild
Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, Calamity Jane and Annie Oakley, were all
eagerly seized on by filmmakers. From the popular to the more
literary, writers such as Zane Grey, Owen Wister and James Fennimore
Cooper were plundered for storylines. The Western became popular
worldwide because it offered escape, adventure, stunning landscapes
and romance; also themes that resonated such as survival, law and
order, defence of family, and dreams of a new and better world. David
Carter's book starts with an introduction to the real American West
and its famous historical figures, and traces the development of the
genre from popular literature, through the early silent films, the
sound era, the Golden Age of classic Westerns, TV and 'spaghetti
westerns', to the self-reflexive and revisionist Westerns of recent
decades. It provides a basic work of reference for all the major
directors and noteworthy films of the genre. The great Hollywood
directors are all here, such as John Ford, Howard Hawks, Raoul Walsh,
Michael Curtiz, Sam Peckinpah and Henry Hathaway, and great stars
including John Wayne, James Stewart, Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck,
Jane Russell and Clint Eastwood.
Dr. David Carter has taught at several UK universities and presently
teaches at Yonsei University, Seoul. He has published on psychoanalysis,
literature, drama, film history and applied linguistics, and is also a
freelance writer and journalist. He has more than 30 years experience
with amateur drama, as actor, director and for many years as chairman of
a leading group in the South of England. He has written Pocket
Essentials on Georges Simenon, Literary Theory and Kamera Books on East
Asian Cinema and The Western.
