Western Film Genre

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the evolution and success of the western genre of filmmaking. It discusses Andre Bazin's "The Western: Or the American Film Par Excellence" in which he analyzes this genre. It describes Bazin's arguments, as well as his comparison of the western to the courtly romances of the medieval era in their focus on the chaste woman and his comparison of them to the Russian revolutionary genre.

From the Paper:

"To Bazin, the only other modern epic cinema was the Russian revolutionary genre, which had some parallels to the western: both showed a new society undergoing its tumultuous birth pangs, imposing a new order and morality upon a vast canvas of human activity during a fleeting historical moment. Bazin concludes that, like the mythologized history of the Russian revolution, the story of the American west would have been relegated to much lesser international prominence were it not for the power of the moving image to universalize human experience."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bazin, Andre. "The Western: Or the American Film Par Excellence." In Genre, Fall 2006 - Spring 2007, pp 74-79. Northridge CA: CSUN 2006.

More papers on Western Film Genre:

• Term Paper # 93588 : "Mythical Opposition in Western Film"
• Comparison Essay # 90389 : "Noir Westerns"
• Film Review # 147868 : "Film: "Dances with Wolves"

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