Revisionist Western
A post-classical variation on the western which questions the mythical vision of the Old West. The revisionist western was created in Hollywood by using tactics such as subversion, self-reflexivity, self-consciousness, mockery, and cynicism. As opposed to the honorable violence, heroic cowboys, evil Indians and romantic illusions of the frontier that populate most classical westerns through the mid-'50s, revisionist westerns try to either paint more realistic images of what the Old West was truly like or exist solely to critique and undermine widely-loved conventions of the classical form. Director John Ford, the artist largely responsible for many of these rooted formulas, arguably started this new movement in 1956, with The Searchers. The film starred John Wayne as a ruthless, racist, sexist loner holding tight to an ideology that was rapidly changing in the Old West. This trend of presenting the cowboy hero as unglamorous, crude, and jingoistic is one of the central elements of the revisionist western. Also included are authentic portrayals of unclean lifestyles, bloody commentaries on the nature of violence, and such motifs and themes presented from the point of view of more marginalized characters, including Native Americans and women. Among the most important practitioners of this style are Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Robert Altman (McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Buffalo Bill and the Indians), Clint Eastwood (The Outlaw Josey Wales, Unforgiven), Walter Hill (Wild Bill, Geronimo: An American Legend) and, to a certain degree, Italian director Sergio Leone (Once Upon a Time in the West).
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