And after all, who doesn’t want to be a cowboy or girl? The idea that a scattered handful of humans managed to tame the wild, open country of the West and build prosperous lives there is the original American dream, and it makes the western a subject of perennial fascination.īut stories of man versus nature, black hats versus white hats (or Stetsons, to be precise) and chaos versus civilisation are still inspiring far beyond the borders of the USA. The western is the original and most powerful American mythology it’s their King Arthur and Greek gods and Norse legend all rolled in together. Of course, there’s one basic reason for the genre’s survival. Similarly, we’ve had great westerns with black leads ( Django Unchained) and even a teenage girl as ornery as any gunslinger ( True Grit, with Hailee Steinfeld – pictured above). The Old West was full of intrepid people of colour (one of the era’s most successful bounty hunters, Bass Reeves, was black), and women as well as men. The western is famous for its white, male, macho heroes – Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood – but like other genres it’s become more diverse in recent times, which is a truer reflection of reality.
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