For decades Westerns were Hollywood’s most popular genre, appealing to people worldwide. This extraordinary popularity fell off in the United States in the 1970s largely due to the effect of the Vietnam war on our notions of heroism and of good and evil. The 1990s, however, showed a renewed interest in Westerns—two won Academy Awards for best picture during that decade: Dances with Wolves (1990) and The Unforgiven (1992). The Cohens’ recent No Country for Old Men and 2016’s Oscar-nominated Hell and High Water draw heavily on the Western genre, as does this year’s Wind River (2017).

Some of Hollywood’s greatest films have been Westerns and every major Hollywood male star acted in them: Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, John Wayne, James Stewart, Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner. In this course, we will analyze many of the classics: Stagecoach, The Ox-Bow Incident, Red River, Shane, High Noon, One-Eyed Jacks, The Wild Bunch, Once Upon a Time in the West, Tombstone, to mention just a few.

Focusing on post-1968 Westerns, we will critique these films as dramas — their stories, characters, and structures. We will also consider what it is about Westerns that still speaks to us. We will also examine the Western’s concept of heroism and masculinity, how the genre has used women, and how women’s roles have changed over the decades.

Films will be shown on Tuesday nights at 7:00 p.m. There will be two papers.