ML15-V. A RIDE THROUGH THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN WESTERN MOVIES: COWBOYS, RANCHERS, SALOON GIRLS, AND PIONEER WOMEN

The American westerns represent the quintessential contribution of American film history. In this course we will follow the rise of this genre from the B-Film days of the silent era and the 1930s, the emergence in the 1940s with darker, serious films, the golden era of the 1950s and the revisionist shift in the late 1960s and beyond. We will examine the iconic characters of these remarkable films: the rugged men and the strong women. We will also look at the core issues of the mythical American West and pioneering spirit that infused this real and imagined world.