Westerns that aren’t Westerns

[rbnyc]

Moondog’s thread got me thinking, what makes a Western a Western? Obviously, the key factors are setting and era, but if you remove those factors, there are still some essential elements that would incline me to characterize some films as Westerns that are not set in the Wild West.

Besides being set in the American West during a certain period, what else defines the genre? A frontier (relatively lawless) , a hero (pioneering)…what else?

Here are a couple flicks that I would say are Westerns, despite their non-Western settings.

The Road



Serenity



Please add your thoughts and suggestions. I’d love to see what you think.

EDIT: typo

[Moondog]

1. The Seven Samurai

(which, supposedly, was the basis for the Magnificent Seven and for Fistful of Dollars).

[cemaphonic]

7. Fistful of Dollars was a remake of Yojimbo, not Seven Samurai

And Yojimbo definitely fits, right down to the tumbleweeds blowing through town and the showdown at high noon.

Kurosawa loved Hollywood Westerns.

[Moondog]

12. (*smacks own forehead*) You're right, it was Yojimbo.

Had a brain fart. Must have been the Supermoon . . . .

[Arugula Latte]

2. This one ... Ever heard of it?

[rbnyc]

8. Oh yeah...

;-)

[cemaphonic]

25. I think Star Wars is too much a hodgepodge of different stuff to really be a Western

There are lots of Western elements to it obviously, but most of them are already filtered through Kurosawa's samurai movies. Then there's a lot of Flash Gordon/Lensman pulp sci-fi, and the last act of the film is a WWII fighter movie, right down to most of the dialog.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. westerns that are not westerns

are another genre altogether :shrug:

[some guy]

4. way to thread kill.

I swear, you're more annoying than the gungeon. :)

:hi:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. practice and and talent

;)

:hi:

[RedCloud]

20. Some spaghetti, an Italian director and a setting in Spain!

[rbnyc]

9. I guess, but...

While pretty much every movie has a hero and villain, there's a certain Western quality that distinguishes some. The Road is really the best example I can think of. It's a post-apocalyptic drama, but it's more a Western than anything at heart.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

10. does it have horses? it ain't a western if it don't have horses

:D

:yoiks:

[rbnyc]

11. LOL

:toast:

[alphafemale]

6. I think "The Road" was filmed in the hills outside of Pittsburg mostly.

Being from the area I can attest that it does get that the landscape does get that dank and gray for about 3 months of the year.

[Orrex]

30. I don't believe you

If you were truly "from the area," you certainly wouldn't misspell it as "Pittsburg." You might spell it "Picksburgh," but that's a canonical bit of Yinzer dialect!

[Doc_Technical]

13. Outland

Sort of a "High Noon" on Io.

A lawman who choses to fight for his beliefs rather
than submit to the powerful heartless company that
runs things.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082869/

[MiddleFingerMom]

16. Came in to say that. It was almost more "High Noon" than "High Noon" was. Good film. n/t

[rbnyc]

17. Yeah, that's the stuff.

I loved that movie when it first came out. I was 12 or 13. I don't think I've seen it since then.

[petronius]

29. I've come so close to watching that one on Netflix a half-dozen times, but passed

for some reason. What do you say - recommended?

[begin_within]

14. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance takes place almost entirely indoors.

[fishwax]

15. No Country for Old Men

[rbnyc]

18. Great movie.

Same writer as The Road.

[TZ]

19. The Man From Snowy River

Set in the Australian Outback in roughly the same time period as the American Old West, with many cultural similarities. Its cowboys with Aussie accents essentially..:)

[OwnedByFerrets]

21. I agree 100% with Serenity....

and I know its a stretch, but what about Samauri Champloo?

[rbnyc]

23. I never saw that.

I'll have to add it to my list.

[lunatica]

22. The Book of Eli with Denzel Washington and

Gary Oldman, and Mila Kunis.

[rbnyc]

24. Yes.

I resisted including that, but it truly fits.

[Duer 157099]

26. Here's one

[SteppingRazor]

27. Every movie the Coen brothers have ever made. Except True Grit...

which was, of course, an actual Western.

[blogslut]

28. Kill Bill

Especially II

[sakabatou]

31. Cowboy Bebop?

[OwnedByFerrets]

32. That was one I thought of too....great series.

[KamaAina]

33. The book "The Road" seemed to me to be set in Texas

because a) it's Cormac McCarthy, who is to Texas writing what Willie Nelson is to Texas music, and b) they were heading south to the sea (presumably the Gulf).