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WesternsAspects of a Movie GenrePhilip French
Categories: Film
Imprint: Carcanet Film Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: eBook (EPUB) Needs ADE! (Pub. Aug 2011) 9781847778192 £14.95 £13.45 Paperback (240 pages) (Pub. Apr 2005) 9781857547474 Out of Stock To use the EPUB version, you will need to have Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your device. You can find out more at https://www.adobe.com/uk/solutions/ebook/digital-editions.html. Please do not purchase this version if you do not have and are not prepared to install, Adobe Digital Editions.
Westerns is the classic account of the emergence, growth and flowering of one of the most perennially popular film genres. When it was first published thirty years ago it was welcomed by reviewers in Europe and the United States as a major work. In this new edition, fully revised and updated, with a new introduction, both movie buffs and general readers have the opportunity to engage again with one of the sharpest film critics of our time.
The book focuses on the political, historical and cultural forces that shaped the western, dealing especially with the thirty years after World War II. It considers the treatment of Indians and Blacks, women and children, the role of violence, landscape and pokerplaying, and it advances the theory that most westerns of those years fit into four principal categories that reflect the styles and ideologies of four leading politicians of the era: John F. Kennedy, Barry Goldwater, Lyndon Johnson and William Buckley. Since the book was first revised in 1977, there has been, as the author predicted there would be, a steady decline in the number of westerns made for TV and the cinema, but the genre remains highly influential and reflects the social and psychological currents in American life. In the 1990s Academy Awards for best movie went to Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves and Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, the first time that westerns were so honoured since Cimarron won an Oscar in 1930. French takes in these and other films, such as Heaven's Gate, the costly failure that brought down the studio that produced it, and brings the story of the western into the twenty-first century as the genre that was renewed in Cold Mountain, Open Range, Hidalgo and The Alamo.
Table of Contents
Preface ix part one: Westerns (1973; 1977) Introduction (1973) 3 1 Politics, etc. and the Western 5 2 Heroes and Villains, Women and Children 30 3 Indians and Blacks 47 4 Landscape, Violence, Poker 62 5 The Post-Western 82 Bibliography 102 Afterword (1977) 105 The Italian Western 106 Television 108 Cops and Vigilantes 111 Baseball 112 Children 113 New Faces of 1885 114 Comedies 116 Westworld 119 The Missouri Breaks 119 More Books 126 part two : Westerns Revisited (2004) Introduction 131 1 Waiting for the End 134 2 Television 142 3 Comedies 147 4 The Italian Western 152 5 Westward the Women 155 6 Legends Re-examined 160 The Alamo 160 Wild Bill Hickok 164 The James-Younger Gang 169 Billy the Kid 173 Tombstone and the Earps 176 7 The Modern West 181 8 Transpositions and Displacements 190 9 Native Americans 195 10 Eastwood Ho! 206 11 Two New Western Stars 211 12 Some Left-field Entries 219 Latest Books 223 Filmography 226 Index of Films 233 Index of Names 240
Praise for Philip French
A 'welcome and overdue collection'
Sergio Angelini, Journal of British Cinema and Television Lee Pfeiffer, Cinema Retro 'In a critical landscape now dominated by amateurism and the taking of theatrically extreme positions, what a pleasure and an education it is to read the work of a judicious professional.' Jonathan Barnes, Times Literary Supplement 'This collection is a joy from the opening page to the final credits: to open it at any given page is to soak up Phillip's range of interests, terms of reference, knowledge, understanding and humour.' Dan Carrier, The Camden New Journal 'The publication of this book brings home to the reader the qualities that made Philip French stand out from other film reviewers. His ability with words was special and is evidenced throughout Notes from the Dream House... No review here is unworthy of attention' Mansel Stimpson, Film Review Daily 'The book is a compact reminder of French's immense knowledge of film and the cinematic world... Notes from the Dream House is solid proof of the fact that French left nothing unseen.' Laila Obeidat, The London Magazine Philip French's I Found It at the Movies is an apparently random but charming collection from the Observer critic's nearly 50 years of writing on film. These pieces are elegant and learned, and they hark back to the era when French's predecessor CA Lejeune could usefully dismiss the mawkish home-front drama Millions Like Us with three words: 'And millions don't.' Nick Curtis, Evening Standard, Film Books of the Year 2011 |
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