Vast deserts; lands dry and barren as far as the eye can see; mountains or cliffs towering over the landscape. A secluded house or two in the vicinity, the sound of horses trotting or galloping, gunshots and death; a string of cowboys braving life over death; a handsome town with all the paraphernalia for doom: a saloon, a Sheriff’s office, a prison, a grocery, a bar and a brothel. I was trying to identify some generic features of the Western, similar to such landmark films as Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, The Searchers, High Noon, Django, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Mackenna’s Gold, For a Few Dollars More, Unforgiven, A Fistful of Dollars, Rio Bravo, El Dorado, Silverado, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Rio Grande, Hang ’Em High and The Magnificent Seven.
The Western as a genre reached a point of excellence in the films of John Ford, of whom Orson Welles said he was the only director who taught him anything. The grammar of the Western film was delineated in films like Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. The protagonist may have many skeletons in his cupboard, but he will rise up and take charge when it matters. He values humanity more than material wealth and retains basic qualities like decency, courtesy to the fair sex and a core of compassion. In the films of John Ford, these qualities are amply demonstrated by the heroes. Unlike the bang-bang crossfire of action-packed Westerns, the films of John Ford portray the protagonist in the middle of a crisis, a dilemma, but also a character-defining moment, as in The Searchers.
Another characteristic feature of the Western is the courageous, righteous individual against a pack of intruders and lawbreakers. The moral strength and belief in the purpose of standing up for truth and values, although cold-shouldered by the entire town but aided by a marginal member of the town, is the theme of a classic Western, High Noon. Gary Cooper plays the Sheriff on the hunt. The avenging hero is another classic Western theme. Having lost his family or parents in an attack by gun-frenzied outlaws, the hero or heroine takes revenge by hunting down each of the perpetrators.
In The Magnificent Seven, based on Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai, an unruly and motley mix of gangsters team up to protect the town from a band of brigands, a theme present in the blockbuster film Sholay. In the Westerns, especially in the films of John Ford, the landscape is an overwhelming presence. The cliffs and peaks, the rugged plains, the scorching sun, the wild thorns and bushes and the lone cottage on the horizon create an aura about time that stood still, wrapped in a capsule of history and myth, when the frontier bustled with bounty hunters, gold diggers and cowboys. The Western paraded a few of my favourite heroes: John Wayne, James Stewart, Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda and Clint Eastwood.