Cinema western

The ‘Western’ is the American cinema genre par excellence. It is the only big-screen genre that embodies a combination of popular entertainment and epic storytelling based upon historical facts (albeit distorted or mythologised); the long journey to the West, the relationship with the natives, and the cultural and political conflict between the North and South ultimately leading to the War of Secession. Themes such as the arrival of ‘civilization’ in the wilderness, the creation of settler communities, as well as the courage of individuals, and their virile friendships, are explored often in the genre, with an additional emphasis on inter-ethnic marriages and the dream of the ‘melting pot.’ Prominent is also the subject of discovery and appreciation of the landscape, ranging from the great prairies to the deserts of the South-West to the Rocky Mountains. Furthermore, the ‘Western’ is also more broadly associated with the struggles of adventure and war, as well as the discovery of man’s complex relationship with love and death in their purest and earnest forms.Through an in-depth analysis of household names such as Griffith and Ince, Ford, Hawks and Leone, while also including the critically acclaimed works of Tarantino, Alberto Crespi reconstructs the history of this mystifying self-portrait built by the ‘New World;’ one that still fascinates audiences and critics to this day.