I get the feeling the western genre will not see a resurgence until we see an era that has so much similarity to it. Also keep in mind the western did so well originally because the wild west had not entirely died out just yet. People into the 1920s were still living like bandits, going from town to town like a bunch of ruffians. That kind of behavior really seemed to die out with Peckinpah and his usual film crew.
The one case that helped revitalize the western in my eyes was the anime Cowboy Bebop. Before anyone jumps on me and says, "but it's science fiction" or "it's Japanese, WTH are you talking about?!" lemme explain that in essence, the series treated Mars and the newly colonized planets (I believe a couple of episodes take place on Jupiter, if I remember right) as the new frontier. (and yes, Joss Whedon's Firefly did the same thing to an even more aesthetic point) The point of what made the western interesting (I'm not trying to argue an opinion, but I find this is the case in terms of why it works with people) is that it wasn't just the cowboys & bandits/Indians/whatever factor, it wasn't the look of the guns, it wasn't the way the towns were built, so on. It was because this new frontier, this new land, this enviornment was fascinating. It's about living in this place and blazing trails. In a lot of ways, it's also about how you have to build up a civilization from what you have. They used the land of lawlessness, lack of Government enforcement to the way-out fringes, and even just the new concept of "freedom," to do stories based on the bare, raw, emotionally riveting essentials. Survival of the fittest, battling against a new enemy, something humanity finds so fascinating because of our ability to adapt to new places and situations. We had stories of intricate greed and plots from both our heroes and our villians to "get the gold" or get some good ol' fashioned revenge.
Now as much as modern film, especially the first stages of the modern action film, have been influenced by what came before in all of these westerns (good or bad) - there is the factor that what then makes the western unique is how it uses its frontier/wild west/outlaw backdrop.
This is partly why the spaghetti westerns were great, they started to overtly dramatize this concept in ways that had not been done before. Many of them were experimental to almost a fault (I'd say this of Parolini's work, for sure), trying new things whether or not they'd fail, and branched out into new territory. They also began to make the unrealistic/false backdrop of Almeria not into just some "typical falsity of filmmaking" but used it as a way of making the western even more of a mythical, iconic thing. The desert became harsher than even sometimes was necessary and it seemed almost impossible to survive in that place. So then you have this atmosphere that just envelops you and feels like a new world altogether, seperate from the real old west, the real deserts here in America.
And now coming up to today, I think it's easy to see why Westerns don't do well with the younger generation. Today there's two, maybe three, types of westerns.
There's the first type, the most commonly known type, which is the REALISTIC western. The Unforgiven. Open Range. Broken Trail. Into The West. This is the grim, sometimes gritty, often realistic and historically accurate to the point of being a little dull. They're fantastic pieces of work, though, and I say that Open Range is probably going to be the best western of this decade (unless There Will Be Blood knocks it way out of the park), but the catch is these films are not accessible to a younger audience. They're basically old men westerns, stuff like Ride The High Country, where it's great if you can get into that, but it's primarily targeted at a different audience. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying young people can't like these movies either. I saw Open Range when I was 16, I saw The Long Riders (one of the original prototypes of this) when I was 13, and so on. And I loved them at first sight. So they can be accessed, but we're talking more of the general populace, right?
Notice I said these are "old men" westerns. I'm not meaning to say that young people can't dig characters older than themselves, but when you see the latest case of a western recently, Broken Trail, what is it? I'm gonna be honest and say that it
is Grandpa Duvall and Older Uncle Thomas Haden Church. The younger generation now I think needs someone it can relate to. I know it's this way for me and it's one reason myself and my friends go nuts for Firefly, they're very Westerny characters but it's got Joss' relatabiility for us, where their problems and their foibles, as well as their strengths, feel like us.
But the catch is, in the movie world, the "younger" westerns, aside from Serenity (the Firefly movie for those that weren't keeping track - just covering the bases), usually leads to one thing.
American Outlaws.
Let that feeling of absolute and utter
horror sink into you for a second there.
Is it there?
Yeah, good.
Now, I dig the flick okay. It's not a great flick, but you know, I like parts of it. But the catch is that it was a western with P.O.D. music in the trailer, so yes, this was targeted at a younger audience. It has "younger" characters and actors. And it's also a horrible film.
This isn't to say that no "younger-generation" westerns could be good. I think the new 3:10 To Yuma is indeed going to fit this bill, being a great bridging gap of age given the two great lead actors, but it's been a long-in-the-making
remake. It's not an original film.
When it comes to youth-centric fare, whatever the genre, Hollywood isj ust a bunch of idiots. It's one reason that when you're a pre-teen or a younger teenager, the R-rated stuff seems so awesome. It doesn't talk down to you and it makes you think more. It's not just because it's what the "cool grown-ups" are watching, it just is more cool. Period. =P
So that's one thing that needs to change. We need something that's okay for the kids (since I definitely wouldn't suggest an R-rated western to a 10 year old), but something that isn't....ya know..."gee, I guess this is what the kids like these days, LET'S PUT IT IN THE MOVIE!"
I had material to keep going with this but I got really sidetracked.
There's one more type of western, though, which is the "non-western." As much as we think the western is dead, there's tons of films with elements in them of this type of movie. We talked about "is The Proposition a western?" given its locale is in Australia - well, for sure, it has many of the key elements of one. Then there was Smokin' Aces, which not only used a piece from Ennio Morricone, but had two scenes in particular (the standoff in the elevator and our first glimpse of the Tremor Brothers up close and personal) that felt a lot more like scenes out of a Leone or Corbucci or Sollima film than out of something today. And even the plot itself, which involves FBI, mafia, and so forth - you could easily adapt the story of miscommunication and betrayal to the wild west, a place that would be even more fitting for "bad intelligence" to spread around. And there's tons of other movies I'm sure we could name with elements of the western.
This isn't trying to talk down and say, "take what's there," though. Because truth be told, if I could, I'd start work on a live-action remake of The Final Gunfight
tomorrow. I even have a new storyline and concept to work with. And I intend to bring those to life someday.
But right now, in the now, we're gonna have to wait for the resurgence and the changes that must occur for it to happen are plentiful. I suspect it'll be after we're all dead and buried that the world finally says, "ey, westerns rock."
But we do have three coming this fall. The Assassination of Jesse James (By The Coward Robert Ford), There Will Be Blood (which should be out before 2008), and 3:10 To Yuma. That's three. They're all very different films, too. I heard the Jesse James film ended up being a near-3 hour long Terence Malick-style film that had to be cut down which is why it was delayed for awhile. On top of that, There Will Be Blood looks to be a brutal, realistic take on oil tycoons done by one of the best filmmakers of our time (P.T. Anderson of Boogie Nights/ Magnolia fame). And 3:10 To Yuma looks like a stellar return to the action packed western of the 60s and 70s, and should be at least quite entertaining.
So who knows. Maybe that's what we need. The main thing we need for westerns to come back is a hit. A huge freaking hit that grips the entire world, young and old, and reminds us that the west happened and it was a wonderfully interesting time and helluva ride.
That's all I got to say.