Department of Film and Television Studies

Third Year Option Module : Spring Term, 2014 : Hollywood Westerns

Module Outline

Module leader : Ed Gallafent

This module is an introduction to one of the richest and most famous of Hollywood genres, the western. Once described by André Bazin as 'the American film par excellence', the western is at the centre of our understanding of Hollywood and the American cultural myths it interrogates and promotes. The aim is to build on students' existing experience of Hollywood film, and to explore the range of achievement within the genre over a period extending from the 'A' western in 1939 to contemporary, and contemporary set, westerns. The module will familiarise students with the elements that constitute the genre, and address the topic of generic hybridity. We will study the contributions of some of the major actors and directors who have worked in westerns. Among the issues discussed will be representation, gender, landscape and violence, all central to the genre. Their various inflections will be explored through the films screened.

Syllabus and Reading :

Week ONE : The American film par excellence:

Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)

Stagecoach Edward Buscombe BFI Film Classics

John Ford’s Stagecoach Ed. Barry Keith Grant (Cambridge Film Handbooks)

Week TWO : The Noir Western :

Pursued (Raoul Walsh 1947)

‘Notes on Pursued’ by Andrew Britton. In The movie Book of the Western ed Ian Cameron or Britton on Film ed Barry Keith Grant .

Week THREE: Femininity:

Westward the Women (William Wellman, 1951)

‘Westward the Women: Feminising the Wilderness’ by Peter William Evans in The Movie Book of the Western Ed. Ian Cameron

Week FOUR : Violence :

The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)

‘Politics and Self-Knowledge in The Searchers’ by Robert Pippin, in his Hollywood Westerns and American Myth

Week FIVE : Defending America: Part One :

Rio Bravo (Howard Hawks, 1959)

Section on Rio Bravo in Howard Hawks by Robin Wood

Week SEVEN : Defending America : Part Two:

Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges , 1955)

Millard Kaufman: ‘A Vehicle for Tracy: The Road to Black Rock’ in The Hopkins Review Vol 1 No 1 (Winter 2008) . Accessible from Project Muse through the Library website.

Week EIGHT: Nostalgia?:

The Misfits (John Huston, 1961)

‘Not with a Bang: the End of the West in Lonely are the Brave, The Misfits, and Hud’ , By EG in The Movie book of the Western

Week NINE : Legends:

Lone Star (John Sayles, 1996)

Section on Lone Star in Mark Bould , The Cinema of John Sayles (Wallflower, 2009)

Week TEN : Modern times and Loss :

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones, 2005)

Douglas Pye ‘At the Border: The Limits of Knowledge in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and No Country for Old Men ‘ In Issue 1 of Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism . This online journal is hosted by Warwick and can be accessed through the department’s website.

This is a 15 CATS, one term, module.

Assessment:

EITHER one 5,000 word essay on a topic agreed with the module leader, OR a two hour exam paper, in which you will be required to choose ONE question to answer. The exam paper will be a seen exam, that is one emailed to you about 3 weeks before it is sat under usual exam conditions. The essay deadline is the first day of the Summer Term, Wednesday 23rd April 2014

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this module you should be :

Familiar with a range of Hollywood sound Westerns

Familiar with the preoccupations and themes common in the genre

Aware of issues of generic hybridity and how they appear in the genre

Aware of the different ways in which the genre uses history

Able to discuss the differences between Westerns set in the 19th and in the 20th century West

Able to discuss the importance to the Western of specific stars and directors