Poll: Are Westerns Still Relevant?

[Therumancer]

snip

It's not like the only story a movie van convey is about politics. There are a lot of things that are universal, one that I think works particulary well with Westerns and is relevant to modern-day society is the difference between generations, how the old guard has to cope with the rising of a new kind of world. This message is as applicable now, with the rising of the globalised digital age, as it is in a Western setting, with the slow vanishing of the old frontier and civilisation creeping up everywhere.

So yeah, I think Westerns can still be relevant if you choose the right story for it.

You have to understand that everything is political, the message you suggest is in of itself political. After all it advocates a morality of the older generation adapting, rather than doing what is nessicary to make sure their kids do things right and maintain a social dynasty (which can be seen as a moral in the fiction of some other cultures).

It's like this, today if someone wanted to do a Western about Indian Fighting for example it would have to be done through the lens of current political correctness and include an "oh, the poor Native Americans" vibe as part of it. You couldn't just have a bunch of Native Americans as straightforward bad guys, being taken down by a bunch of heroic gunslingers, yet that is pretty much how the period was viewed, the guys doing the fighting didn't see things the way we do from a modern perspective.

Even the strong women from a lot of westerns are hardly in keeping with the stereotype modern politics demand as well.

See, today if you were to produce a western, it's by definition not going to be much of a western because pretty much everything from the period is going to have to be sanitized for a modern stomach. As far as storytelling goes, it's hardly going to be the framing device it once was, given far better generes for telling tales to a modern audience. This is why I think it's fallen out of favor.

 

[Space Spoons]

I wouldn't say they're no longer relevant. A well-written story can always be relevant, regardless of the genre. I do think the genre's somewhat played out at this point (I still believe "Unforgiven" was the best epilogue the Western genre could hope to get), but that doesn't mean it can't be relevant anymore.

 

[Woodsey]

Depends on what you mean by western.

The Assassination of Jesse James could be described as a western, but it's an historical character study set in the old west (and a fucking brilliant one), not a spaghetti western.

 

[King British]

The western genre is a bit synonymous with the old spaghetti westerns, which are fun if you're in the right mindset but come across as a bit dated now though. For me the idea of a "western" is more of an atmospheric notion. No country for old men comes to mind since it has very much the same bleak, deserty atmosphere of a lawless country in which everyone's out for themselves and the "good" people are either victims or heartless cynics. I know that's a little general but it can be applied to many slightly more recent westerns such as Unforgiven and 3:10 to Yuma and that description does best describe the ideal setting for a western. Plus there's something very appealing about the visual and audio style of westerns, I dig it. With this kind of approach yeah I think westerns can still be relevant.

 

[Flamezdudes]

Fuck no.

Make him see the Dollar's Trilogy and The Assassination of Jesse James.

 

[moretimethansense]

snip

Sorry about this but your thread title and your poll question are at odds with one another, I almost clicked the wrong one.

OT: I don't think they are irrelevent, but even if they are why would that matter?
Most mythology inspired films aren't exactly relevent nowadays are they?
That doesn't stop them being good (or not so much), in short; Who cares?
If they can make a good western then I say they bloody well shouls!

Also it's likely already been said but westerns are no longer popular due to oversaturation, when they were popular you couldn't escape from them and folks just got sick of the sight of them, just like WW2 games, give it a while and people'll want to see them again.

 

[josemlopes]

The most famous western, I think, is probably Unforgiven.

The most famous is probably either Tombstone or A fist Full of Dollars (Along with A Few more Dollars and 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.'). The BEST is Unforgiven. God bless Clint Eastwood.

Watching this made me want to play RDR, it really makes me wonder how some people complain that RDR is boring and that the world of the game is empty when part of beeing a western is the loneliness and the slow paced dialogues

 

[vrbtny]

P.S. Cowboys and Aliens looks like the shit!

Totally!!! I'm so up for that movie. At first, upon seeing the title, I thought it was a cruddy comedy. But, now?

It looks awesome!!

 

[harknesssimm]

snip

Sorry about this but your thread title and your poll question are at odds with one another, I almost clicked the wrong one.

yeah sorry about that i just noticed

 

[DefunctTheory]

The most famous western, I think, is probably Unforgiven.

The most famous is probably either Tombstone or A fist Full of Dollars (Along with A Few more Dollars and 'The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.'). The BEST is Unforgiven. God bless Clint Eastwood.

Watching this made me want to play RDR, it really makes me wonder how some people complain that RDR is boring and that the world of the game is empty when part of beeing a western is the loneliness and the slow paced dialogues

RDR is perhaps... no, IS, the best Western game of all time. And that 'boring' part is exactly why. The big, wide world made it really feel like you were on the frontier of boonieville.

Though, I can understand how some might find it boring. A lot of people expected it to be GTA with horses.

 

[TheGreatCoolEnergy]

A good western is damn hard to beat. A bad western is impossible not to

 

[theonlyblaze2]

A part of their attraction, at least for me, comes from the fact that they're old, kinda like proper bonds... But more importantly I just can't see someone making a new good western mo-

And yes, they are still relevant; No Country for Old Men comes to mind.

That's a western? Oh, everyone just ignore what I said above.

Westerns are some of the better films to come out of Hollywood. They have character development, realistic action, and an actual good story, which is like the Golden Fleece in movies today.

Um, like the Mexican standoff? Now maybe you refer to something else, but the that's the first thing that comes to my mind when mentioning action in westerns, along with just rapidly shooting a revolver from that era and the ending of The Wild Bunch.

By realistic action, I mean that the guns leave believable wounds(no pistol blowing off heads), shots are missed, and the guys RELOAD!

 

[jumjalalabash]

Your friend is stupid and you are stupid for listening to that crap.

 

[Cowabungaa]

You have to understand that everything is political

Why?

Sure you can use the most literal definition of politics, anything related to inter-human relationships but in your average conversation it doesn't have that meaning, and I didn't mean it like that either. I, of course, meant it in a leadership kind of way, if that makes any sense.

The story angle I proposed doesn't have to be like you're describing it either, I never said it had to end with the older generation adapting, they can also fail or just learn to live with it and create their own little corner. You can take it in several directions that relate to people on a more personal level, that reflects their own struggles with a changing society. It doesn't have to end with a big message about morality.

You're of course right about the Indian angle, that's an example of an outdated story angle.

 

[Wolfenbarg]

Well traditional westerns seem to share the common theme of men and women learning to moralize while sitting on a lawless frontier. While not all use that as a central theme to set the tone of the movie, many on some level still do. With the world getting smaller and smaller, it's hard to say how that will be relevant to a mainstream audience again until we reach a point where it seems like we are once again staring into the unknown.

Not to mention that there was a severe oversaturation of them for a while. When you see a western in theaters now it's a lot more fresh, but I'm not entirely certain that we've gotten over that just yet.

 

[badgersprite]

No, your friend is wrong. I don't often call people idiots, but he's an idiot. He hates a genre for no real reason (which in itself is fine) so he invents silly ones to justify it that make no sense (which is where the idiocy comes in).

What does it even mean to be "relevant"? Does he think people aren't interested in Westerns because they can't relate? When my Dad was growing up in the fifties in Australia, and Westerns were as popular as they had ever been, I doubt there were many horses galloping freely around the streets of the inner city where he lived. The only real reason that Westerns aren't popular now is that nobody has been making them until the last couple of years. I reckon things like Deadwood, RDR and True Grit have set the stage for a revival of the Western. And that's a good thing!

Now, if only they could revive the badly dubbed Kung Fu B Movies of the '70s...

 

[harknesssimm]

Your friend is stupid and you are stupid for listening to that crap.

if you read the original post you'll see i argued against him, go troll somewhere else

 

[TKretts3]

'Course.
I got True Grits, boy.

 

[TKretts3]

Although, I think your friend was referring to the old westerns.
To be fair, those were the days where all movies had horrible special effects.