Ride, Boldly, Ride: The Evolution of the American Western

The American Western has evolved from its beginnings as a stereotypical conflict between cowboys and Indians, rustlers and ranchers, to become a respected and much-analyzed cinema genre. Bandy (former director and chief curator, film and video, Museum of Modern Art) and Stoehr (humanities, Boston Univ.; Nihilism in Film and Television: A Critical Overview from Citizen Kane to the Sopranos) are among the latest to reexamine a group of classic Westerns beginning with the silent era. Much discussion is afforded to the Victor Sjostrom's 1928 classic The Wind, which could be called the progenitor of the so-called psychological Western. They later devote an entire chapter to this subgenre in the years following World War II. Other lengthy discussions cover the comic Western and women on the frontier. It is with these often less-discussed aspects that the book's primary interests lie. Otherwise, Bandy and Stoehr cover already much-plowed ground with analysis of such icons as John Ford, Clint Eastwood, and John Wayne. Only one-half of one page is devoted to body of thousands of so-called "B" Westerns.