Western Comparison

Introduction

In this assignment I will be comparing two different films that reside within the western film genre. The two films I have chosen to compare are Young Guns (1988) staring Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez and 3:10 To Yuma (2007) starring Russell Crow and Christian Bale. These two films are twenty years apart and both show very interesting differences in which I will be comparing and discussing gender, audiences and authorship.  

Western Genre

There are many ways to classify a film into a number of genres, for example; actions films are “fairly to the point story of good guys versus bad guys, where most disagreements are resolved by using physical force. Action movies are usually more "high concept" films where the whole movie can be easily summarized in a simple sentence” (wordiq.com) such as Blade Runner, Lethal Weapon, Gladiator. Furthermore you only have to read the title and you basically know what the movie is going to be about.  

“Westerns, by definition, are set in the American West, almost always in the 19th century, commonly between the antebellum period and the turn of the century. Many include the Civil War into the plot, or into the background, although the west was not touched by the war to the same degree as the east was. Nevertheless, their setting may extend further back to the time of the American colonial period or forward to the mid-twentieth century”. (spiritus-temporis.com) The elementary plots of Westerns are simple. Life is reduced to its elements: there are no laptops, no mobile phone, no cars, and no electricity. No twenty-first century technology, no "modern life." Technology is usually limited to those establish in rural areas in the mid-19th century. You have; the clothes on your back, your horse and your gun and that's usually it. The horse may even be optional. The high technology of the era – such as the telegraph, printing press, and railroad – do sometimes come into sight, sporadically as a improvement just arriving, and symbolizing that the idealized frontier lifestyle is ephemeral, soon to give way to the march of society. (wordiq.com)

Both films I have chosen to discuss in this essay are Westerns. Both have the generic concepts found in western films and portray the subjugation of the rough country and the subordination of nature, in the name of civilization or the elimination of the territorial rights of the once original inhabitants of the frontier. The Western depicts a society structured around codes of honour, rather than the law, in which persons have no social order larger than their immediate peers, family, or perhaps themselves alone. Here, one must promote a reputation by acts of violence; or they can be generous, because generosity creates a dependency relationship in the social hierarchy. These themes unite the Western, the gangster movie, and the revenge movie in a single vision. In the Western, these themes are vanguard, to the extent that the arrival of law and "civilization" is often portrayed as deplorable, if predestined. (experiencefestival.com)