What Makes a Western? - Part One: History and Geography

While I've started doing these Western Weekends after my regular writing has hit a slump again, I've been thinking about the Western genre and how it's defined.

Let's look at the geographical side first. I think "West" at that time was defined as anything west of the Mississippi River, and most classic western films take place in the Southwest - often Texas or the Arizona and New Mexico Territories (which didn't achieve statehood until 1912). Later revisionist Westerns might take place on the High Plains further north, often Wyoming or Montana.

Hell, sometimes they don't even have to be in the USA. Films like The Wild Bunch, The Professionals, and a lot of Spaghetti Westerns take place in Mexico, while Northwest Mounted Police takes place in Canada. There's even a sub-genre of westerns that take place in the Australian Outback - like Quigley Down Under and The Proposition.

Going further afield, you could argue that Star Wars borrows elements from western films. The Mos Eisley Cantina is essentially a western saloon with more aliens. Firefly is practically a western set in space, showing the Manifest Destiny that encouraged frontier settlement.

Anyway, geography aside, let's look at history. In early Hollywood westerns, the time span is shorter than you think. The earliest year is generally 1865, when the Civil War ended, while the period "officially" ended in 1890, when the US Census Bureau declared the frontier closed. This was also the year of Wounded Knee.

Having studied this period for my GCSEs, I know that it lasted longer than that. The biggest push West would be the California Gold Rush in 1848, but there was also the Mormons travelling to Utah before that, along with the mountain men earlier than that. You could even say that the earliest western story could be the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

As for finishing in 1890, it could be argued that the latest end date for period was as late as 1920. The Mexican Revolution (which is depicted as attracting numerous American adventurers, mercenaries, and outlaws) had come to a close, while the classic western image of the saloon had been put down with the passage of Prohibition on a national scale.

Looking at that, I suppose the popular image of the Western genre is that of deserts or plains with expansive space - which is why films set in the Outback could be called westerns. If that's the case, you could say that No Country for Old Men and Breaking Bad could be considered westerns to some extent.

The American Film Institute defines Westerns as being "set in the American West, that embodies the spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier".

I'll talk about in more detail another time. It might need a bit more space.