In the outstanding documentary series A personal journey with Martin Scorsese through American cinema, The American director claims that the evolution of the western genre could be understood from three films directed by the same director, John Ford, and starring the same actor, John Wayne. These films would be The stagecoach (1939), The invincible legion (1949) and Centaurs of the desert (1956). From the moral hero of the first, through the benevolent and paternal figure of the second, to the misfit of the last, the original values are left behind in the face of new conflicts and contradictions in a country, the United States, that even seems different.
Far from stagnating, this evolution has not ceased to renew itself to this day. Scorsese himself knows this well, whose latest film, the acclaimed The killers of the moon (2023) —based on the book of the same name written by David Grann—, was the first western in his filmography. It was another revision of the genre that, even today, remains relevant in bookstores with succulent essays that, written by Spanish experts and published in 2024, address the greatness of a cinematographic genre that allows us to penetrate into American culture and mind more than any other, but also into the human condition with all its epic and tragedy.
As Juan Manuel de la Poza writes in Rio Bravo. The quintessence of the western (Flint), is the “absolute” cinematic genre. Perhaps that is why his study of the film directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne also seeks to position itself as an absolute, or definitive, study. His magnificent essay, consisting of 33 chapters, in which all the characters and elements of the work are analyzed in detail, the filming, the homage to silent cinema or its later influence, appears when 65 years have passed since the premiere of Rio Bravo (1959). The film by the master Hawks, who always declared himself an admirer of John Ford, recognizing him as “the best director”, became a summit of the western just two years after Centaurs of the desert. A summit of the traditional western, in which a series of principles were respected and the aim was to maintain the essence of a vision that was always based on portraying friendship, integrity, loyalty and dignity. In Poza’s words, Rio Bravo It exudes “magic” and much of the blame lies with a sublime cast that accompanied John Wayne, that is, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, a plethoric Walter Brennan and Angie Dickinson. They all put themselves at the service of the old silver fox, as Howard Hawks was known in Hollywood, who threw himself into Rio Bravo upset by the vision offered in Alone in the face of danger (1952), directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Gary Cooper, where the first one is seen sheriff demystified from history. Hawks, a genius who always triumphed in all genres, whether drama, comedy, film noir or period, wanted a sheriff to take risks and refrain from asking for help.
Rio Bravo It meant reaching the top, and that meant establishing, after the national propaganda with which the genre was born to change the story of the conquest of the West, the supremacy of the psychological western. The essay Western USA. 1962-1992published by Donostia Kultura and Filmoteca Vasca in their Nosferatu collection and coordinated by Carlos Aguilar and Pablo Fernández, begins right where Howard Hawks left off with his profound look at human relationships. If the classic western has reached its peak, then the twilight quality explodes and, therefore, a new, much more iconoclastic and disruptive revisionism. Western USA. 1962-1992 It starts with a relevant and definitive film in this sense: Duel in the High Sierra (1962), directed by Sam Peckinpah, an expert in offering old people cowboys who have lost their place in the world. As noted in the essay, “in the first few minutes of Duel in the High Sierra seems to condense the spirit that will prevail in the next three decades: the heroes are tired, but let’s go on a new adventure.” Because, if the cowboy genre is no longer what it was, it can still be reborn in an exciting way from the perspective that is born from the upheaval where the foundations of the American way of life They are shaken and violence comes to the fore after the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War and racial attacks. Paranoia thus enters the western.
The book reviews three decades without forgetting anything: the dirty western —defined by Peckinpah himself in the magnificent Wild Bunch (1969)—, the musical renewal of the style —to highlight The legend of the nameless city (1969), by Joshua Logan and a fantastic protagonist Lee Marvin—, the post-westerns —stands out The Adventures of Jeremiah Johnson (1972), by Sydney Pollack, or the superb European trilogy by Sergio Leone with Clint Eastwood, to whom, rightly, a golden place is dedicated as a “cardinal filmmaker”, closing this conceptual review of 30 years with Unforgiven (1992) and granting him the status of a myth on par with John Wayne.
The look at the genre of the new Hollywood also has a prominent place. In this sense, another essay delves even deeper into the countercultural western, without happy endings or moralizing. It is about That was my steak, Valance! (Sílex), written by Andrés Rus and Javier Sanabria, a tour of 20 films where “the poetics of defeat prevails”. Inevitably, Peckinpah is cited with more than one film already responsible for this Hollywood against the star system such as Robert Altman, Richard Brooks or Arthur Penn. However, the careful selection is appreciated for the inclusion of Cheaters’ Day (1970), by the enormous Joseph L. Mankiewicz, or The mole (1970), by Alejandro Jodorowsky.
The western is not exhausted and, therefore, the interesting film magazine Row Seven He dedicates one of his books from the most current perspective. The Western Reborn in the 21st Century (Fila Siete), written by Alberto Fijo, Ruth Gutiérrez Delgado and Gema Pérez Herrera, focuses on contemporary classics such as Wells of ambition (2007), by Paul Thomas Anderson; Django Unchained (2012), by Quentin Tarantino; The Revenant (2015), by Alejandro González Iñárritu, or The Sisters Brothers (2018), by Jacques Audiard. It’s a shame it’s not included. The power of the dog (2021), in which the wonderful Jane Campion reviews the postulates with a beautiful and suggestive work from the very reformulation of sexuality. This film, like The Moon Killers, Scorsese’s films, and so many others in recent years, only indicate that the western is still alive and will continue to be so for a long time.
Juan Manuel de la Poza
Flint, 2024
428 pages. 24 euros
Carlos Aguilar and Pablo Fernandez
Donostia Culture, 2024
256 pages. 20 euros
Andres Rus and Javier Sanabria
Flint Editions, 2023
254 pages. 23 euros
Alberto Fijo, Ruth Gutierrez Delgado and Gema Perez Herrera
Rows Seven, 2024
240 pages. 22 euros
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