Film Studies 241 - GENRE/PERIOD: WESTERN/AMER

Topics course. This class examines the relation of perhaps the defining American film genre to questions of both American cinema and American identity. How are Westerns reflective and symptomatic of vital issues in United States history and culture? How does the genre help shape and define how Americans think of themselves? How did the genre change over the post-war period, and what does this tell us about the changing needs, ideas and ideologies of both American filmmaking and the United States itself? We consider the classical films of John Ford and the revisionist work of Sam Peckinpah and Robert Altman, as well as other canonical Westerns, considering the way they were used to think through historical and cultural events like the Red Scare, Civil Rights and the development of a more robust Gay Public Sphere. We also consider more recent developments and changes in the genre as produced by Reagan?s tenure as the Cowboy President (including US foreign policy in Latin America) and, currently, shifts in the genre effected by digital technology and the Age of New Media.

Topic: The Western and American Identity after World War II.