Значение слова "CLASSIC WESTERNS" найдено в 1 источнике

CLASSIC WESTERNS

найдено в "Westerns in Cinema"

   After the silent era ended, Westerns had trouble making the transition to sound because they depended on action, not talk. It did not seem that sound could add anything to Westerns, and people wanted to watch the talkies. B Westerns filled the void and began their own traditions, especially with singing cowboy movies. Cecil B. DeMille’s The Plainsman (1936) and John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939), however, resurrected large-budget Westerns not seen since the days of James Cruze’s The Covered Wagon (1923). The classic Western tradition that began in the 1930s continued until the early 1960s. The height of the classic era was probably the 1950s with such films as High Noon (1952) and Shane (1953). The films of this era, while of immense variety, shared basic assumptions about the myth of the West and about American culture and values.As with all Westerns, they commented on contemporary concerns through mythical narratives.
   According to John G. Cawelti (1999), “The classic Western projected contemporary tensions and conflicts of values into a mythical past where they could be balanced against one another and resolved in an increasingly ambiguous moment of violent action” (97). For American culture during this period, “the Western served as an unofficial myth of America’s situation in the world” (Cawelti 1999, 98). These movies particularly emphasized the role of the gunfighter, whether an individual or an official lawman, who purified through regenerative violence a town or community corrupted by the domination of outlaws. This archetypal conflict reflected the United States’new role as the major superpower in conflict with the Soviet menace during the cold war. As the later problems posed by the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement came to preoccupy Americans’ worries, the classic Western began its long decline. However, because classic Westerns dominated the movies for so long, antimyth Westerns inevitably came along after the 1960s and called into question the values of these older films.


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