Fifty Shades out West

In 1939 the western saw something of a revival - with war brewing in Europe, Hollywood's thoughts turned to America's own heroic past and the nature of Americanism itself. Europe was dominated by dictators and Americans began to distrust the continent which it felt would eventually drag them into a war. Far better to celebrate America itself with its unique brand of self reliance, democracy and heaving bosoms.

Warner Brothers, the home of the swashbuckler placed Errol Flynn into a series of lavish and expensive westerns following the success of 1939's Dodge City. Warners also placed two of its biggest stars James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart (miscasting if ever there was any) in the oater, The Oklahoma Kid. During the early war years the western did well at the box office and when Howard Hughes cast Jane Russel in the dire but successful, The Outlaw (1943) it heralded the arrival of sex in the western. And this was continued in 1946 with Duel in the Sun, a film so infused with sweaty eroticism that one critic dubbed it, "Lust in the dust."

However to be fair on The Outlaw,  I've always enjoyed it and still watch it from time to time. The storyline concerning Billy The Kid, Pat Garrett and  Doc Holliday may be  barking mad and the film itself  ponderous , but it is so corny that it's highly watchable. And the advertising posters (as above) greatly exaggerated the amount of cleavage Jane Russel displayed in the picture. In fact the finished film is tamer than a standard Carry On movie. But what The Outlaw did was allow the western to tackle more adult themes than the simple good guys V bad guys motif of earlier oaters.

However the sex content was soon seen as a gimmick as the western in general became much more mature in theme. Without the westerns of the Forties paving the way we would never have seen the introspective classics of the Fifties. Perhaps one of the earliest westerns with any real significance was The Ox Bow Incident (1943) which was a sombre look at the effects of mob law.  It became apparent that audiences were now demanding more depth from their westerns. No longer was it all black and white, as shades of grey colored the celluloid holding our western dreams.

Westerns now displayed an interest in psychology and psychoanalysis - this was demonstrated in 1947's, Pursued,  in which Robert Mitchum played a troubled loner who is dogged by a childhood trauma which is revealed to the viewer in a series of flashbacks. And by the end of the decade westerns heroes could no longer be the perfect square jawed men in white hats. In 1948 Howard Hawks gave us Red River which benefited from John Wayne's best performance to date and Wayne's character, Ted Dunson was something of a blueprint for the western anti-heroes of the next decade.

John Ford, arguably the finest ever American director of westerns, returned from his wartime service to enter one of his richest periods - his cavalry trilogy which ended the decade are amongst the finest westerns ever made. In 1946 he took the OK Corral  legend and gave us a fine and complex movie in, My Darling Clementine. What the film lacked in historical accuracy it made up for with it sheer brilliance in storytelling and acting. The film introduced many of Ford's trademarks - the townsfolk gathering together to hold a square dance in their half built church is just one example of the importance of community that Ford was at pains to point out in all of his films and not just his westerns.  It is an irony with Ford that although his westerns celebrated the freedom of the frontier they preached the importance of civilization. Later Ford would give us his three Calvary movies, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande in 1948, 1949 and 1950 respectively . It is a sense of community and service to one's country that link the three movies and hold them together like glue.

As the Fifties dawned the western was changed forever and the coming years would see some of the best movies ever made -  oaters that could hold themselves alongside the best of any other genre and it was during the Forties that this transition truly started. It may have all started out with a preoccupation with large breasts but it ended up looking much deeper.

Much deeper indeed.

A man's gotta' do what E's gotta' do

I this morning contributed to an interesting thread on the Western Pulps Forum, which is a lively forum in which all things western are discussed.  Any western fan will benefit from joining - My post ended with the following -

"The old paperbacks will always be there and thank the Lord for that. I love trawling through the markets and secondhand book shops. But concentrating solely on the older stuff is not going to help the genre to move forward into the new age. Love it or loathe it, we all need to get on pushing the eBooks and encouraging western readers to buy eBooks, by pointing out how much western stuff is out there. In a few short years, I believe, very few westerns will be published physically - depressing maybe, but there you have it."

I also posted - "Maybe I'm too optimistic but I don't see it as a given that western fiction will never be as popular as it once was. I think it's relative since there are not as many people reading as there once were, but I still think the western will remain popular. These days it's much more transmedia - comic books, computer games, movies as well as the books themselves. Look at the success of computer games, Gun and Red Dead Redemption, and of course that movie, True Grit. Also Jonah Hex continues to be a great comic and the UK's Judge Dredd is always doing western-alike stories set in the comic's own wild west, The Cursed Earth."

Remember him - he's back on the eBook cutting edge!

Which leads me to eBooks once again - I know a lot of traditional readers don't like the electronic devices and I can understand this reticence  - I mean traditional books are a thing of beauty and probably the best designed reading device there is, but at the same time we should take a lesson from those who refused to adapt MP3 - if we want our western genre to survive and prosper, we need to make sure it is available to new readers, those who have never read a western in their life. And the way to do that is to have as many western as possible available on eBook - both older republished stuff and brand new work. It makes sense really, this is a new world - imagine some thirteen year old kid is playing the latest violent computer game set in the wildest of wild wests, the game excites him. So he decides to check out some western fiction or a movie, and with the click of a button he can download both of these to whatever device is the current latest thing.

More bang for your buck

The WIKI definition of western fiction - "Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier (usually anywhere west of the Mississippi River) and typically set during the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 1900s and Louis L'Amour from the mid 20th century. The genre peaked around the early 1960s, largely due to the popularity of televised Westerns such as Bonanza. Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s and has reached a new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside of a few western states, only carry a small number of Western fiction books."

 I can't argue with that but what the WIKI fails to mention is that there has been a small spike in sales of western fiction over the last five years - myself I firmly believe this is due to the amount of passionate western related stuff on the Internet.

For it's survival the western must embrace the world of the eBook. But just sticking them up on Amazon or any of the other retail site, and hoping for the best is not going to do the trick. Which is why I believe the blogosphere is important - western writers are first and foremost, western fans and we need to show this by continuing to produce interesting western based content on the web, we need to continue to discover new angles for bringing new interest into the genre.

We need to make the western irresistible, cool and trendy - for then and only then will the sun rise in the west.

And so another Wild West eMonday is on the horizon and this time I hope to have a full weekend of posts by various luminaries of the western genre.So anyone reading this who is involved in any way in the western genre, then contact me and let me know you want to take part. And western fans, and a great many visit The Archive daily, let us know what kind of western features would make for an entertaining weekend and provoke you to buy a new western eBook.

....go on, a man's gotta' do what E's gotta' do.....

THE WESTERN GALLOPS ONWARDS

Who said the western is dead? Not me and that's for certain - the vibrant online western community is thriving and there is a new western short story by regular Archive commenter, Richard Prosch HERE.

Regina's War is the story.

The Western Online is the place to be.