The Twenty-First-Century Western: New Riders of the Cinematic Stage

Focusing on twenty-first century Western films, including all major releases since the turn of the century, the essays in this volume cover a broad range of aesthetic and thematic aspects explored in these films, including gender and race. As diverse contributors focus on the individual subgenres of the traditional Western (the gunfighter, the Cavalry vs. Native American conflict, the role of women in Westerns, etc.), they share an understanding of the twenty-first century Western may be understood as a genre in itself. They argue that the films discussed here reimagine certain aspects of the more conventional Western and often reverse the ideology contained within them while employing certain forms and clichés that have become synonymous internationally with Westerns. The result is a contemporary sensibility that might be referred to as the postmodern Western.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: The 21st Century Western: To Begin at the Beginning . . . Douglas Brode and Shea T. Brode Chapter 1: An American Genre in Transition: Dead Man (1995) as Predecessor to the 21st Century Western Ann Hetzel Gunkel Chapter 2: “Pardon Me, but Your ‘i/Indian’ Is Showing!”: Native American Images in 21st Century Westerns Alan Lechusza Aquallo with Douglas Brode Chapter 3: Missing in the Mountains: The ‘Hivernant’ as 21st Century Frontier Hero Nicholas Blower Chapter 4: Evolution of a Postmodern Genre: The Western Films of Joel and Ethan Coen Lynnea Chapman King Chapter 5: Rooster Cogburn Revisited: Triangulating True Grit Walter Metz Chapter 6: Westward Ho! The Women!: Frontier Females in Post-Feminist Films Rosanne Welch with Douglas Brode Chapter 7: An American Propensity: The Continuum of Violence in Western Films Nathan Wuertenberg Chapter 8: Once Upon a Time in Tarantino’s West: The Persistence of Westerns as the American Fairy Tale Beth Jane Toren with Douglas Brode Chapter 9: Illusions of Individuality: Old Frontiers and New Forms in Meek’s Cutoff (2010) and Certain Women (2016) John Bruni Chapter 10: “Sheriff, You Forgot Your Pants!”: Brokeback Mountain and the Genre’s Open Secret Jim Daems Chapter 11: The Bush Westerns: Real Cowboy Movies for a Faux Cowboy Presidency Mark Brenden Chapter 12: Morality, Wounding, and Redemptive Violence: Literary and Cinematic Versions of 3:10 to Yuma Fran Pheasant-Kelly Chapter 13: Of Partners and Posses: Masculine Camaraderie in Modern Western/Action Films Jason McEntree and Sharon Smith Chapter 14: The Present in the Past: New Western History and 21st Century Cowboy Films John Hadjuk and Natalie Rosiek Chapter 15: “The Mercy Seat” as Inescapable Heat: Ideas of Justice in the Australian Outback in The Proposition Henrik Bødker Chapter 16: A Postmodern Take on the Classical Journey: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada Andrew Howe Chapter 17: Having a Home, Come Hell Or High Water!: The Significance of Space and Place in the Neo-Western Sue Matheson Chapter 18: Music as Meaning: 20th Century Western Movie Music in 21st Century Fantastical Films Erik Heine Chapter 19: Return of the TV Western: An Introduction and Overview Garret Castleberry with Douglas Brode Chapter 20: The Western Didn’t Die, It Just Went Off-World: Guardians of the Galaxy and the Final-Final Frontier David S. Silverman with Douglas Brode