The Wild West’s changing face
BEFORE World War II, the American western was one of the purest film genres -- white hats versus black hats and a singing ride into the sunset when the good guys triumphed.
But the western took a walk on the dark side after World War II, when the universe seemed less black and white than murky. The films took on a psychological bent, with conflicted heroes who seemed more like old-time villains. Westerns such as “Pursued,” in fact, were closer to film noir than oaters. The Indians, simple savages of the early westerns, were seen in a more sympathetic light, and subject matter became more mature, bleaker. When the production code lost its grip on censorship in the mid-1960s, filmmakers began to show just how bloody and rough the Wild West really was.
“Searchers, Misfits, and Left-Handed Guns: Reinventing the Myth of the American West,” a retrospective at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, features 18 sagebrush sagas, produced between 1943 and 1995, that turned the genre on its ear.
Highlights include John Ford’s 1956 classic “The Searchers” with John Wayne; John Huston’s 1961 modern-day western “The Misfits”; Anthony Mann’s tough-nosed 1950 melodrama “Winchester ‘73,” the first of several westerns he made with Jimmy Stewart; Sam Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch” from 1969; Sergio Leone’s ultimate 1968 spaghetti western “Once Upon a Time in the West,” which stars Henry Fonda in a rare bad-guy role; and Jim Jarmusch’s 1995 take on the genre, “Dead Man,” starring Johnny Depp.
“My view is that each cycle of revisionist westerns or genre movies in any form are the latest attempts to be more realistic than the bunch of guys were before,” says film writer David Chute. “Inevitably, [the film] reflects the era in which it was made.”
One western in the series, Robert Altman’s 1971 film “McCabe & Mrs. Miller,” is purely a product of its time, says Chute. “The ‘70s movies of Robert Altman look so much like druggie ‘70s movies now,” he says. And Arthur Penn’s 1958 western “The Left-Handed Gun,” starring Paul Newman as Billy the Kid, reflects the rebellious teen spirit of that decade.
“It’s taking the story of Billy the Kid and filtering it through Marlon Brando and James Dean,” he says. “I don’t know what ‘Deadwood’ is going to look like 20 years from now. Is it going to look like a cynical Bush-era [series], or will it look like they finally got it right?”
Several films in the series have gained critical appreciation over the years, including 1972’s “Ulzana’s Raid,” directed by Robert Aldrich. Screenwriter and associate producer Alan Sharp will be on hand Friday to talk about the film, which stars Burt Lancaster as an aging, battle-worn scout who is hired by the cavalry to track down the renegade Apache leader Ulzana.
“That’s a great revisionist western,” says Chute. “It’s the kind of movie that sort of sets out to say, ‘You got this all wrong. These Apaches were really scary guys. They were the most extreme warrior character since the Spartans.’ It’s a movie that sets out to revise everybody’s account of a certain aspect of the genre.”
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‘Searchers, Misfits, and Left-Handed Guns’
Where: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Leo S. Bing Theater, 5905 Wilshire Blvd.
Price: $6 to $9; $5 for second film only
Contact: (323) 857-6010 or go to www.lacma.org
Schedule
Friday: “The Searchers,” 7:30 p.m.; “Ulzana’s Raid,” 9:40 p.m.
Saturday: “The Misfits,” 7:30; “Junior Bonner,” 9:45
April 20: “Winchester ‘73,” 7:30; “High Plains Drifter,” 9:15
April 21: “Johnny Guitar,” 7:30; “Forty Guns,” 9:30
April 27: “The Ox-Bow Incident,” 7:30; “The Wild Bunch,” 9
April 28: “Hud,” 7:30; “The Last Picture Show,” 9:30
May 4: “The Left-Handed Gun,” 7:30; “Dead Man,” 9:30
May 5: “McCabe & Mrs. Miller,” 7:30; “Electra Glide in Blue,” 9:40
May 11: “Once Upon a Time in the West,” 7:30
May 12: “Paris, Texas,” 7:30
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