Western movies, or simply put Westerns, are the major defining genre of the American movie industry, a nostalgic eulogy to the early days of the extensive, untamed American frontier; the borderline between civilization and the wilderness. These films are one of the oldest, most enduring and flexible genres, and definitely one of the most characteristically American genres in their mythic origins.
The western movies often portray the conquest of the wilderness and the subjection of nature in the name of civilization, or the sizure of the territorial rights of the original inhabitants of the frontier. Specific settings include lonely isolated forts, the isolated homestead, ranch houses, the saloon, the jail, the livery stable, the small-town main street, or small frontier towns that are forming at the edges of civilization. They may even include Native American sites or villages. Other iconic elements in westerns include the hanging tree, saddles, lassos and Colt .45’s, Stetsons and spurs, bandannas and buckskins, canteens, gamblers,stagecoaches, long-horned cattle and cattle drives, prostitutes (or madams) with a heart of gold, and much more. And it is not unusual for the cowboy to have a favored horse, or a so-called ‘faithful steed’.
The heroes in western movies are often local lawmen or enforcement officers, army officers, cowboys, ranchers, territorial marshals, or a skilled, fast-draw gunfighter. They are normally masculine persons of integrity and principle – moral, courageous, tough, solid and self-sufficient, free-spirited characters (quite often with trusty sidekicks), possessing an independent and honorable attitude. The Western hero could usually stand alone and face danger on his own against the forces of lawlessness, with an expert display of his physical skills (, gun-play, ropinghorse-handling, pioneering abilities…).
The peak of popularity of western films was in the era from 1930s to the 1960s, and most recently in the 90s, but they seem to be making an energizing comeback with movies like The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Bone Tomahawk, movie remakes True Grit, and 3:10 To Yuma, and of course the two masterpieces of Quentin Tarantino; Django Unchained, and The Hateful Eight. Some of these modern westerns are a little different than the western classics we are used to, so if you prefer an evergreen western, go with a movie like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, High Noon, True Grit (1969), The Searchers, A Fistful of Dollars or, for that matter, any movie that includes either Clint Eastwood or John Wayne and a Stetson.
Visit the free-to-watch website fusionmovies.to and find your favorite western movie.