Cowboy Gets on His Horse

¶ … cowboy gets on his horse and rides off alone into the distance. The music picks up. Thus, the typical Western ends. Through the years since the Western first hit the American theaters, it has gone through some permutations. Yet, there still remain some similarities between all examples of this genre, regardless of when they were produced: They took place west of the Mississippi River, there was a strong, quiet type of hero and his horse, and there was some positive lesson about facing the challenges of life. Although the three movies Dances with Wolves, City Slickers, and the Outlaw Josey Wales are very different in their plot, characterization and mode of delivery, they all represent some aspects of the first Westerns and the impact the undeveloped West had on the arriving settlers.

Dances with Wolves, produced in 1990, has many of the Western motifs, but they are presented in with a mindset of the 20th century. Thus, the earlier racism and stereotypes about Native Americans is eliminated and the stark "black-and-white" one-dimensional characters are depicted much more well-rounded. Similar to the first Westerns, however, the hero, Lt. John Dunbar, represents the strong maverick who decides his own fate rather than following the dictates of others. Very indicative of the Western genre cowboy, Dunbar represents the model American ethics of dignity, bravery, righteousness, equality, and respect for others, even the natives and women. He also has the typical skills of a Western hero of shooting and horseback riding. As with Westerns, there were "white hats" and "black hats" heroes and villains, in this case the Pawnees and the corrupt soldiers. In addition are the woman love interest and the comic relief sidekick. Unlike the earliest Westerns, however, Dances with Wolves shows that unethical and criminal savage behavior can be any race or color. Similarly, the bonds that form between people can be between different ethnic groups.

The plot and time period of the 1991 City Slickers seems as remote from a Western as possible, but even this comedy offers some of the early Western marks.

City Slickers (1991) depicts a group of middle-aged pals going on a two-week western cattle drive run by the cowpoke Curly .Besides such obvious Western themes, such as the horses, Western scenery and uplifting music, are the male characters. Although in their modern city life the do not reveal their inner strengths, in the West, the men find the important values in life and within themselves. Curly represents the sole cowboy that once was and mostly likely will never be again.

Lastly, the 1976 Outlaw Josey Wales is closest to what we today consider the Western. Once again, this movie has the rugged and individualist protagonist and the comic friend. The difference here is that Josey Wales starts out as an unassuming farmer and transforms into a violent shooter. Although he has reason to seek revenge, one questions whether two wrongs make a right and has Wales lost sight of the values that he once had? Yet, the movie swings back to the true Western genre at the end as Josey and Laura fall in love and decide to live at her son's ranch. Even the men with the blacker hat, the Union Soldier, decide that the violence must come to an end and let Josey go back to his farming days.