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This essay collection analyzes the Western film genre as it has been reimagined during the first two decades of the twenty-first century. The chapters consider old conventions from a postmodern perspective while also addressing contemporary social, cultural, and thematic aspects.
List 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
About the author
Douglas Brode is a retired instructor at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications.
Shea T. Brode is an independent scholar who has collaborated with his father as editor on several previous collections.
Summary
This essay collection analyzes the Western film genre as it has been reimagined during the first two decades of the twenty-first century. The chapters consider old conventions from a postmodern perspective while also addressing contemporary social, cultural, and thematic aspects.
