DEEP DIVE: No Heroes-Subverting the Western

This is a watch at home, discuss in person event. Join me to Discuss 3 Revisionist Westerns!

For this deep dive, I wanted to highlight one of my favorite genres: revisionist westerns. While I enjoy the contemporary western, I really love the darker approach filmmakers started taking in the 1960s. Italian spaghetti western directors like Leone and Corbucci and cynical American auteurs like Eastwood and Peckinpah paved the way for a new generation of genre stylists like Tarantino and Zahler to look beyond the heroic cowboy mythos and try to see the old west for what it was.

All three films deal very directly with the mythos of the gunslinger specifically, but in very different ways. The Great Silence uses the frozen tundra landscapes and brutal character milieu around our central mute cowboy to humanize him in such a harsh world. High Plains Drifter takes the outline of the Man with No Name but distorts this perception by having him walk the line between antihero and pure evil rather than the traditional line between antihero and hero. And The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford uses a familiar western character as a critical lens for American celebrity and what that entails.

Please try to watch all three films before the discussion, but you're still welcome to join if you’ve only watched one or two. All three are easily available on video rental services (Apple TV, Amazon Prime, etc.) but some are a little tougher to find on the free ones. If anyone needs help finding a copy though, shoot me a message and I’ll help you out!

The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci-1968): A mute gunslinger fights in defense of a group of outlaws and a vengeful young widow, against a group of ruthless bounty hunters.

• Rent on Apple TV, Amazon or YouTube
• Free on Hoopla (with a library card)

High Plains Drifter (Clint Eastwood-1973): A gunfighting stranger comes to the small settlement of Lago. After gunning down three gunmen who tried to kill him, the townsfolk decide to hire the Stranger to hold off three outlaws who are on their way.

• Rent on Apple TV, Amazon or YouTube

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik-2007): Outlaw Jesse James is rumored to be the ‘fastest gun in the West’. An eager recruit into James’ notorious gang, Robert Ford eventually grows jealous of the famed outlaw and, when Robert and his brother sense an opportunity to kill James, their murderous action elevates their target to near mythical status.

• Rent on Apple TV, Amazon or YouTube

Other related titles to check out (not required):

• A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone-1964)
• Django (Sergio Corbucci-1966)
• The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah-1969)
• McCabe and Mrs. Miller (Robert Altman-1971)
• The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood-1976)
• Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch-1995)
• Bone Tomahawk (S. Craig Zahler-2015)
• The Hateful Eight (Quentin Tarantino-2015)

We'll meet at Barquentine Brewing Company at the Edgewater Market. It is a reserved space so please make sure your RSVP is up to date well before the event as a courtesy to the business.