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{{Short description|Multimedia genre}}
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{{More citations needed|date=September 2021}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2021}}

{{Westerns sidebar |Media}}
The '''Western''' is a [[genre]] of [[fiction]] typically [[Setting (narrative)|set]] in the [[American frontier]] (commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West") between the [[California Gold Rush]] of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890. The genre is commonly associated with [[Americana (culture)|folk tales]] of the [[Western United States]], particularly the [[Southwestern United States]], as well as [[Northern Mexico]] and [[Western Canada]].<ref name="oxford">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VMN9xAEACAAJ |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-19-976435-8 |editor-last=Rubin |editor-first=Joan Shelley |volume=2 |pages=557 |language=en |editor-last2=Casper |editor-first2=Scott E.}}</ref><ref name="Edgerton">{{Cite book |last=Carter |first=Matthew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1larBgAAQBAJ |title=Myth of the Western: New Perspectives on Hollywood's Frontier Narrative |date=2014 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=9780748685592 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=7}}

The frontier is depicted in Western fiction as a sparsely populated, hostile region patrolled by [[cowboy]]s, [[Outlaw (stock character)|outlaws]], [[sheriff]]s, and numerous other [[Stock character|stock]] [[Gunfighter|gunslinger]] characters. Western narratives often concern the gradual attempts to tame the crime-ridden American West using wider themes of [[justice]], freedom, rugged individualism, [[manifest destiny]], and the national history and identity of the [[United States]]. [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] populations were often portrayed as averse foes or [[Savage (pejorative term)|savages]].

Originating in [[vaquero]] heritage and [[Western fiction]], the genre popularized the [[Western lifestyle]], [[Country music|country]]-[[Western music (North America)|Western music]], and [[Western wear]] globally.<ref name="History 2003">{{cite web | title=Vaqueros: The First Cowboys of the Open Range | website=History | date=August 15, 2003 | url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/mexico-tradition-vaquero-cowboy | access-date=March 26, 2023 | archive-date=March 17, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230317070422/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/mexico-tradition-vaquero-cowboy | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Fraser 2023">{{cite web | last=Fraser | first=Kristopher | title=Cowboy Core Fashion Is Trending: Beyoncé, Harry Styles & More Create Buzz Around Western-inspired Looks | website=WWD | date=February 14, 2023 | url=https://wwd.com/pop-culture/culture-news/cowboy-core-latest-trend-internet-beyonce-1235516158/ | access-date=March 26, 2023 | archive-date=March 29, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230329031206/https://wwd.com/pop-culture/culture-news/cowboy-core-latest-trend-internet-beyonce-1235516158/ | url-status=live }}</ref> Throughout the history of the genre, it has seen popular revivals and been incorporated into various subgenres.

==Characteristics==

===Stories and characters===
{{more citations needed section|date=October 2023}}<!--NO MORE LINKS, PLEASE, this is becoming a SEA OF BLUE-->

The classic Western is a [[morality drama]], presenting the conflict between [[wilderness]] and [[civilization]].<ref name="oxford" />  Stories commonly center on the life of a male [[Vagrancy|drifter]], [[cowboy]], or [[Gunfighter|gunslinger]] who rides a horse and is armed with a [[revolver]] or [[rifle]]. The male characters typically wear broad-brimmed and high-crowned [[Stetson]] hats,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Edgerton |first=Gary R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PUbcAAAAQBAJ |title=Westerns: The Essential 'Journal of Popular Film and Television' Collection |date=2013-09-13 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-76508-8 |pages=79 |language=en}}</ref> [[neckerchief]] [[Kerchief|bandanna]]s, [[Waistcoat|vest]]s, and [[cowboy boot]]s with [[spur]]s. While many wear conventional shirts and trousers, alternatives include [[buckskins]] and [[Duster (clothing)|dusters]].

Women are generally cast in secondary roles as [[love interest]]s for the male lead; or in supporting roles as [[Western saloon|saloon]] girls, [[Prostitution|prostitutes]] or as the wives of [[American pioneer|pioneers]] and [[settler]]s. The wife character often provides a measure of [[comic relief]]. Other recurring characters include [[Native Americans of the United States|Native Americans]] of various tribes described as Indians or Red Indians,<ref name="Butts 2004">{{cite book |last=Butts |first=Dennis |editor-last=Hunt |editor-first=Peter |title=International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature |date=2004 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon, Oxfordshire |volume=1 |isbn=0-203-32566-4 |pages=340–351 |edition=Second |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1RsBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA340 |chapter=Shaping boyhood: British Empire builders and adventurers |quote=By the 1840s, of course, adults were already reading tales of adventure involving Red Indians}}</ref> [[African Americans]], [[Chinese Americans]], [[Spaniards]], [[Mexicans]], [[law enforcement officer]]s, [[bounty hunter]]s, [[Outlaw (stock character)#American Western|outlaws]], [[bartender]]s, [[merchant]]s, [[Gambling|gamblers]], [[soldier]]s (especially mounted [[cavalry]]), and settlers ([[farmer]]s, [[rancher]]s, and townsfolk).

The ambience is usually punctuated with a [[Western music (North America)|Western music]] [[Film score|score]], including [[American folk music]] and [[Music of Spain|Spanish]]/[[Music of Mexico|Mexican]] folk music such as [[Country music|country]], [[Indigenous music of North America|Native American music]], [[New Mexico music]], and [[ranchera]]s. 

{{Literature}}

===Locations===
Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an [[arid]], desolate landscape of [[desert]]s and 
[[mountain]]s. Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting a "mythic vision of the plains and deserts of the American West".<ref name="Cowie 2004">{{cite book |last=Cowie |first=Peter |title=John Ford and the American West |publisher=Harry Abrams Inc. |location=New York |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8109-4976-8}}</ref> Specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways, wilderness, and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a stock plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution, which is often dispensed through a [[shootout]] or [[Fast draw|quick draw]] duel.<ref name="Agnew">Agnew, Jeremy. December 2, 2014. ''The Creation of the Cowboy Hero: Fiction, Film and Fact'', p. 88, McFarland. {{ISBN|978-0-7864-7839-2}}</ref><ref name="Dope">{{cite web |last=Adams |first=Cecil |title=Did Western gunfighters really face off one-on-one? |url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2514/did-western-gunfighters-really-face-off-one-on-one |publisher=Straight Dope |date=June 25, 2004 |access-date=October 4, 2014 |archive-date=August 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818074443/http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2514/did-western-gunfighters-really-face-off-one-on-one/ |url-status=live }} June 25, 2004</ref><ref name="Willy">{{cite web |title=Wild Bill Hickok fights first western showdown |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/wild-bill-hickok-fights-first-western-showdown |url-status=dead |publisher=History.com |date=July 21, 2014 |access-date=October 4, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006135032/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/wild-bill-hickok-fights-first-western-showdown |archive-date=October 6, 2014}}</ref>

===Themes===
[[File:Lone ranger silver 1965.JPG|thumb|right|200px|The [[Lone Ranger]], a famous heroic [[wikt:lawman|lawman]], was with a cavalry of six Texas Rangers until they all, except for him, were killed. He preferred to remain anonymous, so he resigned and built a sixth grave that supposedly held his body. He fights on as a lawman, wearing a mask, for "Outlaws live in a world of fear. Fear of the mysterious".]]

The Western genre sometimes portrays the conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature in the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original, Native American, inhabitants of the frontier.<ref name="kimnewman">{{cite book |last=Newman |first=Kim |author-link=Kim Newman |title=Wild West Movies |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=1990}}</ref> The Western depicts a society organized around codes of [[Honour|honor]] and personal, direct or private justice—"frontier justice"—dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are often played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal [[revenge]] or [[wikt:retribution|retribution]] against someone who has wronged them (e.g., ''[[True Grit (1969 film)|True Grit]]'' has revenge and retribution as its main themes). This Western depiction of personal justice contrasts sharply with justice systems organized around rationalistic, abstract law that exist in cities, in which [[social order]] is maintained predominantly through relatively impersonal institutions such as [[courtroom]]s. The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a seminomadic wanderer, usually a cowboy or a gunfighter.<ref name="kimnewman"/>  A showdown or [[Duel#United States|duel]] at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns.{{citation needed|date = December 2024}}

In some ways, such protagonists may be considered the literary descendants of the [[Knight-errant|knights-errant]], who stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as the [[King Arthur|Arthurian romances]].<ref name="kimnewman"/> Like the cowboy or gunfighter of the Western, the knight-errant of the earlier European tales and poetry was wandering from place to place on his horse, fighting villains of various kinds, and bound to no fixed social structures, but only to his own innate code of honor. Like knights-errant, the heroes of Westerns frequently rescue [[Damsel in distress|damsels in distress]]. Similarly, the wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with the ''[[ronin]]'' in modern Japanese culture.{{citation needed|date = December 2024}}

The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, although some notable examples (e.g. the later Westerns of John Ford or [[Clint Eastwood]]'s ''[[Unforgiven]]'', about an old [[contract killer]]) are more morally ambiguous. Westerns often stress the harshness and isolation of the wilderness, and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Western films generally have specific settings, such as isolated ranches, Native American villages, or small frontier towns with a saloon. Oftentimes, these settings appear deserted and without much structure. Apart from the wilderness, the saloon usually emphasizes that this is the [[Wild West]]; it is the place to go for music (raucous piano playing), women (often [[Prostitution|prostitutes]]), gambling (draw poker or five-card stud), drinking ([[beer]], [[Whisky|whiskey]], or [[tequila]] if set in Mexico), brawling, and shooting. In some Westerns, where civilization has arrived, the town has a church, a general store, a bank, and a school; in others, where frontier rules still hold sway, it is, as [[Sergio Leone]] said, "where life has no value".{{citation needed|date = December 2024}}

===Plots===
Author and screenwriter [[Frank Gruber]] identified seven basic plots for Westerns:<ref>Gruber, Frank  ''The Pulp Jungle'' Sherbourne Press, 1967</ref>
* Union Pacific story: The plot concerns construction of a railroad, a telegraph line, or some other type of modern technology on the wild frontier. Wagon-train stories fall into this category.
* Ranch story: Ranchers protecting their family ranch from [[Cattle rustling|rustlers]] or large landowners attempting to force out the proper owners.
* Empire story: The plot involves building a ranch empire or an oil empire from scratch, a classic rags-to-riches plot, often involving conflict over resources such as water or minerals.
* Revenge story: The plot often involves an elaborate chase and pursuit by a wronged individual, but it may also include elements of the classic mystery story.
* Cavalry and Indian story: The plot revolves around taming the wilderness for White settlers or fighting Native Americans.
* Outlaw story: The outlaw gangs dominate the action.
* Marshal story: The lawman and his challenges drive the plot.

Gruber noted that good writers use dialogue and plot development to expand these basic plots into believable stories.

==Media==

===Film===
{{Main|Western film}}
[[File:Great train robbery still.jpg|right|thumb|240px|[[Justus D. Barnes]] in Western apparel, as "Bronco Billy Anderson", from the [[silent film]] ''[[The Great Train Robbery (1903 film)|The Great Train Robbery]]'' (1903), the second Western film and the first one shot in the United States]]
[[File:The Great Train Robbery (1903) - yt.webm|alt=|thumb|right|250px|''[[The Great Train Robbery (1903 film)|The Great Train Robbery]]'' full film (1903); runtime 00:11:51.]]
The [[American Film Institute]] defines Western films as those "set in the American West that [embody] the spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the [[Frontier thesis|new frontier]]".<ref>{{cite web |title=America's 10 Greatest Films in 10 Classic Genres |url=http://www.afi.com/10top10/ |access-date=2010-06-06 |publisher=[[American Film Institute]] |archive-date=September 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180930120028/http://www.afi.com/10top10/ |url-status=live }}</ref>  Originally, these films were called "Wild West dramas", a reference to [[Wild West shows]] like [[Buffalo Bill|Buffalo Bill Cody's]].<ref name=":0" /> The term "Western", used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in ''Motion Picture World'' magazine.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=McMahan |first=Alison |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oA47uwEACAAJ |title=Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of the Cinema |publisher=Continuum |isbn=978-1-5013-4023-9 |pages=122 |language=en}}</ref>

Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th-century popular [[Western fiction]], and were firmly in place before film became a popular art form.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Henry Nash |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=utTWAAAAMAAJ |title=Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth |date=1970 |publisher=Harvard University Press |language=en}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=September 2023}}  Western films commonly feature protagonists such as cowboys, gunslingers, and bounty hunters, who are often depicted as seminomadic wanderers who wear [[Stetson]] hats, [[Kerchief|bandanna]]s, spurs, and [[buckskins]], use revolvers or rifles as everyday tools of survival and as a means to settle disputes using frontier justice. Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Indick |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NE0-EAAAQBAJ |title=The Psychology of the Western: How the American Psyche Plays Out on Screen |date=2014-11-21 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-9211-4 |pages=8, 12 |language=en |quote=[T]he principal archetype of the genre, the Western hero, is analyzed within the context of his various personas: the chivalrous cowboy, the honorable marshal, the lone crusader, and the rebel outlaw... He is more comfortable living in the open frontier than in the cities, and most importantly, he does not conform to the laws and customs of civilized society. He answers only to his own code of honor and enforces his own personal brand of justice... [W]riters established the cowboy hero as the legendary icon of the West. They dressed him in chaps and a ten-gallon hat, straddled him atop a horse, armed him with a revolver, and set him loose on the Western plains.}}</ref>[[File:Gary Cooper 2.jpg|thumb|right|{{center|[[Gary Cooper]] in ''[[Vera Cruz (film)|Vera Cruz]]''}}]]
The first films that belong to the Western genre are a series of short single reel silents made in 1894 by [[Edison Studios]] at their [[Edison's Black Maria|Black Maria]] studio in [[West Orange, New Jersey]]. These featured veterans of [[Buffalo Bill|''Buffalo Bill's Wild West'' show]] exhibiting skills acquired by living in the Old West – they included [[Annie Oakley]] (shooting) and members of the [[Sioux]] (dancing).<ref>{{cite web |year=1894 |title=Sioux ghost dance |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/00694139/ |access-date=9 September 2021 |publisher=Library of Congress |archive-date=January 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220122211341/https://www.loc.gov/item/00694139/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The earliest known Western narrative film is the British short ''[[Kidnapping by Indians]]'', made by [[Mitchell and Kenyon]] in [[Blackburn]], England, in 1899.<ref>{{cite news |date=2019-10-31 |title=World's first Western movie 'filmed in Blackburn' |newspaper=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-50211023 |access-date=1 November 2019 |archive-date=January 22, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122035528/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-50211023 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Kidnapping by Indians |url=https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-kidnapping-by-indians-1899-1899-online |access-date=1 November 2019 |work=BFI |archive-date=January 22, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230122035537/https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-kidnapping-by-indians-1899-1899-online |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[The Great Train Robbery (1903 film)|The Great Train Robbery]]'' (1903, based on the earlier British film ''[[A Daring Daylight Burglary]]''), [[Edwin S. Porter]]'s film starring [[Broncho Billy Anderson]], is often erroneously cited as the first Western, though George N. Fenin and [[William K. Everson]] point out (as mentioned above) that the "Edison company had played with Western material for several years prior to ''The Great Train Robbery''". Nonetheless, they concur that Porter's film "set the pattern—of crime, pursuit, and retribution—for the Western film as a genre".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fenin |first1=George N. |title=The Western: From Silents to Cinerama |last2=Everson |first2=William K. |publisher=Bonanza Books |year=1962 |isbn=978-1-163-70021-1 |location=New York City |page=47}}</ref> The film's popularity opened the door for Anderson to become the screen's first Western star; he made several hundred Western film shorts. So popular was the genre that he soon faced competition from [[Tom Mix]] and [[William S. Hart]].<ref>{{cite news |date=21 January 1971 |title=Bronco Billy Anderson Is Dead at 88 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/01/21/archives/bronco-billy-anderson-is-dead-at-88j.html |access-date=15 October 2019 |archive-date=October 15, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015012015/https://www.nytimes.com/1971/01/21/archives/bronco-billy-anderson-is-dead-at-88j.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Western films were enormously popular in the [[silent film]] era (1894–1927). With the advent of sound in 1927–1928, the major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns,<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/magazine/11schatz.html, ''New York Times Magazine''] (November 10, 2007).</ref> leaving the genre to smaller studios and producers. These smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in the 1930s. An exception was The Big Trail, a 1930 American pre-Code Western early widescreen film shot on location across the American West starring 23-year-old [[John Wayne]] in his first leading role and directed by Raoul Walsh. The epic film noted for its authenticity was a financial failure due to Depression era theatres not willing to invest in widescreen technology. By the late 1930s, the Western film was widely regarded as a pulp genre in Hollywood, but its popularity was dramatically revived in 1939 by major studio productions such as ''[[Dodge City (film)|Dodge City]]'' starring [[Errol Flynn]], ''[[Jesse James (1939 film)|Jesse James]]'' with [[Tyrone Power]], ''[[Union Pacific (film)|Union Pacific]]'' with [[Joel McCrea]], ''[[Destry Rides Again]]'' featuring [[James Stewart]] and [[Marlene Dietrich]], and especially [[John Ford|John Ford's]] landmark Western adventure ''[[Stagecoach (1939 film)|Stagecoach]] '' starring John Wayne, which became one of the biggest hits of the year. Released through United Artists, ''Stagecoach'' made John Wayne a mainstream screen star in the wake of a decade of headlining B Westerns. Wayne had been introduced to the screen 10 years earlier as the [[Leading actor|leading man]] in director [[Raoul Walsh]]'s spectacular [[widescreen]] ''[[The Big Trail]]'', which failed at the box office in spite of being shot on location across the American West, including the [[Grand Canyon]], [[Yosemite]], and the giant [[Sequoioideae|redwoods]], due in part to exhibitors' inability to switch over to widescreen during the [[Great Depression]]. After renewed commercial successes in the late 1930s, the popularity of Westerns continued to rise until its peak in the 1950s, when the number of Western films produced outnumbered all other genres combined.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ylSQBQAAQBAJ&dq=western+most+popular+film+genre+more+combined&pg=PA2 |title=Indick, William. The Psychology of the Western. Pg. 2 McFarland, Aug 27, 2008. |isbn=9780786434602 |access-date=March 16, 2023 |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405115818/https://books.google.com/books?id=ylSQBQAAQBAJ&dq=western+most+popular+film+genre+more+combined&pg=PA2 |url-status=live |last1=Indick |first1=William |date=September 10, 2008 |publisher=McFarland }}</ref>

The period from 1940 to 1960 has been called the "Golden Age of the Western".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gittell |first=Noah |date=2014-06-17 |title=Superheroes Replaced Cowboys at the Movies. But It's Time to Go Back to Cowboys. |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/06/the-return-of-the-western/372871/ |access-date=2022-07-21 |website=The Atlantic |language=en |archive-date=July 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220721110308/https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/06/the-return-of-the-western/372871/ |url-status=live }}</ref> It is epitomized by the work of several prominent directors including [[Robert Aldrich]], [[Budd Boetticher]], [[Delmer Daves]], [[John Ford]], and others.  Some of the popular films during this era include ''[[Apache (film)|Apache]]'' (1954), ''[[Broken Arrow (1950 film)|Broken Arrow]]'' (1950), and ''[[My Darling Clementine]]'' (1946).<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Grey |first1=Zane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2F0DEAAAQBAJ |title=Essential Western Novels - Volume 10 |last2=Brand |first2=Max |last3=Mulford |first3=Clarence E. |last4=Raine |first4=William MacLeod |last5=Bower |first5=B. M. |date=2020-09-28 |publisher=Tacet Books |isbn=978-3-96987-750-0 |language=en}}</ref>

The changing popularity of the Western genre has influenced worldwide pop culture over time.<ref name="Netflix Tudum 2021">{{cite web |date=December 27, 2021 |title=Why Are Westerns Still Popular? |url=https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/why-are-westerns-still-popular |access-date=March 15, 2023 |website=Netflix Tudum |archive-date=March 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315194519/https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/why-are-westerns-still-popular |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Mens Health 2022">{{cite web |date=December 15, 2022 |title=Why Everyone Suddenly Loves Westerns Again |url=https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a41830004/modern-westerns-masculinity-men-popularity/ |access-date=March 15, 2023 |website=Men's Health |author-last1=Calhoun|author-first1=Jordan|archive-date=March 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315200031/https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a41830004/modern-westerns-masculinity-men-popularity/ |url-status=live }}</ref> During the 1960s and 1970s, [[Spaghetti Western]]s from [[Italy]] became popular worldwide; this was due to the success of [[Sergio Leone]]'s storytelling method.<ref name="Butler 2023">{{cite web |last=Butler |first=Nancy |date=January 27, 2023 |title=Inventing America: Spaghetti Westerns and Sergio Leone |url=https://italysegreta.com/spaghetti-westerns-and-sergio-leone/ |access-date=March 15, 2023 |website=Italy Segreta |archive-date=March 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315194521/https://italysegreta.com/spaghetti-westerns-and-sergio-leone/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Gray Gray 2019">{{cite web |last=Gray |first=Tim |date=January 4, 2019 |title=Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns Made a Fistful of Dollars and Clint Eastwood a Star |url=https://variety.com/2019/vintage/features/sergio-leone-clint-eastwood-1203097936/ |access-date=March 15, 2023 |website=Variety |archive-date=March 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230315194519/https://variety.com/2019/vintage/features/sergio-leone-clint-eastwood-1203097936/ |url-status=live }}</ref>  
After having been previously pronounced dead, a resurgence of Westerns occurred during the 1990s with films such as ''[[Dances with Wolves]]'' (1990), ''[[Unforgiven]]'' (1992), and ''Geronimo'' (1993), as Westerns once again increased in popularity.<ref name="Busby Buscombe Pearson 1999 p=520">{{cite journal |last1=Busby |first1=Mark |last2=Buscombe |first2=Edward |last3=Pearson |first3=Roberta E. |year=1999 |title=Back in the Saddle Again: New Essays on the Western |journal=The Western Historical Quarterly |publisher=Oxford University Press (OUP) |volume=30 |issue=4 |page=520 |doi=10.2307/971437 |issn=0043-3810 |jstor=971437}}</ref><ref name="Kollin 1999 pp. 238–250">{{cite journal |last=Kollin |first=Susan |year=1999 |title=Theorizing the Western |journal=Western American Literature |publisher=Project Muse |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=238–250 |doi=10.1353/wal.1999.0081 |issn=1948-7142 |s2cid=166137254}}</ref>

===Television===
{{Main|Westerns on television}}
[[File:James Garner Jack Kelly Maverick 1959.JPG|right|thumb|[[James Garner]] and [[Jack Kelly (actor)|Jack Kelly]] in ''[[Maverick (TV series)|Maverick]]'' (1957)]]

When television became popular in the late 1940s and 1950s, Television Westerns quickly became an audience favorite.<ref name="Yoggy">{{Cite book |last=Yoggy |first=Gary A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qSzuAAAAMAAJ |title=Riding the Video Range: The Rise and Fall of the Western on Television |date=1995 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland]] |isbn=978-0-7864-0021-8 |language=en}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=September 2023}} Beginning with rebroadcasts of existing films, a number of movie cowboys had their own TV shows. As demand for the Western increased, new stories and stars were introduced. A number of long-running TV Westerns became classics in their own right, such as: ''[[The Cisco Kid (TV series)|The Cisco Kid]]'' (1950–1956), ''[[The Lone Ranger (TV series)|The Lone Ranger]]'' (1949–1957), ''[[Death Valley Days]]'' (1952–1970), ''[[The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp]]'' (1955–1961), ''[[Cheyenne (TV series)|Cheyenne]]'' (1955–1962), ''[[Gunsmoke]]'' (1955–1975), ''[[Maverick (TV series)|Maverick]]'' (1957–1962), ''[[Have Gun – Will Travel]]'' (1957–1963), ''[[Wagon Train]]'' (1957–1965), ''[[The Rifleman]]'' (1958–1963), ''[[Rawhide (TV series)|Rawhide]]'' (1959–1966), ''[[Bonanza]]'' (1959–1973),  ''[[The Virginian (TV series)|The Virginian]]'' (1962–1971), and ''[[The Big Valley]]'' (1965–1969). ''The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp'' was the first Western television series written for adults,<ref name="The Eastern Earps">{{cite news |last=Burris |first=Joe |title=The Eastern Earps |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/2005/05/10/the-eastern-earps/ |newspaper=Baltimore Sun |date=May 10, 2005 |access-date=October 20, 2014 |archive-date=December 16, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216151656/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2005-05-10/features/0505100100_1_wyatt-earp-genealogy-indentured |url-status=live }}</ref> premiering four days before ''Gunsmoke'' on September 6, 1955.<ref name="Brooks_and_Marsh">{{Cite book|last1=Brooks|first1=Tim|author-link=Tim Brooks (historian)|last2=Marsh|first2=Earle F.|title=The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present|publisher=[[Ballantine Books]]|year=2007|isbn=978-0-345-49773-4|location=New York|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8KztFy6QYwC|access-date=May 28, 2021}}</ref>{{rp|570,786}}<ref name="McNeil">{{cite book |last=McNeil |first=Alex |title=Total Television: the Comprehensive Guide to Programming from 1948 to the Present |location=New York |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |isbn=0-14-02-4916-8 |date=1996 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dctkAAAAMAAJ |access-date=May 28, 2021 |archive-date=March 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307172219/https://books.google.com/books?id=dctkAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|351,927}}

The peak year for television Westerns was 1959, with 26 such shows airing during primetime. At least six of them were connected in some extent to [[Wyatt Earp]]: ''The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp'', ''[[Bat Masterson (TV series)|Bat Masterson]]'', ''[[Tombstone Territory]]'', ''[[Broken Arrow (TV series)|Broken Arrow]]'', ''[[Johnny Ringo (TV series)|Johnny Ringo]]'', and ''Gunsmoke''.<ref name="guinn">{{Cite book |last=Guinn |first=Jeff |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6yOCfoJu6a0C |title=The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral-And How It Changed the American West |date=2012-05-15 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4391-5425-0 |language=en}}</ref> Increasing costs of American television production weeded out most action half-hour series in the early 1960s, and their replacement by hour-long television shows, increasingly in color.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kisseloff |first=Jeff |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g8JkAAAAMAAJ |title=The Box: An Oral History of Television, 1920-1961 |date=1995 |publisher=Viking |isbn=978-0-670-86470-6 |language=en}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=September 2023}} Traditional Westerns died out in the late 1960s as a result of network changes in [[demographic targeting]] along with pressure from parental television groups. Future entries in the genre would incorporate elements from other genera, such as crime drama and mystery whodunit elements. Western shows from the 1970s included ''[[Hec Ramsey]]'', ''[[Kung Fu (1972 TV series)|Kung Fu]]'', ''[[Little House on the Prairie (TV series)|Little House on the Prairie]]'', ''[[McCloud (TV series)|McCloud]]'', ''[[The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams]]'', and the short-lived but highly acclaimed ''[[How the West Was Won (TV series)|How the West Was Won]]'' that originated from a miniseries with the same name. In the 1990s and 2000s, hour-long Westerns and slickly packaged made-for-TV movie Westerns were introduced, such as ''[[Lonesome Dove (film)|Lonesome Dove]]'' (1989) and ''[[Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman]]''. Also, new elements were once again added to the Western formula, such as the [[space Western]], ''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]'', created by Joss Whedon in 2002. ''[[Deadwood (TV series)|Deadwood]]'' was a critically acclaimed Western series that aired on [[HBO]] from 2004 through 2006. ''[[Hell on Wheels (TV series)|Hell on Wheels]]'', a fictionalized story of the construction of the [[first transcontinental railroad]], aired on [[AMC (TV channel)|AMC]] for five seasons between 2011 and 2016. ''[[Longmire (TV series)|Longmire]]'' is a Western series that centered on [[Walt Longmire]], a sheriff in fictional Absaroka County, [[Wyoming]]. Originally aired on the [[A&E (TV channel)|A&E]] network from 2012 to 2014, it was picked up by [[Netflix]] in 2015 until the show's conclusion in 2017.

[[AMC (TV channel)|AMC]] and [[Vince Gilligan|Vince Gilligan's]] critically acclaimed ''[[Breaking Bad]]'' is a much more modern take on the Western genre. Set in [[New Mexico]], it follows [[Walter White (Breaking Bad)|Walter White]] ([[Bryan Cranston]]), a chemistry teacher diagnosed with Stage III Lung Cancer who cooks and sells crystal [[meth]] to provide money for his family after he dies, while slowly growing further and further into the illicit drug market, eventually turning into a ruthless drug dealer and killer. While the show has scenes in a populated suburban neighborhood and nearby [[Albuquerque]], much of the show takes place in the desert, where Walter often takes his RV car out into the open desert to cook his meth, and most action sequences occur in the desert, similar to old-fashioned Western movies. The clash between the Wild West and modern technology like cars and cellphones, while also focusing primarily on being a [[crime drama]] makes the show a unique spin on both genres. Walter's reliance on the desert environment makes the Western-feel a pivotal role in the show, and would continue to be used in the spinoff series ''[[Better Call Saul]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-04-03 |title=Local IQ - Contemporary Western: An interview with Vince Gilligan |url=http://www.local-iq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3019&Itemid=56 |access-date=2022-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130403091323/http://www.local-iq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3019&Itemid=56 |archive-date=April 3, 2013 }}</ref>

The neo-Western drama ''[[Yellowstone (American TV series)|Yellowstone]]'' was streamed from 2018–2024.

===Literature===
{{Main|Western fiction}}

[[Western fiction]] is a genre of literature set in the American Old West, most commonly between 1860 and 1900. The first critically recognized Western was ''[[The Virginian (novel)|The Virginian]]'' (1902) by [[Owen Wister]].<ref>{{cite web |date=June 27, 2017 |title=Classic Wild West Literature |url=https://wildwestliving.com/blogs/news/wild-west-literature}}</ref> Other well-known writers of Western fiction include [[Zane Grey]], from the early 1900s, [[Ernest Haycox]], [[Luke Short (writer)|Luke Short]], and [[Louis L'Amour]], from the mid 20th century. Many writers better known in other genres, such as [[Leigh Brackett]], [[Elmore Leonard]], and [[Larry McMurtry]], have also written Western novels. The genre's popularity peaked in the 1960s, due in part to the shuttering of many pulp magazines, the popularity of [[Television Westerns|televised Westerns]], and the rise of the spy novel. Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s and reached a new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside of a few Western states, now only carry a small number of Western novels and short-story collections.<ref>{{cite book |author=McVeigh, Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IdyqBgAAQBAJ |title=The American Western |date=2007 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press| isbn=9780748629442 }}</ref>

Literary forms that share similar themes include stories of the American frontier, the [[gaucho literature|''gaucho'' literature]] of [[Argentina]], and tales of the settlement of the Australian Outback.

[[File:Wild West 1908.jpg|thumb|300px|"As Wild felled one of the [[redskin]]s by a blow from the butt of his [[revolver]], and sprang for the one with the [[tomahawk]], the chief's daughter suddenly appeared. Raising her hands, she exclaimed, 'Go back, Young Wild West. I will save her!{{'"}} (1908)]]

=== Visual arts ===
{{Main|Western American Art}}

A number of visual artists focused their work on representations of the American Old West. American West-oriented art is sometimes referred to as "Western Art" by Americans. This relatively new category of art includes paintings, sculptures, and sometimes Native American crafts. Initially, subjects included exploration of the Western states and cowboy themes. [[Frederic Remington]] and [[Charles M. Russell]] are two artists who captured the "Wild West" in paintings and sculpture.<ref>{{cite news|author=Buscombe, Edward |title=Painting the Legend: Frederic Remington and the Western|work=Cinema Journal|date=1984|pages= 12–27}}</ref> After the death of Remington [[Richard Lorenz (artist)|Richard Lorenz]] became the preeminent artist painting in the Western genre.<ref name="Badger">{{cite book |title=Wisconsin : a guide to the Badger State |date=1941 |publisher=Duell, Sloan Pearce |location=New York |page=156 |isbn=978-1-60354-048-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qNmxCkmkam0C&dq=Richard+Lorenz+artist&pg=PA156 |access-date=13 June 2022 |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405204157/https://books.google.com/books?id=qNmxCkmkam0C&dq=Richard+Lorenz+artist&pg=PA156 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Some art museums, such as the [[Buffalo Bill Center of the West]] in Wyoming and the [[Autry National Center]] in Los Angeles, feature American Western Art.<ref>{{cite book |author-last1=Goetzmann|author-first1=William H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IXTGMAEACAAJ |title=The West of the Imagination |date=1986 |publisher=Norton |location=New York| isbn=9780393023701 }}</ref>

===Anime and manga===
With [[anime]] and [[manga]], the genre tends towards the science-fiction Western – e.g., ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' (1998 anime), ''[[Trigun]]'' (1995–2007 manga), and ''[[Outlaw Star]]'' (1996–1999 manga). Although contemporary Westerns also appear, such as ''[[Koya no Shonen Isamu]]'', a 1971 ''[[shonen]] ''manga about a boy with a Japanese father and a Native American mother, or ''[[El Cazador de la Bruja]]'', a 2007 anime television series set in modern-day Mexico. [[Steel Ball Run|Part 7]] of the manga series ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'' is based in the American Western setting. The story follows racers in a transcontinental horse race, the "Steel Ball Run". ''[[Golden Kamuy]]'' (2014–2022) shifts its setting to the fallout of the [[Russo-Japanese War]], specifically focusing on [[Hokkaido]] and [[Sakhalin]], and featuring the [[Ainu people]] and other local tribes instead of Native Americans, as well other recognizable Western tropes.

===Comics===
[[Western comics]] have included serious entries, (such as the classic comics of the late 1940s and early 1950s (namely ''[[Kid Colt, Outlaw]]'', ''[[Rawhide Kid]]'', and ''[[Red Ryder]]'') or more modern ones as [[Blueberry (comics)|''Blueberry'']]), cartoons, and parodies (such as ''[[Cocco Bill]]'' and ''[[Lucky Luke]]''). In the 1990s and 2000s, Western comics leaned towards the [[Fantasy comics|fantasy]], [[Horror comics|horror]] and [[Science fiction comics|science fiction]] genres, usually involving supernatural monsters, or Christian iconography as in ''Preacher''. More traditional Western comics are found throughout this period, though (e.g., ''[[Jonah Hex]]'' and ''[[Loveless (comics)|Loveless]]'').

===Video games===
{{Main|List of Western video games}}
{{Expand section|date=October 2024}}
Video game Westerns emerged in the 1970s. These games drew on the imagery of a mythic West portrayed in stories, films, television shows, and other assorted Western-themed toys.<ref name="strong-westerngames">{{cite web|url=https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/gunfighter-gaming-a-history-of-the-video-game-western-part-i-1971-to-1979/|publisher=[[The Strong]]|title=Gunfighter Gaming: A History of the Video Game Western Part I (1971 to 1979)|date=July 3, 2024|accessdate=October 22, 2024|last=Saucier|first=Jeremy|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20240713044228/https://www.museumofplay.org/web/20240713044228/https://www.museumofplay.org/blog/gunfighter-gaming-a-history-of-the-video-game-western-part-i-1971-to-1979/|archivedate=July 13, 2024}}</ref>

When game developers went to the imaginary West to create new experiences, they often drew consciously or unconsciously from Western stories and films. The 1971 text-based, [[Mainframe computer]] game ''[[The Oregon Trail (1971 video game)|The Oregon Trail]]'' was first game to use the West as a setting, where it tasked players to lead a party of settlers moving westward in a covered wagon from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. The game only grew popular in the 1980s and 1990s as an educational game. The first video game Westerns to engage the mass public arrived in [[Arcade game|arcade games]] focused on the gunfighter in Westerns based on depictions in television shows, films and [[Electro-mechanical game]]s such as ''Dale Six Shooter'' (1950), and [[Sega]]'s ''Gun Fight'' (1970). The first of these games was [[Midway Games|Midway]]'s ''[[Gun Fight]]'', an adaptation of [[Taito]]'s ''Western Gun'' (1975) which featured two players against each other in a duel set on a sparse desert landscape with a few cacti and a moving covered wagon to hide behind. [[Atari, Inc.|Atari]]'s ''[[Outlaw (1976 video game)|Outlaw]]'' (1976) followed which explicitly framed the shootouts between "good guys" and "outlaws" also borrowing from gunfighter themes and imagery.<ref name="strong-westerngames" /> Early [[Video game console|console game]]s such as ''[[Outlaw (1978 video game)|Outlaw]]'' (1978) for the [[Atari 2600]] and ''Gun Fight'' (1978) for the [[Bally Astrocade]] were derivative of Midway's ''Gun Fight''. These early video games featured limited [[video game graphics|graphical capabilities]], which had developers create Westerns to the most easily recognizable and popular tropes of the gunfighter shootouts.<ref name="strong-westerngames" />

[[Rockstar Games]]' Western-themed game ''[[Red Dead Redemption 2]]'' (2018) had sold over 64 million copies by 2025, making it one of the [[List of best-selling video games|best-selling video games of all time]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ign.com/articles/best-selling-video-games-of-all-time-grand-theft-auto-minecraft-tetris|work=[[IGN]]|title=The 10 Best-Selling Video Games of All Time|first=Jordan|last=Sirani|date=February 18, 2025|accessdate=July 23, 2025}}</ref>

===Radio dramas===
Western [[radio drama]]s were very popular from the 1930s to the 1960s. There were five types of Western radio dramas during this period: anthology programs, such as ''[[Empire Builders (radio program)|Empire Builders]]'' and ''Frontier Fighters''; juvenile adventure programs such as ''[[Red Ryder (radio series)|Red Ryder]]'' and ''[[Hopalong Cassidy (radio program)|Hopalong Cassidy]]''; legend and lore like ''Red Goose Indian Tales'' and ''Cowboy Tom's Round-Up''; adult Westerns like ''[[Fort Laramie (radio)|Fort Laramie]]'' and ''[[Frontier Gentleman]]''; and soap operas such as ''Cactus Kate''.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=French |first1=Jack |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VfLaAQAAQBAJ |title=Radio Rides the Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929-1967 |last2=Siegel |first2=David S. |date=2013-11-14 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-7146-1 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=8}} Some popular shows include ''[[Lone Ranger#Original radio series|The Lone Ranger]]'' (first broadcast in 1933), ''[[The Cisco Kid#Radio|The Cisco Kid]]'' (first broadcast in 1942), ''[[Dr. Sixgun]]'' (first broadcast in 1954), ''[[Have Gun – Will Travel#Radio show|Have Gun–Will Travel]]'' (first broadcast in 1958), and ''[[Gunsmoke#Radio series (1952–1961)|Gunsmoke]]'' (first broadcast in 1952).<ref>{{cite web |title=Old Time Radio Westerns |url=http://www.otrwesterns.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110319172946/http://www.otrwesterns.com/ |archive-date=2011-03-19 |website=otrwesterns.com}}</ref>  Many shows were done live, while others were transcribed.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|pages=9–10}}

===Web series===
Westerns have been showcased in short-episodic web series. Examples include ''[[League of STEAM]]'', ''[[Red Bird (web series)|Red Bird]]'', and [[Arkansas Traveler (web series)|''Arkansas Traveler'']].

==Subgenres==
{{Main|List of Western subgenres}}

Within the larger scope of the Western genre, there are several recognized subgenres. Some subgenres, such as [[spaghetti Western]]s, maintain standard Western settings and plots, while others take the Western theme and archetypes into different supergenres, such as [[neo-Western]]s or [[space Western]]s.  For a time, Westerns made in countries other than the United States were often labeled by foods associated with the culture, such as spaghetti Westerns (Italy), [[meat pie Western]]s (Australia), ramen Westerns (Asia), and masala Westerns (India).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Groves |first=Derham |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h6CYEAAAQBAJ |title=Australian Westerns in the Fifties: Kangaroo, Hopalong Cassidy on Tour, and Whiplash |date=2022-10-28 |publisher=[[Springer Nature]] |isbn=978-3-031-12883-7 |pages=xii |language=en |access-date=February 6, 2023 |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405172843/https://books.google.com/books?id=h6CYEAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Influence on other genres==
Being [[period drama]] pieces, both the Western and [[Samurai cinema|samurai genre]] influenced each other in style and themes throughout the years.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cowboys and Shoguns: The American Western, Japanese Jidaigeki, and Cross-Cultural Exchange |url=http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1109&context=srhonorsprog |website=Digitalcommons.uri.edu |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929002901/http://digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1109&context=srhonorsprog |archive-date=2015-09-29 }}</ref> ''The Magnificent Seven'' was a remake of [[Akira Kurosawa]]'s film ''Seven Samurai'', and ''A Fistful of Dollars'' was a remake of Kurosawa's ''[[Yojimbo (movie)|Yojimbo]]'', which itself was inspired by ''[[Red Harvest]]'', an American detective novel by [[Dashiell Hammett]].<ref>{{cite web|work=[[The New York Times]]|title=New DVDs: 'Films of Kenneth Anger' and 'Samurai Classics'|first=Dave|last=Kehr|date=January 23, 2007|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/movies/homevideo/23dvd.html?_r=0|access-date=February 23, 2017|archive-date=October 6, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006083737/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/movies/homevideo/23dvd.html?_r=0|url-status=live}}</ref> Kurosawa was influenced by American Westerns and was a fan of the genre, most especially [[John Ford]].<ref>{{cite web|first=Patrick |last=Crogan |url=http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/00/9/kurosawa.html |title=Translating Kurosawa |work=Senses of Cinema |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091003194402/http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/00/9/kurosawa.html |archive-date=2009-10-03 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.moongadget.com/origins/kurosawa.html |title=Star Wars Origins |publisher=Far Cry from the Original Site |first=Justine |last=Shaw |access-date=December 20, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151103145347/http://www.moongadget.com/origins/kurosawa.html |archive-date=November 3, 2015 }} December 14, 2015</ref>

Despite the [[Cold War]], the Western was a strong influence on Eastern Bloc cinema, which had its own take on the genre, the so-called [[Red Western]] or Ostern. Generally, these took two forms: either straight Westerns shot in the Eastern Bloc, or action films involving the [[Russian Revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution]], the [[Russian Civil War]], and the [[Basmachi]] rebellion.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Cynthia J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AHNBAgAAQBAJ |title=International Westerns: Re-Locating the Frontier |last2=Riper |first2=A. Bowdoin Van |date=2013-11-21 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-9288-0 |pages=379–384 |language=en}}</ref>

Many elements of space-travel series and films borrow extensively from the conventions of the Western genre. This is particularly the case in the [[space Western]] subgenre of science fiction. [[Peter Hyams]]'s ''[[Outland (film)|Outland]]'' transferred the plot of ''High Noon'' to Io, moon of Jupiter. More recently, the [[space opera]] series ''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]'' used an explicitly Western theme for its portrayal of frontier worlds. [[Anime]] shows such as ''Cowboy Bebop'', ''Trigun'' and ''Outlaw Star'' have been similar mixes of science-fiction and Western elements. The science fiction Western can be seen as a subgenre of either Westerns or science fiction. Elements of Western films can be found also in some films belonging essentially to other genres. For example, ''[[Kelly's Heroes]]'' is a war film, but its action and characters are Western-like.
[[File:John Wayne in Wake of the Red Witch trailer.jpg|left|thumb|{{center|[[John Wayne]] (1948)}}]]

The character played by [[Humphrey Bogart]] in [[film noir|noir]] films such as ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]'' and ''[[To Have and Have Not (film)|To Have and Have Not]]''—an individual bound only by his own private code of honor—has a lot in common with the classic Western hero. In turn, the Western has also explored noir elements, as with films such as [[Colorado Territory (film)|Colorado Territory]]<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Meuel |first=David |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2ytzBgAAQBAJ |title=The Noir Western: Darkness on the Range, 1943-1962 |date=2015-01-28 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-1974-3 |pages=39, 45–46 |language=en}}</ref> and ''[[Pursued]].''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schwartz |first=Ronald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VZkXAgAAQBAJ |title=Houses of Noir: Dark Visions from Thirteen Film Studios |date=2013-11-05 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-0460-2 |pages=124 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2" />

In many of [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s books, the settlement of other planets is depicted in ways explicitly modeled on American settlement of the West. For example, in his ''[[Tunnel in the Sky]]'', settlers set out to the planet New Canaan, via an [[interstellar teleporter]] portal across the galaxy, in [[Conestoga wagon]]s, their captain sporting mustaches and a little goatee and riding a [[Palomino]] horse—with Heinlein explaining that the colonists would need to survive on their own for some years, so horses are more practical than machines.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Heinlein |first=Robert A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NPSP1e8xCNQC |title=Tunnel in the Sky |date=2005-03-15 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-4165-0551-8 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Stephen King]]'s ''The Dark Tower'' is a series of seven books that meshes themes of Westerns, [[high fantasy]], science fiction, and horror. The protagonist [[Roland of Gilead|Roland Deschain]] is a gunslinger whose image and personality are largely inspired by the Man with No Name from Sergio Leone's films. In addition, the [[superhero]] fantasy genre has been described as having been derived from the cowboy hero, only powered up to omnipotence in a primarily urban setting. 

The Western genre has been parodied on a number of occasions, famous examples being ''[[Support Your Local Sheriff!]]'', ''[[Cat Ballou]]'', [[Mel Brooks]]'s ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'', and ''[[Rustler's Rhapsody]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=O'Connor |first1=John E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4pdTBKaum_UC |title=Hollywood's West: The American Frontier in Film, Television, and History |last2=Rollins |first2=Peter |date=2005-11-11 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |isbn=978-0-8131-2354-7 |pages=218–230 |language=en}}</ref>

[[George Lucas]]'s ''[[Star Wars]]'' films use many elements of a Western, and Lucas has said he intended for ''Star Wars'' to revitalize cinematic mythology, a part the Western once held. The [[Jedi]], who take their name from [[Jidaigeki]], are modeled after samurai, showing the influence of Kurosawa. The character [[Han Solo]] dressed like an archetypal gunslinger, and the [[Mos Eisley]] cantina is much like an Old West saloon.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/cover_story/2015/12/star_wars_is_a_pastiche_how_george_lucas_combined_flash_gordon_westerns.html|title=Star Wars Is a Postmodern Masterpiece|last=Wickman|first=Forrest|date=2015-12-13|work=Slate|access-date=2019-11-14|language=en-US|issn=1091-2339|archive-date=December 3, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191203055643/http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/cover_story/2015/12/star_wars_is_a_pastiche_how_george_lucas_combined_flash_gordon_westerns.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Meanwhile, films such as ''[[The Big Lebowski]]'', which plucked actor [[Sam Elliott]] out of the Old West and into a Los Angeles bowling alley, and ''[[Midnight Cowboy]]'', about a Southern-boy-turned-gigolo in New York (who disappoints a client when he does not measure up to Gary Cooper), transplanted Western themes into modern settings for both purposes of parody and homage.<ref>{{cite web|first=Robert |last=Silva |url=http://blogs.amctv.com/future-of-classic/2009/05/cowboys-in-non-westerns.php |publisher=Not From 'Round Here... Cowboys Who Pop Up Outside the Old West |title=Future of the Classic |date=2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091213203944/http://blogs.amctv.com/future-of-classic/2009/05/cowboys-in-non-westerns.php |archive-date=2009-12-13 }}</ref>

[[File:Tommixgunslinger.jpg|[[Tom Mix]] in ''Mr. Logan, U.S.A.'', {{circa|1919}}|thumb]]

==See also==
* [[Dime Western]]
* [[Wild West shows]]
* [[List of Western computer and video games]]
* [[List of Western fiction authors]]
* [[Lists of Western films]]
* [[List of Western television series]]
* [[Western lifestyle]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Buscombe, Edward, and Christopher Brookeman. ''The [[British Film Institute|BFI]] Companion to the Western'' (A. Deutsch, 1988)
* Everson, William K. ''A Pictorial History of the Western Film'' (New York: Citadel Press, 1969)
* Kitses, Jim. ''Horizons West: The Western from John Ford to Clint Eastwood'' (British Film Institute, 2007).
* Lenihan, John H. ''Showdown: Confronting Modern America in the Western Film'' (University of Illinois Press, 1980)
* Nachbar, John G. ''Focus on the Western'' (Prentice Hall, 1974)
* Simmon, Scott. ''The Invention of the Western Film: A Cultural History of the Genre's First Half Century'' (Cambridge University Press, 2003)

==External links==
{{Commons category multi|Westerns|Wild West in art|Native Americans in art}}
{{Spoken Wikipedia|Western(genre)-060526.ogg|date=2006-05-22}}
* [https://westernamericanliterature.com/western-film-and-tv/ Articles on Western film and TV in ''Western American Literature'']
* [https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/40705 Special issue of ''Western American Literature'' on Global Westerns]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100401113349/http://www.imdb.com/genre/western Most Popular Westerns] at the [[Internet Movie Database]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050901053348/http://www.westernwriters.org/ Western Writers of America website]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060630053638/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419101308/print "The Western"], ''St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture'', 2002
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140914004019/https://mises.org/daily/4930/I-Watch-Westerns I Watch Westerns], [[Ludwig von Mises Institute]]
* [http://www.thewildbunchfilmfestival.com/ Film Festival for the Western Genre website]
* [[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.westfilmscriptc|Western Filmscript Collection]]. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

{{Wild West}}
{{American tall tales}}
{{Film genres}}
{{Western (genre)}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Western (genre)]]
[[Category:American frontier|*]]
[[Category:Culture of the Western United States|*]]
[[Category:Western United States in fiction|*]]
[[Category:Film genres]]
[[Category:Literary genres]]
[[Category:Fiction by genre]]
[[Category:Works set in the 19th century]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]