west is best

I love films that are set in the West but aren't actually Westerns. I mentioned a couple of these (The Last Picture Show and The Killer Inside Me) in my small-town melodrama list, but since it's another favourite subgenre of mine, I thought I'd elaborate.

The Western has more offshoots than perhaps any other genre; every decade or two it seems to be revived with a twist. However, it always seems to boil down to the same old elements, which gets tedious if you're not a fan of overblown myths of masculinity and stage-y acting. I know I'm going to catch some flak for this, but I find Sergio Leone films painful to watch and Jon Wayne's cardboard delivery really gets on my nerves. That being said, I love the western setting: the sweeping desert landscapes, the horses, the cowboy hats--with the right artistic vision these elements can meld into pure cinematic magic.

Fortunately for me, there are lots of auteur films in which to get a fix without the tired tropes of the classical Western. Here are a few, for your viewing pleasure:

The Misfits (1961)

Written by playwright Arthur Miller, directed by John Huston and starring Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift, this film is a tour-de-force. In her final (and, probably, best) performance, Monroe plays a divorcee who is appalled when her rugged cowboy lover, played by Gable, plans to round up the area's last remaining herd of wild horses and sell them for dog food. Her love for the untamed beasts is consistent with her love for Gable's manly character, but the latter's Western pragmatism spoils the romance and leads to disillusionment. The film has its share of light, funny moments, but it culminates in an unforgettably passionate outcry from Monroe. If you ask me, she is generally underrated as an actress (it's hard to take a woman seriously when her breasts are always falling out of her dress) and, here, the casting choice takes on added significance since, in life as in this role, she proved to be a tragic figure too sensitive for the rough world around her.

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

This is a classic tragedy about two people who love each other more than anything else in the world but can't be together--the twist is that they happen to be cowboys. Masterfully directed and acted (the late Heath Ledger is especially brilliant as man-of-few-words Ennis Del Mar), the film contains what is, in my opinion, one of the saddest moments in all cinema; I won't spoil the plot for you, but I will admit that I bawl like a baby every time I see it.

Giant (1956)

James Dean in a cowboy hat. Need I say more? This sprawling epic about a Texas ranching family is perfect viewing for a long, late-summer night.

Hud (1963)

Paul Newman in a cowboy hat...you get the picture. Anyway, this gem of a film also has a really interesting screenplay in that the title character is actually the antagonist and his young nephew who seems to be on the fringe of the story ends up being framed as the protagonist. Filmed in beautiful black and white, it's pure pleasure to watch.

Crin blanc / White Mane (1953)

This film is delightfully odd; coming in at 40 minutes in length, I would describe it as an existential fairy-tale for kids. Directed by Albert Lamorisse (The Red Balloon), it also has to do with the capture of a wild horse, this time in the Camargue region of Southern France. A young boy witnesses the attempts of the gardians (Camargue cowboys) to break a wild stallion named White Mane. A violent contest breaks out between White Mane and one of the other horses in which they paw at each other with their hooves and bite each other until their silvery coats are streaked with blood (this long, visceral battle looks as though it just happened spontaneously and they decided to let the cameras roll). White Mane, the victor, escapes the paddock and from then on the little boy is obsessed, fantasizing about the magnificent creature in gorgeously filmed, hypnotic dream sequences. He finally does get to ride White Mane, but the gardians give chase across the desert marshes; the film closes on the boy and horse swimming out to sea, never to return.

PS: Unforgiven, a brilliant anti-Western by Clint Eastwood, and The Three Burials of Meliaques Estrada, an arthouse indie-Western by Tommy Lee Jones, may appear to be more faithful to the conventions of the genre, but add enough twists to make them very interesting anomalies for anyone who's tired of the same old horse operas.