All I'm saying is that I believe almost every non-cinephile who thinks they know what Westerns are would be very surprised by films like Johnny Guitar or The Ox-Bow Incident. Granted, those are top of the crop, but for example the legacy of film noir wasn't as supplanted by neo-noirs of the 70s/90s as Westerns by spaghettis, the look of noir is still very recognizable and mostly intact in pop-culture.fori on Jan 27 2018, 02:14:06 PM wrote:Again, that is not evidence that Leone killed the Western.
I went through every Western I have checked (apparently only a pathetic 200) and noticed more than a few westerns who do not fit your classification. For one thing, most of the Westerns directed by the less revered genre directors of the pre-spaghetti era are not nearly as sentimental as the films of Hawks & Ford. On top of which there were quite a few westerns of the older style made in the 70s, 80s & 90s. Nevertheless I must say this: you really think sentimental melodrama would have been a better path for the western to head down?
Whether to call that a killing of the genre or simply evolution is up to you, I'm not sure how I feel about that myself. I do know that anything that gave us the masterpiece that is The Hateful Eight is probably not bad.
Plus, his year-end video Top25s are steadily growing on me.