The landscape of Hollywood westerns : ecocriticism in an American film genre

Films located in the American West and the Western as a cinematic genre have endured throughout the history of moviemaking. Today, this tradition of battles between good versus evil, populists versus profiteers, and man versus nature may have been largely assimilated and transformed into action adventures with car chases replacing mounted posses, yet the genre remains popular with audiences. In studies of the Hollywood Western, the importance of landscape itself, the idyllic or treacherous environment portrayed in these films, often receives supporting-role status. Without the land, however, American national mythmaking would not exist. The essays in this volume scrutinize the special place of nature and landscape in films—including silent, documentary, and feature length film—that are specifically American and Western. The films discussed here go beyond the stereotypical sagebrush setting. Although many of the films closely fit the standard conventions of the Western, others demonstrate the fluidity of the genre. The wildness of the western environment as a central fact of the American mythos encompasses far more than a brief period of national history or a specific geographical location. Western ecological films : the subgenre with no name / by John Shelton Lawrence Nature conquering, or, Nature conquered in The wind (1928) / by Freedonia Paschall and Robert G. Weiner Landscapes of failure in John Ford's Grapes of wrath (1939) / by Robert C. Sickels Tulsa (1949) as an oil field film : a study in ecological ambivalence / by Peter C. Rollins Hydraulic mining then and now : the case of Pale rider (1985) / by Joe Huemann and Robin Murray East goes West : the technicolor environment of Northwest passage (1940) / by Susan Paterson Glover Haunted by waters : the river in American films of the West / by Mary Pinard Nature and Heartland (1980) / by Jessie L. Embry Easy rider (1969) : landscaping the modern western / by Elaine M. Bapis Cinematic conquest : breaking the Mexican American connection to the land in the movies / by Carl Wilmsen The living presence of Monument Valley in John Ford's Stagecoach (1939) / by Deborah A. Carmichael A filmography of Western films with ecocritical and environmental representations / by John Shelton Lawrence