the western

Stagecoach (directed by John Ford) is considered to be the classic western that brought back popularity to the genre. Most westerns made during that time period were low budget films made in a few days and were meant to be an opener in double features. It had everything one would think about a western. There was a southern bell, a comedic drunk, some Indian chases, love, and a big hero cow boy. Without Stagecoach westerns very well could have essentially disappeared off the scene and revisionist along with modernist and parody westerns may have not occurred in such mass. A good example of a revisionist western is Unforgiven (directed by Clint Eastwood) it too had much of what comes to mind with a cliché western but was much darker and cold. It also had a song that played sporadically through the film when the farm of William Munny (Eastwood) was shown at sunset. Unforgiven shows the not so glorious side of rebel coy boys and refrains from giving the audience a perfect ending with a love story and everything working out. John Wayne and Clint Eastwood both played the rebel cowboy in very different ways. The Ringo Kid (Wayne) was a good boy who wanted to bring the justice that the law couldn't give. William Munny on the other hand was said to be a drunk killer who'd had his ways changed by his wife. Munny also had twenty years on Ringo. He was a retired drunk killer who decided to go out on one last killing to be able to provide for his two motherless children.