To enumerate all the good movies of actor Robert Mitchum would make a long list. To his very best works, however, counts the 1948 Western movie Blood on the Moon. This film turned out to be one of the few examples for a perfect blend of two very American genres, namely the Western and film […]
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Tag: The Cowboy
David Lynch and the American West: Essays on Regionalism and Indigeneity in Twin Peaks and the Films...
Usually, whenever American director David Lynch introduces a new film, audiences can be almost certain that it will contain a couple of dreamlike, surreal, noir or neo-noir settings, characters or specific places. It may also feature different regional settings or the story could follow the travels or quests of the protagonist through several states. This […]
Hillbilly Maidens, Okies, and Cowgirls: Women’s Country Music, 1930-1960 by Stephanie Vander Wel (20
Going back to the early days of medicine shows, vaudeville and traveling entertainment troupes, female performers there already had their regular part in the entertainment industry; and country music, or hillbilly music as it was first named, played a role in building up that reputation. For example, what in the 1940s was transported as “parodic […]
The Western Films of Robert Mitchum. Hollywood’s Cowboy Rebel by Gene Freese (2020)
Maybe one of the reasons why actor Robert Mitchum looked so comfortable and at home in western movies, was the fact that he bred horses, preferred the casual cowboy outfit off the film set, and seemingly simply played himself, whenever he took the part of the cowboy, the Sheriff, the outlaw or the weather-beaten stranger […]
Fashion and Masculinities in Popular Culture by Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas (2019)
With the advent of modernity, the choices of men and women to shape their own character freely, pick their styles and outfit and maybe even follow a new role model were multiplied. Thanks to travel, tourism, modern means of communication, news and image transfer, no longer only the local role models and heroes were attainable […]
Cowboy Politics: Myths and Discourses in Popular Westerns … by John S. Nelson (2018)
The popularity of the American western is still unbroken. This has to do with the story lines, great landscapes, good soundtracks and mostly with the deeds of some heroic men (and sometimes women) who did “the right thing” in times of distress and usually – as portrayed – in very rough and dangerous times. However, […]
Cowboys and Gangsters: Stories of an Untamed Southwest by Samuel K. Dolan (2016)
While most American historical books concentrate on just one period of time, one group of individuals or precisely one cultural event in American history, in Cowboys and Gangsters, we encounter quite a gripping set of bygone and cultural crossroads. Author Samuel K. Dolan, a movie director, documentary writer and producer, tells of both the last […]
Cowboy Classics: The Roots of the American Western in the Epic Tradition by Kirsten Day (2016)
Kirsten Day’s title is the latest publication in the series ‘Screening Antiquity’ by Edinburgh University Press, the only series of academic monographs focusing on new research concerning the reception of the ancient world in film and television and the conception of antiquity in popular culture. At first, there would be reservations to connect the book’s […]
Hoo-Doo Cowboys and Bronze Buckaroos… by Michael K. Johnson (2014)
The westward expansion in the 18th and 19th century is well documented and was done by (what we believe) an entirely white/Caucasian group of people who took their chances and finally settled the West; if we believe the many tales, novels and most importantly the countless western movies. But actually, there were also some others, […]