10 Western Movie Tropes That Define the Genre

West Movies have long built on repeated tropes that define the genre. Like the exciting stories of how cowboys, bandits and outlaws make their way through a lawless life across the Wild West frontier, many tropes and clichés have been repeated time and time again to the point that they become easily associated with the genre itself. These tropes helped create a cinematic language for Western movies and helped them stand apart from other types of genre films.

Many of the best Western movies ever made are packed with tropes and clichés from the genre. The acclaimed collaborations of icons like John Wayne and John Ford would not have been possible without the foundations of the western genre and the tropes and clichés it embodied. From over-the-top brawls in dusty saloons to lone gunmen facing off against ruthless crooks in a lawless city, These tropes helped define Westerns.

10

A showdown at high noon

High Noon (1952)

While it was the 1952 West High noon Which reinforces the movie trope of a noble gunslinger facing off against an adversary at a predetermined time, the cliché has its origins throughout the genre’s history. With climactic gunfights being a staple of Westerns across films, television, comics, and more, the idea represented a test of the hero’s bravery, determination, and skill. By setting up the battle for later in the future, the Western Showdown trope showed that the hero could have fled town but instead stuck around to risk their lives in the name of justice.

High noon Perfectly encapsulated this trope as Gary Cooper’s portrayal of Marshall Will Kane Get to the heart of the native characteristics of Western movie stars. Even though Marshall Kane’s life was likely to be lost when he faced off against a gang of killers alone, he knew it was the right thing to do and that only a coward would escape town. Despite accusations of High noon propagating communist sympathies and John Wayne rejecting the classic Western as “The most un-American thing I’ve ever seen“, it has remained a firm favorite among Western movie lovers.

9

The noble boss

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Although the term noble gangster may sound like it embodies an inherent contradiction, Western movies have consistently shown its value. A noble outlaw was a cowboy who, although they did not follow the letter of the law, still lived by their own set of moral and ethical values. In a way, this comes across as more authentic, as outlaws formed their own value system that aligned more with the dog-eat-dog, every-man-for-himself mentality of life in the era of the Wild West.

One movie that highlighted this trope well was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance KidA film that showed its stars, Paul Newman and Robert Redford, as criminal men with great virtues. Despite his bank robbers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are not evil peopleOnly clever crooks who decided to use their smarts to make it big and carry out their robbery plans. Although it was clear that the outlaws were criminals, their innate likability meant audiences rooted for them anyway.

8

The saloon brawl

The Magnificent Seven (2016)

There have been so many memorable saloon brawls in Western movies that this trope has been parodied in everything from Blazing saddles to My name is nobody. The common Western event usually involved an out-of-towner arriving uninvited at a dodgy saloon full of cowboys and criminals. With incredible tension, the hero usually starts asking unwanted questions, and before too long, all hell breaks loose as bottles are thrown, guns are fired, and he is forced to showcase his skills as a superior gunslinger to calm things down.

One modern example of this trope in action is the 2016 remake of the Western classic The Magnificent Seven. The scene saw Denzel Washington takes part in an intense bar shootout Which saw him shoot several people while barely even looking at them. This showcase of pure gunmanship reveals the innate skills of Washington’s character and sets up the audience’s expectations of him for the rest of the movie.

7

The Lawless Town

Unforgiven (1992)

When you see a town in a western movie, it always seems to be either a shining example of law and order that an outcast comes in and disrupts, or a lawless example of wild western excesses that a noble hero has to step in and save. The lawless western town has been a consistent trope in the genre As it is fast food for compelling stories of heroes vs. villains. This was effectively seen in the HBO series deadwood, What walked the fine line between the two tropes when civilization began to encroach on a previously legal frontier camp.

Another famous example of this trope in practice was in Clint Eastwood’s masterpiece of Western revisionism, Unforgiven. The Western winning Best Picture brought together many of the tropes of the genre to comment on itself, and Lawless Western Town was no different. As ex-sheriff William Mooney, Eastwood was seen embarking on a quest for revenge while encountering the forbidding, brothel-filled lawlessness of Midwestern towns.

6

The damsel in distress

Django (1966)

The damsel in distress trope has been a consistent feature of not only Western movies but storytelling in general for centuries. The idea of ​​a helpless woman who needs a brave man to swoop in and save the day is often seen in Greek mythology, fairy tales, and countless modern genres. The inherent danger for women of violence and sexual assault in the lawlessness of the Wild West made this even more prominent in stories of outlaws and cowboys, because it often represented a strong motivation for the hero to take action.

One particularly violent example was DjangoThe 1966 Spaghetti Western starring Franco Nero that served as a primary influence for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. Director Sergio Corbucci’s western featured a classic damsel-in-need character in Maria, a prostitute who was tortured and assaulted by gangs of bandits. These horrific cases spur Django into action and showcase exactly why the damsel in distress trope can be so effective from a narrative and character motivation perspective.

5

The weathered old cowboy

True Grit (1969)

A wise, older mentor guiding a younger protégé has been a staple of storytelling for countless centuries and even holds a special place in the classic monomyth of the hero’s journey. This is also true of the western genre, as young gunliners meet old, weathered cowboys who want to pass their wisdom on to the upcoming generation. By providing a complex and almost parental relationship between the two characters, this trope is regularly used in Western movies to great effect.

One famous example of this trope in practice was John Wayne’s iconic role as Rooster Cogburn in True size. This classic western saw Wayne reluctantly team up with young Mattie Ross, a stubborn teenager trying to track down her father’s murder in Lola’s Native American territory. The juxtaposition between Mattie’s bright-eyed ambition and Cogburn’s well-worn frustration and life experience made this an iconic Western and a firm showcase of this notable trope.

4

Civilization versus the desert

Dances with Wolves (1990)

The juxtaposition between the untamed, lawless wild western landscape and the encroaching influence of civilization has been a consistent theme in western movies. It was a line to walk and led to interesting explorations of Native American culture and the history of how the United States carved out its own identity and mythology. The world of Westerns was both wild and full of strict order, and often, a lone gunman or a determined outlaw stood at the center of this dichotomy.

This trope was heavily explored in Kevin Costner’s Best Picture winner, Dances with wolves. As Lieutenant Dunbar deals with conflict and contradictory existence of white settlers and Native American tribes, Dances with wolves became an examination of the complexities of American cultureAs it was impossible for modernity to take hold without destroying the lives and livelihoods of indigenous populations. Packed with historical references surrounding Civil War-era disputes over Native American tribal land, Dances with wolves has much to say about the complex legacy of the United States.

3

The Great Train Robbery

The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford

One of the most well-known western tropes involves complex and impressive heists and robberies. This was seen as far back as the earliest days of cinema in the 1903 silent movie classic The Great Train Robbery And has continued to expand ever beyond the confines of traditional Westerners, such as in the Breaking bad Episode “Dead Fear.” Throughout cinematic history, Train robberies are as integral to the western genre as cowboy hats and horseback riding..

Even the opening scene of The assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford Began with a dramatization of the famous Blue Cat, Missouri Train Robbery., just one of many robberies committed by the real-life Jacob brothers. A good train-robbing scene can be an excellent showcase of a Western antihero’s cunning ability, and the fast-paced nature of a moving train makes it especially cinematic. As one of the most suspense-filled and impressive tropes in Western cinema, it’s not surprising that it has endured since the silent era.

2

The lone gunslinger

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

While Western heroes often form temporary alliances for reasons of mutual benefit, the typical Wild West gunslinger was a lone wolf who played by his own rules. This emphasis represents the individualistic tendencies of the United States and was carried forward in classic spaghetti westerns by legendary directors like Sergio Leone. A famous example of a unique gunslinger was Clint Eastwood’s iconic portrayal of the character known as The Man With No Name.

The Man With No Name has been the leading antihero throughout Leone’s entirety Dollars Trilogy and starred in A fistful of dollars, For a few dollars moreAnd The good, the bad and the ugly. As the character who uttered some of Eastwood’s greatest western movie quotes, The Man With No Name encapsulated the cool independence and self-direction of a true western star. While Eastwood teamed up with the likes of Eli Wallach as the sly gangster Tuco, it was always on his own terms.

1

The quest for revenge

The Searchers (1956)

John Ford’s iconic western The searchers was among the best movies ever made and was a powerful showcase of the classic genre trope of the quest for revenge. The idea of ​​a normal person or former gunslinger who was forced into action by trauma and pain has been a trope of the Western genre for a very long time. Although this idea has been explored in hyper-violent ways in recent years, such as Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, The searchers remains the definitive example of this movie trope.

While The searchers Started with John Wayne as Ethan Edwards’ quest to find his abducted niece (Natalie Wood), it grew into a quest for revenge to wrong those who stole the childhood of his young relative Debbie Edwards. The searchers Showcase revenge in its purest form as Ethan sculpts the main Comanches before bringing Debbie to safety. Although this was a trope repeated time and time again in the West genre, Ford’s masterful work on The searchers remains the quintessential example.