Women in the Western Genre Essay - 1530 Words

Ever since the early 20th century, there had been several attempts and experimentation in creating a new genre of cinema known as the Western. The first well-known Western movie The Great Train Robbery (1903), while not necessarily being the first ever Western, it is by both film historians and theorists definitely considered the pinnacle of the genre, that got it all started and that would be the first step in creating others similar to it, but also very different. Because it was still an unknown genre in film, there had not yet been established a set of rules as for how to construct films in this new experimental genre so change was to be expected. One of the most significant changes in the genre through the years is how the role of†¦show more content†¦One other Western film that comes to mind when it comes to â€Å"the role and treatment of women† (Shulman ix) is The Virginian, where Molly, an Eastern schoolteacher who comes to Wyoming from a good but rather needy Vermont family faces several conflicts – one all Westerns are typically all too familiar with being the inevitable conflict of the East and West, but it seems as though throughout their interactions with one another it serves as more of a guise for a contest between men and women when Molly proceeds to educate the Virginian, then in turn educating and increasingly dominating her – thus resulting in a â€Å"genteel version of the nineteenth-century war between the sexes† (Shulman ix), and what could also be stated as â€Å"a masculine-feminine contest about responsibility and marriage† (Shulman xxvii) comes to pass upon Mollys arrival. Despite getting to know The Virginian well over the course of the film, Molly is still naà ¯ve when it comes to the attempted newly formed laws and customs of the parts of the West, showing so when she objects to the lynching, but as The Virginian himself explained, despite how greatly it upsets him as well it is something he has to do, because his friend knew of the customs of the country, and that if they did not go through with the lynching the judges wouldnt like it. However, soon Judge Henry overcomes Mollys feminine and Eastern objections, as his three arguments regarding the West and law serve to persuade MollyShow MoreRelatedThe Western as a Film Genre1449 Words   |  6 PagesThe Western as a Genre John Ford’s Stagecoach (United Artists) has been hailed as the official Western Classic. 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