While everyone is stunned by the latest offering from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Panther , the other release this week, Hostiles , starring a former Batman, Christian Bale, as a battle-scarred cavalry officer, is a new take on another genre beloved of Hollywood, the western. Wikipedia defines the western as set in America in the latter part of the 19th century, featuring a nomadic gunslinger dispensing rough and rude justice. The plots were mainly revenge-driven with zan, zar, zameen (woman, gold, land) being the driving force. The building of a railway or a telegraph line was thrown in for that frontier spice.
Taking a shine
The western saw its golden period from the early part of the 20th century to the 1960s. And then the revisions kicked in, with filmmakers questioning the simplistic villain-good-guy premise and treating native Americans in a more nuanced manner.
Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti westerns featured a lone ranger with selfish motives. The jingly-jangly musical score by Ennio Morricone gave an added adrenaline rush. Shot in Europe for the cheap production costs the films made a star of Clint Eastwood’s ‘Man with No Name’. Eastwood’s laconic style found echoes in a tall, lanky young man’s interpretation of a petty thief bound for guts and glory in Sholay .
This publicity image released by Disney shows Johnny Depp as Tonto, left, and Armie Hammer as The Lone Ranger, in a scene from "The Lone Ranger." (AP Photo/Disney Enterprises, Inc., Peter Mountain)
Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay , while coming from a long line of police- daaku films, is a spiritual sibling to Leone’s movies, with Amjad Khan’s iconic Gabbar Singh having his origins in the psychotic El Indio (Gian Maria Volontè) in For a Few Dollars More . Khote Sikkay (1974), which came out a year before Sholay, also featured a village terrorised by a cruel bandit and music by RD Burman. The charming Feroz Khan plays Dilbar, complete with Stetson and poncho.
What goes round
In The Magnificent Seven (1960), John Sturges relooks at Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai . Kurosawa was a great fan of John Ford’s westerns and Sholay is a loose adaptation of The Magnificent Seven , which was remade in 2016 by Antoine Fuqua starring his Training Day actors Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, among others.
Washington also starred in The Book of Eli (2010), a neo-Western, set in a post-apocalyptic world. A western with knives and other pointy objects, the movie follows Eli (Washington) as he traverses the country to the West Coast to deliver a mysterious book. The Mad Max movies follow similar themes — set in a post-apocalyptic world with a fight for scarce resources, a grungy palette and rocking soundtrack.
Wagon to the stars
Gene Roddenberry is famously said to have pitched Star Trek as a “Wagon Train to the Stars”, and the western holds prime real estate in science fiction. Wild Wild West (1999), a big screen adaptation of the TV series, was all steam punk gadgetry, from wheelchairs to mechanised spiders. Despite the combined wattage of Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh and Salma Hayek, the film was a bit of a bore.
- October 21, 2015 is Back to the Future Day, the day Marty and Doc travel to the future in their time machine in Back To The Future Part II.
Giggle with glee
Back to the Future Part III (1990), where Marty travels to 1885 to rescue Doc from Biff’s great grandfather, has Marty adopt the name of Clint, only to have one of the town elders demand what kind of name Clint is. Harrison Ford, whose Han Solo is definitely a space cowboy, and whose Indiana Jones with Fedora and bullwhip is a cowboy-archaeologist, plays a cattle baron in space-western Cowboys & Aliens (2011). Directed by Jon Favreau and starring Daniel Craig as an amnesiac outlaw, the film about saving the town from marauding aliens was disappointing.
In this publicity image released by Universal Pictures, Harrison Ford, left, and Daniel Craig are shown in a scene from "Cowboys & Aliens." (AP Photo/Universal Pictures, Timothy White)
The Lone Ranger (2013) to tell the origin story of one of the most beloved characters of Westerns, the Lone Ranger. With excellent visuals and stunning train sequences, but an uneven tone and some controversy over Depp playing Tonto, the movie was not a breathless ride, as much as a sputtering one. The white horse appearing at opportune moments reminds one of Mel Brooks’ Miracle from History of the World Part 1 and his western spoof Blazing Saddles .
Royale du cheese
If there is going to be a reimagining, can Quentin Tarantino be far behind? His Django Unchained (2012) is a tribute to spaghetti westerns. The film starred Jamie Foxx as Django, Christoph Waltz as a smarmy bounty hunter and Leonardo DiCaprio as cruel plantation owner Calvin J Candie. Stylised, brutal, with long meandering conversations, Django was typical Tarantino.
When the script of The Hateful Eight , a sequel to Django Unchained leaked, Tarantino initially cancelled the film, but later changed his mind. Starring Tarantino regulars such as Samuel L Jackson, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen among others, The Hateful Eight showcased Tarantino’s stylish flourishes, notwithstanding the destruction of the antique 1870s Martin guitar.
A still from Wild,Wild West
The Western has created archetypes that have been recycled forever. The nomadic gunslinger is a reiteration of the knight errant from medieval romances and is still fighting the good fight — Jack Reacher anyone?
