1. A look at the wild frontier on film By T. Snow
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A look at the wild frontier on film
By T. Snow

2. Western films
The Western is a genre of various arts which tell stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th century in the American Old West, often centering on the life of a cowboy/ gunslinger armed with a revolver and a rifle who quite often rides a horse.
Cowboys and gunslingers typically wear Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, cowboy boots and buckskins. Other heavily used characters include Native Americans, bandits, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, mounted cavalry, settlers and townsfolk.

5. Wild west cont…
Specific settings include ranches, frontier towns, saloons, railways and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Most are set in the American colonial era. Common plots include the construction of a railroad or a telegraph line on the wild frontier; ranchers protecting their family ranch from rustlers or large landowners or who build a ranch empire; revenge stories, which hinge on the chase and pursuit by a wronged individual; stories about cavalry fighting Indians; outlaw gang plots; and stories about a lawman or bounty hunter tracking down his quarry. Many Westerns use a stock plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution, which is often dispensed through a shootout or quick draw

6. Westernwood
The Western was the most popular Hollywood genre from the early 20th century to the 1960s. Western films first became well-attended in the 1930s. John Ford's landmark Western adventure Stagecoach became one of the biggest hits in and it made John Wayne a mainstream screen star. Westerns were very popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

7. Characteristics of The Genre :
The Western genre sometimes portrays the conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature in the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original, Native American, inhabitants of the frontier.The Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, or private justice; a sort of "frontier justice"dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are often played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them.

8. Characteristics of The Genre : cont…
This Western depiction of personal justice contrasts sharply with justice systems organized around rationalistic, abstract law that exist in cities, in which social order is maintained predominately through relatively impersonal institutions such as courtrooms. The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer, usually a cowboy or a gunfighter. A showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in many Westerns.

9. Stagecoach
The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales . Western's also often stress the harshness and isolation of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Specific settings include isolated forts, ranches and homesteads; the Native American village; or the small frontier town with its saloon, general store, livery stable and jailhouse and the open desert, where there are no structures and only windswept sand dunes. Apart from the wilderness, it is usually the saloon that emphasizes that this is the Wild West: it is the place to go for music (raucous piano playing), women (often prostitutes), gambling (draw poker or five card stud), drinking (beer or whiskey), brawling and shooting. In some Westerns, where civilization has arrived, the town has a church, a general store, a bank and a school; in others, where frontier rules still hold sway, it is, as Sergio Leone said, "where life has no value
Stagecoach is a 1939 American Western film directed by John Ford, starring Claire Trevor and John Wayne in his breakthrough role. The screenplay, written by Dudley Nichols, is an adaptation of "The Stage to Lordsburg", a short story by Ernest Haycox. The film follows a group of strangers riding on a stagecoach through dangerous Apache territor.

11. Stagecoach cont…
Stagecoach was the first of many Westerns that Ford shot using Monument Valley, in the American south-west on the Arizona–Utah border, as a location, many of which also starred John Wayne. Scenes from Stagecoach, including a famous sequence introducing John Wayne's character the Ringo Kid, blended shots of Monument Valley with shots filmed on the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California, RKO Encino Movie Ranch, and other locatio In 1995, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.

14. Django
Django is a 1966 Italian-Spanish Spaghetti Western { film directed and co-written by Sergio Corbucci, starring Franco Nero (in his br
eakthrough role) as the title character
The film follows a Union soldier-turned-drifter and his companion, a mixed-raceprostitute, who become embroiled in a bitter, destructive feud between a Ku Klux Klan-esque gang of Confederate racistsand a band of Mexican revolutionaries.
The film earned a reputation as one of the most violent films ever made at the time, and was subsequently refused a certificate in the United Kingdom until A commercial success upon release, Django has garnered a large cult following outside of Italy and is widely regarded as one of the best films of the Spaghetti Western genre, with the direction, Nero's role, and Luis Bacalov's soundtrack most frequently being praised.

17. DjaNgo Cont…..
Although the name is referenced in over thirty "sequels" from the time of the film's release until the early 1970s in an effort to capitalize on the success of the original, most of these films were unofficial, featuring neither Corbucci nor Nero. Nero reprised his role as Django in 1987's Django Strikes Again, the only official sequel produced with Corbucci's involvement. Nero also made a cameo appearance in Quentin Tarantino's film Django Unchained, an homage to Corbucci's original.

21. Dances with wolves Dances with Wolves
is a 1990 epic Western film directed by, produced by, and starring Kevin Costner. It is a film adaptation of the 1988 book of the same name by Michael Blake and tells the story of a Union Army lieutenant who travels to the American frontier to find a military post and his dealings with a group of Lakota Indians.

23. High production values
Costner developed the film with an initial budget of $15 million. Dances with Wolves had high production values, and won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama.
Much of the dialogue is spoken in Lakota with English subtitles. It was shot in South Dakota and Wyoming, and translated by Albert White Hat, the chair of the Lakota Studies Department at Sinte Gleska University.

26. High production value cont..
The film is credited as a leading influence for the revitalization of the Western genre of filmmaking in Hollywood. In 2007, Dances with Wolves was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"…

27. The big 8 studios... rulers of the "golden era"
During the "golden age" of Hollywood, The Big Eight referred to the eight major Hollywood movie studios Since then, the number of major studios has changed due to mergers, closures, and unfortunately a few bankruptcies 
The BIG 8 FILM STUDIOS originally were as follows: 
20th Century Fox - now owned by 21st Century Fox
Columbia Pictures- now owned by Sony.
MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)- now owned by MGM Holdings.
Paramount Pictures- now owned by Viacom
RKO Radio Pictures - defunct c. 1957
United Artists - purchased by MGM, a subsidiary of MGM Holdings.
Universal Studios- now a part of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast
Warner Bros - a division of Time Warner