When people here the word Western, most people have a similar mental image. A rough and tough cowboy goes on a quest for vengeance, a devious villain with a gun, and a damsel and distress. Amusingly enough, this is fairly close to the truth, as most characters in Westerns fall under common denominations, covered below.
The rugged cowboy/sheriff with a strong sense of justice
This character is usually the main character, or barring that, one of the lead roles. Usually, he will be fairly righteous, sometimes to the point of being hypocritical and often brutal (Little Bill in Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992) for example). Usually, he'll join up with the reformed outlaw that’s trying to take justice into his own hands, or will be cast as the antagonist of the movie who is trying to kill the protagonist, who is usually the so called reformed outlaw out for one more hit (Unforgiven again). In this situation, he is, at the very least, sympathetic to the antagonist if he himself is not filling that role.
The reformed outlaw
Covered briefly above, the reformed outlaw is exactly what he sounds like. At one point or another, this person has committed a crime (usually murder) and he has sworn off his old ways forever for some reason, be it his wife, his children, or the fact that he doesn't need the money from his "hits" anymore-maybe he just got tired of it. Regardless, the end result is usually this character. He usually will be tempted by his old ways at least once, and at will succumb to those desires without fail, at least once during the film. Usually, this person will become involved in at least one shootout during the course of the movie, during which he will kill villain X, thereby succumbing to his old demons and/or achieving revenge for his murdered brother, mother, girlfriend, or other tragically killed minor character who we rarely, if ever, see (an exception to this comes, once again, from Unforgiven-we often see the cut up prostitute, and her character is fairly well developed. We never see Will Munny's (Clint Eastwood's) wife, seeing as she's dead.
The main antagonist
This is the most bland of the Western stereotypes. The main antagonist is usually a man (read: always a man) who usually holds a grudge against the main protagonist, assuming of course that the antagonist is not part of a gang of thugs that kills people for fun, in which case the protagonist will probably have a grudge against said gang for killing the aforementioned wife/girlfriend/son/daughter. The main antagonist will never actually live through the film, and will usually be killed in a glorious and/or dramatic shoot out. He may or may not have an accomplice, and if he does, he'll either be the loveable sidekick that ultimately realizes that what he's doing is wrong, the person who didn't actually do anything and is just caught in the middle, or someone as rotten as the main antagonist himself.
These and other stereotypical characters combine to make the Western what it is-an oft times over done but always entertaining tale of redemption, love, and ultimately, facing old demons.
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3 comments:
that was a cool post. i guess i never really thought about grouping together all characters of the western genre into simple categories but when i think about it more, its totally true. i thought it was interesting how your noted that all antagonists are 99.9999% male, which again, is true.
Very good post, much better than mine, I agree with all your points about the typical westren heros and villans, very good post
Good post, and a lot of times that is true, but i think a lot of times that there isn't a reformed outlaw. but still, an overall good post
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