List of Western subgenres
The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred to as the "Old West" or the "Wild West" and depicted in Western media as a hostile, sparsely populated frontier in a state of near-total lawlessness patrolled by outlaws, sheriffs, and numerous other stock gunslinger characters. Western narratives often concern the gradual attempts to tame the crime-ridden American West using wider themes of justice, freedom, rugged individualism, manifest destiny, and the national history and identity of the United States.
Within the larger scope of the Western genre, there are several recognized subgenres. Some subgenres, such as spaghetti Westerns, maintain standard Western settings and plots, while others take the Western theme and archetypes into different supergenres, such as neo-Westerns or space Westerns.
For a time, Westerns made in countries other than the United States were often labeled by foods associated with the culture, such as spaghetti Westerns, meat pie Westerns, ramen Westerns, and masala Westerns.
Acid Western
Film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum refers to a makeshift 1960s and 1970s genre called the acid Western, associated with Dennis Hopper, Jim McBride, and Rudy Wurlitzer, as well as films such as Monte Hellman's The Shooting, Alejandro Jodorowsky's bizarre experimental film El Topo , and Robert Downey Sr.'s Greaser's Palace. The 1970 film El Topo is an allegorical cult Western and underground film about the eponymous character, a violent black-clad gunfighter, and his quest for enlightenment. The film is filled with bizarre characters and occurrences, use of maimed and dwarf performers, and heavy doses of Christian symbolism and Eastern philosophy. Some spaghetti Westerns also crossed over into the acid Western genre, such as Enzo G. Castellari's mystical Keoma, a Western reworking of Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal.More recent acid Westerns include Alex Cox's Walker and Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man''. Rosenbaum describes the acid Western as "formulating a chilling, savage frontier poetry to justify its hallucinated agenda"; ultimately, he says, the acid Western expresses a counterculture sensibility to critique and replace capitalism with alternative forms of exchange.
Australian Western or meat pie Western
The Australian Western genre or meat pie Western is set in Australia, especially the Australian Outback or the Australian Bush. The genre borrows from US traditions.The Tracker is an archetype in this form of Australian Western, with signature scenes of harsh desert environments, and exploration of the themes of rough justice, exploitation of the Indigenous Australians, and the thirst for justice at all costs. Others in this category include Rangle River, Kangaroo, The Kangaroo Kid,''The Sundowners, Quigley Down Under, Ned Kelly, The Man from Snowy River, The Proposition, Lucky Country, and Sweet Country.
Mystery Road is an example of a modern Australian Western, and Mad Max has inspired many futurist dystopian examples of the Australian Western such as The Rover''.
Blaxploitation Western
Many blaxploitation films, particularly ones involving Fred Williamson, have incorporated a Western setting within them. They are often characterized by excessive violence, stilted dialog, and macho heroes. Examples include Soul Soldier, Buck and the Preacher, The Legend of Nigger Charley, The Soul of Nigger Charley, Thomasine & Bushrod, Boss Nigger, Adiós Amigo, and Posse.Charro, cabrito, or chili Westerns
, often featuring musical stars, as well as action, have been a standard feature of Mexican cinema since the 1930s. In the 1930s and 1940s, these were typically films about horsemen in rural Mexican society, displaying a set of cultural concerns very different from the Hollywood metanarrative, but the overlap between "charro" movies and Westerns became more apparent in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. Some examples are Ismael Rodríguez's Los Hermanos del Hierro, Jorge Fons's Cinco Mil Dólares de Recompensa, and Arturo Ripstein's Tiempo de morir. The most important is Alberto Mariscal, great author of El tunco Maclovio, Todo por nada, Los marcados, El juez de la soga, and La chamuscada.Chinese Western
The Western is a popular genre in the Asian film industry. Examples of the Chinese Western genre include Millionaires Express, Let the Bullets Fly and Once Upon a Time in China and America.Comedy Western
This subgenre is imitative in style to mock, comment on, or trivialize the Western genre's established traits, subjects, auteurs' styles, or some other target by means of humorous, satiric, or ironic imitation or parody. A prime example of comedy Western includes The Paleface, which makes a satirical effort to "send up Owen Wister's novel The Virginian and all the cliches of the Western from the fearless hero to the final shootout on Main Street". The Paleface "features a cowardly hero known as "Painless" Peter Potter, an inept dentist, who often entertains the notion that he is a crack sharpshooter and accomplished Indian fighter".Other examples include:
- Along Came Jones, in which Gary Cooper spoofed his Western persona
- The Sheepman, with Glenn Ford poking fun at himself
- Cat Ballou, with a drunk Lee Marvin atop a drunk horse
- The Hallelujah Trail
- Support Your Local Sheriff
- Support Your Local Gunfighter, sequel to the above
- The Unhanged
- Blazing Saddles
- ''Cannibal! The Musical''
Contemporary Western or neo-Western
Typical themes of the neo-Western are the lack of rules, with morals guided by the character's or audience's instincts of right and wrong rather than by governance, characters searching for justice, and characters feeling remorse, connecting the neo-Western to the broader Western genre. Other conventions of the genre include displays of competence, which in turn is measured in acts of violence.
Beginning in the postwar era, radio dramas such as Tales of the Texas Rangers, with Joel McCrea, a contemporary detective drama set in Texas, featured many of the characteristics of traditional Westerns. In this period, post-Western precursors to the modern neo-Western films began to appear, such as Nicholas Ray's The Lusty Men and John Sturges's Bad Day at Black Rock. Examples of the modern "first phase" of neo-Westerns include films such as Lonely Are the Brave and Hud. The popularity of the subgenre has been resurgent since the release of Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men.
The neo-Western subgenre can also be seen in modern American television shows such as Breaking Bad, ''Justified, and Yellowstone.''
Dacoit Western
The Bollywood film Sholay was often referred to as a "curry Western". A more accurate genre label for the film is the "dacoit Western", as it combines the conventions of Indian dacoit films such as Mother India and Gunga Jumna with those of spaghetti Westerns. Sholay spawned its own genre of "dacoit Western" films in Bollywood during the 1970s.The first Western films made in India – Kalam Vellum, Mosagallaku Mosagadu, Ganga, and Jakkamma – were based on classic Westerns. Thazhvaram, the Malayalam film directed by Bharathan and written by noted writer M. T. Vasudevan Nair, perhaps most resembles the spaghetti Westerns in terms of production and cinematic techniques. Earlier spaghetti Westerns laid the groundwork for such films as Adima Changala starring Prem Nazir, a hugely popular zapata spaghetti Western film in Malayalam, and Sholay ''Khote Sikkay and Thai Meethu Sathiyam are notable curry Westerns. Kodama Simham, a Telugu action film, starring Chiranjeevi and Mohan Babu, was one more addition to the Indo Western genre that fared well at the box office. It was also the first South Indian movie to be dubbed in English as Hunters of the Indian Treasure.
Takkari Donga, starring Telugu actor Mahesh Babu, was applauded by critics, but was average at box office. Quick Gun Murugun, an Indian comedy film that spoofs Indian Western movies, is based on a character created for television promotions at the time of the launch of the music network Channel in 1994, which had cult following. Irumbukkottai Murattu Singam, a Western adventure comedy film, based on cowboy movies and paying homages to the John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Jaishankar, was made in Tamil. Laal Kaptaan is an IndoWestern starring Saif Ali Khan, which is set during the rise of the British Empire in India.
Jigarthanda DoubleX '' is an Indo western starring S. J. Suryah and Raghava Lawrence in lead roles, Set in the 1970s, it revolves around an upcoming policeman trying to kill a gangster by going undercover as a filmmaker.