Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film (Hardcover)

by Lee Clark Mitchell (Author) "A curious sense of disproportion is evoked by any listing of luminaries who loved Westerns, as if that were the sole common denominator among such..." (more)
Key Phrases: aimless glance, white slavery tracts, purple sage, High Noon, Natty Bumppo, The Last of the Mohicans (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Though both these books are on the Western in film and fiction, they differ sharply in their approach. Mitchell's work has two basic premises. First, he argues that overwhelmingly popular pieces obliquely raises critical contemporary anxieties in a manner that denies a straightforward reading, allowing competing groups to read it according to their own beliefs. For example, High Noon could be seen as both pro- and anti-McCarthyism. Second, he states that Westerns have always been about the problems of becoming a man, a question for which each generation seeks its own answer. These are interesting premises, but they would have benefited from less build-up and a wider range of illustrative examples. Unlike Westerns, which concentrated solely on A pictures, Reel Cowboy is devoted to B Westerns. Rainey is obviously extremely knowledgeable about his subject, but other than the stated goal of discovering and preserving such movies, his purpose and unifying theme are difficult to discern. In Part 1, he discusses the careers of B Westerns stars, both silent and talkie, and shows how their films fall into three categories: realistic, semirealistic, and mythic. Part 2 offers brief biographies of Western writers and their film credits, with special attention given to Zane Grey. Part 3 does the same in more detail for three authors who wrote about the great Northwest and Alaska (e.g., Jack London), none of whom are normally considered writers of Westerns. The last section details the experiences of some Western movie stars who worked in circuses and Wild West shows either on their way up or down the professional ladder. Both books are appropriate for comprehensive film collections.?Marianne Cawley, Enoch Pratt Free Lib., Baltimore
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"The most extensive study of the western to appear in 25 years".

-- Atlanta Journal-Constitution --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 348 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (November 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226532348
• ISBN-13: 978-0226532349
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,877,964 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Body Languages, August 7, 2001

By	Arvejo "perrata2000" (Bogota - Delray Beach) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Westerns: Making the Man in Fiction and Film (Paperback)

Excellent book that relates a very specific and particualr genre like the western with a very wide source of refernces, from baby care to painting. It has a very good historical background that helps understand the obsession of gender and sex in the western genre.I particularly enjoyed the chapter where the author talks about Leone's living dead, it seems like if Jim Jarmusch had read it carefully for his "dead man".