02 · 10 · 16

A brief guide to classic film genres: What is a Western?

Ma. Cristina Alemán, editora en jefe (@mcristina)

Genre is a useful label in cinema, for a number of reasons. For audiences, genre is an indicator of the kind of film they are about to watch; for critics and students of cinema, genre establishes a set of boundaries within which a film can be analyzed and understood, situating it among other comparable films; while for the cinema industry, genre is a convention that helps to define how a particular film should be sold.

But one just has to look closely at any given film to realize that genre is a malleable concept; there is no such thing as a “pure” genre film. With this in mind, we offer a brief guide to classic film genres, beginning here with the Western. How are we to argue that Star Wars is a Space Western, unless we understand the characteristics of the Western?

Another great source of Westerns is FICM’s Imaginary Mexico section, which has been part of the festival program since its fifth edition when the idea was suggested to us by filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier. Although the Western is typically (North) American, Mexico plays an important role in the genre, being as it the ‘wilderness’ that sits just on the other side of the frontier.

For more information about Westerns, take a look at this AMC article.