Ah the Western. Perhaps replaced by Comic Book movies as the genre where we used to watch the “bad man” defeat the “badder men” and then become the “good man”. The man we want to be and who the women want on their arms.
In our list of logline genres, Western films are a distant last in the popularity poll. But we do have a list of 20 Western loglines for all to read:
http://www.wildsoundfestival.com/western_feature_film.html
These writers truly believe that these are solid stories to get this genre back to where it once was.
Back in the 1950s, horse racing, boxing, and baseball were the most popular sports in North America. And Westerns, Musicals, and Dramas were the most popular movies. Today, horse racing and boxing aren’t even on the map when it comes to popular sports, just like the Western and the Musical. Times and people change and you can’t always be on top. But the question is, will the Western ever come back?
Some say yes, because it already understands how to make a comeback. Westerns were extremely popular in the silent movie era, but as soon as sound appeared they went out of style and became known as fringe films during the 1930s as they were after all only about one era in just one country. But in the early 1940s, they came back and became more popular than ever making people like John Wayne household names.
The argument is that we will always need a Western. Perhaps they will change accordingly. Look at this year’s #1 box office film of the year in Guardians of the Galaxy. Isn’t that really just a Western movie set in space? It has all the elements that make a Western: Bad/Good guy leader who forms a posse of other bad/good guys to make sure that the badder guys go down! And in the end they all ride off into the sunset looking for new adventures.
When the Comic Book genre dies down a little bit, and history suggests it will, perhaps the cowboys riding their horses will be back too.
Please read the loglines with the link we gave you and have a read.
Enjoy
– Matthew Toffolo
WILDsound Festival 
Three quick things:
– There is a difference between “western” (story set in the Old West) and a “Western” (the genre). The main element of a Western, as a genre, includes a main character with a haunted past forced to face it and choose whether or not to return to it, often with a possible high personal cost.
– Guardians of the Galaxy is not a Western or a western. Elements of bad guys, good guys, and posses, although fun, are unfortunately not a “tell-tale” sign of a Western. You might could make an argument the main character is running from his past, but in the Western, the hero isn’t really running from his past as much as he/she is hiding from it and avoiding it at all costs…then choosing to re-enter that world.
– The Equalizer (2014) and John Wick (2014) are both modern-day Westerns that have done modest numbers at the box office.
So the genre isn’t dead; it’s actually alive and kicking. There just aren’t as many horses.
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Reblogged this on WILDsound Writing and Film Festival Review.
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