The Contemporary Western

Abstract

The September 11th attacks in 2001 and the subsequent ‘War on Terror’ have had a profound effect on American cinema, and the contemporary Western reflects this situation. This book explores the various ways in which recent Westerns – Open Range (2003), The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), True Grit (2010), Django Unchained (2012), The Lone Ranger (2013), The Revenant (2015), and Jane Got a Gun (2016) – reinforce a conservative myth of America exceptionalism. As a whole, the films are seen to endorse the use of extreme force in dealing with enemies and highlight the importance of defending the homeland. Placing their characters within a dark world of confusion and horror, these films reflect the United States’ post-9/11 uncertainties, and the tension between assumed civilised values and the brutality employed to defend those values. Frequently, outside forces of singular magnitude that threaten to overwhelm either the individual, or the community, or both, are defeated by the Western hero who in these films is restored to a position of mythic power from which he is able to deliver some sense of hope for the future.