When did the wild west stop being cool?

[The Grumpy Celt]

When did Westerns become uncool?

Last Tuesday…

Actually, they still are cool, but there has been a cultural shift over the last generation or two from comfortably enjoying tacit – or even explicit – genocide and conquest to being uncomfortable with the subjects.

When John Wayne western were produced, the culture was still comfortable with watching him kill Mexicans, Indians, Chinese and Canadians.

However, that is not the case anymore and so the entire genre becomes suspect.

Handling the Western poorly in terms of execution and storytelling has also taken a toll. For every movie like “Unforgiven” there are a dozen or so painfully bad ones.

White Wolf tried to produce a Western setting for the Werewolf line of book but executed it poorly and abandoned the setting after a few books. If d20 Past is carried off well, then it might be a success.

If there is a lesson in this it is that Westerns are cool when they stay abreast of cultural mores and are well executed. But then that is true of all genres.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Actually, they still are cool, but there has been a cultural shift over the last generation or two from comfortably enjoying tacit – or even explicit – genocide and conquest to being uncomfortable with the subjects.

When John Wayne western were produced, the culture was still comfortable with watching him kill Mexicans, Indians, Chinese and Canadians.

Perhaps you could give us a few examples of these genocidal westerns?

 

[reanjr]

When I was a little kid, cowboys were cool. What happened?

I'm only 38, so it's not like I grew up with Gene Autrey or Roy Rogers, but we still played cowboys in the backyard. I thought Clint Eastwood and John Wayne were pretty cool, but Jim West was definitely the coolest. My brother and I would have killed for his railroad car.


TSRs Boot Hill was awesome! I was pretty bummed when they dropped it -- along with the original Top Secret. So with all the d20 stuff now, how come virtually no cowboys? Deadlands seems to be the only entry, and its allure must come as much from its magic and monsters as its western setting.

So what is it? Are there western games I don't know about, or is the Wild West just not cool enough anymore? Cowboys too cliche to play? Will any of this change with d20 Past next year?

zog

In my humble opinion I think it was WWI/II that started it and Vietnam that finished it. Those that wanted to see shoot em movies wanted to see the new, untapped stuff. This is natural progression.

We had spy movies in the 60s/70s due to the cold war.

In the late 80s, early 90s, we saw loads of drug cartel movies because that's what was happening. War movies, of course, still stuck around, but the great folk heroes began to take on a new urban edge.

In the 00s, we now see movies on terrorism.

This will continue as current national and international issues lose importance and meaning for the next generation.

 

[reanjr]

But, yes. The stories of the American West was an American mythology that gripped the whole world for a time. And now, it has been replaced by...what?

I think the lone gunman in the Wild Wild West going against the black-hat wearing corrupt sherriff in a lawless town has been replaced by the lone covert op going against the terrorist cell that runs from a country whose government cannot impose law.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Turns out that a lot of historical cowboys were black, too. Which makes it very cool that Clint Eastwood cast Morgan Freeman in Unforgiven, the ultimate Western deconstruction.

[College Knowledge on]

Yep. Black or mexican. Out of eight to twelve men in a group, usually half to three quarters were black or mexican.

[/College Knowledge Off]

I think the lone gunman in the Wild Wild West going against the black-hat wearing corrupt sherriff in a lawless town has been replaced by the lone covert op going against the terrorist cell that runs from a country whose government cannot impose law.

An individual correcting wrongs done by the authority, to agents of the authority correcting wrongs done by individuals. Oh yeah, thats the same.

 

[Desdichado]

Actually, they still are cool, but there has been a cultural shift over the last generation or two from comfortably enjoying tacit – or even explicit – genocide and conquest to being uncomfortable with the subjects.

When John Wayne western were produced, the culture was still comfortable with watching him kill Mexicans, Indians, Chinese and Canadians.

However, that is not the case anymore and so the entire genre becomes suspect.

Except that most of those John Wayne movies were about white Americans killing other white Americans, so I'm not sure what your point is.

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

Time for PUN-ishment.

Way back in the Old West, a dog limps into a saloon, his leg in a sling. Everyone in the bar gets dead quiet. The bartender asks "What can I do for ya?" The dog answers "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw."

 

[JDowling]

... "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw."

horrible... just.. just horrible =P

 

[reanjr]

An individual correcting wrongs done by the authority, to agents of the authority correcting wrongs done by individuals. Oh yeah, thats the same.

You are assuming that people give a whit as to what a movie's subtext is. The majority of people I know don't have a clue as to what movies like Fight Club or American Beauty are about. Hell, I've met people who didn't know Dr. Strangelove was a comedy. People view movies from the hero's perspective. The struggles the hero goes through are independent of context. That's why you can have Romeo Must Die or West Side Story, which are both undergroudn criminal versions of Romeo and Juliet (although in West Side Story gangsters have dance-offs to settle their disputes...)

 

[Hand of Evil]

A lot of women too, doing a lot of things. Was watching Wild West Tech tonight and had woman that was a russler, one of the first people hung by the cattle barons in the Johnson City range war! Also, had a lot of women card players/sharks.