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TopBilled

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    What is a western, is not a western..?

    in Westerns

    Posted

    It feels as if we could explore a lot of examples and discuss whether they are pure westerns. I would also extend the discussion into television westerns, since they continue the genre in their own unique way.

    ***

    Recently I made a list of episodes of the Universal television series The Virginian. I chose to look at this show in-depth for several specific reasons. First, it begins in 1962 and runs through 1971...this is after the TV western formula had been refined in the 1950s and television standards and practices for network programming were strictly in place, signifying its own production code. The last season of The Virginian is slightly revamped, and it tries to emulate the success of the spaghetti western but again it's restricted by this production code so while the themes get darker, it does not necessarily get more overtly violent.

    The other reason I chose to examine this series is because each episode is 77 minutes. All episodes were tailored to fit a 90-minute time slot, the only weekly western series that managed to do this for its entire run. The season I am currently looking at has 26 episodes, which means every two weeks per their production model, they were turning out a feature-length movie for broadcast on television. That's an amazing accomplishment.

    More specifically, I am focusing on episodes that feature Charles Bickford as the owner of the Shiloh ranch, since I think he's the lead actor who gives the show its real pedigree and gravitas. John McIntire who replaced Bickford after Bickford's untimely death is decent, but his brand of star acting is not at the level of Bickford. And Stewart Granger who takes over during the final season is perfectly okay but he feels like a fish out of water, and maybe if they had started the series with him, instead of ending it with him, it would have felt more natural, like he belonged there at Shiloh.

    Anyway, I made a list of 50 episodes and I have been going through them carefully. Some of them fit my definition of what makes up a pure western. Some of them do not. For example, there is a wonderfully sentimental episode where we see Bickford's granddaughter taming a wild stallion and turning it into a racehorse. The acting is very sincere, it's certainly character-driven, and the scenery is gorgeous...but...and there's a but, the story seems a little too derivative of National Velvet, and I consider National Velvet a rural equestrian drama, not exactly a western. So within The Virginian, we have episodes that deviate a bit...that doesn't make them any less enjoyable to watch, but in terms of them representing what constitutes a western, they may fall a bit short.

    There's a later episode I watched that I gave a perfect score of 10 on the IMDb, which features Joan Crawford as a special guest star. The reason for my high rating? Crawford's dynamic central performance, and the amount of suspense and outdoor filming that makes it great fun to watch. And yet, it feels like a hybrid story, because it has more than a few shades of Grand Guignol horror and it's completely melodramatic...and I don't think a pure western would veer that much into melodrama. The Crawford episode also makes us ask the question, how do women shape or define the western genre? Is it more a man's genre? 

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