‘Yellowstone’ and ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ lead resurgence of Western genre in Hollywood
foxnews.comWith "Yellowstone" and its spinoffs dominating the small screen and Martin Scorsese’s "Killers of the Flower Moon" earning rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival, the Western genre is alive and well in entertainment. "Reports of the Western’s death are always greatly exaggerated," Andrew Nelson, film historian and chair of the Department of Film & Media Arts at the University of Utah, told Fox News Digital. "The American West has long functioned as a mythical space where people are able to imagine themselves leading alternative, more authentic and exciting lives. "While the ‘old West’ of history no longer occupies as large a space in our collective imagination as it did in the 20th century, it is still an important and powerful part of our popular culture." The genre is typically associated with stories set between the 1850s and early 1900s as the United States expanded westward into new territory, both literal and figurative.
It reached peak popularity from the 1950s through the 1970s, when it dropped off sharply. "The number of Westerns on TV and in movie theaters did decline dramatically over the course of the 1960s and 70s and has remained very low ever since.This was the result of a number of factors, including changing demographics and taste," Nelson explained.
Throughout the years, there have still been Westerns, going back to movies like "Brokeback Mountain," "Dances with Wolves," "Unforgiven," and series like "Deadwood" on HBO, but far less than we saw at the genre’s height of popularity. "The Western once saturated popular culture to a degree that you had to experience to fully appreciate," Nelson explained.
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