Ciemna strona mitu — rzecz o związkach westernu i kina czarnego

• Authors: Michał Bobrowski

Title variants

EN

DARK SIDE OF THE MYTH

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The paper is devoted to westerns inspired by film noir. Film noir is treated not as a separate genre, but as a general tendency, characterized by a pessimistic world outlook and an expressionist esthetics. The author reviews dark westerns by Fritz Lang (The Return of Frank James, Western Union), William Wellman (The Ox-Bow Incident, Yellow Sky), Raoul Walsh (Pursued), Howard Hawks (Red River), John Huston (The Treasure of Sierra Madre), Anthony Mann (Furies), Samuel Fuller (I Shot Jesse James, Fourty Guns) and Nicholas Ray (Johnny Guitar). The main thesis of the essay is that westerns influenced by film noir in their critical view of traditional American values which had been glorified by classical westerns. This anticipated changes in the genre, which took place in the sixties and seventies, when film-makers such as Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah or Arthur Penn made their revisionist, polemic spaghetti- and anti-westerns.

Keywords

EN

FILM NOIR; DARK WESTERN; CLASSICAL WESTERN; CHANGES IN FILM GENRES; SPAGHETTI WESTERN; ANTI-WESTERN GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM; FRITZ LANG; WILLIAM WELLMAN; RAOUL WALSH; HOWARD HAWKS; JOHN HUSTON; ANTHONY MANN; SAMUEL FULLER; NICHOLAS RAY; SAM PECKPINPAH; ARTHUR PENN

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wroclawskiego
• Journal: Studia Filmoznawcze
• Year: 2010
• Volume: 31
• Pages: 101-122

Contributors

author

Michał Bobrowski