Cinema about cowboys. The best Russian and foreign westerns

One of the most popular cinematographers in our country of the 60-70s was a western. The boys raved about Chris from the "Magnificent Seven," which was soon replaced by characters created by the acting talents of Goiko Mitich and Dean Reed. Virtually any movie about Indians and cowboys was doomed to box office success, the exotic of the Wild West excited the imagination of Soviet schoolchildren by their dissimilarity to the modest workings of their parents. American Westerns showed little, but those that were still approved by the relevant party art criticism, were really good.

Manifestation of the genre

Already at the end of the XIX century in Hollywood - a suburb of Los Angeles, began to shoot a movie about cowboys. The historical aspects of writers and directors did not worry much, the topic itself was predictably commercially successful. Background - wild nature, prairies and canyons, it is easy to reproduce it in the pavilion, not to mention the field surveys. Good guys are pioneers of the West, leading caravans of carts with settlers in search of a better life. They are confronted by wild Indians, who looked colorful and picturesque even on black and white film thanks to the feathers that made up the warrior decoration of Sioux, Iroquois and other warlike tribes. Cinema about the cowboys somehow immediately separated into a separate genre, forming its main features and recognizable group image of "prairie heroes" wearing Stetson hats, coarse pants, leather vests, boots with spurs and a ring on each side of the belt. They, as a rule, spoke little, shot quickly, accurately and without warning, without taking out cigars from the mouth, masterfully owned the lasso and the whip. In the early American westerns, the Indians were usually negative characters.

Who are the cowboys?

And in America, the homeland of Westerns, and we, and in other countries, somehow forgot the morphology of this word. Nevertheless, it is simple. "Cow" is the most common cow, and "boy" is a boy or a guy. In the aggregate: a cowboy is a shepherd. But unusual. Features of the American history of mastering the vast expanses dictated special requirements to people of this profession. The enemies of the pastoralists of America were many. First and foremost, those most endless prairies, for which fat cows could wander so that they would not be able to collect them again. Secondly, the Indians already mentioned, who considered the aliens to be enemies, and the population that they had taken away, was a deserved trophy to be eaten. Thirdly, not all people who came to the New World were exemplary law-abiding, and some of them were not at all eager to profit another's good. There were other factors hindering the safe management of the economy, wild animals, for example. In the film about cowboys this side of the life of the settlers was paid little attention, hard work on the screen is not as interesting as the firing of revolvers. Another interesting detail is that the real shepherds of the Wild West were often black, in the cinema they are almost all white.

Classic storyline

The heyday of this style of cinema survived in the sixties. Almost all westerns about cowboys in the basis contain the history of struggle for a certain treasure. This is a significant part of the success of this genre. In the psychology of the mass audience, who dreams of a huge kush, which allows his owner to spend the rest of his life in luxury and pleasure, the dream of a miracle is firmly entrenched. So, there are untold riches, the secret of which is not known to everyone. To get them, usually require companions, otherwise the owner of the secret would never share. Then follow many adventures and dangers, waiting for seekers at every turn. Here there are options that distinguish the usual type crafts from the true masterpieces of the genre. Sometimes the main thing is not money, but justice ("Once Upon a Time in the Wild West" - 1969, "Magnificent Seven" - 1960). Sometimes the footage is accompanied by beautiful music (for example, in the film "Good, Bad, Evil", filmed in 1967, the memorable song of the same name by Ennio Morricone sounds). In any case, the battle for values is boiling on the screen, and it is conducted by force.

Western marching around the planet

Genre, born in the US and based initially on the basis of the literary works of Fenimore Cooper and other writers who described their modernity, eventually became embodied in many national branches of the art of cinema. The American cowboy spoke German, Italian, Russian and many other languages. Czechoslovak film "Lemonade Joe", which is a parody and demonstrated in Soviet cinemas, was sometimes taken by a spectator not familiar with the subject, for a very real western, albeit funny. The main European producer of cinema about cowboys on horses and with songs became the East German studio "Defa". Gojko Mitich from Yugoslavia became the "deserved Indian" of the USSR and the entire socialist bloc, while his pale-faced friend played the American Dean Reed, a talented actor who chose freedom in a communist way.

The difference between "our" western

At the forefront of the principles of art in the USSR and other countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance was ideology. The covetousness could not lead the actions of the goodies. Of course, the socialist film about Indians and cowboys differed from the Western, while retaining a form in the form of the main features of the genre. On the screen there were horses, hats, bright feathers, tomahawks, arrows and bows, winchesters and colts. There were very good songs in the style of "country-n-western" and ballads performed by Dean Reed, Mitic showed impressive muscles, and the action itself was mostly national-liberation. The best films are "Chingachgook - Big Snake", "Brothers in Blood", "Apaches".

Characters

Each genre is characterized by a certain set of stamps, which the viewer perceives not as banalities, but as essential attributes. The movie about cowboys is no exception. No western can not do without a sheriff, the hallmark of which is a large star on his chest, equanimity and even some phlegmatic. The main Indians are usually two: the first in everything supports the good, the other, taking from pale-faced the worst, became a bloodthirsty beast. Female roles are classically represented by a fatal brunette, an intriguer (who at the end of the picture often repents of her unworthy behavior) and the blond blonde personifying the angelic principle and the loving hero at first sight. Still there are note poker players, bandits and adventurers of all stripes, ladies of lightened behavior, and, of course, the chief cowboy.

Soviet Westerns

In the Soviet Union, not so often as in the GDR, but also filmed a movie about cowboys. Some works of domestic filmmakers have become creative successes. In the film "Business people" (based on O. Henry's stories, 1962), a remarkable novel about the murderer became rich, thanks to the principle "The Bolivar can not bear two", and the story of the grieving kidnappers of the boy (the leader of the redskins) is quite within the genre The scope of the western. Also to this style can be attributed films "The Horseman without a Head", "Armed and Very Dangerous", "St. John's Wort," several screen versions of works by Mark Twain, Jack London and the musical "Man from the Boulevard des Capucines."

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With the observance of genre laws, Soviet filmmakers were able to create their own analogue of westerns. In such films as "The White Sun of the Desert", "Elusive Avengers" or "One's own among strangers, a stranger among his" characters are much more likely to shoot than they say, and the number of killed matches the military battle of medium intensity. Basmachi in "The Sun ..." is not inferior in terms of picturesqueness to North American Indians, their leader Abdullah is not without negative charm, and Sukhov, the Red Army soldier, has all the cowboy virtues, including accuracy and courage. There is also his Vinnetu - Said. And if there are no cowboys in the movies, but everything else happens about the same, the genre of the film can be called "east" (English "East" - East, and he - "a delicate matter").

Space Cowboys

In one of Kurt Vonnegut 's novels, there is an idea that science fiction writers write about the inhabitants of the universe, but they get them all the same Americans. A similar situation is observed in the cinema. Cowboys against the aliens are fighting in Lucas Star Wars, Star Trek Roddenberry and many other interstellar epics, in which directors are transferring completely earthly principles of conflict resolution. The heroes of these cosmic westerns are devoid of external signs of "cow boys", and their opponents do not have feather headgear, but the relationship between the protagonists and antagonists develops according to the same familiar scenario. What to do, wherever imagination has brought, and we are all from the same planet.