ABSTRACT
The Western is without question the champion of genre films. Unsurpassed in sheer numbers, in lasting popular appeal and critical acclaim, it has spawned some of America’s finest directors and counts among its breed such recognized film classics as John Ford’s Stagecoach and Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo. But for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. This law of physics seems to be true, to a degree, for art as well. It was only a matter of time before a new class of films arose—the anti-Western. With the appearance of Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch, Arthur Penn’s Little Big Man, and Frank Perry’s Doc, a new film movement has begun, the main purpose of which is to counter the traditional Western’s glorification of the American frontier. None of these films, however, has succeeded in attacking the Western on its own terms as intelligently and as thoroughly as Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller.
