ABSTRACT
Western but not directly employed here, is to view Westerns in terms of
sub-genres. These might include the epic Western, the noir Western, the
comedy Western, the spaghetti Western, and the revisionist Western. The
contention is that although an overarching genre may exist, it is better
seen as being composed of a series of sub-sets. The effort is to take account
not only of the fact that films exist within changing social and historical
contexts that impact on the evolving nature of a genre but of the reality of
a viewing experience in which genres continually overlap and sometimes
form particularly potent expressive combinations sufficiently distinctive
to be designated as film types in their own right. The implication is that
it is, crucially, the changing contexts within which a genre exists and the
potential for potent combinations of film types that need to be addressed if
the expression of genre to be found in any particular film is to be understood.
And who could argue with that. Revisionist Westerns exist as a result of a
