The Western is a film genre defined by the American Film Institute as films which are "set in the American West that [embody] the spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier ." Generally set in the American frontier between the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the closing of the frontier in 1890, the genre also includes many examples of stories set in locations outside the frontier – including Northern Mexico , the Northwestern United States , Alaska , and Western Canada – as well as stories that take place before 1849 and after 1890. Western films comprise part of the larger Western genre , which encompasses literature, music, television, and plastic arts.
45-429: The Last Hunt is a 1956 American Western film directed by Richard Brooks and starring Robert Taylor and Stewart Granger , with Lloyd Nolan , Debra Paget and Russ Tamblyn . It was produced by Dore Schary at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . The screenplay was by Richard Brooks from the novel The Last Hunt , by Milton Lott . The music score was by Daniele Amfitheatrof and the cinematography by Russell Harlan . It
90-462: A decent, deliberate sort of chap who has a high regard for the Indians and eventually for buffaloes. He develops, especially, a soft spot for a beautiful Indian girl…And while his companion..is alternately beating on the girl and making vain efforts to assault her, Mr. Granger is, …working up his nerve to slug his pal. ….The picture has been made with clear devotion …. The equating of Indian-hating with
135-454: A departure from the 1985 original (a sci-fi) and the 1989 sequel (an action adventure), Part III has been regarded by others as a fitting end to the series. At the turn of the 21st century, Westerns have once again seen an ongoing revival in popularity. Largely influenced by the recapturing of Americana mythology , appreciation for the vaquero folklore within Mexican culture and
180-464: A herd. It is estimated that the park can sustain about 1,000 bison. The park has an annual bison roundup as 400 to 500 calves are born each year. At an auction in September, several hundred are sold at auction so that the remaining number of animals will be compatible with the rangeland forage . Their genetics can be used to improve the health of other herds. The annual roundups began in 1965 with
225-415: A legendary skinner named Woodfoot because of his peg leg, and young Jimmy O'Brien, whose mother was Dakota , to their team. When Gilson chases down and kills an Indian raiding party, he takes an Indian woman and a toddler captive. The presence of the native woman causes tension and Gilson becomes increasingly paranoid and deranged, leading to a stand-off between the two former partners. He is obsessed with
270-457: A lust for slaughter is morally good. But it does seem to take Mr. Granger an awfully long time to get around to freezing out Mr. Taylor. That's the way sermons sometimes go.” "The public couldn't stand it", said Brooks. "In England most of the scenes with the buffalo were cut out. In the States they couldn't stand it because of their own guilt... I learnt something very valuable: when you deal with
315-720: A mythic vision of the plains and deserts of the American West, embodied most memorably in Monument Valley, with its buttes and mesas that tower above the men on horseback, whether they be settlers, soldiers, or Native Americans". Custer State Park Custer State Park is a South Dakota State Park and wildlife reserve in the Black Hills of the United States. Located in Custer County ,
360-630: A subject that is traditional, don't deny it to the public... If you want to do the real thing, the way the West really was, do it on a small budget and don't expect any miracles." Western film Western films derive from the Wild West shows that began in the 1870s. Originally referred to as "Wild West dramas", the shortened term "Western" came to describe the genre. Although other Western films were made earlier, The Great Train Robbery (1903)
405-469: A water hole…is startling and slightly nauseating. … Of course, that is as it was intended, for "The Last Hunt" is aimed to display the low and demoralizing influence of a lust for slaughter upon the nature of man. …But, unfortunately, what follows … is mainly an account of bitter conflict between two hard-bitten buffalo-hunting men. One..is a bestial and brutal type who hates Indians and likes to kill them almost as much as he likes to kill buffaloes. The other…is
450-626: A year and a half, during which time he had played The Caine Mutiny Court Martial on stage. Anne Bancroft was cast as the Indian girl. Eighty percent of the movie was shot on location over a seven-week period. This took place at the Badlands National Park and Custer State Park in South Dakota during the then-annual "thinning" of the buffalo herd. Actual footage of buffalo being shot and killed (by government marksmen)
495-644: Is 1883. Hunting of buffalo (bison) has reduced the population from 60 million in 1853 to 3,000. This is the story of “the last of the buffalo hunts.”. Sandy McKenzie, a famous buffalo hunter for the Army Engineers, has his small herd of cattle wiped out by stampeding bison. He joins up with a new partner, the obsessive Charles Gilson ( Robert Taylor ), who believes killing is natural. While McKenzie has grown tired of buffalo hunting, Gilson derives an intense pleasure from his "stands" – killing an entire herd of buffalo at one time. They add an old friend of McKenzie,
SECTION 10
#1732790745735540-408: Is often considered to mark the beginning of the genre. Westerns were a major genre during the silent era (1894–1929) and continued to grow in popularity during the sound era (post–1929). The genre reached its pinnacle between 1945 and 1965 when it comprised roughly a quarter of studio output. The advent of color and widescreen during this era opened up new possibilities for directors to portray
585-466: Is often erroneously cited as the first Western, though George N. Fenin and William K. Everson point out that the "Edison company had played with Western material for several years prior to The Great Train Robbery ". Nonetheless, they concur that Porter's film "set the pattern—of crime, pursuit, and retribution—for the Western film as a genre". The film's popularity opened the door for Anderson to become
630-536: The Grand Canyon , Yosemite , and the giant redwoods , due in part to exhibitors' inability to switch over to widescreen during the Great Depression . After the renewed commercial successes of the Western in the late 1930s, their popularity continued to rise until the 1950s, when the number of Western films produced outnumbered all other genres combined. The period from 1940 to 1960 has been called
675-557: The National Register of Historic Places , and is located on U.S. Route 16A in Custer . Exhibits focus on the park's natural history and cultural heritage, and include wildlife dioramas , a CCC bunkhouse and a gold prospecting display. The center is named for South Dakota Governor and Senator Peter Norbeck . Many of the park's naturalist programs begin at the center. Badger Hole, also known as Badger Clark Historical Site,
720-459: The Wild West shows that began in the 1870s. These shows, which included stage plays and outdoor exhibitions, culminated in Buffalo Bill's Wild West , a touring performance that ran from 1883 to 1913. Wild West shows, which were intended for urban audiences, established many of the elements that came to define Western films, such as the blending of fact and fiction and the romanticization of
765-402: The "Golden Age of the Western". It is epitomized by the work of several prominent directors including: There have been several instances of resurgence for the Western genre. According to Netflix , the popularity of the genre is due to its malleability: "As America has evolved, so too have Westerns." During the 1960s and 1970s, Spaghetti Westerns from Italy became popular worldwide; this
810-545: The 1930s. By the late 1930s, the Western film was widely regarded as a "pulp" genre in Hollywood, but its popularity was dramatically revived in 1939 by major studio productions such as Dodge City starring Errol Flynn , Jesse James with Tyrone Power , Union Pacific with Joel McCrea , Destry Rides Again featuring James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich , and especially John Ford's landmark Western adventure Stagecoach starring John Wayne , which became one of
855-529: The American West that [embody] the spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier ". The term "Western", used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th-century popular Western fiction , and were firmly in place before film became a popular art form. Film critic Philip French has said that
900-567: The Native Americans as dishonorable villains, the later and more culturally neutral Westerns gave Native Americans a more sympathetic treatment. Other recurring themes of Westerns include treks (e.g. The Big Trail ) or perilous journeys (e.g. Stagecoach ) or groups of bandits terrorizing small towns such as in The Magnificent Seven . The Western goes beyond simply a cinematic genre, and extends into defining
945-526: The Old West published within the last fifteen years as good as "The Last Hunt", by Milton Lott. This is the real thing, a gritty, tough, exciting story reeking with the pungent smells of dead buffalo and of dirty men." W.R. Burnett called it an "undeniably able and interesting book." MGM bought the film rights and announced it as a vehicle for Stewart Granger in February 1955. "It's real Americana", said
SECTION 20
#1732790745735990-651: The Old West – they included Annie Oakley (shooting) and members of the Sioux (dancing). Western films were enormously popular in the silent-film era (1894–1927). The earliest known Western narrative film is the British short Kidnapping by Indians , made by Mitchell and Kenyon in Blackburn , England, in 1899. The Great Train Robbery (1903, based on the earlier British film A Daring Daylight Burglary ), Edwin S. Porter 's film starring Broncho Billy Anderson ,
1035-755: The US Southwest , interest in the Western lifestyle 's music and clothing , along with popular videos games series such as Red Dead . Screenwriter and scholar Eric R. Williams identifies Western films as one of eleven super-genres in his screenwriters' taxonomy , claiming that all feature length narrative films can be classified by these super-genres. The other ten super-genres are action , crime , fantasy , horror , romance , science fiction , slice of life , sports , thriller , and war . Western films often depict conflicts with Native Americans . While early Eurocentric Westerns frequently portray
1080-601: The Western is "a commercial formula with rules as fixed and immutable as the Kabuki Theater." Western films commonly feature protagonists such as sheriffs, cowboys, gunslingers, and bounty hunters, who are often depicted as seminomadic wanderers who wear Stetson hats, bandannas , spurs, and buckskins , use revolvers or rifles as everyday tools of survival and as a means to settle disputes using "frontier justice". Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds. Film Westerns derive from
1125-418: The biggest hits of the year. Released through United Artists, Stagecoach made John Wayne a mainstream screen star in the wake of a decade of headlining B Westerns. Wayne had been introduced to the screen 10 years earlier as the leading man in director Raoul Walsh 's spectacular widescreen The Big Trail , which failed at the box office in spite of being shot on location across the American West, including
1170-474: The cattle, which they are taking to the Indian agency where her people are starving. It grows dark, and Gilson tells McKenzie he does not trust him. He should come down in the morning. A lone buffalo appears; Gilson kills and hastily skins it, saying “You'll keep me warm.” In the bright morning, McKenzie and the woman emerge from shelter to find that Gilson has frozen to death during the night, pointing his gun at
1215-429: The cave. waiting to ambush them. The moisture in the raw buffalo skin has turned it into an icy coffin, and the snow collected on the fur makes it look like the pelt of a white buffalo. McKenzie and the woman ride away, and the camera pans up to a nearby tree, the white buffalo skin stretched in its branches. The New York Times said "except for A.B. Guthrie's "The Big Sky" and "The Way West" I can think of no novel about
1260-498: The end of the decade, studios had mostly ceased to make Westerns. Despite their dwindling popularity during this decade, the 1960s gave rise to the revisionist Western , several examples of which became vital entries in the canon. Since the 1960s, new Western films have only appeared sporadically. Despite their decreased prominence, Western films remain an integral part of American culture and national mythology . The American Film Institute defines Western films as those "set in
1305-473: The film earned $ 1,604,000 in the US and Canada and $ 1,379,000 overseas, resulting in a loss of $ 323,000. In his March 1, 1956, review for The New York Times , Bosley Crowther wrote: “ Buffaloes never looked lovelier than they do…in "The Last Hunt," …Great shaggy beasts with tiny soft eyes and heads like mahogany lions roam in huge herds across the landscape… Indeed, they appear so noble in their natural habitat on
1350-598: The frontier. These early films were originally referred to as "Wild West dramas", the term "Western" came to describe the genre. The use of this shortened term appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World magazine. The first films that belong to the Western genre are a series of short single reel silents made in 1894 by Edison Studios at their Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey . These featured veterans of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show exhibiting skills acquired by living in
1395-420: The idea that McKenzie stole a valuable white buffalo hide. In fact, Jimmy took it and placed in a tree along with the body of his friend, one of Gilson's many victims, according to the religious practices of their people. Over a landscape strewn with bones, Gilson tracks McKenzie, the woman and Jimmy to a cave high in a bluff. It is bitterly cold and snowing. McKenzie persuades Gilson to allow Jimmy to go on with
The Last Hunt - Misplaced Pages Continue
1440-594: The myth of the West in American culture. Early Westerns were mostly filmed in the studio, as in other early Hollywood films, but when location shooting became more common from the 1930s, producers of Westerns used desolate corners of Arizona , California , Colorado , Kansas , Montana , Nevada , New Mexico , Oklahoma , Texas , Utah , or Wyoming . These settings gave filmmakers the ability to depict vast plains, looming mountains, and epic canyons. Productions were also filmed on location at movie ranches . Often,
1485-480: The park is South Dakota's first and largest state park, named after Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer . The park covers an area of over 71,000 acres (287 km ) of varied terrain including rolling prairie grasslands and rugged mountains. The park is home to a herd of 1,500 bison . Elk , coyotes , mule deer , white tailed deer , mountain goats , prairie dogs , bighorn sheep , river otters , pronghorn , cougars , and feral burros also inhabit
1530-436: The park. The park is known for its scenery, its scenic drives ( Needles Highway and the wildlife loop), with views of the bison herd and prairie dog towns. This park is easily accessible by road from Rapid City . Other nearby attractions are Wind Cave National Park , Mount Rushmore , Jewel Cave National Monument , Crazy Horse Memorial , and Badlands National Park . The area originally started out as sixteen sections, but
1575-405: The screen's first Western star; he made several hundred Western film shorts. So popular was the genre that he soon faced competition from Tom Mix and William S. Hart . With the advent of sound in 1927–28, the major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns, leaving the genre to smaller studios and producers. These smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in
1620-403: The star. Richard Brooks was assigned the job of adapting and directing. The film was the first of only three westerns directed by Brooks, and was his first film following the critically acclaimed Blackboard Jungle (1955). In March Robert Taylor was announced as co-star. Russ Tamblyn was then given the lead support part as a half Indian. Lloyd Nolan was also cast – his first film role in over
1665-414: The vast landscape becomes more than a vivid backdrop; it becomes a character in the film. After the early 1950s, various widescreen formats such as Cinemascope (1953) and VistaVision used the expanded width of the screen to display spectacular western landscapes. John Ford's use of Monument Valley as an expressive landscape in his films from Stagecoach to Cheyenne Autumn (1965), "present us with
1710-424: The vastness of the American landscape. This era also produced the genre's most iconic figures, including John Wayne and Randolph Scott , who developed personae that they maintained across most of their films. Director John Ford is often considered one of the genre's greatest filmmakers. With the proliferation of television in the 1960s, television Westerns began to supersede film Westerns in popularity. By
1755-411: The viewing crowd growing to 16,000 to 20,000 people. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem , a horseback rider, has taken part in the roundup which involves 50 to 60 riders herding the animals over a five-mile trail (8.0 km). The examinations includes gathering biological information such as height, weight, and pregnancy checks. Calves are branded and vaccinated. The Peter Norbeck Center is listed on
1800-501: The western plains that it shocks one to sit in the theatre and see them deliberately slain. And that is what you see in this picture…. the killing that is witnessed by the audience is contemporary and real. It is the annual "thinning" of the protected herd at Custer State Park in South Dakota, … It is official and necessary killing, …Even so…the cold-blooded shooting down of them as they stand in all their majesty and grandeur around
1845-481: Was due to the success of Sergio Leone 's storytelling method. Although experiencing waning popularity during the 1980s, the success of films such as Dances with Wolves (1990) and Unforgiven (1992) brought the genre back into the mainstream. Back to the Future Part III (1990) was "a full-blown Western" set in 1885; although the least commercially successful of the trilogy and according to some
The Last Hunt - Misplaced Pages Continue
1890-578: Was injured during filming after falling from a horse. She was replaced by Debra Paget . During filming Dore Schary announced Taylor and Granger would be reteamed in another western, The Return of Johnny Burro with Granger playing a villain and Taylor a hero. However the film was not made. The film earned $ 1,750,000 in North American rental during its first year of release. It recorded admissions of 1,201,326 in France. According to MGM records,
1935-530: Was later changed into one block of land because of the challenges of the terrain. The park began to grow rapidly in the 1920s and gained new land. During the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps built miles of roads, laid out parks and campgrounds, and built three dams that set up a future of water recreation at the park. In 1964 an additional 22,900 acres (93 km ) were added to the park. Thirty-six bison were bought in 1914 to begin
1980-472: Was the home of Charles Badger Clark (1883–1957), who was named South Dakota's first Poet Laureate in 1937 and was noted for his cowboy poetry . The house is maintained as it was when Clark lived there. Visitors can tour the home and hike the adjacent Badger Clark Historic Trail. Opened in May 2016, Custer State Park's visitor center has information on the animals of the park, as well as a 20-minute film detailing
2025-661: Was used for the film. Harvey Lancaster of Custer was the main marksman for the filming. The story takes place during the winter but was actually filmed during the scorching summer months in Custer State Park . When temperatures reached triple digits, Stewart Granger , whose costume consisted of full winter clothing, passed out from heat exhaustion and the crew had to cut away his clothes to revive him. Granger and director Brooks were reportedly not fond of one another, especially after Brooks married Granger's ex-wife, Jean Simmons . After three weeks of filming, Anne Bancroft
#734265