Film , in Western apparel, from the
silent film The Great Train Robbery (1903), the second Western film and the first one shot in the United States '' full film (1903); runtime 00:11:51. The
American Film Institute defines Western films as those "set in the American West that [embody] the spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the
new frontier". Originally, these films were called "Wild West dramas", a reference to
Wild West shows like
Buffalo Bill Cody's. 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. Western films commonly feature protagonists such as 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. 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 the Old West – they included
Annie Oakley (shooting) and members of the
Sioux (dancing). 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, is often erroneously cited as the first Western, though George N. Fenin and
William K. Everson point out (as mentioned above) 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 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. Western films were enormously popular in the
silent film era (1894–1927). With the advent of sound in 1927–1928, 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 the 1930s. An exception was
The Big Trail, a 1930 American
pre-Code widescreen Western film shot on location across the American West, including the
Grand Canyon,
Yosemite, and the giant
redwoods, starring 23-year-old
John Wayne in his first
leading role and directed by
Raoul Walsh. The epic film noted for its authenticity was a financial failure due in part to exhibitors' inability to switch over to widescreen during the
Great Depression. 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 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. After renewed commercial successes in the late 1930s, the popularity of Westerns continued to rise until its peak in the 1950s, when the number of Western films produced outnumbered all other genres combined. The period from 1940 to 1960 has been called the "Golden Age of the Western". It is epitomized by the work of several prominent directors including
Robert Aldrich,
Budd Boetticher,
Delmer Daves,
John Ford, and others. Some of the popular films during this era include
Apache (1954),
Broken Arrow (1950), and
My Darling Clementine (1946). The changing popularity of the Western genre has influenced worldwide pop culture over time. During the 1960s and 1970s,
Spaghetti Westerns from
Italy became popular worldwide; this was due to the success of
Sergio Leone's storytelling method. After having been previously pronounced dead, a resurgence of Westerns occurred during the 1990s with films such as
Dances with Wolves (1990),
Unforgiven (1992), and
Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), as Westerns once again increased in popularity.
Television and
Jack Kelly in
Maverick (1957) When television became popular in the late 1940s and 1950s, television Westerns quickly became an audience favorite. Beginning with rebroadcasts of existing films, a number of movie cowboys had their own TV shows. As demand for the Western increased, new stories and stars were introduced. A number of long-running TV Westerns became classics in their own right, such as:
The Cisco Kid (1950–1956),
The Lone Ranger (1949–1957),
Death Valley Days (1952–1970),
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955–1961),
Cheyenne (1955–1962),
Gunsmoke (1955–1975),
Maverick (1957–1962),
Have Gun – Will Travel (1957–1963),
Wagon Train (1957–1965),
The Rifleman (1958–1963),
Rawhide (1959–1966),
Bonanza (1959–1973),
The Virginian (1962–1971), and
The Big Valley (1965–1969).
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp was the first Western television series written for adults, premiering four days before
Gunsmoke on September 6, 1955. The peak year for television Westerns was 1959, with 26 such shows airing during primetime. At least six of them were connected in some extent to
Wyatt Earp:
The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp,
Bat Masterson,
Tombstone Territory,
Broken Arrow,
Johnny Ringo, and
Gunsmoke. Increasing costs of American television production weeded out most action half-hour series in the early 1960s, and their replacement by hour-long television shows, increasingly in color. Traditional Westerns died out in the late 1960s as a result of network changes in
demographic targeting along with pressure from parental television groups. Future entries in the genre would incorporate elements from other genera, such as crime drama and mystery whodunit elements. Western shows from the 1970s included
Hec Ramsey,
Kung Fu,
Little House on the Prairie,
McCloud,
The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, and the short-lived but highly acclaimed
How the West Was Won that originated from a miniseries with the same name. In the 1990s and 2000s, hour-long Westerns and slickly packaged made-for-TV movie Westerns were introduced, such as
Lonesome Dove (1989) and
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Also, new elements were once again added to the Western formula, such as the
space Western,
Firefly, created by Joss Whedon in 2002.
Deadwood was a critically acclaimed Western series that aired on
HBO from 2004 through 2006.
Hell on Wheels, a fictionalized story of the construction of the
first transcontinental railroad, aired on
AMC for five seasons between 2011 and 2016.
Longmire is a Western series that centered on
Walt Longmire, a sheriff in fictional Absaroka County,
Wyoming. Originally aired on the
A&E network from 2012 to 2014, it was picked up by
Netflix in 2015 until the show's conclusion in 2017.
AMC and
Vince Gilligan's critically acclaimed
Breaking Bad is a much more modern take on the Western genre. Set in
New Mexico, it follows
Walter White (
Bryan Cranston), a chemistry teacher diagnosed with Stage III Lung Cancer who cooks and sells crystal
meth to provide money for his family after he dies, while slowly growing further and further into the illicit drug market, eventually turning into a ruthless drug dealer and killer. While the show has scenes in a populated suburban neighborhood and nearby
Albuquerque, much of the show takes place in the desert, where Walter often takes his RV car out into the open desert to cook his meth, and most action sequences occur in the desert, similar to old-fashioned Western movies. The clash between the Wild West and modern technology like cars and cellphones, while also focusing primarily on being a
crime drama makes the show a unique spin on both genres. Walter's reliance on the desert environment makes the Western-feel a pivotal role in the show, and would continue to be used in the spinoff series
Better Call Saul. The neo-Western drama
Yellowstone was streamed from 2018–2024.
Literature Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West, most commonly between 1860 and 1900. The first critically recognized Western was
The Virginian (1902) by
Owen Wister. Other well-known writers of Western fiction include
Zane Grey, from the early 1900s,
Ernest Haycox,
Luke Short, and
Louis L'Amour, from the mid 20th century. Many writers better known in other genres, such as
Leigh Brackett,
Elmore Leonard, and
Larry McMurtry, have also written Western novels. The genre's popularity peaked in the 1960s, due in part to the shuttering of many pulp magazines, the popularity of
televised Westerns, and the rise of the spy novel. Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s and reached a new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside of a few Western states, now only carry a small number of Western novels and short-story collections. Literary forms that share similar themes include stories of the American frontier, the
gaucho literature of
Argentina, and tales of the settlement of the Australian Outback. s by a blow from the butt of his
revolver, and sprang for the one with the
tomahawk, the chief's daughter suddenly appeared. Raising her hands, she exclaimed, 'Go back, Young Wild West. I will save her! (1908)
Visual arts A number of visual artists focused their work on representations of the American Old West. American West-oriented art is sometimes referred to as "Western Art" by Americans. This relatively new category of art includes paintings, sculptures, and sometimes Native American crafts. Initially, subjects included exploration of the Western states and cowboy themes.
Frederic Remington and
Charles M. Russell are two artists who captured the "Wild West" in paintings and sculpture. After the death of Remington
Richard Lorenz became the preeminent artist painting in the Western genre. Some art museums, such as the
Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Wyoming and the
Autry National Center in Los Angeles, feature American Western Art.
Anime and manga With
anime and
manga, the genre tends towards the science-fiction Western – e.g.,
Cowboy Bebop (1998 anime),
Trigun (1995–2007 manga), and
Outlaw Star (1996–1999 manga). Although contemporary Westerns also appear, such as
Koya no Shonen Isamu, a 1971
shonen manga about a boy with a Japanese father and a Native American mother, or
El Cazador de la Bruja, a 2007 anime television series set in modern-day Mexico.
Part 7 of the manga series ''
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is based in the American Western setting. The story follows racers in a transcontinental horse race, the "Steel Ball Run". Golden Kamuy'' (2014–2022) shifts its setting to the fallout of the
Russo-Japanese War, specifically focusing on
Hokkaido and
Sakhalin as a lawless frontier environment similar to the Wild West, and featuring the
Ainu people and other local tribes instead of Native Americans, as well other recognizable Western tropes.
Comics Western comics have included serious entries, such as the classic comics of the late 1940s and early 1950s (namely
Kid Colt, Outlaw,
Rawhide Kid, and
Red Ryder) or more modern ones (such as
Tex Willer and
Blueberry), cartoons, and parodies (such as
Lucky Luke and
Cocco Bill). In the 1990s and 2000s, Western comics leaned towards the
fantasy,
horror and
science fiction genres, usually involving supernatural monsters, or Christian iconography as in
Preacher. More traditional Western comics are found throughout this period, though (e.g.,
Jonah Hex and
Loveless).
Video games Video game Westerns emerged in the 1970s. These games drew on the imagery of a mythic West portrayed in stories, films, television shows, and other assorted Western-themed toys. When game developers went to the imaginary West to create new experiences, they often drew consciously or unconsciously from Western stories and films. The 1971 text-based,
Mainframe computer game
The Oregon Trail was first game to use the West as a setting, where it tasked players to lead a party of settlers moving westward in a covered wagon from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. The game only grew popular in the 1980s and 1990s as an educational game. The first video game Westerns to engage the mass public arrived in
arcade games focused on the gunfighter in Westerns based on depictions in television shows, films and
Electro-mechanical games such as
Dale Six Shooter (1950), and
Sega's
Gun Fight (1970). The first of these games was
Midway's
Gun Fight, an adaptation of
Taito's
Western Gun (1975) which featured two players against each other in a duel set on a sparse desert landscape with a few cacti and a moving covered wagon to hide behind.
Atari's
Outlaw (1976) followed which explicitly framed the shootouts between "good guys" and "outlaws" also borrowing from gunfighter themes and imagery.
Radio dramas Western
radio dramas were very popular from the 1930s to the 1960s. There were five types of Western radio dramas during this period: anthology programs, such as
Empire Builders and
Frontier Fighters; juvenile adventure programs such as
Red Ryder and
Hopalong Cassidy; legend and lore like
Red Goose Indian Tales and ''Cowboy Tom's Round-Up
; adult Westerns like Fort Laramie and Frontier Gentleman; and soap operas such as Cactus Kate
. Some popular shows include The Lone Ranger (first broadcast in 1933), The Cisco Kid (first broadcast in 1942), Dr. Sixgun (first broadcast in 1954), Have Gun–Will Travel (first broadcast in 1958), and Gunsmoke'' (first broadcast in 1952). Many shows were done live, while others were transcribed.
Web series Westerns have been showcased in short-episodic web series. Examples include
League of STEAM,
Red Bird, and
Arkansas Traveler. ==Subgenres==