Kevin Rush's Blog - Posts Tagged "classic"

The Western is the archetypal American story. Its roots go back at least to the early 19th century and James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales. In those five novels, Cooper laid out the rules that future writers would assiduously follow: the unyielding land, the Noble Savage and his ruthless counterpart, and the frontiersman, whose identity is so closely tied to a changing landscape that once he tames the land, he finds he can no longer inhabit it. Drawing on existential struggles with nature and against our own human nature, Westerns gained popularity the world over. In Hollywood, they have made an indelible impact that has bled into other film genres as well. I've watched Western movies and TV shows all my life, but I've read very few Western novels. Today I look at two which served as source material for two of the greatest Western films ever made: Shane and The Searchers.

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