COncerning westerns, these movies have always worked by waves, and each wave had to destroy "codes" f the previous ones. I'm not going to make an history of the western, but the best example is of course the end of the classic amercan westerns in the late 1950's... The genre was going very bad. Then, the SW arrived, destroying many codes (anti-heroes, "cheap" esthetic, explicit violence and camerawork...).
Then, in the late 1960's, Peckinpah, brook and the like began another kind of westerns with TWB, the professionals, integrating the new ideas of SW. Then, it changed again, and again.
Each time, codes have been destroyed... Until Unforgiven, Brokebak Montain and Blueberry. These 3 latest popular "westerns" are a telling example of what the actual situation of the genre is: there is no code to break, no rule to destroy anymore. This is why, IMO, it is nowadays very difficult to help the genre to come back: it wouyld be so hard to find a commun caracteristic for a new wave... Still, all of the futur film directors of this board (including me
) have to find sthg...
