Sixguns and Society: Structural Study of the Western [Hardcover]

This is an enormously significant and provocative book that deserves sustained consideration by anyone interested in the serious study of the history of film. Will Wright undertakes a structural study of the westerns made by Hollywood from 1930 to 1972, concentrating on the top moneymakers in the genre. He treats westerns as the depiction of myth, occupying space between individual and societal norms. He believes that for these films to be popular they must "appeal to or reinforce the individuals who view it by communicating a symbolic meaning to them" (p. 2). A take-off of the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss, Wright extends symbolic meaning to represent and reflect the social institutions and attitudes that create and sustain myth. He notes that myth shifts in response to the social world in which it exists. As he explains it: "My argument, then, is that within each period the structure of the myth corresponds to the conceptual needs of social and self understanding required by the dominant social institutions of that period; the historical changes in the structure of myth correspond to the changes in the structure of the dominant institutions" (p. 14).

Less psychological than Lévi-Strauss, Wright uses a tribal myths concept to explore the sociology of the Western film. He creates a typology of the western genre, emphasizing the development of four recurring plot structures that repeat themselves with variations throughout the history of the Western film: classical, vengeance, transitional, and professional. Western films have evolved through these plot structures, and Wright seeks to demonstrate a correlation between the films, their plot lines, and the larger society that embraced them. Offering short plot synopses as examples, Wright then explores the structural meaning of these films. The classical plot is represented in such films as "Shane," and emphasizes the separation of the hero from the society around him and the strength of the individual to aid that society. The vengeance plot of such films as "One Eyed Jacks," a variation of the classical plot, has similar elements but casts the hero outside of society, and never capable of living in it. The transitional plot, such as "High Noon," anticipated new social values while forcing the hero to stand against both evil and the society at large. Finally, the professional plot, such as depicted in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," suggests that companionship comes only in the banding together of skilled groups who sell their services and remain loyal to each other but no others.

Will Wright concludes: "In the sixties and seventies, the traditional conceptual conflict between the idea of society and the idea of the individual has been transformed into a conflict between society and an elite group. This is perhaps one of the most significant consequences of the emergence of capitalist technology as a social and ideological force" (p. 184).

This is an important and provocative book. It has received both praise and criticism for its attempt to place the Western film into this rigid structural analysis. There are good reasons to be skeptical of some of its ideas. There are also very good reasons to accept much of what Will Wright says in this challenging book.

I had to read this for a film class (history of the western). It exposes the many stylistic elements that were used in the genre and can help one learn how to "decode" a western. It's more than just guns and cowboy hats.