The classic Western

The western always tells the same thing: the moment when law replaces violence, and the price paid by those who did the work. John Ford films a man who searches five years for his abducted niece without knowing what he will do if he finds her, Hawks shuts a sheriff and three friends inside a besieged office, Mann follows a rifle passing from hand to hand. Then the genre turns against itself: Leone stretches out time and irony, Peckinpah gives ageing outlaws a last contract in Mexico, filmed in slow motion.

works 5

• CinemaWinchester '73Anthony Mann · 1950The story follows, episode by episode, a rifle that changes owners as it crosses the West.Cinema
• CinemaThe SearchersJohn Ford · 1956Over several years, the story follows the quest of a former Confederate soldier and his brother's adopted son across Comanche country.Cinema
• CinemaRio BravoHoward Hawks · 1959A siege western, it shuts a sheriff and his few allies inside a jail surrounded by killers.Cinema
• CinemaOnce Upon a Time in the WestC'era una volta il WestSergio Leone · 1968Three men and a woman fight over a few acres that the railway is about to cross.Cinema
• CinemaThe Wild BunchSam Peckinpah · 1969The film shows its shootouts in slow motion, filmed with up to six cameras running at different speeds, from twenty-four to one hundred and twenty frames per second.Cinema