Can the Western, a genre almost as old as cinema itself and as iconically American as our founding myths, still be relevant in our modern age? Apparently yes. For almost a century, film directors, from John Ford and Howard Hawks to John Sayles and Chloé Zhao, have used the Western to question American culture even as they celebrate it. The Western is a natural genre to investigate our notions of justice, freedom, history, and, most especially, masculinity, for which it has been both a reflection and a driver of our culture’s evolving understanding.
((Steven Cherry - Tuesday - Zoom))
