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The Western genre has been around almost as long as cinema and through that time has created countless tropes. As the era’s of Hollywood changed and grew so did the Western. First beginning with heroic do-gooder’s and dastardly villains, the Western genre began as a simple vessel for good vs evil stories.
As the Western aged and changed so did the tropes with it. During the troubling times of the late 60s and 70s the Western shifted, exposing audiences to more morally gray characters and situations. With this more realistic approach many of the old tropes fell off, and new ones were made.
Cowboys and Indians
One of the first images thought of when fantasizing about Westerns are cowboys or Native Americans. Whether it’s a tale of white settlers pushing their way through the frontier and seizing up land that the Native’s roamed or a story of hostile Indian tribes attacking frontier towns, this trope usually has the cowboys pitted against the Native’s.
Some films will subvert the trope by showing a more sympathetic side to the Native American’s and expose their nomadic way of life like Dances with Wolves, Red Arrow, and Little Big Man. As iconic as the image of cowboys vs Indians is, there are plenty of Westerns that don’t even mention Native Americans and instead focus on the trials and tribulations of settlers, gunfighters, or ranchers,
Stagecoaches
Stagecoaches were a major source of travel during the days or horseback riding and train rides. If you wanted to travel to another town but didn’t have a horse or the protection to get there stagecoaches were a great alternative. So stagecoaches were often used in the early days of the western.
John Wayne even broke out into stardom after playing the lead in John Ford’s Stagecoach, where several people take a perilous stagecoach ride. As popular as stagecoaches were in the Wild West, they aren’t used in Westerns too much. They are now mostly being used in quick cuts to show characters moving location but no longer a central plot device.
Railroads
Railroads are iconic to the images of the Wild West. It’s what connected the country and brought about the “end of the outlaw” as land and people became more and more connected. Railroads are still a major point in Westerns, but a Western can live without one.
Some films like Once Upon A Time in the West or The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Fordfocus heavily on trains whether it be the main villain’s hangout or a score to rob. But plenty of Westerns get by without any use of railroads.
Frontier Setting
Tumbleweeds, vast deserts, and canyons are the usual images in one’s mind when thinking of a Western, but the wide ranges of western America don’t necessarily have to be the setting for a Western. With Westerns becoming so popular, many European countries began making their own ‘Westerns’ and shot in their home country. But they still tried to capture that American frontier look.
But it isn’t always the setting that makes a Western so great. Many Westerns will have all the similar tropes and subjects of the genre yet set their story in outer space like Star Warsor Firefly. Another popular take is to step away from the ‘frontier’ completely and give the film a modern setting in Western America like Hell or High Water or Wind River.
Cattle Drive
Cattle Drives were a big deal in the old west. Moving herds of cattle across the dangerous lands of frontier America was no easy feat and became the source of many stories and films in the Western genre. Cattle Drive are almost a subgenre within Westerns with films like Cattle Drive, Open Range and Red River to name a few.
As hazardous and exciting as cattle drives can be a lot of westerns stay clear of the subject. Unless the main characters are farmers or cattle rustlers there are not many reasons to have a cattle drive in a film.
Woman With Tragic Past
The “woman with a tragic past” is an age-old staple within the Western genre. With plenty of masculine gunslingers totting around unfortunately many female characters in Westerns get pushed to the wayside and often given a generic backstory like “widower” or “runaway/lost girl.”
Luckily over the years, female characters have gotten their time to shine under that hot desert and even become the lead character. Some awesome female-led Westerns that don’t rely on the “tragic past” trope are Johnny Guitar (the first major female-led Western), Jane Got a Gun, and The Homesman.
Duels/Mexican Standoffs
There’s nothing quite as epic as the iconic western duel. Two men stand ten paces from each other and see which one can draw quicker. It’s tense, it’s exciting, and it’s a complete Hollywood fabrication.
Duels were never actually a big deal in the days of the old west and as iconic as they are for the genre itself, there are plenty of great Westerns that have zero duels. Examples would be Two Mules for Sister Sara,McLintock!, and Hud.
Bounty Hunting
Bounty hunting was a dangerous profession during the old west and made for some incredible characters within the genre. Bounty Hunters are usually cold, ruthless gunslingers who won’t let anyone come in their way. They make terrifying villains and compelling heroes, but the Western isn’t all just guns and bounties.
Plenty of Westerns stay away from the wicked ways of the bounty hunter. Some films will substitute the morally gray bounty hunter protagonist for a good-natured man like a sheriff or homesteader like in Rio Bravoand High Noon, or Tombstone.
Lone Cowboy
The ‘Lone Cowboy’ trope is a trademark symbol for the Western. A stoic gunslinger trots into town with only his wit and his six-shooter and somehow saves the town from all its troubles. It’s been done countless times over and makes for some excellent storytelling – but not every Western is one man against the world.
There are plenty of westerns that throw away the idea of a lone cowboy solving all the world’s problems and instead focus on groups. Rather, the story is centered around a whole town like Deadwoodor a group of gunmen like Magnificent Sevenand The Professionals, or the more interesting route following a group of outlaws like Silverado, The Wild Bunchand Young Guns.
Black Hat vs. White Hat:
One of the oldest tropes of the Western were the good guy “white hats” vs the dastardly “black hats”. In the early days of Westerns, heroes and villains were differentiated by their appearances. It’s a less subtle way of displaying the ultimate struggle of the story but helped audience visualize better, especially during the days of black and white television.
As the western grew and TVs’ gained color the trope of “black hat vs. white hat” went by the wayside. The genre began focusing on more realistic takes on characters. Now, hero’s will teeter on the line of good and bad while the villain’s can show a more humane side like in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
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