> O.K., I'll bite - how different are American and European > Westerns and how does "theory" apply to Westerns?? My original posting dealt with Argentina, of course, and the major difference in that case is the remarkable absence of Argentine westerns. Their absence has been discussed by Argentine cineastes, who note that it is rather odd that their country did not produce westerns with a couple of exceptions. (One of these, btw, is the "Uruguayan" film A PLACE IN THE WORLD just announced as a finalist for the Oscar. The film is actually from Argentina but was proposed for the Oscar by the Uruguayan National Institute of Cinematography because Argentina's National Institute had proposed another film.) The absence of Argentine westerns is particularly striking since Argentine history and culture have many parallels to our own--the gaucho is a type of cowboy; the country had its own series of wars against its indigenous population, similar to the ones that are a frequent background for US westerns. (Mexican culture parallels our own much less closely, but in Mexico the "charro" film is very popular.) The absence of detective fiction in certain countries is frequently discussed and attributed to various causes. What causes might explain the lack of westerns in Argentine film? Does this lack tell us something about Argentine culture? This was what I had in mind when I sent my original posting. Currie Thompson