On 10/29/96, Lang Thompson wrote: >****** This may be the most interesting point: can a film (or book) >be a Western if it's not set in the West? It sounds pretty trivial but >it goes right to the heart of what we mean by "Western." Is Outland an >honorary Western because it's modelled after High Noon or because the >plot/thematic elements (law/civilization, individual courage, etc) are >considered the proper subject of Westerns. (Just as science fiction is >often concerned with the effects of technology or comedy with >disorder.) One especially convoluted example would be Yojimbo/Fistful >of Dollars/Last Man Standing group. Is the first a Japanese film >inspired by or based on American Westerns? Would it have existed >without that example? Fistful of Dollars is the same plot/structure >but this time actually moved to the traditional Western time and place >so there would be little question that it actually is a Western. Last >Man Standing is Western in setting but not time and has numerous >elements of the gangster film incorporated. In fact, it would be easy >to imagine Last Man Standing actually set in New York City, so if the >plot can be easily converted, what is essentially Western about it? Actually it's more complicated than that. YOJIMBO seems to be an uncredited adaptation of Dahiell Hammett's book RED HARVEST, in which an unnamed detective (probably the same character as his Continental Op) comes into a lawless town and pits one gang against another; the setting and period is something like that in LAST MAN STANDING). And can we forget THE WARRIOR AND THE SORCERESS, the 1984 sci-fi/fantasy re-make of YOJIMBO starring David Carradine? Richard J. Leskosky Richard J. Leskosky office phone: (217) 244-2704 Assistant Director FAX: (217) 244-2223 Unit for Cinema Studies University of Illinois 2117 Foreign Languages Building 707 S. Mathews Avenue Urbana, Illinois 61801 ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]