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Article: The Abolition of Man?(portrayal of male characters in Western motion pictures)
- Article from:
- Reason
- Article date:
- June 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Reason Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Tell 'em that it's human nature.
Delve into literary or film studies, and you'll run into something called genre criticism. Inoffensive in theory, this approach often devolves into a way to complain that artists are not conforming to the critic's pet definitions.
Consider "Movie Chronicle: The Westerner," Robert Warshow's famous essay on the Hollywood western. After laying out an ideal form that westerns supposedly follow, Warshow criticizes several famous films for deviating from his theory. High Noon, though "well handled," is faulted because "social drama" has no place in the genre. My Darling Clementine, though "beautiful," is "so loving in ...