The Western Reader

An essential guide to the Western film, this lavishly illustrated collection of writings on Western movies covers close to a century of American cinematic achievement and spans almost a half-century of essays, commentary, and interviews. Every aspect that distinguishes the Western is explored, especially its history, mythology and landscape, often from sharply different points of view so that the book becomes a richly diverse collage of impressions and insights. While their subjects range from the development of the genre through the unforgettable masterpieces of Hollywood's Golden Age to the revisionist and post-modern Westerns of our own time, the pieces are all authoritative, perceptive, thoughtful, stimulating, and skilfully written.