Classical vs. Revisionist

Stagecoach vs. Unforgiven

There are significant differences between the "classical western" to the "revisionist western." Although they both have the same types of settings the major themes of the two sub-genres split into completley different arenas. Many times, revisionist westerns will show a different depiction of Native Americans, or question other aspects that are commonplace in the westerns of the past. The film Unforgiven (directed by Clint Eastwood) shows the act of killing, violence aren't as thoughtless as in John Ford's Stagecoach were Indians fall off their horses, dying with a single shot. Another big difference is the aspects of heroism and cowardice. Many of the characters are seen by many as heroic, or ruthless when really the "word of mouth" or print distorts the real image that is sometimes bathed in cowardice.

The appearance of blood and overall brutality of killing isn't seen in Stagecoach. This seems to be fairly obvious to the viewer; they want to focus their attention on the development of John Wayne's character and the survival of the passengers of the stagecoach not dwell on the facts that the numerous armed Native Americans weren't able to kill anyone...not a single person. Now let's turn to Unforgiven's depiction of murder and the prime example would be when Will Munny (Clint Eastwood) guns down a man who was complicit in the "slashing" of the town prostitute. This man has a slow painful death, he calls out for a drink of water, he complains of the pain from the bloody bullet hole in his stomach. This was just two diverging examples that show a divergent theme.

As far a cowardice vs. heroism: Unforgiven challenges the classic western the most in this category. It shows how journalism, story telling, and other means can create an image that is false and/or too idealistic. A good example of this is the character English Bob (Richard Harris) who is represented in books and most areas of the country as a larger-than-life cowboy. He is, however, exposed by Little Bill (Gene Hackman) as a drunk who just was lucky at the time. There are no chinks in Ringo Kid's (John Wayne) idealized personality and he is the almost-perfect protagonist of the film: he is still a "reluctant" hero because that was classic westerns have. Overall, these differences along with many others divide Unforgiven and Stagecoach into sub-genres of western films, but each film is key in Western genre's history.