What is WestFest?

Mike@AF said:
I think people really need to understand the difference between genre and theme. There's a big difference and it's getting muddled up here.

The "western" genre is pretty specific in my mind. Puts you back in the old west time period, which could be expensive to shoot and/or locations could be difficult to find.
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So, you don't agree that "Roy Roger's Show" is a 'western'? Roy, Dale, Trigger, and Buttermilk would be so disappointed to know that...

For example: from IMDB...
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Under California Stars (1948) More at IMDbPro »
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Roy has just finished his latest film and leaves for his ranch where he will be broadcasting a show celebrating his tenth year in movies. When Roy and Trigger arrive at his ranch he finds Cookie has hired his relatives. Caroline, the only relative that doesn't have a strong resemblance to Cookie, is the horse trainer. Bob Tells Roy a gang of men are hunting range horses. Roy puts a stop to hunting on his land. Pop decides there's money in kidnapping Trigger and demands a $100,000 ransom. McFarland's stepson, Ted, and his dog Tramp, run away and is found hiding in Roy's barn. A trap is set to catch the kidnappers ranch.
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Let's see... Roy, just fined a 'film'... not a 'old west' sort of occupation..., leaves for his ranch were he'll be broadcasting... not wheat seed no doubt... and other than Roy's dislike for certain blood, guts, and gore, as well as salaciousness... fits into a modern tale just as much as "No Country for Old Men"(2007)...

Now that's from the "King of Cowboys"...
 
Gohanto said:
I think that's a bit like asking whether Chinatown's a true film noir because it was shot in color. The movies mentioned keep a lot of the heart from the old westerns, and that's what's important imho. I would much rather say a movie is multiple things (a Horror / Western / Zombie movie for example, than try to nail any movie down to one area).

Like Firefly is both a SciFi and a Western in my book.
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Chinatown is film-noir-ish, and better described as neo-noir.

I would most certainly not call "Firefly" a western. Western-themed or western-inspired yes, but it's not a western.

From the wiki: "Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th century..."

I think you'd want to focus on the themes, characteristics, and sub-genres sections of the wiki. Those are what you make up a western outside of the time period. But a western is a specific time period.
 
Mike@AF said:
Chinatown is film-noir-ish, and better described as neo-noir.

I would most certainly not call "Firefly" a western. Western-themed or western-inspired yes, but it's not a western.

From the wiki: "Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th century..."

I think you'd want to focus on the themes, characteristics, and sub-genres sections of the wiki. Those are what you make up a western outside of the time period. But a western is a specific time period.
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Unless the rules say otherwise 'Firefly' is most certainly a western.
 
Mike@AF said:
From the wiki: "Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the later half of the 19th century..."
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(emphasis added)


It may be primarily but not exclusively. I look to movies like Giant, The Last Picture Show and Hud as good examples of modern westerns.
 
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Mike@AF said:
Umm I never said anything about Roy Rogers.
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You were claiming that the Western necessarily has to depict the era of the 19th century in what is now the Western US.

Roy Rogers played a 'cowboy', and as far as I know most of his films are classed as 'westerns', and often depicted modern settings, as noted from the brief on an example film, where Roy is playing a film actor, a broadcaster, and driving around in an automobile, and when needed changed over to his horse.

In that regard, his films, 'westerns' by many people's standards, and perhaps the Wiki needs an update... are set in as much the 'modern' era as "No Country for Old Men", or "Brokeback Mountain"(2005).

I also think of "Billy Jack"(1969) as a 'western'...

With that in mind, the wiki article does account for that:

Contemporary Westerns
Although these films have contemporary American settings, they utilize Old West themes and motifs (a rebellious anti-hero, open plains and desert landscapes, and gunfights). For the most part, they still take place in the American West and reveal the progression of the Old West mentality into the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This sub-genre often features Old West-type characters struggling with displacement in a "civilized" world that rejects their outdated brand of justice.
 
Blaine said:
(emphasis added)


It may be primarily but not exclusively. I look to movies like Giant, The Last Picture Show and Hud as good examples of modern westerns.
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"Hud" yes, "The Last Picture Show" no. I'd concede that "Giant" could be a western, although it's a tough call.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
You were claiming that the Western necessarily has to depict the era of the 19th century in what is now the Western US.

Roy Rogers played a 'cowboy', and as far as I know most of his films are classed as 'westerns', and often depicted modern settings, as noted from the brief on an example film, where Roy is playing a film actor, a broadcaster, and driving around in an automobile, and when needed changed over to his horse.

In that regard, his films, 'westerns' by many people's standards, and perhaps the Wiki needs an update... are set in as much the 'modern' era as "No Country for Old Men", or "Brokeback Mountain"(2005).

I also think of "Billy Jack"(1969) as a 'western'...

With that in mind, the wiki article does account for that:

Contemporary Westerns
Although these films have contemporary American settings, they utilize Old West themes and motifs (a rebellious anti-hero, open plains and desert landscapes, and gunfights). For the most part, they still take place in the American West and reveal the progression of the Old West mentality into the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This sub-genre often features Old West-type characters struggling with displacement in a "civilized" world that rejects their outdated brand of justice.
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True. Which is why I said we should focus on the themes, characteristics, and sub-genres sections of the wiki. I still stand by my statement that a western (and I'll say now "true western") is in a certain time period. I just think it's safer to call this a western-themed fest and not a western genre fest.
 
The DVXFests have never been exclusionary. We encourage creative thinking and hope for innovation from the filmmakers who participate. We offer up themes and genres knowing that the community will not only embrace them and put their unique spin on it, but in many cases... they will outright surprise us.

Western is a genre of which there are many incarnations and offshoots from the conventional mold -- you know it when you see it. Now, go out there and knock our collective socks off with a flat-out ball-buster of a movie!!!
 
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