With the rising discontent with the MCU as seen on many social networking apps and film and television critics, a revisiting of the last truly dominant Genre of Westerns which held control of the box office landscape never before seen and only really eclipsed by the current superhero/comic adaptation market.
What in particular made the western so popular and what in specific lead to the box office death of the genre? What were the politics behind the genre, the economics, and actors both in a gamesmanship context and a performative context.
This is an awesome topic, and definitely very relevant in the current progression of entertainment demands today. One small suggestion I might recommend is providing some examples of current Westerns facing this trend to help jumpstart potential writers. Another angle that might be interesting to take could lie in the Western's influence outside of the box office too. The Mandalorian is just one example of a current and well loved show that has repurposed the Western for its own benefit beyond the big screen-also standing as a stark contrast to the ebb and flow of a traditional theater style Western. Has the role of the Western begun to change in society-now valued more heavily as an allusion rather than an outright genre of itself? – mmclaughlin10210 months ago
If you were interested in considering literature as well as film, "Green Grass, Running Water" by Thomas King might offer some useful insight into a critique of Westerns in the context of colonialism and narratives of indigenous peoples in settler media. It may also suggest that though the Western is not as popular in mainstream media today as in the past, it remains a dominant, internalized cultural form. The tropes and ideas put forth by the genre haven't gone away, they've merely transformed over time. – clairegranum10 months ago