NEOREALIST WESTERNS

Neorealist Westerns are a kind of alternative Westernthat began appearing after the 1970s. While paying extreme fidelity to historical reality, neorealist Westerns develop from revisionist interpretations of Western history and, thus, expose the facade of classic Westerns and the Western myth by showing previously ignored sides of the historical frontier experience. The term originated with Richard Slotkin, who identified the following subtypes: Monte Walsh(1970), Wild Rovers(1971), and The Culpepper Cattle Company(1972), which show the cowboy as a common working man; The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), which depict the town-tamer as psychopath; and Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969), which shows the Native Americanas ethnic outsider, not the traditional noble savage.

See also FRONTIER AS ESCAPE FROM THE CITY; HISTORICAL AUTHENTICITY.