The common idea of a western film is something starring John Wayne, and he’s playing a cowboy or an outlaw or both. He’s likely out to kill every indigenous person he finds (although he would likely refer to them as Indians), and the film would take place somewhere in the Wild West. The film would feature bandits or bounty hunters, maybe a family trying to protect their ranch, or a sheriff trying to hunt down a criminal. The genre is typically thought of as something that is confined to the past: a product of the 50s and 60s but not something that is still being made today. That doesn’t mean that there can’t be western films that take place in the modern world. Hell or High Water (2016) is a western that takes place in the present, or at least past the year 2000. Although, a lot of these films do tend to follow the same general ideas. Something like Red Dead Redemption could do a lot to inspire the genre onto a new path.
The first Red Dead Redemption was one of the most expensive video games ever made, with a development period that lasted more than five years. It came out in 2010, and takes place in the Wild West. Also in 2010, a noncanonical expansion pack was released called Undead Nightmare, following the same themes as the original game, but in conjunction with a quickly spreading zombie virus. These games were followed by Red Dead Redemption II in 2018, which serves as a prequel to the first game.
In all the games, the main character travels on horseback and on foot. The games all involve the use of ‘morality’, and the choices that the player makes will affect the outcome of the game, largely in how they are treated by the other characters. The gameplay involves shootouts, heists, hunting, and many of the typical tropes found in western films.
Read Dead Redemption could function as a means with which to inspire new western films for a few reasons. Firstly, the easter eggs present in the game, many of which are inspired by supernatural or sci-fi ideas like UFOs, bigfoot’s skeleton, and ghosts. This shows that the video game doesn’t take itself so seriously as a western. This is particularly present through the release of the Undead Nightmare expansion pack. If a western film were to introduce similar elements, it could add interest to the otherwise somewhat restrictive idea of a classic western.
But what western films should especially try to replicate is the writing of dynamic characters like what exists in the games. In the world of Red Dead Redemption, the individuals are usually not purely good or bad. They change and grow, and do different things based on the situation they’re in and the context surrounding it. In the majority of films that are described as westerns, there are definitively the good guys and the bad guys. Even if the good guys do bad things, it’s not really perceived as bad within the scope of the film or by the audience.
Stylistically, western films are typically thought of as quite a specific thing, but in terms of film theory, a western is categorized by three traits. That the main character, typically a male, be different from most people, often in that he is overly tough; that the plot involves a search for something, usually forcing the main character into the natural world; and that stylistically, there are usually open, natural spaces.
Going by this criteria, almost any film can be described (to some extent) as a western film. Most films do feature a lead who is unlike the other people present in the film, and they go on a search for something, be it material or not. As long as there is also a shot of an open area, it could be described as a western film.
Because westerns follow such a loose set of descriptors, there are a variety of types of westerns, such as classic western, comedy western, horror western, ramen western, space western, and spaghetti western, which are only a few of the many, many types of western films. Classic westerns are of course, the common idea of what a western film is, and comedy westerns use these same ideas in satire, Blazing Saddles is a good example of this. Horror westerns fall under the western setting but involve monsters of some kind. Undead Nightmare actually falls under this category.
A ramen western is a genre derived from the term spaghetti western. A spaghetti western is a western made in Italy, and usually features more violence than a classic western. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is a spaghetti western. Ramen westerns, conversely, are westerns taking place in Asia. A space western is a western-styled film taking place in space. This doesn’t necessarily mean cowboys shooting Indians in space (although it can), but rather the general themes of a western in a sci-fi setting, such as the film Avatar.
Because western is such a broad genre, so many films fall under the western category despite how the majority of the public might not really consider many of them true westerns. But what is thought of as a true, classic western is a type of film that in some ways, is confined to the past. Since so many videogames are being made into movies lately, perhaps Red Dead Redemption could be next. If it follows the classical western genre and also maintains the ideas of surrealism in supernatural or sci-fi elements, as well as the dynamic character writing, it could be a great videogame movie, and possibly even popularize the western genre again.