Genre Essay

For my essay I have chosen to analyse the film trailer for the western/revisionist western movie Unforgiven. This movie hit the big screen in 1992 and has some iconic factors with a western movie along with some factors that challenge the western genre and in turn making this film a revisionist western.

Firstly, the majority of the shot types used in the film trailer are traditional to a revisionist western because they are close-up and revealing. A lot of the shots used are close ups which allow the audience to focus on the character and connect with them because we can see their feelings through the heightened view of their facial expressions. This in turn conforms to the genre conventions of a revisionist western because they are very character based, in oppose to the all out action theme of a traditional western movie.

The mis-en-scene of the Unforgiven film trailer is extremely traditional and conforms greatly to the genre conventions of a western movie. However, there are some challenges against the western genre. The settings are what you would expect to see! The settings include a vast baron desert/wasteland setting and a saloon/bar type setting which are extremely typical settings and characteristics for a western and revisionist western movie to the point that there is a sense of intertextuality with every other western movie! The costumes used are also very typical of a western movie. Throughout the trailer we are bombarded with the traditional cowboy hats and leather waistcoats. We also see the sheriff brandishing his star shaped sheriff's badge. These costumes are all typical to a western genre and just cowboys in general and they let us know that this movie is a western. The women in the trailer are mostly dressed very differently to what you would expect in a western movie. In a patriarchal genre such as westerns Women are usually seen as second class and as trophies, the better your woman the better man you are. To denote this the women are usually dressed loosely and provocatively. There are women dressed like this in the trailer but there screen time is minute and they are dressed like this to adhere to the dress code of their profession. The women in this movie trailer however are dressed to the full wearing long dresses and shirts buttoned up to their necks. By doing this the Unforgiven film trailer challenges the genre conventions of a western movie because dressing women in this way shows them in a different light all together. The props used in Unforgiven are also very traditional of a western movie. The majority of props used are guns from the civil war America era such as revolvers or a 'spencer rifle', there are countless horses seen and the American flags in the town setting connote patriotism which is a big theme in western movies, due to the fact they are usually set around the time of the American civil war. These props and costumes are all a form of iconography. The cow boy hats and guns are all iconic to western movies and revisionist western movies. One of the stars and directors of the movie, Clint Eastwood, is a form of iconography also because he is iconic to the western genre. Even the characters are iconic. In every western movie we see a sheriff type character.

The characters in the Unforgiven film trailer are a mixture between conforming to the western genre and its characteristics and going against them completely. There are the traditional western characters such as the sheriff and the bad guy (or guys in this case) and characters such as the damsel in distress. There is also a traditional character of a revisionist western, however this character does challenge the genre characteristics of a traditional western movie, in William Munny with him being the retired police officer going back to do 'one last job'. This doesn't conform to the characteristics of a traditional western because the men in those movies are depicted as killers and are happy about that. However there are some very different and unexpected characters in this film trailer. The first are the women, who challenge the police and voice their opinion. This is practically unheard of in the traditional westerns such as 'the searchers'. The other character is Ned Logan, Clint Eastwood's black partner. This was unseen in any western because the time when these films are set are usually around the civil war era when black people were seen as second class citizens. By including such characters in the trailer and giving them such powerful roles, Clint Eastwood (also directed the film as well as starred in it) goes against the genre characteristics entirely.

The iconic props and characters in this trailer have their own connotations that go against or conform to the western genre characteristics. The sheriff character in western movies signifies law and order and the villain character in the trailer signifies injustice. This is a classic binary opposition in the western genre. However, in this particular trailer this binary opposition is challenged with the sheriffs being described as 'killers' and as being the signifiers for corruption. This binary opposition is supported by the sheriff character having his badge half covered under his jacket. This signifies that the corruption and injustice has over clouded what is right. One ideology that conforms in this trailer is that honour is of upmost importance to a man. Clint Eastwood's character William Munny coming back to do one last job in the name of honour. Another binary opposition that challenges the western genre characteristics is the one of man against women. With the western genre being traditionally patriarchal, this trailer challenges this binary opposition by making the women strong characters who voice their opinion and chase the villains out of there town by throwing rocks at them. This signifies that women are as equal as men and can do what they can do. This binary opposition can be taken further by looking at it as inferior and superior, men being the superior and women being inferior. This challenge of characteristics is supported by the strong women shown in this revisionist western trailer and Morgan Freeman's character Ned Logan. He also signifies equality, however he does it in a way that says everyone is equal not just men and women but people of every race. This is signified through him being black which is something that is rarely seen in western movies.