Western

New moon on March 10, 2024

Today begins the Crow Moon. Our theme is the Western. Westerns sneaks up on you. They have a straightforward grammar. Law and order is represented by the sheriff or their metonym, the star. The good guys wear white hats, and the bad guys wear black ones. At the climax, the battle between good and evil coalesces in a shootout, often at noon in the middle of the street. The bad guy must draw first, and the good guy must draw faster lest their moral argument fail.

This simplicity makes it as easy to reproduce as to overlook. Consequently there are miles and miles of film recording workaday stories that retell the basic theme: civilization stretched west across the American landscape to lay hold of every inch of the continent to everyone’s betterment. For many years this struck me, as story-hearer, as bad. So I never made much of the genre.

In light of its obvious flaws (so obvious that I see no reason to get into them here), why have we chosen it for our theme this month? Two reasons.

Precisely because the Western is so easy to work with. The nuts and bolts of story structure are there for you to play with in a concrete form. When one starts learning origami, they usually begin with the crane. A simple form that contains all of the basic folds needed, along with practice, patience, and ingenuity, to become a master. In other words, the tools of the Western genre won’t get in the way of communicating a good story.

The other reason is that the Western leads to further forms that are truly beautiful. The problems inherent in the traditional Western make great foils from which to develop other points of view. The anti-western remains vibrant. Check out Screen Rant’s list of top anti-westerns, where you’ll find films that challenge so much that is challenging in the traditional Western.

Despite all that, a classic Western can be a beautiful thing. When I was younger, I didn’t like westerns. Turns out, I just didn’t like bad ones. So in the words of John Ford: When in doubt, make a western.

Wherever your medium of choice takes you, we hope this month’s prompts inspire you in your work!