Acid Western is a sub-genre of the Western film that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s that combined the metaphorical ambitions of top-shelf Westerns, like Shane and The Searchers, with the excesses of the Spaghetti Westerns and the outlook of the counter-culture. The Western is a fiction Genre seen in Film, Television, Radio, Literature, Painting and other Visual arts. Shane is a 1953 Western film made by Paramount Pictures. It was produced and directed by George Stevens from a Screenplay The Searchers is a 1956 Epic Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, which tells the story Spaghetti Western, also known in some countries in mainland Europe as the Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western Counterculture (also " counter-culture " is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a Cultural group, or Acid Westerns subvert many of the conventions of earlier Westerns to "conjure up a crazed version of autodestructive white America at its most solipsistic, hankering after its own lost origins. "^[1]

Origin of the term

"Acid Western" was coined by Jonathan Rosenbaum in a review of Jim Jarmusch's film, Dead Man, published in the Chicago Reader in June 1996. Jim Jarmusch (born January 22 1953 in Akron Ohio; ˈdʒɑrməʃ is an American independent Film director. Dead Man is a 1995 film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. Rosenbaum expanded upon the idea in a subsequent interview with Jarmusch for Cineaste and later in the book, Dead Man from BFI Modern Classics.

In the book, Rosenbaum illuminates several aspects of this re-revisionist Western: from Neil Young's haunting score, to the role of tobacco, to Johnny Depp's performance, to the film's place in the Acid Western genre. Neil Percival Young OM (born November 12, 1945, Toronto Ontario) is a Canadian Singer-songwriter, Musician John In the chapter "On the Acid Western," Rosenbaum addresses not only the hallucinogenic quality of the film's pace and its representation of "reality," but also argues that the film inherits an artistic and political sensibility derived from the 1960s counterculture which has sought to critique and replace capitalism with alternative models of exchange. ^[2]

In the traditional Western, the journey west is seen as a road to liberation and improvement, but in the Acid Western, it is the reverse, a journey towards death; society becomes nightmarish. The Western is a fiction Genre seen in Film, Television, Radio, Literature, Painting and other Visual arts.

History of the genre

"I don't give a curly hair, yellow bear, double dog damn if ya did!"

Rosenbaum used the term Acid Western to describe a "cherished counterculture dream" from the Sixties and Seventies "associated with people like Monte Hellman, Dennis Hopper, Jim McBride, and Rudy Wurlitzer, as well as movies like Greaser's Palace; Alex Cox tapped into something similar in the Eighties with Walker. Monte Hellman (born July 12, 1932, in New York City, New York) is an American Film director, producer, and Film editor Dennis Lee Hopper (born May 17, 1936) is an Academy Award -nominated American Actor and Film -maker Jim McBride (born September 16, 1941, in New York New York) is an American Television and Film director, producer Rudolph "Rudy" Wurlitzer (born 1937 is an American novelist and screenwriter Alexander Cox (born December 15, 1954) is a British Film director and sometime Actor, notable for his idiosyncratic style and approach Walker is an Acid western by British director Alex Cox based on the life story of William Walker ( Ed Harris) the American "^[3]

Monte Hellman's cult film, The Shooting (1967) could be considered the first Acid Western. A cult film is a Film that has acquired a highly devoted but relatively small group of fans. The Shooting is a 1966 western film directed by Monte Hellman, with a screenplay by Carole Eastman (using the Pseudonym The film stars Will Hutchins, Warren Oates and a young Jack Nicholson, and was anonymously financed by Roger Corman. Will Hutchins (born May 5[[ 932]] is an American Actor most noted for playing the lead role of Tom Brewster in the Warner Brothers Warren Mercer Oates (July 5 1928 – April 3 1982 was a prolific American Character actor best known for his performances in several films directed by Sam John Joseph "Jack" Nicholson (born April 22 1937) is an American Actor, internationally renowned for his often dark-themed portrayals Roger William Corman (born April 5 1926) sometimes nicknamed "King of the Bs" for his output of B-movies (though he himself rejects this as inaccurate The Shooting subverts the usual priorities of the Western to capture a sense of dread and uncertainty that characterized the counterculture of the late 1960s. Hellman quickly followed up with Ride in the Whirlwind. Ride in the Whirlwind is a 1965 western directed by Monte Hellman, starring Jack Nicholson, Millie Perkins, and Harry Early 1970s films such as Robert Downey Sr.'s Greaser's Palace, George Englund's Zachariah, and Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo (The Mole) blends religious allegory, John Fordian Americana, Thomas Pynchonesque satire, and counter-cultural fantasy. Greaser's Palace is a 1972 American film directed by Robert Downey Sr Zachariah is a 1971 film starring John Rubinstein as Zachariah and Don Johnson as his best friend Matthew Alejandro Jodorowsky (ɑːlɛˈxɑːndrɒ jɒdɒˈrɒvskiː (born February 7 1929 in Tocopilla, Chile, of a Jewish Russian (Ukranian immigrant family El Topo ( The Mole) is a 1970 allegorical, cult Western movie and Underground film, directed by and Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr (born May 8 1937 is an American writer based in New York City, noted for his dense and complex works of Fiction. Luc Moullet directed A Girl is a Gun (Une Aventure de Billy le Kid) featuring French New Wave icon Jean-Pierre Léaud as Billy the Kid. Luc Moullet (born 14 October, 1937 in Paris) is a French Film critic and Filmmaker, and a member of the Nouvelle Vague or French Jean-Pierre Léaud (born May 5, 1944) is a French Actor. Born in Paris, Léaud made his debut as an actor when he was 14 as The film swings wildly between slapstick insanity and delirious experimentationin set in a bizarre, elemental wilderness.

The acid Western reached its zenith in the 1970s, depicting the Old West as an imaginary, post-apocalyptic wilderness populated by degenerate hippies and loners. Grim Viet-era acid Westerns include Robert Benton's Bad Company, James Frawley's Kid Blue (staring Dennis Hopper), Stan Dragoti's Dirty Little Billy, Peter Fonda's The Hired Hand, and Sydney Pollack's Jeremiah Johnson. Robert Benton (born September 29, 1932 in Waxahachie Texas) is an American, Academy Award winning Screenwriter and Bad Company is a 1972 American Western film directed by Robert Benton, who also co-wrote the film with David Newman. Dennis Lee Hopper (born May 17, 1936) is an Academy Award -nominated American Actor and Film -maker Dirty Little Billy is a Western film released in 1972 and was the directorial debut of Stan Dragoti. The Hired Hand is a 1971 western film directed by Peter Fonda, with a screenplay by Alan Sharp. Jeremiah Johnson is a 1972 western film. It was directed by Sydney Pollack, and starred Robert Redford as the title character

Rosenbaum calls Dead Man a "much-delayed fulfillment" of the Acid Western, "formulating a chilling, savage frontier poetry to justify its hallucinated agenda. Dead Man is a 1995 film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. "

See also

• Revisionist Western

References