First garnering both dismissal and intrigue as "Grand Theft Horse,"
Rockstar Games' 2010 action-adventure Red Dead Redemption was met on its
release with critical acclaim for its open-world gameplay, its immersive
environments, and its authenticity to the experience of the Wild West.
Well, the simulated Wild West, that is. Boss Fight invites you to find
out how the West was created, sold, and marketed to readers, moviegoers,
and gamers as a space where "freedom" and "progress" duel for control of
the dry, punishing frontier. Join writer and scholar Matt Margini as he
journeys across the broad and expansive genre known as the Western,
tracing the lineage of the familiar self-sufficient loner cowboy from
prototypes like Buffalo Bill, through golden age icons like John Wayne
and antiheroes like Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name," up to Red
Dead's John Marston. With a critical reading of Red Dead's narrative,
setting, and gameplay through the lens of the rich and ever-shifting
genre of the Western, Margini reveals its connections to a long legacy
of mythmaking that has colored not only the stories we love to consume,
but the histories we tell about America.
