The Western Genre: From Lordsburg to Big Whiskey offers close readings
of the definitive American film movement as represented by such leading
exponents as John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Sam Peckinpah. In his
consideration of such iconic motifs as the Outlaw Hero and the Lone
Rider, John Saunders traces the development of perennial aspects of the
genre, its continuity and, importantly, its change. Representations of
morality and masculinity are also foregrounded in consideration of the
genre's major stars John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, and such films as
Shane, Rio Bravo, The Wild Bunch, and Unforgiven.