Ebook: Reframing Cult Westerns: From The Magnificent Seven to The Hateful Eight

The Western played a significant role in the birth of early narrative cinema and it remained the most popular of film genres until the late 1950s. When the era of post-classical filmmaking began in 1960, the number of Westerns being produced went into an accelerated decline due to a perceived lack of public demand. However, key filmmakers remained reluctant to completely write-off this most durable of genres and their work resulted in a relatively small but significant number of really quite remarkable Westerns being produced between 1960 and the present day.
Thanks to regular repertory cinema and television screenings, home video releases and critical reappraisals by cultural gatekeepers such as Quentin Tarantino, an ever-increasing number of these Westerns have become cult films. Be they star-laden, stylish, violent, bizarre or simply little heard-of obscurities, Reframing Cult Westerns offers a multitude of new critical insights into a truly eclectic selection of cult Westerns.