The Western, America’s National Novel

Horses, gunshots, battles between cowboys and Indians. In Oise, the La Mer de Sable amusement park has been focusing on the western universe for decades. The western is cult. From the golden age of Hollywood to the spaghetti western, it is America’s national novel. The cinema does not yet speak that, already, it stages stagecoach attacks and epic cavalcades. In the 1950s, it is the golden age. Grandiose sets, the Indians in the role of bad guys, the cowboys are heroic.

John Wayne is the king of the genre. The train will whistle three times, The conquest of the West, Hollywood produces thousands of films which conquer the world. In the 1960s the genre ran out of steam. The revival will come from Italy. The Americans mockingly call it the spaghetti western. Leader, Sergio Leone, who relies on the masterful compositions of his friend Ennio Morricone. Among the favorite actors, a certain Clint Eastwood. He will be one of the directors who will perpetuate the role of the western in the American national novel. After Dances with Wolves, Kevin Costner returns to the screens with Horizon, the first part of a saga about the conquest of the West.