The western is an archetype looking back at the struggle to settle in a new land and survive as the Athenians did with their dramas by looking back at past wars and conflicts celebrating the feats of those who brought law and decency to the wilderness. It's quite a remarkable genre.
I can't get past Shane though. That was the end. Nothing that came along afterwards could be any more representative, profound or desirable especially when I saw it at 12 when it came out. Indelible impression.
What about Roy Rogers (Dale Evans was from Uvalde, TX), Gene Autry, Hopalong Cassidy, Tom Mix et al. They made basic westerns, but the actors lived a life close to their work. How real was it? Well, before TV when I was six, seven, they were everything. Everybody wanted to be a cowboy.
That's why I still like to see a good western if it does a great job with the archetypal conflicts of new immigration and old settlers, i.e., native Americans or ranchers v sod busters, where there was no law yet much like Theseus bringing law to Athens for the first time in the 14th century BC. These were all the same problems among human beings with which civilisation is still wrestling.
We all know the story. It's in the telling of it that makes it special. And, sometimes we just like to hear it again and again for its relevance and inspiration. Just like the story tellers of old who sat around at night telling the same stories.
