Essay Database

Will Wright's work Six Guns & Society is a proposal of a sociology of the economically most successful Western movies in the four decades between 1930 and 1972. Mr. Wright selects as the basis for his study, the sixty-four Western films that figure into the Motion Picture Herald's top - grossing charts, that is films that made over four million dollars. Wright calls his book a "structural study of the Western," and all of his research is strongly …

…dishonestly, working for money. The Professional Plot is exemplified in such films as Rio Bravo, the Wild Bunch and Butch Cassidy. People never seem to tire of studies about the cowboy or of novels and films dealing with him. Perhaps their remaining interest reflects American's ongoing love affair with the mythic cowboy. Whatever the reasons, Will Wright does a good job of tapping that interest and providing the reader with fresh perspectives and intriguing ideas.