What is a western?
The Hollywood Western has been named the “All-American Film Genre” for its portrayal of frontier pioneers, wagon trains, Native Americans, gunfighters, ranchers and cattlemen. The first westerns were silent films made as early as 1898. Soon, the gun-slinging heroes wearing ten-gallon hats became the image of the western. The first westerns made by major Hollywood studios were made in 1939; quickly causing it to become the leading genre in Hollywood.