Perhaps my favorite genre of all time is the western, I love them, I love everything about them, the myths, the themes, the larger than life heroes who aren't always perfect but try to live by a certain code. After saying that, I couldn't help but think of similarities with the super hero genre we have today. There seems to be a growing trend of creating more complex super hero films where the hero doesn't always win, and the morals and dilemmas turn more realistic. "The Dark Knight" is probably the latest and best of these new types of films, and now there is already talk about turning our man in blue Superman into a more darker character. The new "Watchmen" film is another example of the more complex super hero movie. The test is being put out now whether or not stories about people dressed up in Halloween outfits can be taken seriously.
This hasn't bee the first time this has happened when it has come to legitimize a genre, John Ford did the same thing with the western over 60 years ago with "Stagecoach", where he turned a genre which was mostly known as Saturday matinee serials into a complex character driven film. He even reinvented it further with "The Searchers" where the hero in that film was not necessarily someone you could easily root for. Other westerns by the likes of Anthony Mann dealt more with the psychological side of man vs. the elements. Other directors like Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone, and finally Clint Eastwood put their own spin on the western hero, whether they were mythical or realistic.
Let's not forget that fifty years ago we saw about as many westerns on television and film then that we do with super hero movies today. I find it interesting the parallels between these two genres and I'm curious to see where the super hero will go from here.
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