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The Revisionist Western or Anti Western traces to the late 1960s and early 1970s as a sub-genre of the Western movie.

Contents 1 Typical elements 2 Beginnings 3 Hollywood Revisionist Westerns 4 Spaghetti Westerns 5 Red Western 6 Revisionist Western Films (incomplete list)

Some post WW II Western films began to question the ideals and style of the "traditional" Western. New elements include:

• An overall darker tone.
• Use of the anti-hero.
• Stronger roles for women.
• More sympathetic portrayal of American Indians.
• Critical views of big business, the American government, military, and their policies.
• Critical views of masculine figures.
• Increased use of violence.
• Nontraditional sexuality.
• Black humor.
• More focus on the lawlessness of the time period, favoring "realism" over "romanticism".

As is the case with film noir, many filmmakers responsible for early Revisionist Western were unaware they were part of a larger trend in filmmaking and, as such, did not necessarily consider their films "revisionist".

1953's Shane is such a film, with its handsome filmmaking and conservative values, but its ambiguous ending questions the viability of the traditional western hero. 1956's The Searchers starred John Wayne, the typical Western movie hero in what would appear on the surface to be a standard "Cowboys and Indians" conflict. Some critics and audiences, however, found the film subtly critical of the standard Wayne archetype. Martin Scorsese, for instance, cites The Searchers as an influence on his Taxi Driver (1976).^{[citation needed]}

Most Westerns in the 1960s on are now considered revisionist. Many were made by emerging major filmmakers who saw the Western as an opportunity to expand their criticism of American society and values into a new genre. Films in this category include Arthur Penn's Little Big Man (1970) and Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971).

Other films, such as those directed by Clint Eastwood were made by professionals familiar with the Western as a criticism and expansion against and beyond the genre. Eastwood's film The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) made use of strong supporting roles for women and Native Americans. Eastwood's later Unforgiven (1992) dramatically criticized the typical Western use of violence to promote false ideals of manhood and to subjugate women and minorities.

Main article: Spaghetti Western

Foreign markets, which had imported the Western since their silent film inception, began creating their own Westerns early on. However, a unique brand of western emerged in Europe in the 1960s as an off-shoot of the Revisionist Western.

The Spaghetti Western became the nickname, originally disparagingly, for this broad sub-genre, so named because of their Italian background and financing. Originally they had in common the Italian language, low budgets, and a recognizable highly fluid, violent, minimalist cinematography that helped eschew (some said "demythologize") many of the conventions of earlier Westerns. They were often made in Spain, especially Andalucia, whose dry ruggedness resembled the American south west.

Main article: Ostern

The Ostern or Red Western, was the Soviet Bloc's reply to the Western, and arose in around the same period as the Revisionist Western. While many Red Westerns concentrated on aspects of Soviet/East European history, some others like the Czech Lemonade Joe and the East German The Sons of the Great Mother Bear tried to demythologise the Western myth in different ways: Lemonade Joe by sending up the more ridiculous aspects of marketing, and The Sons of the Great Mother Bear by showing how American natives were exploited repeatedly, and taken from the native, rather than white settler viewpoint.

• Broken Arrow (1950)
• High Noon (1952)
• The Naked Spur (1953)
• Shane (1953)
• Forty Guns (1957)
• The Misfits (1961)
• A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
• For a Few Dollars More (1965)
• Ride in the Whirlwind (1965)
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
• Django (1966)
• The Professionals (1966)
• Hombre (1967)
• The Shooting (1967)
• Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
• The Wild Bunch (1969)
• Little Big Man (1969)
• Soldier Blue (1970)
• McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
• Ulzana's Raid (1972)
• Dirty Little Billy (1972)
• The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)
• Bad Company (1972)
• High Plains Drifter (1973)
• Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
• The Missouri Breaks (1976)
• The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
• Pale Rider (1985)
• Dances with Wolves (1990)
• Unforgiven (1992)
• Tombstone (1993)
• Dead Man (1995)
• The Quick and the Dead (1995)
• Tears of the Black Tiger (2000)
• The Missing (2003)
• Open Range (2003)
• Blueberry (2004)
• Brokeback Mountain (2005)
• The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)
• The Proposition (2005)
• Down in the Valley (2006)
• Broken Trail (2006)
• Sugar Creek (2006)
• Seraphim Falls (2007)