Iconography: Western

Iconography - The visual images and symbols used in a work of art or the study or interpretation of these (important aspect of genre). Particular signs associated with a particular genre.

Western Film is a genre that revolves around stories primarily set in the late 19th century in the American Old West. Most Westerns are set between the American Civil War (1865) and the early 1900s. An American Western Film usually revolves around a stoic hero and emphasises the importance of honour and sacrifice.

There is a myriad of iconography within Western Movies such as, cowboy hats, guns, horses, cattle,  sheriffs, taverns, railroads and deserts. Some of the more subtle iconography ranges from a predominantly male cast, the hero being a cowboy (in most cases) and the ideas of serving justice and revenge. 

Western movie posters are full of this iconography, with a rustic colour scheme of browns, blacks, whites, oranges and reds, reinforcing the aged look and era that westerns are majorly set in. Posters usually depict the silhouettes of the main characters, dressed in typical cowboy-inspired and American Old West clothing, encased within those warm, rustic hues.

The costumes usually consist of stetson, chaps, boots, saddles, spurs and cavalry uniforms. The women are contrasting with dresses, beads, feathers and bonnets.

Specific settings include lonely isolated forts, ranch houses, the isolated homestead, the saloon, the jail, the livery stable, the small-town main street, or small frontier towns that are forming at the edges of civilization. They may even include Native American sites or villages.

Very often, the cowboy has a favored horse (or 'faithful steed'), for example, Roy Rogers' Trigger, Gene Autry's Champion, William Boyd's (Hopalong Cassidy) Topper, the Lone Ranger's Silver and Tonto's Scout.

Usually, the central plot of the western film is the classic, simple goal of maintaining law and order on the frontier in a fast-paced action story. It is normally rooted in archetypal conflict - good vs. bad, virtue vs. evil, white hat vs. black hat, man vs. man, new arrivals vs. Native Americans (inhumanely portrayed as savage Indians) etc. Often the hero of a western meets his opposite "double," a mirror of his own evil side that he has to destroy.