The question must be asked: why hasn’tSteven Spielbergmade a Western? LikeAlexander the Great, of whom it was said wept when realizing there were no more worlds to conquer, one wonders if Spielberg ever looks over his filmography with the same feeling — with no more genres left to conquer. The release ofWest Side Storyin 2021 and 2022’s critical favoriteThe Fabelmansknocked two more genres off of the unconquered list: musicals and autobiographical dramas. His is a career that has seen him direct films of almost all genres: horror (Jaws), sci-fi (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), action-adventure (Raiders of the Lost Ark), history (Lincoln), war (Saving Private Ryan), and many, many more. In fact, there’s really only one genre that Spielberg has not committed to film: Westerns. What’s eben more baffling is that Spielberg is a noted fan of Westerns,having made mention of his desire to make one, withJohn Ford’sThe Searchersone of his all-time favorite films. So, Mr. Spielberg, what’s the sitch? Why haven’t you made a Western yet?
Steven Spielberg and Westerns Are a Perfect Match
The short answer is that there is seeminglynoactual, definitive reasonwhythe director hasn’t made a Western yet, apart from being involved in one project or another regularly. What makes the fact so interesting is that Spielberg and Westerns are the closest to a perfect match you’ll find in the industry. As a genre, Westerns typically lean towards the simplistic good versus bad, the white hats against the black hats. There are exceptions of course:Unforgivenis more of a dark gray hat versus a black one, but there’s still some sort of moral division between the two sides. Likewise, Spielberg films lean the same way. The good Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) against the bad Nazis inRaiders.Tom Cruiseversus martians inWar of the Worlds. But Spielberg, too, has his exceptions. The dinosaurs inJurassic Parkaren’t bad. Dangerous as all hell, but notbad. For that matter, John Hammond’s (Richard Attenborough) actions in the film were not malicious. Westerns have their outcasts, the “stranger riding into town” trope, likeClint EastwoodinHigh Plains Drifter, and Spielberg has his, like Quint (Robert Shaw) inJaws.
Steven Spielberg’s Filmmaking Borrows From Westerns
As far as filmmaking is concerned, much of what Spielberg shows on screen has been clearly influenced by Westerns. His penchant for wide, panoramic shots hearkens back toThe SearchersandSergio Leone’s use of the shot inThe Good, The Bad and the Ugly’s final gunfight. You can see it as Spielberg pans across the beaches of Amity Island, the beaches of Normandy, or, in one telling moment, the wide shot of Indiana Jones and his cohorts riding into the sunset, on horseback, at the end ofIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Then there arescenes in Spielberg filmsthat appear as if they have been pulled directly from Westerns.
Young Indiana Jones (River Phoenix), climbing aboard a circus train off of horseback to elude mercenaries after the cross of Coronado inLast Crusade, echoing many a similar scene in Westerns. An olderIndiana Jones being dragged behind a moving Nazi truck inRaidersmirrors the same stunt from John Ford’sStagecoach(even Indy’s classic, nonchalant takedown of the Egyptian swordsman also seems very no-nonsense cowboy-esque). Elliott (Henry Thomas) and his friends racing furiously on bikes to evade pursuing agents as they try to get E.T. home invokes similar pursuits in Western films, where the bicycles are horses and the beloved alien a damsel in distress (although no horses have flown over a barricade and up into the sky on film, offhand).
The Western Genre Needs Steven Spielberg
While it is true that Spielberg hasn’t directed a Western movie, it doesn’t mean that his hands haven’t dabbled in the genre. Does that make him a yellow-bellied liar? No, he gets a pass. His dalliance with the genre is as executive producer on the 2005 miniseriesInto the West, a six-episode series set in the 19th century. It tells of the expansion of the United States into the American frontier through the tale of two families.One is a white American family, the Wheeler’s, whose story is narrated by Jacob Wheeler (Matthew Settle). The other family is Native American, and their story is narrated by Loved by the Buffalo (Joseph M. Marshall III). Their lives bleed into each other while the narrative brings in real and fictional characters and happenings that occurred between 1825 and 1890.
This Spielberg Movie Only Made a $1 Box Office Profit
Before his award-winning blockbuster career, Steven Spielberg made an ambitious sci-fi project that only made one dollar box office profit.
While he may not have directed it,Into the Westspeaks to another truth ofSpielberg’s extensive film history: he gives people of color a voice. The depiction of Native Americans in the series humanizes them in a way that, quite honestly, and unfortunately, has only recently started to become more accepted.In his review ofAmistad,Roger Ebertstated that the most valuable thing about the movie “is the way it provides faces and names for its African characters, whom the movies so often make into faceless victims.”
And it’s not the first time that Spielberg has made the people in his films more than just faces in a crowd. What this means is that not only can Spielberg make a Western, he can make one that gives a name and truth to people of color, fleshing out the tired caricatures of the Western and reinventing them — really, the same thing he’s done throughout his career. We may never truly know the truth behind why the auteur hasn’t directed a Western to date, and in many ways it doesn’t really matter.The Fabelmansproves that Spielbergstill has the touch, and if he turns that towards a Western, he undoubtedly would make an indelible mark in the genre — possibly even conquering it.
