Discover the intricate world of modern Westerns as the conversation traces the genre's evolution. Explore iconic films and hit series like 'Yellowstone' that blend historical bravado with contemporary issues. Delve into themes of violence, land rights, and family dynamics that resonate through modern narratives. The discussion also critiques gender representation and political undertones in these tales of survival. Ultimately, the podcast uncovers why audiences across the spectrum are drawn to these rugged, complex stories.
45:47
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
insights INSIGHT
Western Conflicts
The Western genre focuses on conflicts over land, rights, and justice.
It explores the creation of self-governed societies, often through violence.
insights INSIGHT
Society's Roots
Westerns explore the formation of society and the role of law vs. violence.
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance showcases this conflict.
question_answer ANECDOTE
American Primeval's Depiction of the West
American Primeval depicts clashes between the U.S. Army, Mormon settlers, and Native American tribes.
The show emphasizes the brutal and chaotic nature of westward expansion.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
The Little House on the Prairie series consists of nine novels that follow the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder from her childhood in the Big Woods of Wisconsin to her adulthood in the Dakota Territory. The books chronicle the Ingalls family's experiences, including their moves to various parts of the American frontier, their struggles with disease and natural disasters, and their daily life as pioneers. The series includes titles such as 'Little House in the Big Woods,' 'Little House on the Prairie,' 'On the Banks of Plum Creek,' 'By the Shores of Silver Lake,' 'The Long Winter,' 'Little Town on the Prairie,' 'These Happy Golden Years,' and 'Farmer Boy,' which is about Almanzo Wilder, Laura's future husband.
Westward expansion has been mythologized onscreen for more than a century—and its depiction has always been entwined with the politics and anxieties of the era. In the 1939 film “Stagecoach,” John Wayne crystallized our image of the archetypal cowboy; decades later, he played another memorable frontiersman in “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” which questions how society is constructed. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz trace the genre from these cinematic classics to its recent resurgence, marked by big-budget entries including “American Primeval,” which depicts nineteenth-century territorial conflicts in brutal, unsparing detail, and by the wild popularity of Taylor Sheridan’s “neo-Westerns,” which bring the time-honored form to the modern day. Sheridan’s series, namely “Yellowstone” and “Landman,” often center on a world-weary patriarch tasked with protecting land and property from outside forces waiting to seize it. Sometimes described as “red-state shows,” these works are deliberately slippery about their politics—but they pull in millions of viewers from across the ideological spectrum. What accounts for this success? “Whether or not we want to be living in a Western,” Schwartz says, “we very much still are.”
Read, watch, and listen with the critics:
“Yellowstone” (2018–24) “Landman” (2024—) “Horizon: An American Epic” (2024) “American Primeval” (2025—) “Stagecoach” (1939) “Dances with Wolves” (1990) “Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman” (1993–98) Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House on the Prairie” series “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962) “Shōgun” (2024) “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948) “Oppenheimer” (2023)
Critics at Large | The New Yorker 