Violence and Open Spaces: The Subversion of Boundaries and the Transformation of the Western Genre

The classic Western film is characterized by the tension of open and enclosed spaces as well as by the lone hero's exposure to the vastness of both tempting and dangerous spaces. John Ford's cinematography in particular has contributed to a specific spatial iconography that is premised on this tension and that survives, albeit transformed, in contemporary (Neo—) Western films. While scholars of the Western genre have long acknowledged a connection between space and violence — beginning with...