Westerns and more
"Wild West shows" in late 1800s (ex. Buffalo Bill) has set the folklore: characters, dresses, guns, heroes and villains... First films with cowbows and indians as soon as Edisson's first shots (1894).
Precursors: Kidnapping by Indians (UK, 1889), The Great Train Robbery (1903).
Very popular during the silent era (pre-1930), then mostly series B during the 1930s, then again very popular during the "golden era" of the genre, when the number of Western films produced outnumbered all other genres combined (40s and 50s).
Characters
Knight-errant with values: duty, moral principles, in search for adventure to prove his courage.
Japanese "ronin" samurais (ex. 7 Samurai and Yojimbo, which have "proper" western remakes).
Damsel in distress
Origin of the Osterns
In 1962 (destalinisation under Nikita Khrushchev) the USSR allowed the distribution of some foreign movies. The Magnificent Seven (a remake of the Seven Samurais, which takes place in Japan, but inspired by Westerns) became a hit and fueled the need for westerns.
Red Westerns
This shares many things with the Westerns, but they take place in Amerinca's wild west. For example, The Sons of the Great Bear (East Germany, 1966) sets the Indians as the good guys, and the American Army as the bad ones.
Parallel with westerns
The movie provides a justification for Soviet colonialism, just like westerns for the conquest of the wild west
Sukhov - the cowbow: is like John Wayne, a lonesome cowboy, with a high sense of morality. His character is well developed and likable. He's supported by few secondary characters.
Russians/soviets: the white (Caucasian), Christians folks
Turkmens: the Indians, merciless, barbaric, underdeveloped characters. Lead by a blood-thirsty brute. The use of the word “bandit,” rather than, for example, “rebel,” allows the film to portray the Basmachi not as freedom fighters, but as disorganized criminal elements.
Landscapes
Nevada desert <-> South of the USSR, etc
Tropes
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/WhiteSunOfTheDesert
- Cigar-Fuse Lighting / Couldn't Find a Lighter
- Cool Guns
- Culture Clash
- The Gunslinger
- Improbable Use of a Weapon
- In the Back
- I Owe You My Life
- Leave Him to Me!
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain
- Proud Warrior Race Guy
- One-Man Army
- Retired Badass
- Sand Necktie
- Social Darwinist
- Unwanted Harem
- You Killed My Father
Themes
Revenge