Taos

The History Of Western Film

From “The Great Train Robbery” to “Stagecoach” and from “The Searchers” to “True Grit,” the Western film has defined our dreams of what America could or should or might have been. This course will explore the history of this truly American genre with an eye toward the great directors – John Ford, Howard Hawks and Sam Peckinpah – and the fabulous stars – William S. Hart, Gary Cooper, Randolph Scott, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood – who shaped our imaginary vision of the Wild West. How do movies both inform and shape our understanding of the past? Why has the Western been viewed as America’s most unique contribution to the art of filmmaking? And how has the Western shaped our vision of ourselves? As a bonus you will explore the storied Bonanza Creek Movie Ranch near Santa Fe, where scores of classic Westerns have been filmed, including the recent “3:10 to Yuma” and “Cowboys and Aliens.”

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About the Instructors

Paul Hutton is a professor of history at the University of New Mexico and the executive director of the Western History Association. He served as president of Western Writers of America from 2002 to 2004 and has published widely in both scholarly and popular magazines. Hutton has written, produced or appeared in more than 150 television documentaries on CBS, NBC, PBS, Discovery Channel, Disney Channel, TBS, TNN, A&E and the History Channel, and in 2003 was a historical consultant for the Ron Howard film “The Missing.” From 2003 to 2005 he wrote and co-produced five episodes of the Bill Kurtis series “Investigating History.”

Kirk Ellis is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema and Television. He serves as chairman of the Santa Fe, New Mexico Arts Commission, and on the board of directors of Western Writers of America and the advisory board of James River Writers. Ellis has won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, a WGA Award, a Peabody and the Humanitas Prize for his work on the HBO miniseries “John Adams.” The miniseries won a record-breaking 13 Emmys as well as four Golden Globe awards. Upcoming feature projects include “Flying Tigers,” a story about the famed WWII fighter pilots, and “The Day the Laughter Stopped,” an account of the Fatty Arbuckle trials of the 1920s. He currently is at work on a series pilot script for HBO and George Clooney’s Smokehouse Productions about the agribusiness world, and another for Starz concerning the early years of the OSS, the precursor to the CIA. 

For more information

Contact Allison Curran at taosci@smu.edu or call 214-768-TAOS (8267).