The GQ (at present) thread When Did The “Wild West” come to an End? made me wonder what counterpart setting will be most likely to be exploited in the future. We’ve had plenty of war settings from WWII and Vietnam, with enough from WWI and the Gulf Wars to satisfy those eras, although surely there will be more to come from any or all of them. We’ve also had oodles of the post-apocalypse things anywhere from already happened (if you believe the setting dates in those movies) to not too far ahead but still futuristic in setting.
Watergate produced some examples as have other short-term scandal periods, and there are all sorts of political and crime drames that could have been from the “modern urban” setting that seems (at least to me) to lack the feel and tone of the Old West genre. I mean they could almost be set at any time in the century without losing too much punch, as long as the gadgets and technology angle were minimized.
Are we still waiting for that New Frontier to establish itself? Are there other places on the planet where the equivalent of the Old West is already being manifested?
Was there enough consistency of theme or purpose to any of the 20th century periods to qualify as comparable to the Old West? The Beatnik Era? The Hippie Era? The Jazz Age? The Drug Wars? The MTV Generation?
What’s your prediction or slant on this idea? What will people 50 years from now be looking back on with the same fondness and awe that we do now toward the Old West?
So instead of Old West we get New North? I do want to see some showdowns with those missiles out in the snow during the Midnight Sun. I guess that would pass for High Noon?
BTW, how many movies in this genre can you name? Surely some filmmaker is getting a jump on the others with a pacesetter. Ice Station Zebra, maybe?
The range wars will be easy to shoot. And the line in the sand can be a line in the snow. Yellow snow?
Actually, Siberia during the time of Russian imperial expansion, starting with Yermak’s expedition and ending with the construction of the TSR, would probably be a pretty good setting for a “western”. It was a pretty crazy place at times, and very much like the wild west – de facto anarchy, young men going off to seek their fortune, conflicts with natives, radicalism and bizarre ideologies popping up, stunning natural scenery…
I can see it now. The villain, willfully breaking zoning laws. The corrupt town council. The citizenry, too afraid to file for an injunction. And the final showdown with the reluctant hero, on a deserted cul-de-sac, with the silence broken only by the chime of the ice cream truck bells over on the next street.
It’ll be virtual reality. New frontier, few rules, everybody’s inner barbarians unleashed, people carving out new civilization out of the landscape… plus, it sells well to the kids. We’ll put some boobs in it, that’ll sell. There’s boobs in virtual reality, right?
Now that private citizens are just beginning to travel into space, the New Frontier will be space, other planets, asteroids, etc. I certainly can’t see a land-rush taking place anywhere on Earth; it’s been a century and a half or so since terrestrial travel became (relatively) safe and cheap, everything down here is pretty solidly owned already.
I don’t think there is another ‘frontier’-type setting available to step into the shoes of the Old West - the Old West is big because for a huge market it’s a significant pat of its history and self-image, and much of the rest of the world can relate to it because of the influence of American culture. That’s not so much the case with Siberia, Australia, etc., and the colonization of Africa is now disavoved by the colonizing countries as a positive part of history.
One thing that I can imagine as taking the role of the Old West is a sufficiently idealized version of Old China - that setting does have a huge home market, and already produces movies of successful worldwide distribution every few years. For a global penetration on the order of the Old West there would have to be Chinese cultural hegemony of the extent of the present American one, though - so that’d probably in a century’s time rather than 50 year’s time.
