The genre we focused on in Week 2 was the Western, which I had very little viewing experience in. Because of this, I decided to educate myself in some of the classics. In the past week I have watched Sergio Leone’s entire “Man With No Name” trilogy, and to my surprise, highly enjoyed all three films.

In class on Monday, we discussed some of the stereotypes of the Western genre, and an area that intrigued me particularly was the representation of women in these films. It was said that there are only really two types of women in theses movies: prostitutes and damsels in distress. Each part of the trilogy only features one woman, usually in a relatively small role. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly fills their female quota with a single prostitute and A Few Dollars More represents women through the small role of an adulterous hotel owner. The first film, A Fistful of Dollars, includes the most notable female part of the series with a damsel in distress, who does little more than cry before being freed by Clint Eastwood’s nameless hero. It was interesting to see just how stereotypical these representations of women can be throughout the genre, and I would be intrigued to delve further into the issue to find out if these roles adapt at all over time or with different directors.