When and where did the genre begin? Westerns began, unsurprisingly, in America when James Fenimore Cooper wrote The Prairie (in 1827). But the genre didn’t really register with the public until 1902 when Owen Wister wrote the critically acclaimed The Virginian. Since then, a whole bunch of hacks have spent their days resourcefully racking up dime-store cowboy adventures – Zane Gray, Louis L’Amour and Robert J Bandisi probably being the most prolific. When and where did the genre begin? Westerns began, unsurprisingly, in America when James Fenimore Cooper wrote The Prairie (in 1827). But the genre didn’t really register with the public until 1902 when Owen Wister wrote the critically acclaimed The Virginian. Since then, a whole bunch of hacks have spent their days resourcefully racking up dime-store cowboy adventures – Zane Gray, Louis L’Amour and Robert J Bandisi probably being the most prolific.
As far as films go, early cinematographer Thomas Edison produced two peepshow Westerns in 1898, Cripple Creek Bar Room and Poker at Dawson City. Great titles, but at a minute long, not too hot on plot development.That all changed in 1903 with the release of The Great Train Robbery, which featured a train hold-up, a posse pursuit and a climactic shoot out The Western as we know it was born.

What exactly is the ‘Wild West’? The term is more historic than geographic, and is most often used to describe the period of American expansion between 1850 and 1900, when settlers were trudging west along the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails. Cattle empires were springing up from the prairies, and thriving new towns were rising from the plains quicker than a buffalo stampede.Getting geographical, it would probably have to include these states: Utah, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, Okla-homa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming.Cinematically, it also refers to any film that has the following ingredients: lassos, Colt 45s, hanging trees, stagecoaches, tumbling tumbleweed, Stetsons, and – of course – outlaws and lawmen Days when men were men, and Native Americans were the enemy. Were all Westerns shot in the West? If you mean west of the Mississippi river, then no. Some early silent films strayed no further than New Jersey or even New York for their backdrops. And when it came to making Spaghetti Westerns, the European film-makers didn’t even bother to cross the Atlantic.

They shot most of their stuff in Spain, usually near the Mediterranean town of Almeria. This bears more than a passing resemblance to the American Southwest, and with the addition of a few Spanish extras – arriba, you’re in Mexico!Germany set most of its Westerns (yes, they did make some) in the mountains around Split in the former Yugoslavia. And while Doctor Who had to make do with Ealing Television Studios for The Gunfighters (1966), at least the Carry On team got as far as Chobham Common. So what exactly is a spaghetti Western? In the dark days of the 1960s, the traditional Hollywood Western was struggling to survive. Post-war cynicism, and dwindling cinema audiences and the all-too noticeable ageing of once perky cowboy stars were all sounding the death-knell of this once popular art-form. Suddenly along came the Italian director Sergio Leone, the ex-Rawhide actor Clint Eastwood plus a lot of leftover film stock; and A Fistful of Dollars (1964) singlehandedly kick-started a genre. Expansively directed and edited, Leone’s violent version of the West rejuvenated the whole tired format into a self-consciously stylised version of grand opera.Leone struck gold a second time when he made For A Few Dollars More (1965).

In it, Eastwood teamed up with Hollywood bit player Lee Van Cleef (who was previously seen in High Noon) to form a memorable double act. The same trick was repeated the following year in the overlong The Good, The Bad And the Ugly (1966), arguably the most famous Western ever made.As the genre took off, so Leone acquired many imitators, with the blood-spattered violence influencing, among others, Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (1969). But by the 1970s, the fad for Western movies had died out, and action-addicted cinemagoers had to look to contemporary urban thrillers such as the Dirty Harry series to get their kicks. But with Eastwood still taking the main role, the difference wasn’t so great. What locations were used most? The area preferred by eight out of 10 Western film-makers has to be the Alabama Hills, west of Lone Pine, California. If you follow the dirt track they call the Movie Road today, you’ll find yourself in just about the biggest film-set in Christendom. The distinctive red rock formations and eerie smooth boulders (they are said to glow in the moonlight) have formed the backdrop to more than 250 movies and TV shows.