you can keep your ol' westerns

I've found a better alternative - the comedia ranchera. Specifically, this classic of the genre.

Alla En El Rancho Grande (1936)
directed by Fernando de Fuentes
cinematography by Gabriel Figueroa

There's still nice landscape scenery, wide open spaces and big skies.
Plenty of horses but who can resist a kid riding a burro?






In fact, a kid on a burro makes a big difference. A major improvement on the American Western is the diverse range of characters. Men and women, seniors and children, owners and workers. The relationships are more complex with this crowd and more time is taken to deal with how they all interact. Of course, there's much more love and romance and a massively happy ending.

And singing -lots of singing.







There's still intrigue, deception and male posturing like in Hollywood Westerns, again with a difference. Instead of a gunfight, there's a grand arena cock fight. Masculinity is challenged but this time there's a crowd watching.
And not just roosters - the grand finale is held back to present a battle of the guitar bands.




Isn't that composition so much more sophisticated than the lone gunslinger, arms spread like Christ as he succumbs to a bullet?




I think a long and happy union has just been forged.
*sigh*