Programmed November 2023

Women of the West

High-riding, sharpshooting, empire-building women take on the frontier in these westerns that boldly subvert classical tradition. The new strain of psychologically charged revisionist westerns that took hold in the postwar era increasingly made room for active, complex female roles in what had long been a male-dominated genre. In these films, women are powerful owners of ranches and saloons; gunfighters and outlaws able to shoot it out alongside any man; and steely survivors who stand tall, fighting to hold on to what they have or to avenge their wrongs. Featuring such legends as Barbara Stanwyck ( The Furies , Forty Guns ), Joan Crawford ( Johnny Guitar ), and Marlene Dietrich ( Rancho Notorious ) in some of their greatest roles, these films reframe one of Hollywood’s most hallowed genres around women with courage, grit, and independence to spare.

No longer streaming