The literary or cinematographic genre of the West has sometimes been mistakenly regarded as less. But is not. Perhaps further afield, by European reading standards, the great epics o humble stories (real or fictitious) of the North American West. Yet we will all admit have seen or read any. From those of Marcial Lafuente Estefania, classic of all the bedside tables of our grandparents and parents and deserving of a separate chapter, even those of big names of the territory, like Alan LeMay o Elmore leonard, in its most frontier version. This is a review of some of the most remembered titles and who also knew more about success thanks to their film adaptations.
gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
One of the best-selling in history and one of the best known. Margaret Mitchell published it in 1936 and its adaptation to big screen it was in 1939, with an even greater success that made it a classic in film history. Directed by Victor Fleming, George Cukor and Sam Wood, they starred in it Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland or Leslie Howard, among others. And today it is impossible to imagine otherwise, or without their faces, this epic story set in the North American Civil War, which although it is not framed in the West, can be included in the genre at the time.
Value of law - Charles Portis
is the novel best known of this author, who died in February of this year. The story of Mattie ross, a young woman who wants capture his father's killer with the help of a veteran agent of the government, alcoholic and one-eyed, has been taken to the movies twice. The first for Henry hathaway in 1969, and starred in it John Wayne, the quintessential icon of the Western genre. And in 2010 the coen brothers made a new adaptation with Jeff Bridges of protagonist.
Centauros del desierto - Alan Le May
May was a prolific author of Western literature with a few 15 novels and fifty long stories, as well as film scripts. Centauros del desierto it was published in 1954, already at the end of his career. It is considered a masterpiece, much cruder, longer and more serious than his version for the cinema, two years later, which the legendary director adapted John Ford, and that it is also an essential title of the genre. They starred in it John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter and Natalie Wood, who play Amos (Ethan in the film) and Martin, two settlers who undertake a long search to rescue some girls kidnapped by a party of Comanche Indians.
A man called a horse - Dorothy M. Johnson
Johnson, an American writer, is a specialist in the genre, where she usually deals with the always conflictive relationship between Indians and whites in the frontier territories of those years. With short sentences and blunt, ironic and sometimes harsh style, Johnson knows how to convey authenticity. He has to his credit more titles that became successful films such as The man who killed Liberty Valance, another unforgettable collaboration between John Ford and John Wayne; that A man called a horseWho he led Elliot silverstein in 1970, with Richard Harris of protagonist; Y The hanging Tree, who did Delmer Daves in 1959 and starred Gary Cooper, Maria schell and Karl Malden.
The 3:10 train to Yuma - Elmore Leonard
Leonard is much better known as the author of stories and crime novel, but it also touched the genre of the West. This title tells the story of the risks posed to the deputy sheriff Paul scallen (FROM heflin) on his mission to move the dangerous outlaw Jim kidd (Glenn ford) from Fort Huachuca to the city of Contention, where you have to take a train to the yuma prison. In 2007 there was a new version, directed by James Mangold. With current tone and change of the names of the characters, they starred in it Russell Crowe and Christian Bale in the role of the outlaw and the humble and desperate farmer turned deputy sheriff.