The Western has been part of American cinema from the beginning: The Great Train Robbery (1903), arguably the first narrative film, was a Western.

Westerns are the most distinctly American of all film, offering stories of expanding frontiers, of Manifest Destiny (or, alternatively, the near-crushing of American Indian cultures). The vast landscapes make a grand canvas on which to tell of an often-lawless land, a world of great danger from nature, from gun-toting outlaws, and from American Indians. The iconic nature of the great Westerns, the mythical stories that have evolved, the action in the dusty streets or in sun-and-shadow canyons of the Southwest, are the stuff that continues to attract fans. I’ve been one all my life.

This series offers prestige pictures (High Noon), a great epic (The Big Country), two films that Clint Eastwood once told me were his favorites (The Ox-Bow Incident and Blood on the Moon), and more. A John Ford series may soon be in the offing here, so I’ve chosen a lesser-known (but still good) Ford Western, Wagon Master, sidestepping the John Wayne classics.

All films in this series are essential to an understanding of this great American film genre. — Jack Garner, guest programmer

Garner, who retired as Gannett News Service chief film critic in 2007 and still occasionally writes arts criticism for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, will be on hand to introduce many of the screenings in his series.


Thursday, Jan. 5, 8 p.m.
The Ox-Bow Incident
(William Wellman, US 1943, 75 min.)

Thursday, Jan. 12, 8 p.m.
Blood on the Moon
(Robert Wise, US 1948, 88 min.)

Thursday, January 19, 8 p.m.
Wagon Master
(John Ford, US 1950, 86 min.)

Thursday, Jan. 26, 8 p.m.
The Gunfighter
(Henry King, US 1950, 85 min.)

Thursday, Feb. 2, 8 p.m.
High Noon
(Fred Zinnemann, US 1952, 85 min.)

Thursday, Feb. 9, 7 p.m.
The Big Country
(William Wyler, US 1958, 168 min.)

Thursday, Feb. 23, 8 p.m.
The Long Riders
(Walter Hill, US 1980, 99 min.)