"In this structural study of the Western, sociologist Will Wright proposes that a clear pattern of change and development in the financially successful Western films of the last 40 years correlates with basic changes in American society. Applying structural analysis to Western plots, Wright distinguishes four historical periods of the sound Western . A highly intellectual and sophisticated presentation, the book should appeal to film enthusiasts as well as to critics, historians, and theoreticians. It may very well become a classic in film literature." -- Choice " . Has the great merit of showing lucidly how westerns (and by implication other films and other forms of popular entertainment) offer versions of social thought, that is, are not merely reflections of prejudice or fantasy but are narrative vehicles for the display and displacement of what worries us. 'Myths and traditions,' Wright says, echoing Levi-Strauss, 'are not opposed to reason but are forms of reasoning.' " -- New York Review of Books "Will Wright has done an impressive job of making structuralism available to Americans in a sophisticated and ingenious book that will be of interest to pop culturists, film critics, students of median and communications, social scientists, and all those interested in westerns .

Wright studied the top-grossing western films from 1930 to 1972 and as the result of his syntagmic analysis found that there are four basic plots in these films: the classical plot, the transition theme, the vengeance variation and the professional plot. Furthermore, he has found an evolutionary movement from the classical plot to the professional plot that corresponds to what he asserts to be a change in American society . It is a stimulating adventure to follow Wright as he wanders in this so-called virgin land of the American imagination. Like the gunslinger of old, he is willing to pick fights with anyone from the venerable Henry Nash Smith to the master, Levi-Strauss himself." -- Journal of Communication.