How the West Was Lost

The title is misleading (the film doesn’t address only the fall of the genre, but largely deals with its ascent) and the fictional introduction is off-putting (furthermore, the initial story is not further developed) and the jump to the talkie era is too sudden. In spite of all that, How the West Was Lost is still a well-constructed, aesthetically consistent and unexpectedly informationally rich introduction to the history (and mythology) of the western. Some viewers may be annoyed by the constant search for parallels between westerns and American politics, but what I most liked about this film was the ability to not just revel in the surface and, even at the cost of minor over-interpretations, to go to the core of the most American of all genres (The American Nightmare, a similar documentary about horror movies, lends itself to comparison). For aficionados of the genre, to whom the documentary primarily strives to appeal with its stylisation, this will possibly be only a recapitulation of things they already know – however, that recapitulation is maximally comprehensible, stripped of dead weight such as stories from filming and adoration of the major filmmakers, and complemented with apt quotes and examples that rather comprehensively summarise the defining features of the genre across time. 75% (09.06.2014)