So there's a certain karmic beauty in the fact that sci-fi should be the reason to dust off the
oater, if only just this once.
For those of us who grew up during the golden years of the TV Westerns, as well as newer generations seeing these classic "
oaters" for the first time on cable reruns, one of the longest-running programs was The Rifleman, starring Chuck Connors.
In a typical example, a cowboy's flashy behind-the-back move echoes a piece of gunplay familiar from countless
oaters, but his tools are brushes, not Colts; he is a cowboy painter, who works this way, he explains, "in order to release myself from the pedestrian constraints of mere representation." The combination of a stereotypical character with a vocabulary patently unsuited to him is a rhetorical device Baxter uses again and again, and he could have made this image twenty years ago--in fact he more or less did, many times.
While somewhat long, interest is sustained and net effect is one of the better class
oaters of the year.
In the next article Matthew Turner looks at the long tradition of "poking fun" at the "
oaters," while posing other questions not easily answered.
(4) Jane and Michael Stern, "Why We So Love Those
Oaters," The Los Angeles Times Calendar, 5 December 1993, 28.
Granted, History has enjoyed considerable success with
oaters in this particular window--witness the breakout ratings for "Hatfields & McCoys" in 2012--and one suspects "Texas Rising" could capitalize on a similar dynamic, albeit in a less-ostentatious way.
"With
oaters on the brink of extinction, Jones offers hope."
"I like John Wayne's performance." In Student and Villegas, Lamothe demonstrated the calm gait and emotional containment of heroes from cinema's classic
oaters.
Tarantino freely quotes from his favorite stylistic sources, whether
oaters or otherwise, featuring lightning-quick zooms, an insert of unpicked cotton drenched in blood and a shot of Django riding into town framed through a hangman's noose.
Another showcase--Mexico/USA: The Frontier of Western--examines Mexico as seen in
oaters.
An homage to both Argentina's gaucho culture and the brutal
oaters of Sam Peckinpah and Walter Hill, "Aballay" is raw, surreal and memorable, with such a potent vision that its flaws float away like dust from a horse's hooves.