Do young people enjoy westerns?

I was born too late for the 50's flood of western TV shows, but there were still some on in the 60's and of course, with Wayne still alive, westerns still came around in movies regularly. After Clint, they died out, relatively speaking. I'm wondering if the new generation has no time for the genre anymore. Do they even care about those old Hawks, Fords, Leones, or even Peckinpahs?

 

Don't suppose so.
Modern : I guess latest Magnificent Seven( I was unimpressed).
Bone Tomahawk may have drawn a few young uns, but that was more horror genre. Tarantino's The Hateful Eight maybe.

 

I would say nope. I don't care for the genre myself, apart from the iconic Rio Bravo, which was more about the actors than the genre itself.

 

I watched a few classic and new westerns over the years, some of them had an awful long running time, are long-winded and boring. I enjoy western parodies more.

 

As a kid who grew up in the ninties, I love westerns, especially the older ones. My wife, who was born in 1989 has fallen in live with them over these last few years.

 

Young people, old people, don't matter, Westerns have become a niche genre. But there have been some great contemporary Westerns made in the last 20 (30?) yrs which makes me wonder; is it the people who don't like them, or is it Hollywood? Are they too much of a crapshoot? The youngsters certainly aren't being exposed to them like I was when I was a kid. Between TV shows and the endless run of old movies being rerun on a seemingly endless loop, cowboys on celluloid used to be superheroes to me! Still are!

 

Oh yea and Sergio Leone is my favorite over all. Man with no name trilogy, Once Uoon a Time in the West, and Duck You Sucker are as good as it gets for me.

 

I have tried with my 12 year old whenever a good classic Clint Eastwood western is on the telly.
He normally lasts around 20 minutes before he reaches for his iPad or iPhone.

 

Great being old you can watch the old stuff and the new stuff. But, teens have other desires, pastimes.

 

I always loved good westerns even as a kid.

 

Vampires don't like garlic.
Mention the film is in black & white, same effect.

 

Let's ask a bunch of old people who don't get out much.

 

I think they're boring. Best left in the 50's.

 

Yeah, along with those drab looking B&W flicks!

 

I know lots of young people (myself included) who love "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly." These people are all relatively open-minded to older movies, I should mention. Westerns of the John Wayne variety, on the other hand, don't fare as well with younger audiences.

 

Do young folks even know what a Western is??? too busy with the Ipods..power lunches to bother with anything as trivial as a Classic Western.

 

It's kinda sad to think that IF the 'youngsters' were to actually see Maverick or Silverado, the fact that the movies are actually very well done homages to what came before them would be totally lost on them!

 

Westerns are my favorite genre. I'm too young to have experienced the Golden Age of TV westerns, but in the last few years I've watched little else.

I'm a regular at another forum which has lots of teenage and 20something posters. I can't really speak for the teens. But I'd say westerns do have something of a following among the 25-40 group, at least the males.

Unfortunately, their idea of a great western is Tombstone, which they grew up watching in endless reruns on cable TV. They'll know TGTB&TU b/c of Clint, but getting them to watch the older classics, even ones in color like the Manns or Boettichers, is not always easy.

But I do believe westerns could find a place on TV if done right. Never at their previous level of popularity of course, but perhaps equal to adult (NOT kiddie) sci fi.

As for why so few western movies are made... In the old days, the foreign audience was maybe 30% of the market. Now it's at least half. And foreigners apparently do not like westerns -- at least that is the conventional Hollywood wisdom.

Other problems involve PC. Today you cannot make Indians the villains. Yes, this was overdone in the old days -- but it was part of history. But judging from the last Gatsby remake, a recent USA Today attack on Dunkirk, and the upcoming reboot of Robin Hood, history is of little concern to many people these days.

There are other PC issues re westerns, but I'd better not go into them. I've probably said too much already.

 

Sure.

The Hateful Eight.

 

You're trying to make me watch that movie for the 40th time, but it's not going to work.

 

Yes, but through my dad who grew up in the 50s. So that may be different.

 

You're right, case in point - Westworld!

 

I'm old. My wife about 6 years younger.
I didn't mind westerns, she used to hate them.
But now that they are on MeTV and Heroes and Icons TV, she really likes them and so do I.

I can't speak for young people, other than to say that I think they are far too quickly pigeonholed by others on this forum. I would guess that many don't have time for westerns, but I'm sure some really like them as well.

 

So, "done right" includes full frontal robot nudity every episode?

Spoiler

I still find it hard to swallow that Jimmi Simpson is supposed to be the same character as Ed Harris though!

 

There's a reason some Westerns are called "Adult Westerns" vs the Gene/Roy B movies of yore. I never started appreciating the Wayne, Stewart, etc. films until well into adulthood. They're great films but they are character and scenery driven and those just don't appeal to teens and younger, I watched Gene/Roy on TV as a kid on TNN, etc and enjoyed them because of the action and relatively short running times plus the music was good.

I agree with the above poster who said Westerns are a niche genre; that's always been the case and Hollywood hasn't come up with original ideas for Westerns in recent years, just inferior (in my opinion) remakes of iconic titles.