Today, Amanda and Julia sit down to discuss a very specific film genre: westerns.  After seeing The Harder They Fall (dir. Jeymes Samuel "The Bullitts"), they dive into the origins of the western genre. Revisionist westerns aren't trying to change history, they're challenging the tropes and traditions of the genre itself. And what does western film have to say about industrialization, masculinity, isolation, and the myth of manifest destiny? In other words, why do we like cowboys so much? The frontier is no more, and outlaws don't get to make the rules. American fixation with a lawless land where men with guns take things into their own hands has wildly interesting connotations in hindsight.