The American West, as we know it, is defined by the movies, and the Western is the oldest film genre.
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As the reporter tells Jimmy Stewart in Ford\'s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance , "This is the West, sir.
And the myth-making is as important as the brutal truths of history.
When the movies were born, it was not that long after Promontory Point and the Civil War, so those memories were still there in the minds of the very first movie audiences as they watched The Great Train Robbery.
The American West, as we know it, is defined by the movies, and the Western is the oldest film genre