What was the first western movie?
When we think of western movies, often the first images that come to mind are men wearing cowboy hats and riding on horses through dusty expanses of American land, a tumbleweed rolling across the background. John Ford came to define the popular western genre in the early days of Hollywood, working with his muse, John Wayne, to create largely patriotic and heroic tales.
These days, the western isn’t as popular as it used to be, although it has gone through various transformations and iterations over the years, from violent spaghetti westerns to comedic ‘roast beef’ westerns and revisionist tales. While many good westerns have emerged in the latter half of the 20th and 21st centuries, the golden age is widely regarded as taking place between the late 1930s and the 1960s.
Yet, what if we were to say that the first western emerged in the 1800s, and, what’s more, it wasn’t even American? It wasn’t even Italian, for that matter. Believe it or not, the first western movie was British. The genre has never exactly thrived in Britain, where these films are typically known as ‘roast beef’ westerns. Titles like Shalako, The Trap and even Carry On Cowboy emerged as roast beef westerns, most popular in the 1960s, but they failed to make much of an impact on cinema.
British countryside landscapes aren’t exactly the same as the ones seen in movies set in the Wild West, and cowboys are often too serious and self-assured for British people to play them authentically. Additionally, most western films are so intrinsically linked to America for good reason – they often explore the exploits of oppressive (or heroic, as they’re portrayed) cowboys who see Native Americans as savage and violent. The genre is directly linked to real American history, which was brutal, racist, misogynistic, and concerned heavily with national identity and pride.
So, what was the first western movie?
While you would assume, then, that westerns emerged from America, the first entry into the genre was a short silent film shot in Blackburn, Lancashire. It was previously assumed that The Great Train Robbery by the American filmmaker Edwin S Porter was the earliest western, but then Kidnapping By Indians was discovered. Released in 1899, the movie was made by the Mitchell and Kenyon company, which made many films during the late 1800s.
It’s less than two minutes long, but it features a storyline that might be familiar to western fans, especially those who have seen The Searchers by Ford. A group of Native American people kidnap a young girl, who is then rescued by a group of cowboys. This racist narrative – presenting Native American people as ruthless and dangerous, and the white cowboys as saviours – has evidently long defined many western movies.
Talking to the BBC, an artist named Jamie Holman revealed, “Blackburn had links to the Wild West. Cotton workers had worked in the USA and they told stories of the wild frontier. Mitchell and Kenyon would have been aware of the appetite for the Wild West at the time. Many of the stereotypes are there: the head-dress; the tomahawks.”
While Kidnapping By Indians is a very short silent film, it is interesting to think that the first example of the iconic western genre originated in Blackburn, of all places.
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