Once Upon A Time In The West (vs. Cat Ballou)

---I finally just got these films on netflix and were able to finish watching them, so here are my posts for the westerns!---
I decided to compare Once Upon A Time In The West (Sergio Leon 1968) to Cat Ballou (Elliot Silverstein 1965). Both westerns have a different kind of heroine than most classic westerns. The reason for this is that Once Upon A Time In The West is a revisionist western, and Cat Ballou is a parody western; a revisionist and a parody both have some western characteristics but are either "updated" (sort of like a new way of doing something) or exaggerated.

Jane Fonda's character Catherine Ballou has about four cowboy heroes following her around through out the movie. Claudia Cardinale's character Jill McBain has two cowboy heroes are her feet, and the villain, too, in a way. So all three men sort of have a fascination with her, just like the four in Cat Ballou. I think Sergio Leon's purpose for having the two heroes and the villain so tied to Jill is to bring a "fresh" feeling to the plot. Once Upon A Time In The West is again, a revisionist, so he tried to stray away from the typical one hero, one heroine, and a bad guy plot by adding some more contrast and conflict to the plot. Elliot Silverstein's purpose was merely to make fun of that typical one hero plot by adding three more heroes. He made a couple of them fall in love with Cat Ballou and had them believe she was in love with them, too, which also was creating a mockery of the fact that the hero usually falls for the heroine, and vice versa. The two westerns brought a freshness to the screen and both were quite succesful in doing so because I liked both of them. I thought I hated westerns, but I realize now I just don't like the typical classic westerns!