Fritz Lang's mediaevalism: from Die Nibelungen to the American West.

From: Mosaic (Winnipeg) | Date: March 1, 2003| Author: | Copyright information

This essay relates Fritz Lang's mediaeval epic film Die Nibelungen to the three Western films he made in Hollywood. In particular the last of these, Rancho Notorious, reworks the theme of "fate, murder, and revenge," which is fundamental not only to Die Nibelungen but also to Lang's work as a whole.

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Two quintessentially American film genres, the Western and film noir, have been more strongly influenced by European literary and cinematic traditions than all others. Westerns are thematically related to the heroic archetypes of classical and mediaeval mythology, ...

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