For most of its history, Western popular culture has taken place, well, in the actual West. However, the template for the genre has expanded into other frontiers. Early Western film usually centered around melodrama, meaning the characters and plot fell under clear lines of good and evil. Yet, as the world changed so did the Western.
As a result of major world wars, the Western no longer portrayed the world as black and white. For example, famed director John Ford, after traveling with a photographer during World War II, created an adult Western in 1946, . The evolution of Westerns at this point blurred lines between good and evil with the creation of the antihero, a rough-around-the-edges protagonist who despite many flaws still saved the day. For example, actor Clint Eastwood often portrayed this. Westerns also began to portray increased levels of violence, especially through Italian spaghetti Westerns. At one point, plot lines even served as an allegory for the Cold War. And by the 1970s, the Western expanded into a new frontier: outer space.
