Western movies are a genre of film that typically takes place in the American Old West. The term can be used to describe movies set in any country that was once part of the British Empire, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The Western genre is often broken down into two main categories, the “horse opera” and the “spaghetti Western.” 

The horse opera is a type of Western that typically features large casts of cowboys and horses, and emphasizes the epic nature of the stories. John Ford’s The Searchers is often cited as the prototypical horse opera. …