Movies “... melodrama has shaped the American popular imagination, molding our

Melodrama has been a part of the American life since colonial time. This genre, with its ‘hero-villain ’ or ‘black and white ’ development of characters, has formed the idea of the American heroes. In Western films, in which the ‘local ’ themes of westward movement on the American society are developed, melodrama treats the dichotomy of hero-villain more stereotypically. The heroes depict the concept of the American ‘self’ and the villains picture the ‘other. ’ However, the development of Western film shows that the stereotypical treatment on ‘self ’ and the ‘other ’ undergoes some changes