The western genre has been well established as one of the “six paradigms” [1] of genre, while the zombie genre of film is less established, and can fall under any of the six genre types outlined by. True Grit, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, is a western that follows the journey of three people, with different motivations, searching for a well known murderer in the American Old West. One film that takes the form of a comedy, in the zombie subgenre, is Shaun of the Dead, directed by Edgar Wright, which shows a man and his friends and family attempt to survive a zombie outbreak in London. Mattie Ross, portrayed by Hailee Steinfeld in the Coen brother’s True Grit, and Shaun, portrayed by Simon Pegg in Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead, are both unlikely protagonists because they defy their respective genre’s conventions as heroes even though their motivations remain stereotypical.
The western is a film genre that primarily deals with issues set in the American Old West, during the late 19th century. This genre conventionally exhibits a narrative that has a hero, normally a burly apt male, who uses violence to seek justice for a particular wrongdoing. True Grit displays the beauty of the natural world through various long and extreme long shots of
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For example, the protagonist Shaun’s motivation was redemption, which was the same motivation of Marshall Cogburn. Cogburn is an alcoholic who feels that if he helps the young girl find the murderer, he will redeem himself. Both of the heroes of the film are unconventional, which highlight each films similarity and willingness to redefine their genres. Each of these films have a number of similarities, but one stark contrast is True Grit living up to the expectation of the inclusion of violence from Marshall Cogburn, while the average salesman having to kill zombies is not routine in the modern world that Shaun of the Dead is set