Jonathan Raymond on ‘First Cow’: ‘It is a conscious revival’

The author and screenplay writer says the film is a comment on the genre and Western values such as individualism, vigilante justice and extreme masculine energy

The Western genre is the basis for national mythology, according to author Jonathan Raymond, whose novel, The Half Life has been made into the critically acclaimed film, First Cow. “For better or worse, Hollywood depictions are how we understand ourselves,” says Raymond over a video call from Portland, Oregon. “First Cow is a Western in that it takes place in the west. It is a comment on the genre and values such as individualism, vigilante justice and extreme masculine energy.” It is a conscious revival, says Raymond who has collaborated on the screenplay with director Kelly Reichardt. “This is not to say that Kelly and I hate Westerns, but they have a limited, imaginary world. The idea even to call it a Western is to suggest that it is the story of the region travelling from the east to west. It is like we are oriented towards a European endpoint. And as we realize, increasingly, that it is actually a south-to-north kind of traffic that is creating this region or Asian-to- American traffic, even the term Western becomes open to interpretation.”