This is the mythic American West.

The disparity between the real West and the mythic West created by dime-store novels, cowboy movies and television shows has been the subject of Larry McMurtry's two most recent excursions into historical fiction.

The themes include the classic adult western, the early western, minorities and the western, the authentic versus the mythic West, and the Warner Brothers western.

Rodeos and Wild West shows enjoyed a parallel existence, employing many of the same stars, while capitalizing on the continuing allure of the mythic West.

Yet for Grace Hebard, the grand sweep of the mythic West stretched wide open to interpretation, resulting in Hebard placing her research subjects in a "highly romanticized" West.

The film's focus is Freddy (Gabriel Barylli), a young Austrian who dreams of making a new life in the mythic American West.

It's the same mythic West that Peckinpah began to unpeel in Ride the High Country and obliterated in The Wild Bunch.

In fact, "Anything for Billy" is constantly reminding the reader of the disparity between the mythic West of pulp fiction and the considerably less romantic reality of day-to-day life on the frontier.

Both a tribute to the mythic Old West and an affectionate parody, the comics were created by the Belgian artist Morris who drew Lucky Luke from 1946 until his death in 2001.

Slow-moving and slow-talking, he had the feral, ascetic features of an avenging lawman of the mythic West.