In the world of cinema, some things remain static and some things change. The Western was for a very long time a genre that remained static. In any given Western, it did not take long to identify the good guys and the bad guys; then after a bit of rousing action, the good guys beat the bad guys, righted various wrongs, and rode off into the sunset. At present, that sort of scenario is hardly imaginable and would not be very popular since it is no longer perceived as the real world. Nowadays the good guys have questionable characteristics, the bad guys often possess a streak of decency, and the cast of characters has broadened to include many who were previously nearly invisible. Women, gays, African Americans, and Native Americans finally appear as real people and not just convenient villains. These changes, which mirror changes in society, have given the Western a new lease on life, resulting in films that could not have been produced or conceived of in earlier decades.