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Boss Fight Books #24
Red Dead Redemption
First garnering both dismissal and intrigue as “Grand Theft Horse,” Rockstar Games’ 2010 action-adventure Red Dead Redemption was met on its release with critical acclaim for its open-world gameplay, its immersive environments, and its authenticity to the experience of the Wild West. Well, the simulated Wild West, that is.
Boss Fight invites you to find out how the West was created, sold, and marketed to readers, moviegoers, and gamers as a space where “freedom” and “progress” duel for control of the dry, punishing frontier. Join writer and scholar Matt Margini as he journeys across the broad and expansive genre known as the Western, tracing the lineage of the familiar self-sufficient loner cowboy from prototypes like Buffalo Bill, through golden age icons like John Wayne and antiheroes like Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name,” up to Red Dead’s John Marston.
With a critical reading of Red Dead’s narrative, setting, and gameplay through the lens of the rich and ever-shifting genre of the Western, Margini reveals its connections to a long legacy of mythmaking that has colored not only the stories we love to consume, but the histories we tell about America.
Boss Fight invites you to find out how the West was created, sold, and marketed to readers, moviegoers, and gamers as a space where “freedom” and “progress” duel for control of the dry, punishing frontier. Join writer and scholar Matt Margini as he journeys across the broad and expansive genre known as the Western, tracing the lineage of the familiar self-sufficient loner cowboy from prototypes like Buffalo Bill, through golden age icons like John Wayne and antiheroes like Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name,” up to Red Dead’s John Marston.
With a critical reading of Red Dead’s narrative, setting, and gameplay through the lens of the rich and ever-shifting genre of the Western, Margini reveals its connections to a long legacy of mythmaking that has colored not only the stories we love to consume, but the histories we tell about America.
224 pages, Paperback
First published June 30, 2020
13 people are currently reading
207 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 10, 2020
(click the image below to watch the video review)
I’m reviewing all of the Boss Fight Books releases, so subscribe to my YouTube channel to be sure you don’t miss future reviews.
For the next few paragraphs I’m going to tell you why I loved this book, and it may surprise you, but this book isn’t actually just about Red Dead Redemption. But that’s a good thing, I promise. See, this book by Matt Margini does one of the things that, for me, all great books should do. When I reviewed Postal, by Nathan Rabin and Brock Wilbur, I noted another thing that great books do. They force us to ask, and really think about, interesting questions. In that book, the question was: can I love a product made by unlovable people? There’s no definitive answer. It’s a question of ethics and morals that each person has to answer for themselves. What Margini’s book does is the other thing great books should do, which is related to asking great questions: great books should be catalysts for understanding. Margini’s book is perhaps one of the very best examples of a book that takes a seemingly benign topic and uses it as a catalyst to explore something much greater. This book examines the very American idea of frontierism through the lens of Western books and movies, and, of course, a video game.
Early in the book, Margini details the game developer’s notoriously grueling development process. Rockstar has a history of overworking their staff. It’s interesting that Margini decides to frontload the book with Rockstar’s labor issues. Personally, I would have thought it better to praise the game itself for at least a chapter, to get the reader excited about the subject, before deflating the story. But as I read on, I realized Margini made a very smart and important decision. He uses this tension between a questionable development studio and its critically praised product as one of the first stepping stones to exploring the larger concept of the capital “W” West. As he says:
Every book must give the reader a reason to trust its author. Here is where I learned that Margini can be trusted.
From here the book flows into a series of generalized sections. With simple titles like Territory, Frontier, Death, and Cowboy, Margini grants himself the freedom to explore big ideas, further establishing the subject game as little more than a catalyst. In each section Margini describes the associated element in Red Dead Redemption and then hops among various reference materials from classic Western movies to books written by experts on the Western as a genre. He reveals Red Dead Redemption to be so much more than a facsimile of existing Western archetypes. Red Dead Redemption, via Margini, is in fact a valid contribution to the genre, every bit as valid as the more famous representations like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, The Searchers, and A Fistfull of Dollars.
The danger of casting such a wide net is the potential for the book to lack focus. But Margini has an incredible ability to synthesize an abundance of content into a simple, sometimes pithy statement the way great essayists can. The expansive Western landscape becomes manageable when Margini writes “It instills awe and terror not because it’s shrouded but because it’s empty. What you see is what you get.” The intangible cultural impact of the Western genre becomes tangible when Margini writes “The Greatest Generation, the Silent Generation, the Boomers—all were raised on Westerns, which deeply affected the way they viewed the nation in which they lived and the wars in which they would inevitably participate.”
Margini’s Red Dead Redemption is a lot like the works of Mary Roach. Though Margini’s book isn’t humorous nor is it personal--humor and personal-implication are staples of Mary Roach’s non-fiction--but Margini does approach a very wide topic via a series of smaller, nuanced access points. For Roach the wide topic might be death with the access points being stories about human cadavers or stories exposing purported psychics. Or she might tackle space by asking how humans poop in a space suit. Margini approaches the capital “W” West, a massive thing that some see as the very embodiment of America, by way of a video game. I love it.
Before reading Red Dead Redemption by Matt Margini, I hated the Western genre. I saw it only for its overt racism and sexism. I saw it as an outdated ideal only respected by people with outdated ideals. But after reading this book I feel like I actually understand the genre and why it’s important. I even respect it.
If you are reading this review before May 28th, I urge you to check out the Kickstarter campaign of which Matt Margini’s Red Dead Redemption is a part. I’ve been a long time reader of Boss Fight Books (in fact, I’ve reviewed all of them at my video game youtube channel). Though I received an early electronic copy of Red Dead Redemption from the publisher for the purposes of this review, I have backed the Kickstarter campaign myself because I have no doubt that the additional forthcoming books in this campaign will be fantastic. Check out the Boss Fight Books Kickstarter campaign and see if it peaks your interest.
I’m reviewing all of the Boss Fight Books releases, so subscribe to my YouTube channel to be sure you don’t miss future reviews.
For the next few paragraphs I’m going to tell you why I loved this book, and it may surprise you, but this book isn’t actually just about Red Dead Redemption. But that’s a good thing, I promise. See, this book by Matt Margini does one of the things that, for me, all great books should do. When I reviewed Postal, by Nathan Rabin and Brock Wilbur, I noted another thing that great books do. They force us to ask, and really think about, interesting questions. In that book, the question was: can I love a product made by unlovable people? There’s no definitive answer. It’s a question of ethics and morals that each person has to answer for themselves. What Margini’s book does is the other thing great books should do, which is related to asking great questions: great books should be catalysts for understanding. Margini’s book is perhaps one of the very best examples of a book that takes a seemingly benign topic and uses it as a catalyst to explore something much greater. This book examines the very American idea of frontierism through the lens of Western books and movies, and, of course, a video game.
Early in the book, Margini details the game developer’s notoriously grueling development process. Rockstar has a history of overworking their staff. It’s interesting that Margini decides to frontload the book with Rockstar’s labor issues. Personally, I would have thought it better to praise the game itself for at least a chapter, to get the reader excited about the subject, before deflating the story. But as I read on, I realized Margini made a very smart and important decision. He uses this tension between a questionable development studio and its critically praised product as one of the first stepping stones to exploring the larger concept of the capital “W” West. As he says:
“In a lot of ways, the company’s grueling development process haunts the game: the inescapable feeling that such scope, such complexity, and such detail was achieved at so great a human cost. As usual, the ironic gap between Rockstar’s anti-authoritarian sensibility and decidedly authoritarian company policies resulted in a game that poses many questions [...] that are worth posing to Rockstar itself.”
Every book must give the reader a reason to trust its author. Here is where I learned that Margini can be trusted.
From here the book flows into a series of generalized sections. With simple titles like Territory, Frontier, Death, and Cowboy, Margini grants himself the freedom to explore big ideas, further establishing the subject game as little more than a catalyst. In each section Margini describes the associated element in Red Dead Redemption and then hops among various reference materials from classic Western movies to books written by experts on the Western as a genre. He reveals Red Dead Redemption to be so much more than a facsimile of existing Western archetypes. Red Dead Redemption, via Margini, is in fact a valid contribution to the genre, every bit as valid as the more famous representations like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, The Searchers, and A Fistfull of Dollars.
The danger of casting such a wide net is the potential for the book to lack focus. But Margini has an incredible ability to synthesize an abundance of content into a simple, sometimes pithy statement the way great essayists can. The expansive Western landscape becomes manageable when Margini writes “It instills awe and terror not because it’s shrouded but because it’s empty. What you see is what you get.” The intangible cultural impact of the Western genre becomes tangible when Margini writes “The Greatest Generation, the Silent Generation, the Boomers—all were raised on Westerns, which deeply affected the way they viewed the nation in which they lived and the wars in which they would inevitably participate.”
Margini’s Red Dead Redemption is a lot like the works of Mary Roach. Though Margini’s book isn’t humorous nor is it personal--humor and personal-implication are staples of Mary Roach’s non-fiction--but Margini does approach a very wide topic via a series of smaller, nuanced access points. For Roach the wide topic might be death with the access points being stories about human cadavers or stories exposing purported psychics. Or she might tackle space by asking how humans poop in a space suit. Margini approaches the capital “W” West, a massive thing that some see as the very embodiment of America, by way of a video game. I love it.
Before reading Red Dead Redemption by Matt Margini, I hated the Western genre. I saw it only for its overt racism and sexism. I saw it as an outdated ideal only respected by people with outdated ideals. But after reading this book I feel like I actually understand the genre and why it’s important. I even respect it.
If you are reading this review before May 28th, I urge you to check out the Kickstarter campaign of which Matt Margini’s Red Dead Redemption is a part. I’ve been a long time reader of Boss Fight Books (in fact, I’ve reviewed all of them at my video game youtube channel). Though I received an early electronic copy of Red Dead Redemption from the publisher for the purposes of this review, I have backed the Kickstarter campaign myself because I have no doubt that the additional forthcoming books in this campaign will be fantastic. Check out the Boss Fight Books Kickstarter campaign and see if it peaks your interest.
June 19, 2020
Fantastic book. It's not *just* about Red Dead Redemption the game but more of an entire history and breakdown of the "Western Genre" and it was great and gave me a lot to think about.
October 8, 2020
I need to preface this by saying that I have never played Red Dead Redemption or its second iteration.
This, of course, did not stop me from enjoying this literary analysis of an open-world, sandbox game from Rockstar—a company that helped cement the genre with Grand Theft Auto. Even if you have little or no idea about open-world style games or resent GTA because of its emphasis on crime and debauchery, Matt Margini has you covered.
He makes a strong case about the influence of the American Western on Red Dead Redemption and how the game both reinforces the genre's themes and political undertones while also challenging them. The only game that I personally played that is similar thematically is West of Loathing, but even so, if you have ever read or watched a Western, you'll appreciate the attention to detail that Margini brings to his analysis.
This, of course, did not stop me from enjoying this literary analysis of an open-world, sandbox game from Rockstar—a company that helped cement the genre with Grand Theft Auto. Even if you have little or no idea about open-world style games or resent GTA because of its emphasis on crime and debauchery, Matt Margini has you covered.
He makes a strong case about the influence of the American Western on Red Dead Redemption and how the game both reinforces the genre's themes and political undertones while also challenging them. The only game that I personally played that is similar thematically is West of Loathing, but even so, if you have ever read or watched a Western, you'll appreciate the attention to detail that Margini brings to his analysis.
November 3, 2025
When I die, I may not go to heaven. I don’t know if they let cowboys in.
July 13, 2022
Muy buena crítica-ensayo de este grandísimo videojuego, que acabé hace muy poquito y que no puedo quitarme de la cabeza. Hacía tiempo que un videojuego no me dejaba tan buen sabor de boca, y eso que me he dejado por hacer muchas cosas (desde jugar al poker hasta sacar el infame logro de la mujer en las vías del tren), por falta de tiempo principalmente. Y, una vez terminado, necesitaba lanzarme de cabeza a este libro, que no defrauda en absoluto.
El libro no explica el proceso creativo o de desarrollo del videojuego. No pretende ser un post mortem o una historia, sino una crítica: se aproxima al videojuego desde varios temas principales, como el territorio, la frontera, la muerte o la violencia, y lo analiza comparándolo al Western original (tanto en libros como en películas), teniendo en cuenta los diversos estilos y épocas de dicho género. Puede parecer que el libro quiere abarcar demasiado, pero enlaza tan bien los temas que no abruma y sí ilustra.
Yo, que en la vida he sido fan del Western, que de "películas de vaqueros" solo habré visto trozos cuando era niña (más allá de la serie Bonanza, que emitió Antena 3 en los 90), me veo ahora con unas ganas terribles de ver clásicos que jamás he visto (bueno, la película Westworld sí que la vi). Eso sí: ¿por dónde empezar?
Libro imprescindible para quien le guste leer crítica de videojuegos y sea fan de Rockstar en general y de Red Dead Redemption en particular.
El libro no explica el proceso creativo o de desarrollo del videojuego. No pretende ser un post mortem o una historia, sino una crítica: se aproxima al videojuego desde varios temas principales, como el territorio, la frontera, la muerte o la violencia, y lo analiza comparándolo al Western original (tanto en libros como en películas), teniendo en cuenta los diversos estilos y épocas de dicho género. Puede parecer que el libro quiere abarcar demasiado, pero enlaza tan bien los temas que no abruma y sí ilustra.
Yo, que en la vida he sido fan del Western, que de "películas de vaqueros" solo habré visto trozos cuando era niña (más allá de la serie Bonanza, que emitió Antena 3 en los 90), me veo ahora con unas ganas terribles de ver clásicos que jamás he visto (bueno, la película Westworld sí que la vi). Eso sí: ¿por dónde empezar?
Libro imprescindible para quien le guste leer crítica de videojuegos y sea fan de Rockstar en general y de Red Dead Redemption en particular.
June 24, 2023
More of a collection of brief essays about the history of the Western genre (specifically film, but with a little bit of information about literature) and also the trend in the video game industry towards open-world games than a book about the game itself, I still enjoyed this brief book as a whole.
The book is divided into various themed chapters, but in actuality most talked about the Western and how the genre reflected contemporary American ideological aspirations and also insecurities (more insecurities than anything, according to the writer), despite the "Western" chapter only being chapter 1. My favorite chapter was "Territory," since it focused on the world of the game itself (a world and a game which I very much enjoyed when I first played it). I wish more of the book dealt with either the world of the game itself, or at least its development.
I would like to read more of the books in this series, but they've largely covered older games that I've never played before. I'm not sure if they're still making them or not, but I'd definitely read more if they covered more games I've played.
The book is divided into various themed chapters, but in actuality most talked about the Western and how the genre reflected contemporary American ideological aspirations and also insecurities (more insecurities than anything, according to the writer), despite the "Western" chapter only being chapter 1. My favorite chapter was "Territory," since it focused on the world of the game itself (a world and a game which I very much enjoyed when I first played it). I wish more of the book dealt with either the world of the game itself, or at least its development.
I would like to read more of the books in this series, but they've largely covered older games that I've never played before. I'm not sure if they're still making them or not, but I'd definitely read more if they covered more games I've played.
August 19, 2020
Red Dead Redemption by Matt Margini takes a gripping and thought-provoking approach towards analyzing Red Dead Redemption and gives an extensive examination over its place in broader fields; as a video game, as a cultural vehicle, as a love-letter towards old and older entries in the western genre, and as a revealing entry on America's historical fascination with the western ideal. It's fun to read and never gets boring. Red Dead Redemption functions as an extensive index over western movies as a whole; Margini identifies references in film and in literature to nearly every aspect of the game. He analyzes its storytelling, its gameplay mechanics, and all of the messages it carries--all in under 200 pages. Interviews with Rockstar Games and community interactions are also carefully cited and used effectively throughout this book.
A book that was four years in the making, reading Matt Margini's Red Dead Redemption is something I would strongly recommend to anyone interested in these subjects.
A book that was four years in the making, reading Matt Margini's Red Dead Redemption is something I would strongly recommend to anyone interested in these subjects.
November 16, 2020
I've only played a few hours of Red Dead, but this is a truly fascinating dive into Red Dead's story, world, and themes. Not only that it's a great examination of the Western genre in all media too. Well worth a look if you're a fan of the game or Western stories.
March 8, 2023
So I have never played the game, although I have watched my daughter play it several times. She LOVES it. And she knows that I love westerns, so she recommended this book to me. I found it interesting in parts, but all the gaming stuff was unfamiliar and somewhat uninteresting to me.
April 29, 2025
Muy gringa la interpretación del quijote, pero adorable. Una vista literaria, americana, sobre Red Dead Redemption y los conceptos que giran alrededor del juego. Uno de los mejores libros de Boss Fight que he leído.
June 25, 2022
A deep dive into how the genre of westerns influenced red dead. Very good.
January 28, 2025
exceptional, aspirational criticism
December 28, 2021
This short book takes me back to that crazy 6 months in 2010 where I rode around the old west. Red dead redemption was such an experience! The author does an excellent job of setting the memories free. I enjoyed his references to the old western movies I vaguely remember.
February 8, 2023
More several ruminations on the game than any cohesive destination, this is still a well presented analysis of Red Dead.
It's very novel to have the game presented as simply part of the Western media myth.
It's very novel to have the game presented as simply part of the Western media myth.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews