the western is an eminently localizable genre, said the dacoit

"Life is a long and terrible sadness".
Yes, but in between you get to wear outrageously cool cowboy duds and float through bright pink lily ponds, so it can't be all that bad.
Watch 'Tears of the Black Tiger.'
This is even cooler than Mithunda. (And surprisingly moving too.)

Ah, life is a long and terrible sadness. :-)
Not completely unrelated - Susan Sontag's Notes on Camp.