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The Great Westerns

My stepfather was mental about westerns but they never did much for me.

The only one I can think of with a mildly Fortean theme not already mentioned is The Ballad of Little Jo, which is based on the true story of Josephine Monaghan, a disgraced society lady who reinvents herself as a cowboy.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0106350/

Like Unforgiven, it's one of the few westerns that portrays a reasonably accurate image of this much romanticised period of history.
 
I have to mention my Grandad's favourite authors,

Louis L'Amour.

You'll recognise a few of the titles there, for sure! I read some decades ago and they are excellent examples of the genré.


And,

Zane Grey .

Even further back in time, perhaps, but closer to the myth of the West.
 
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

With the classic lines: "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"
 
Western films: Any Clint Eastwood western...the two James Garner westerns- Support Your Local Gunfighter, and Support Your Local Sheriff are entertaining...

TV shows--The High Chaparral and Laredo...

and if it were'nt for the continuing popularity of Louis L'Amour and Zane Grey..there would be no western sections in bookstores at all. Even here in the American Southwest you are hard pressed to find much by other authors.
 
soaring spirit said:
Western films: Any Clint Eastwood western...the two James Garner westerns- Support Your Local Gunfighter, and Support Your Local Sheriff are entertaining...

wonderful films..."you cant hit a man when hes down!"..."thats why i got him down!"......... "You cant shoot a man in the back!".."I only regret that hes awake!".... my kinda cowboy!
 
Most of Clint's stuff (especially Josey Wales and above all, Unforgiven), all of Sergio Leone's collaborations with the above, and C'era una volta il West (Once Upon a Time in the West).

Not much seen but jolly good is Welcome to Hard Times, based on an E L Doctorow novel, also starring Henry Fonda.

I suppose you can include Outland, as it is High Noon in space, and for that matter Bad Day at Black Rock, which is one of my fave movies full stop :).

And how about A Man Called Horse (forget the retread sequels, but the original still makes me squirm at the right moments...)?

As for comedy Westerns, I have a good deal of affection for The Hallelujah Trail, and Silverado - has anyone seen Cactus Jack (US title "The Villain")? - Kirk Douglas, and a very, very wooden young Arnie in a road-runner cartoon made life. It's a terrible film, but very entertaining :).
 
stu neville said:
has anyone seen Cactus Jack (US title "The Villain")? - Kirk Douglas, and a very, very wooden young Arnie in a road-runner cartoon made life. It's a terrible film, but very entertaining :).

Hmm.. Arnie plays a character whose name is 'Handsome Stranger', a fact which leads to one of the most belaboured running jokes in the whole of Christendom.
 
My favourite Westerns are 'High Plains Drifter' and the 'Dollars' films. (like, it would seem, most of the people here!)

I remember seeing 'Hang 'em High' once, where the film's title is splashed across the screen under some bloke's boots as he's being hung from a tree. Lurvely.

My little brothers love watching westerns and running around the garden shooting each other. They got into Star Wars ages ago, and I think to them there's certainly a connection between cowboy films and sci-fi. (well, it involves running about shooting, I suppose!).

In fact, there's a theme park of sorts in southern Spain where they filmed lots of westerns, (up in the mountains, on the way to the Alhambra Palace from the Costa del Sol) so they use all the old sets and have reenactments. So not only are westerns popular with people in the UK, the Spanish seem quite fond of them too!
 
In my dim-distant past I read every book by Zane Grey - the favourite being 'Alcatraz', about a wild mustang - the human set on catching and taming him being the only other character in the story - I would still recommend it.

That's probably why I would choose 'The Misfits' out of the films -

and 'Blazing Saddles'!

:cool:
 
Fallen Angel said:
With the classic lines: "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"

ot i know
abit like the mods then! :D

shall i mosey outta town then?
 
The Old West is alive and well here in the USA. In the shooting sports, Cowboy Action Shooting is the fastest growing and probably largest segment there is. Check out http://www.sassnet.com for info on this.

Westerns are still being made, albeit for cable TV. Recent stuff includes Monty Walsh and Crossfire Trail. Slightly older is The Sacketts. Both were made by Ted Turner.

Loius L'Amour remains popular even though he died in the 1980's. Win Blevins is writing some good stuff. There are others, but very few. The true west magzines manage to hang on, though.

Favorite Movies:

The Sacketts (Tom Selleck, Sam Elliot, Ben Johnson (once a real cowboy), Glen Ford)

Silverado (as described elsewhere)

How The West Was Won (Karl Malden, Deborah Kerr, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Preston, Gregory Peck, Yvonne DeCarlo, George Peppard, Harry Morgan, etc.)

Eastwood's stuff

As an aside, Westerns weren't always, or even usually, about shooting Indians.
 
Midnight said:
"She Wore A Yellow Ribbon"

Famous for John Wayne's line, "You know better than to give liquor to an Indian!"

John Ford is severely underrated as a director. Most people think of him as a factory director making cookie-cutter Westerns. Not so. Even as Westerns go, he was at the top of his form most of the time. And even when he wasn't directing Westerns, he made some damn fine films, like:

How Green Was My Valley
The Long Voyage Home
The Grapes of Wrath
Young Mr. Lincoln
The Prisoner of Shark Island
The Informer
The Lost Patrol
Arrowsmith


Not to mention my favorite John Ford movie of all, The Last Hurrah

As for the best western, I dunno:


Shane
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
DOLLARS Trilogy, of course
Warlock
The Gunfighter (1950)
 
In no particular order:

- The Outlaw Josey Wales
- McCabe and Mrs Miller
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
- The Dead Man

Plus does anyone remember a decidedly Fortean western starring Joe Don Baker and Sondra Locke which was set just after the Civil War and had a bunch of ex-Confederate soldiers going off in search of Indian treasure on a haunted mountain? I forget the title; but the treasure was guarded by a mythical tribe that could change into eagles or something like that. I saw this on TV back in the '80s, and as far as I know has never been repeated.
 
King Sprout said:
Plus does anyone remember a decidedly Fortean western starring Joe Don Baker and Sondra Locke which was set just after the Civil War and had a bunch of ex-Confederate soldiers going off in search of Indian treasure on a haunted mountain? I forget the title; but the treasure was guarded by a mythical tribe that could change into eagles or something like that. I saw this on TV back in the '80s, and as far as I know has never been repeated.

The Shadow of Chikara (1977)
... aka The Ballad of Virgil Cane
... aka The Curse of Demon Mountain
... aka Demon Mountain
... aka Diamond Mountain
... aka Shadow Mountain
... aka Thunder Mountain
... aka Wishbone Cutter
 
Ogopogo, or can I call you Og?

I Love you. I want to have your babies........
 
Westerns....

I thought Unforgiven was pretty good stuff...turning the genre on it's head and all that...very nasty Gene Hackman, too

Ride with the Devil was a good flick too...much stylish angst

Pat Garret & Billy the Kid...nough said. James Caan, Bob Dylan & Sam Peckinpah...can't go wrong & probably the best soundtrack going

The Wild Bunch ... just very violent silliness.

But Tombstone....hardly a classic but Val Kilmer is aspirational as Doc Holliday. My sexual polarity span, in any case ;)
 
"The Incredibly mixed-up Cowboys who Gave up Mexican Brothels in
soft-focus with guitar music and took to poking their cows with
pink oboes instead."

Not an easy one to find in your local video shop - until I find the money
to make it.

Must dash, the National Lottery Film Fund are on the phone. :p
 
I was a mad keen 'cowgirl' when I was a kid and could be seen riding my imaginary horse around the neighbourhood, looking for injuns and assorted varmints. I had my own wagon train - my rocking horse hitched up to a sledge. I also had a 'wells fargo' coach (my twin dolls pram which I used to trundle around behind me as I galloped along.

I had a cowboy hat and gun holster (complete with 'silver' bullets)

Ah, them were the days - the neighbourhood was a peaceful one, thanks to my efforts, and that of the boy who lived over the road, who was my 'pardner'.

I used to watch loads of TV westerns as a kid - 'Wagon Train' was a particular favourite.

I had a phase of reading Zane Grey stories, but haven't read any other westerns.

My favourite western film? 'The Magnificent Seven', of course! ;)

Carole
 
El Dorado...
I often watch it. Looking at the subtitles on the DVD, they didn't try to translate the phrases ' I'll be a suck-egg mule' nor 'Madder than a wet hen' into dutch Arthur Hunnicut... University of Arizon folk lore specialist and character actor...
 
what about Cat Balou with the drunk horse I remember loving that one as a kid. Also liked The Shootist.
 
Hostiles: A Western involving a journey from New Mexico to Montana, from desert scrubland to canyons, to woods, to mountain forests. Elements of The Searchers, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Unforgiven and Heavens Gate intersect to create a film which has a story of its own.

1892, Christian Bale is a US Calvary Captain on the verge of retirement who is coerced into bringing the fatally ill Chief Yellow Knife (Wes Studl) and his family home to Montana to die. Along the way he encounters a woman (Rosamund Pike) whose family has been slain by Comanches. Pike is not merely a victim and proves to be a fighter as well as a source of stability for Bale.

Bale is an Indian fighter who has a past history with Yellow Knife as have his Sergeant (Rory Cochrane) and Corporal (Jonathan Majors). The three soldiers have worked together for years, are like brothers and work as a team with little need for communication. Bale and Cochrane in particular are suffering traumas from years violence and killing, Coming under attack from the Comanches, fur trappers, a prisoner and ranchers, Bale realises that he has to rely on Yellow Knife for support. 8/10.
 
The Sisters Brothers: A Savage Western but one which has a dark strain of humour running through it. Brothers Eli (John C. Reilly) and Charlie Sisters (Joaquin Phoenix) are hired killers, they work for the Commodore dealing death to those who have crossed their boss. The film opens at night in Oregon, 1851. Gunfire lights up the darkness as the brothers attack a house, they kill all six inhabitants. A barn is on fire and Eli tries to save the horses within, a cold killer with a sentimental streak. This sets the tone for what follows.

The Commodore assigns a new task to them: kill a man who has stolen from him. A scout, Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal) has been sent ahead to track their target, Warm (Riz Ahmed). The scout though thinks of himself as a private detective and keeps a journal. Misfortunes beset Eli and and Charlie as they travel across Oregon, their camp is attacked by a bear and Eli swallows a poisonous spider. They then encounter a murderous Madam, Mayfield (Rebecca Root) who runs a small town. Morris inveigles his way into Warm's company and discovers that the commodore hasn't revealed the full truth.

This is a Classic Western where all of the characters are rounded and their motivations teased out. The Sisters brothers quarrel like an old married couple, Eli worries about Charlie's drinking, Charlie fears that Eli wants to give up the life of a killer and settle down with a schoolmarm. Charlie is the more savage when it comes to killing but is dependent on Eli to protect him when he is drunk, something he will never admit. Warm is an idealist who longs to join a Utopian Community in Texas, he finds that he has much in common with Morris who is also a deep thinker. Even Mayfield wants to extend her control beyond her town, to become a crime chief more like the Commodore.

The changing landscape is central to the film as the characters move through sage, to scrubland and mountain forests as they make their way down through Oregon and California to San Francisco and beyond. Wagon Trains, new settlements, gold miners and crime lord both petty and large figure in this tale of the Far West in a time when life was cheap and the law was the gun in your hand. The voiceover by Morris as he records events and sights in his journal adds to verisimilitude of this reimagined Frontier Age.

Director and co-writer Jacques Audiard has delivered a lyrical Epic Western. 9/10.
 
The Sisters Brothers: A Savage Western but one which has a dark strain of humour running through it...

Literally just got back from watching this at the Curzon Bloomsbury. It'll take me a while to work out what I feel about the whole thing (I'm like that with movies - I seem to have a built in delay. And having read the book doesn't help). But John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix are both fantastic.

Edit: Way off-topic, but I also had an off bit of dream/movie precognition (dream Saturday night, movie Sunday evening). But I'm still trying to work that one out as well. It rather unsettled me. I'll get back to you.
 
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The Magnificent Seven (1960) - Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner, James Coburn, Eli Wallach & Charles Bronson. Based on the epic Seven Samurai by Kurosawa. Tough, gritty but with an underlying touch of humanity. This is a good one.

"Brad Dexter". For all you pub quizzers.
 
Appaloosa. Great casting, snappy dialogue and gunfights that make you wince.
 
The James Stewart/Anthony Mann films: Winchester '73, Bend in the River, The Naked Spur, The Far Country and The Man From Laramie.

You're talking my language! Plus the one Mann did with Gary Cooper because he fell out with Stewart (alas): Man of the West. Fantastically sinister Western, beautifully filmed.
 
You're talking my language! Plus the one Mann did with Gary Cooper because he fell out with Stewart (alas): Man of the West. Fantastically sinister Western, beautifully filmed.


God it's lovely knowing someone else enjoys Anthony Mann.
 
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