Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
DrewInWisconsin ·
December 10, 2011 at 5:36pm
My fellow Ricocheteers:
I would like your recommendations for good Westerns. It's never been a genre that I've been interested in, and so my education regarding Westerns is sorely lacking. As we settle in for the Winter I imagine that an inordinate amount of time will be spent in front of the television.
I recently watched The Searchers, and enjoyed it far more than I expected. But before I go wasting my time on sub-par Westerns . . . I thought I would ask the assembled Ricotarians for their suggestions.
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Comments:
Nov '10
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
The movies my fellow members have suggested are pretty much all good choices, but let me step outside the box just a little bit.
It's actually a tv series, but I've been re-watching The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. The entire series is only 28 episodes, so as tv box sets go, it's pretty manageable. There's a science fiction plot that runs through many of the episodes (which is resolved about 2/3 of the way through), and the whole series is somewhat tongue in cheek, but if you're in the mood for something a little lighter, I think you'll enjoy it.
And to get even more outside the box, Firefly is basically a western that happens to be set in outer space. It also has strong libertarian themes, which should appeal to many Ricochet members.
Finally, no discussion of non-traditional westerns would be complete without mentioning the modern-day western, Justified, which begins its 3rd season next month. After watching season 2, you'll never look at apple pie the same way again.
Feb '11
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
Then maybe it would be like The Wizard of Oz if a crazy old guy like Mose Harper had told Ethan Edwards how to reunite with his family. After a 5 or 6 years of wandering in the wilderness.
Edited on December 10, 2011 at 9:27pmJun '10
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
This for the older crowd. What about old-school TV westerns? I liked Bonanza, but my favorites were Maverick (1957-62) (James Garner as Bart, Jack Kelly as Bret; Roger Moore--yes, Roger Moore--later added as cousin Beau), The Wild, Wild West (1965-69) (Robert Conrad as James T. West and Ross Martin as Artemus Gordon), and Have Gun Will Travel (1957-63) (Richard Boone as Palladin).
I'm not sure how they would hold up today, but I loved them back in the day.
Edited on December 10, 2011 at 10:07pmDec '10
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
Who could forget "The Walk" in the Wild Bunch. The momentary grin on Ernest Borgnine's face captured the entire theme of the movie.
Jul '10
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
Streamed some of the old James Arness Gunsmokes the other day. Fine writing, folks like Dennis Weaver as Chester, slow pacing by today's standards, but that suits the material well.
Jan '11
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
I find it interesting that there are so many "frontier stories" aimed at little girls. ...Yet I can't imagine that the frontier was a pleasant place for women.
To what do we attribute this?
I read & reread those books as a young girl & teenager. The appeal: The women were doers, strong & capable, loved their family & God.
Laura: bright, full of energy, strong, helped Pa build a door, stack hay, chased crows & got in trouble.
Ma: calm, bright, full of faith, capable: made bread, sewed from her own patterns, taught her children, made candles, maple syrup. Ma could cook & bake. The descriptions of food always made me hungry. Caroline loved her husband and children; remained calm when Charles was missing in a blizzard.
And then there's Pa: built houses for his wife & children; walked for days to find work, dug a well, hunted, farmed, took care of the stock; sang & played the fiddle for his family. Charles stayed in De Smet when it became crowded because he loved his wife.
Other than the lack of indoor plumbing, why wouldn't a girl love these books?
Jan '11
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
"The Wild Bunch"
"They'll be waiting for us."
"I wouldn't have it any other way."
and "Shane"
"So you're Jack Wilson. I've heard about you."
"What have you heard, Shane?"
"I heard you're a lowdown, Yankee liar."
Apr '11
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
Big Hollywood did an excellent review of Shane a while back.
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2010/07/03/for-conservative-movie-lovers-jack-schaefer-george-stevens-and-shane-part-1/
Destry Rides Again a comic western with Jimmy Stewart and Marlene Dietrich. I think Madeleine Kahn's character in Blazing Saddles was inspired by Dietrich's role.
Gunfighter where Gregory Peck is an ex-gunfighter trying to reconcile with his wife but he can't escape his reputation.
The Westerner where a young Gary Cooper experiences the frontier justice of Judge Roy Bean played by Walter Brennan.
Feb '11
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo.
Jun '10
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
Many great movies included in the comments. I would add one more that I do not see, although I may have missed it. Big Country is a favorite of mine, with good performances by Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Burl Ives. Carol Baker, Jean Simmons, Charles Bickford, and Chuck Connors. Good score, too.
Mar '11
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
I am amazed no one has mentioned Anthony Mann's Man of the West, an archetypical western. All of Anthony Mann's westerns are great, eg. The Naked Spur, Winchester '73,, The Far Country, Bend of the River, but Man of the West is the standout. I believe Sam Peckinpah's great westerns owe a lot to it.
I love Peckinpah's westerns, I've seen The Wild Bunch so many times I know all of the continuity errors (eg. Old Sykes is shot with was a M1903 A3, a 1942 modification of the M1903) but I would particularly recommend Ride the High Country (AKA: Guns in the Afternoon). And, if you see Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, make sure you see the Roger Spottsiwood edit, not the original release music video version, and The Wild Bunch is 138 minutes long, there are various shorter versions around.
Budd Boetticher made a series of low budget westerns which are essential for anyone interested in the genre. 7 Men from Now was the first of these and probably the best. They are all good dramas as they feature strong interesting villains opposite Randolph Scott's western hero.
May '11
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
Shane...Watching the youtube clip with the mud and dog and grit, this movie could have been made a few years ago.
Aug '10
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
The Frisco Kid, until recently the only Western featuring Harrison Ford.
May '10
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
DrewInWisconsin
Kervinlee: I don't believe this - 72 posts and no one has mentioned Stagecoach? Dallas and the Ringo Kid? Buck and Doc Boone?
Very disappointing, Ricocheians. · Dec 10 at 10:37am
Nah, it was mentioned way back in Post #11. · Dec 10 at 10:43am
Well, thank goodness for that!
Jun '11
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
New?? "No Country for Old Men'
Old? Not so old.. but...Anything with John Wayne especially 'The Shootist"and "True Grit"
Dec '11
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
"A Man Called Horse," starring Richard Harris. I shall never forget that painful "initiation" scene.
Jun '10
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
Now there's a film I'd like to see.
Apr '11
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
As others (and Orson Welles) have said: John Ford, John Ford, and John Ford. I'd say The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence is the best Western I've seen (and one of the best movies period) along with My Darling Clementine. But, the western has undergone enough changes over time that it really is no longer a genre by that word alone. The early ones (Ford, Hawkes, etc) are the frontier stories full of grit and honor and pride and a incommunicable sense of what it was to be American. Then, the spaghetti westerns came along and are really not the same thing at all. Don't get me wrong, these were my 'introduction' to westerns and I liked them quite a bit but now, they seem more style over substance with brooding anti-heroes and over-wrought Morricone soundtracks and almost no story. Still, like I said, I like them but coming late to the John Ford stories, I find the later to be understated, simple, and profound. The later ones all seem elegiac. A longing reflection for a time that seems simple but so far off that we really don't or can't understand it anymore.
Apr '11
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
From the post-Leone stuff, I'd second the Peckinpah entries: The Wild Bunch, Pat Garret and Billy the Kid, and Ride the High Country (RANDOLPH SCOTT ... and Joel McRea). Don't even bother with the Wayne True Grit. That's a comic book version of the wonderful Charles Portis novel. If you haven't the time to read it (which you pretty much do if you have the time to watch a movie) watch the Cohen Bros. version instead. Closer and truer to the novel and the ending is spot on touching / heart-breaking.
Sep '10
Re: Your Movie Recommendations Please: Westerns
A couple nobody has mentioned:
The Man from Laramie, with Jimmy Stewart.
Seraphim Falls, with Pierce Brosnan as you've never seen him, was a really impressive and underated film of recent years.