Do you like Westerns?

[Icy Gull]

When I was a kid there were loads of westerns ranging from the rather shite Lone Ranger to Boots and Saddles ( an American cavalry series), Bonanza, Rawhide etc and there were loads of good western films too.

These days they seem very thin on the ground although films like the Unforgiven turn up occasionally but as far as I am aware there are no tv series.

Has the Westen had it's day or is there potential for some switched on film maker to make a load of dosh from avoiding the current crop of, imo, mostly shit zip zap action movies and making a good old fashioned western? Just remembered True Grit remake has recently come out, is it any good?

Do NSCers like Westerns or are they dull black and white shit?

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Nope all rubbish, seen bunch when young in 80s and early 90s but just not my thing. Maybe not old enough but they were always so boring.

 

[Trufflehound]

I like Westerns. High Noon and Once Upon a Time in the West rank as two of my three favourite films of all time (The Third Man, if you're counting...).

Thought the True Grit remake was excellent, although I was always a big Coen brothers fan anyway. Much better than the original, which was more a star vehicle for a dying John Wayne.

That said, JW made some excellent westerns himself. I've been rewatching a few classics on DVD recently, and was surprised at what I missed when I watched them as a kid. Movies like Fort apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon are much less about cowboys and injuns than Americans still soul-searching and coming to terms with the aftermath of the Civil War, even though they were made 80 years after it ended...

 

[Hillian1]

True Grit. Best Western EVER.

"Fill your hand you son of a bitch"

 

[Acker79]

I'm not a fan of westerns. There are exceptions. I really enjoyed Maverick and the True Grit remake. In an effort to watch more of imdb's top 250 I've recently seen the good the bad and the ugly (not my thing), the man who shot liberty valance (it was ok), the wild bunch (again, ok). I have unforgiven on my list to watch. The johnny depp cartoon Rango is a western, and it apparently pays homage to a lot of old westerns, it was ok, I thought but others at my screening seemed to love it. I think there have been some low key westerns in recent years (Appaloosa, The Assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford) but that tend to get good reviews.

I imagine the success of true grit will lead to a few more westerns, especially if Cowboys and Aliens dopes well this summer, since what is successful tends to be copied a lot.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

There are two films recently involving western scenarios.

True Grit remake and Cowboys and Aliens.

To answer your question, yes this remake of True Grit is pretty good.

There's also an animated movie based on a western scenario called Rango.

Deadwood was a western series that was running around 2004 for a few years.

Brad Pitt was in The Assassination of Jesse James a few years back.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

I'm not a fan of westerns. There are exceptions. I really enjoyed Maverick and the True Grit remake. In an effort to watch more of imdb's top 250 I've recently seen the good the bad and the ugly (not my thing), the man who shot liberty valance (it was ok), the wild bunch (again, ok). I have unforgiven on my list to watch. The johnny depp cartoon Rango is a western, and it apparently pays homage to a lot of old westerns, it was ok, I thought but others at my screening seemed to love it. I think there have been some low key westerns in recent years (Appaloosa, The Assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford) but that tend to get good reviews.

I imagine the success of true grit will lead to a few more westerns, especially if Cowboys and Aliens dopes well this summer, since what is successful tends to be copied a lot.

Shane is the western movie you need to watch next.

 

[Easy 10]

I must have seen The Good, The Bad and The Ugly about a dozen times, NEVER get tired of it.

Of the 'newer' ones, I thought Tombstone was tremendous entertainment, Val Kilmers finest 2 hours. Not seen True Grit yet.

 

[User removed 4]

I
Thought the True Grit remake was excellent, although I was always a big Coen brothers fan anyway. Much better than the original, which was more a star vehicle for a dying John Wayne.

He took his time about it then, true grit was made 10 years before he died.

 

[keaton]

I like westerns a lot.
The best old ones:
the Dollar's Trilogy
Once Upon a Time In America
Stagecoach
True Grit
The Shootist
Big Country
My Darling Clementine
Wild Bunch
Pale Rider
Hang em High
The Searchers
Blazing Saddles
Support your local Sheriff
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Best new ones:
True grit
three burials of melquiades estrada
No Country For Old Men
3.10 to Yuma
There Will Be Blood
Lone Star
Last of the Mohicans
Unforgiven
El Mariachi
Proposition

 

[Trufflehound]

the good the bad and the ugly (not my thing), the man who shot liberty valance (it was ok), the wild bunch (again, ok). I have unforgiven on my list to watch. The johnny depp cartoon Rango is a western, and it apparently pays homage to a lot of old westerns, it was ok, I thought but others at my screening seemed to love it. I think there have been some low key westerns in recent years (Appaloosa, The Assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford) but that tend to get good reviews.

I imagine the success of true grit will lead to a few more westerns, especially if Cowboys and Aliens dopes well this summer, since what is successful tends to be copied a lot.

Each to their own, but I found Liberty Valance, The Good the Bad & the Ugly, and The Wild Bunch all to be bona fide classics, in that order. Unforgiven is good, but not in the same league as the others in my books.

As for Rango, I was amazed how much i enjoyed it. I'm not a fan of kids' movies, not being a kid and not having any kids of my own by choice. Before Rango there hadn't been a kids' movie I would admit to 'loving' since Roger Rabbit in 1988 (i thought Shrek was 'quite good', but besides that...). And a lot of it has to do with all the references (some very subtle and not just from Westerns) for movie geeks like me. I wonder how many other people in the theatre picked up on the Singin' in the Rain homage in the opening scene, because it wasn't the usual Gene-Kelly-in-a-puddle spoof? Plus a lot of the slapstick pays homage to one of my heroes, the wonderfully insane Tex Avery.

But I hope True Grit and the others don't start a trend. The copies are nearly always rubbish.

For the record, my favourite movie of the last 20 years is also a Western - Kim Jarmusch's Dead Man, although that most definitely ain't yer average run-of-the-mill Western...

 

[The French Mistress]

Can't beat a good shitkicker !

 

[Icy Gull]

I like westerns a lot.
The best old ones:
the Dollar's Trilogy
Once Upon a Time In America
Stagecoach
True Grit
The Shootist
Big Country
My Darling Clementine
Wild Bunch
Pale Rider
Hang em High
The Searchers
Blazing Saddles
Support your local Sheriff
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Best new ones:
True grit
three burials of melquiades estrada
No Country For Old Men
3.10 to Yuma
There Will Be Blood
Lone Star
Last of the Mohicans
Unforgiven
El Mariachi
Proposition

Blimey you do know your westerns

 

[Trufflehound]

He took his time about it then, true grit was made 10 years before he died.

He did take his time over it. He had vary bits of cancer-ridden stomach, lung etc chopped away at various stages before it finally got him.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Jonah Hex was another recent western movie, though it was based on a comic series.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

I think my faves are Shane, The Outlaw Josey Wales and How The West Was Won.

 

[Trufflehound]

I like westerns a lot.
The best old ones:
the Dollar's Trilogy
Once Upon a Time In America
Stagecoach
True Grit
The Shootist
Big Country
My Darling Clementine
Wild Bunch
Pale Rider
Hang em High
The Searchers
Blazing Saddles
Support your local Sheriff
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Best new ones:
True grit
three burials of melquiades estrada
No Country For Old Men
3.10 to Yuma
There Will Be Blood
Lone Star
Last of the Mohicans
Unforgiven
El Mariachi
Proposition

Good list. I would add Ride With the Devil and Dead Man to the recent ones.

If you're counting 'movies set in the West' like There Will be Blood and No Country, then you need to ad the Treasure of the Sierra Madre to the older list.

And also Tom Horn, Cat Ballou, the Outlaw Josey Wales, High Noon, all of the John Wayne/John Ford 'cavalry' movies.

There are some from the late 60s/early 70s (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Little Big Man, Soldier Blue) that can seem a little dated now, but all are still worth watching. As is Jason Robards in the Ballad of Cable Hogue.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

I wonder how many other people in the theatre picked up on the Singin' in the Rain homage in the opening scene, because it wasn't the usual Gene-Kelly-in-a-puddle spoof? Plus a lot of the slapstick pays homage to one of my heroes, the wonderfully insane Tex Avery.

Is it Singing in the Rain? I thought it might have had something to do with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid/B J Thomas "Raindrops Keep Fallin On My Head".

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

The Alamo was another decent western style movie.

 

[Trufflehound]

Is it Singing in the Rain? I thought it might have had something to do with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid/B J Thomas "Raindrops Keep Fallin On My Head".

*SPOILER ALERT*

The bit when he 'flirts' with the doll torso and puts its hand on his knee is a direct copy of something Donald o'Connor does with a full size mannequin in the 'Make 'e Laugh' routine in Singin'...