American Westerns discussion

Okay, this isn't strictly about books...but there are some excellent, classic western movies out there. My all-time favorite western is BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID (1969). The writing (William Goldman) was terrific, and the lead actors (Newman, Redford, Ross) couldn't have been better. This is truly an iconic western, in my opinion. What's your favorite?

Always hard for me to pick a favorite. Outlaw Josey Wales, El Dorado, Rio Bravo are among my favorites though I know I'm probably leaving something off that I would probably rank among them.

BUTCH & SUNDANCE is still my favorite western, but I recently saw a mostly forgotten gem that I'd like to reccomend; BAD COMPANY. This 1972 film was time-appropriate and gritty long before that became favored for westerns. Roger Ebert says that "it has a nice, blunt, slice-of-life quality about it that grows on you." Check it out if you get a chance!

Please, Paint Your Wagon: a musical starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood. Okay, not a deep plot, but an entertaining and "cute" story, great songs and talent, gorgeous sets and filming, yummy young Eastwood and loveable, always inebriated Marvin make for one of my favorite western movies. Con sarn it, now I'll be humming, "I Was Born Under a Wandrin' Star," all day.

"Heather's Mum wrote: Please, Paint Your Wagon: a musical starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood. Okay, not a deep plot, but an entertaining and "cute" story, great songs and talent, gorgeous sets and filming, yummy young Eastwood and loveable, always inebriated Marvin make for one of my favorite western movies. Con sarn it, now I'll be humming, "I Was Born Under a Wandrin' Star," all day.

dale wrote:Interesting a musical never saw it. You suggest it?????

Heather's Mum wrote: If you enjoy musicals... I ABSOLUTELY recommend it! If you recognize the outstanding talent of the lead actors, (Eastwood & Marvin) you just gotta be in awe of the loyal "pardnership" en script. Original songs, (some old - They Call the Wind Maria) realistic settings and super talented performers. If you don't appreciate the genre, you will HATE it.

Since dale is interested, here is more info:

Directed: Joshua Logan
Written & Produced: Alan Jay Lerner & Paddy Chayefsky

Starring
Lee Marvin
Clint Eastwood
Jean Seberg
(note: Clint and Lee sang their own songs, Jean's were dubbed.)

released about 1969

dale wrote: "Clint Eastwood singing, Tell me it ain't so
Remember Him as Rowdy Yates---RAWHIDE"

Yes! It's true! Not Bing Crosby crooning, but not bad!

As much as I love Rio Bravo, El Dorado and Unforgiven, I have to say my two favourites are The Searchers and The Magnificent Seven, with High Noon, there as well. Oops, forgot the Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. And I didn't include any of Thomas Mann's films. Really hard to whittle down my list!

Shane - what a surprise:)
The Gunfighter
The Magnificent Seven
3:10 to Yuma (Not the remake!)
No Name on the Bullet
The Dollars Trilogy
The Fastest Gun Alive
Open Range
Tombstone

The list goes on....

My all-time favorite Western movie is Rio Grande (1950), the last and most underrated of John Ford's 'cavalry trilogy.' My second favorite is a good one I discovered only recently—The Tin Star (1957).

Elisabeth wrote: "My all-time favorite Western movie is Rio Grande (1950), the last and most underrated of John Ford's 'cavalry trilogy.' "

"Rio Grande" is a real masterpiece. It gets better and deeper the more I watch it.

Westward the Women
The Unfogiven
The Frisco Kid
Gunless
The Warrior's Way

My most memorable movies are True Grit original and remake, Liberty Valance and perhaps the series Deadwood on TV (harsh as it is) with The Devil's Manhunt and The Magic Quirt scoring very high as audiobooks.

I love the True Grit movies (both of them). I couldn't believe the soundtrack for the remake was built around the old hymn, Leaning On the Everlasting Arms (I love old Gospel and Old Time and actually sing in an Old Time Quartet called The Wayfaring Strangers). I loved that. When Iris Dement was singing it over the end credits, I nearly piddled on the floor like an overly excited puppy.

And you know what, I tried to watch Deadwood and I could not get into it. I'm kind of the local "Western nerd" and everyone always asks what I thought of that series. It wasn't the language...I just had a hard time telling the characters apart. Which is embarrassing to see typed out like that and was probably why I just really couldn't get into it. I really ought to try it again...maybe I was in the wrong frame of mind.

I could always tell when one particular friend of mine (also a Western fan) was marathoning Deadwood...her casual use of profanity would go off the scale for a bit. :-DDDDD

"Shane." I saw it when it came out as a movie, read the novel when I was teaching, and wrote a parody of it for a drama class of mine to act out. I learned today that the excellent novelist A. B. Guthrie Jr. wrote the screenplay.

Heather's Mum: My husband and I were vacationing and spent an evening in a hotel drinking tequila and playing poker. Paint Your Wagon came on the tv.

I had never seen it, and in my admittedly drunken state I remember staring at the screen as a young Eastwood sang and thinking to myself "I'm not really THAT drunk, am I?" But no, he was singing and I was flabbergasted.

Five hours later (not a typo) we were still staring at the screen in a disbelieving stupor, thinking "Good grief, how long is this movie? Am I actually asleep and just DREAMING I'm still watching it?" I never actually saw the end of it, ironically.

Yes Deadwood was horribly raw and harsh, especially at first. offensive. when the gems rose, signs of humanity amidst brutality , were tremendous moments of relief. When Swearingen reprimanded the newspaperman for his choice of words was humorous.

I never wanted the bad guy dead faster than after and episode or two of Deadwood. ew

I am 100% in agreement with you on Deadwood!

I would have to go with the spaghetti westerns starring Clint Eastwood, A Fist Full of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and of course The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Mine in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. This one is special for me.

I'm still on "The Magnificent Seven."

I'm with you on The Magnificent Seven, Steven. I don't know the details but I hear they are planning a remake. It would be tough to top Yul Brenner, James Coburn and Eli Wallach but 3:10 to Yuma worked and so did True Grit. Of course all bets will be off for me if they pick up the option on Boots and Saddles: A Call to Glory.Boots and Saddles a Call to Glory

Yikes! No way to top the introduction of all those stars---Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughan added to yours above. They're setting themselves up for a disappointment. Why not just re-release the original?

You could re-release that one. It's a classic. Like most things I'll bet the answer to you question is $$$.

A remake would be hard because you figure you'd have to find an all-star cast just like the original. Can that really be done? I mean sure but you don't want to just throw any old name out there, they gotta pop.

When they re-did 3:10 to Yuma and True Grit they had good choices for actors but The Magnificent Seven would be a lot more interesting to see how they would plan out.

Good point about name recognition talent, Justin. Box office stars are in much shorter supply these days than they were back then. It might be tough to come up with seven. Somehow 'The Magnificent Four' doesn't have quite the same ring...

Thanks Paul. They could get a couple of good names but seven would be hard given todays talent and high demand in money. When Tomestone was made in the 90s they lucked out but just a decade later to get the same star power seems harder to find.

Especially difficult given that the majority of those guys were relatively unknown. We know them now because it propelled them to stardom.