The
Horse Soldiers (1959) VHS
~ John Wayne
The
Magnificent Seven (1960) VHS
~ Yul Brynner
Little
Big Man (1970) VHS
~ Dustin Hoffman
Dances
with Wolves (1990) VHS
~ Kevin Costner
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) VHS
Out of Print
~ Subtitled in English
~ Henry Fonda
Tombstone
(1993) VHS
~ Kurt Russell
High
Noon (1952) VHS
~ Gary Cooper
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Written by Carl Foreman (who was later blacklisted during the anticommunist
hearings of the '50s) and superbly directed by Fred Zinnemann, this 1952
classic stars Gary Cooper as just-married lawman Will Kane, who is about
to retire as a small-town sheriff and begin a new life with his bride (Grace
Kelly) when he learns that gunslinger Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald) is due
to arrive at high noon to settle an old score. Kane seeks assistance from
deputies and townsfolk, but soon realizes he'll have to stand alone in
his showdown with Miller and his henchmen. Innovative for its time, the
suspenseful story unfolds in approximate real time (from 10:40 a.m. to
high noon in an 84-minute film), and many interpreted Foreman's drama as
an allegorical reflection of apathy and passive acceptance of Senator Joseph
McCarthy's anticommunist campaign. Political underpinnings aside, this
remains a milestone of its genre (often referred to as the first "adult"
Western), and Cooper is flawless in his Oscar-winning role. --Jeff Shannon
- Amazon.com
A
Man Called Horse (1970) VHS
~ Richard Harris
Shane
(1953) VHS
~ Alan Ladd
Consciously crafted by director George Stevens as a piece of American
mythmaking, Shane is on nearly everyone's shortlist of great movie Westerns.
A buckskin knight, Shane (Alan Ladd) rides into the middle of a range war
between farmers and cattlemen, quickly siding with the "sod-busters." While
helping a kindly farmer (Van Heflin), Shane falls platonically in love
with the man's wife (Jean Arthur, in the last screen performance of a marvelous
career). Though the showdowns are exciting, and the story simple but involving,
what most people will remember about this movie is the friendship between
the stoical Shane and the young son of the farmers. The kid is played by
Brandon De Wilde, who gives one of the most amazing child performances
in the movies; his parting scene with Shane is guaranteed to draw tears
from even the most stonyhearted moviegoer. And speaking of stony hearts,
Jack Palance made a sensational impression as the evil gunslinger sent
to clean house--he has fewer lines of dialogue than he has lines in his
magnificently craggy face, but he makes them count. The photography, highlighting
the landscape near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, won an Oscar. --Robert Horton
- Amazon.com
Jeremiah
Johnson (1972) VHS
~ Robert Redford
Based on the bestselling book Crow
Killer : The Saga of Liver-Eating Johnson by Raymond W. Thorp.
Jeremiah
Johnson (1972) DVD
The
Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) VHS
~ Clint Eastwood
True
Grit (1969) VHS
~ John Wayne
Pat
Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) VHS
Starring: James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan...
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Billy the Kid is reimagined by director Sam Peckinpah as a kind of
Old West rock star, a young man who wants to do his own thing but constantly
runs up against the objections of the establishment--in this case, the
cattle barons who run this part of the country. Peckinpah indulged in some
quirky casting, including Bob Dylan as an outlaw named Alias and most of
Kristofferson's band as Billy's gang. He also draws exceptional performances
out of a cast of old veterans, including James Coburn as the reluctant
Pat Garrett, R.G. Armstrong, Katy Jurado, and Slim Pickens, who has a terrific
death scene to Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." Look for this longer
version (122 minutes); the shorter version is the one that MGM recut against
Peckinpah's wishes, removing all the character development and Peckinpah's
elegiac sense of the Old West in favor of action and violence. Amazon.com
A
Fistful of Dollars (1967) VHS
~ Clint Eastwood
Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) VHS
~ Paul Newman
The
Missouri Breaks (1976) VHS
~ Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson
The
Commancheros DVD
~ John Wayne
Nobody made a fuss about The Comancheros when it came out, yet it has
proved to be among the most enduringly entertaining of John Wayne's later
Westerns. The Duke, just beginning to crease and thicken toward Rooster
Cogburn proportions, plays a veteran Texas Ranger named Jake Cutter. When
we first see him (in a tongue-in-cheek delayed entrance), he's catching
up with a New Orleans dandy (Stuart Whitman) who killed a judge's son in
a duel just after that gentlemanly practice was banned. Monsieur Paul Regret--or
"Mon-sooor," as Jake insists on calling him--is not a bad fellow, let alone
a badman, and it only follows that, after the requisite number of misunderstandings,
he and Jake will join forces to subdue rampaging Indians and the evil white
men behind their uprising.
The Comancheros was the last credit for Michael Curtiz, who,
ravaged by cancer, ceded much of the direction to Wayne (uncredited) and
action specialist Cliff Lyons. With support from Wayne stalwarts James
Edward Grant (coscreenplay) and William Clothier (camera), the first of
many rousing Elmer Bernstein scores for a Wayne picture, and a big, flavorful
cast including Lee Marvin (the once and future Liberty Valance), Nehemiah
Persoff, Bruce Cabot, and Guinn "Big Boy" Williams (in his last movie),
they made a broad, cheerfully bloodthirsty adventure movie for red-meat-eating
audiences of all ages. Even the liberal-pinko Time magazine had to second
the salute from leading lady Ina Balin at film's end: "Take care of yourself,
Big Jake ... we've sort of gotten used to you." --Richard T. Jameson
- Amazon.com.
We included this one not because it's a great movie (though it is a
classic Western) but because the the review gave us all a great chuckle.
Nice to know there are still a few rednecks hidin' out in the woods. Db.
Heaven's
Gate (1980) DVD
DVD from Mgm/Ua Studios
starring Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken
directed by Michael Cimino
Not many movies can take credit for bringing about the
demise of a movie studio--but Michael Cimino's ego-driven, overblown Western
is one of them. These days, its $40 million budget would barely cover the
cost of an Adam Sandler film--but in 1981, it virtually put United Artists
out of business. Cimino, fresh from an Oscar for The Deer Hunter, spent
months assembling this ultimately gorgeous and confusing story of the Johnson
County cattle wars of 1881, with a cast that included Kris Kristofferson,
Jeff Bridges, John Hurt, Christopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert, and many
more. Almost four hours in its original form, the film was cut to less
than three for an abortive commercial release, then restored for video.
Anyway you look at it, this is a mess better viewed as a curiosity than
anything else. --Marshall Fine - Amazon.com
Published: 01 May, 2001 |
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