Favorite western

[Stan H]

We have a long thread about what latest movie we watched and what the "top 10" are, but how about a simple one;

 

What is your one all time favorite western movie?

 

Mine would have to be Jermiah Johnson. I can watch that one over and over again.

 

 

 

[Sue Cauhape]

Thanks for mentioning Tom Selleck and Sam Eliot and their efforts to keep the Western movie going. My favorite of Eliot's is The Quick and the Dead. Totally different from that silly Sharon Stone movie. (The see-through bullet holes were just too much of a stretch.) In Eliot's version, a lone pioneering family, searching for the wife's brother's homestead, is following and often rescued by a mysterious stranger. The sexual tension between him and the wife, and the ensuing tension with the husband, creates a critical challenge for the husband to prove that he is strong enough to live on the frontier. Not only must he deal with the usual challenges of frontier life, but is he man enough to keep his woman?

[Jim Holden]

My 35-year old Son and I are currently re-watching Deadwood, on Blu-ray and it holds up really well.  It's his first time seeing it, and he was surprised at the humor in the show, once you get used to the "rhythm" of the cursing and accept it as it was intended - as everyday usage in the "old west".  The Blu-ray release has fabulous packaging, although it is a bit pricy.  However the episodes come out crystal clear, and watching it a second time you notice a lot about the costumes, scenery and such that you missed the first time.  I heartily recommend it.  Popcorn, beer and Deadwood with the family - great fun!

[Chuck Sawyer]

      Well, this is a tough one !!   Judge Roy Bean and it's many actors, lines & places; Once upon a Time in the WEST and its great actors; then, who can forget Val Kilmer in Tombstone. 

 

      All very good movies for me and several thousand others...it's just one mans' opinion, but I'm taking " Once Upon a Time in the West " the music in this movie is also very classic....and rings in your head !! 

 

Good Luck with your choice,

   Chuck     

[Jim Holden]

Two John Wayne films are re-released in Blu-ray.  The 50th Anniversary Edition of "The Commancheros" is now out, in both DVD and Blu-ray.  Besides the film there are a lot of nice extras and interviews with surviving cast members.  Lee Marvin's appearance in this film is much too short!

Also "The Horse Soldiers" is now out in Blu-ray, one of my favorite movies, and one of my favorite movie lines.  When asked his civilian profession, Col Marlowe (Wayne) says "Railroad Engineer", and Miss Hunter (Constance Towers) says something like "Oh I just love it when you ring that bell in the engine" - in a simpering Southern Bell accent.  The look on Wayne's face is priceless....as he says "No I BUILD Railroads"......

[Sue Cauhape]

How could I forget to list Tombstone. Val Kilmer is the quintessential Doc Holladay. I'm reading Mary Doria Russell's book, Doc, right now  and Val's Doc is in my mind all the time. He's my huckleberry.

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

I saw Jeremiah Johnson for the 1st time a couple of nights ago.  One thing bothered me.  I don't know how big Liver-Eatin' Johnson was supposed to have been, but it looked like every time he let off that .50 Hawken it knocked him on his can.  I've been shooting a replica .50 Hawken for about 25 years.  I've loaded it with up to 150 grains behind a round ball, which--considering the era--is what Johnson was likely shooting.  While I've gotten some bruises from that half-moon buttplate on the ball of my left shoulder, it's never knocked me on my can.  I stand close to 6 foot & weigh about 190, which is probably about what Redford stands & weighs.  This is completely unrealistic.

[Stan H]

Not knowing what powder charge he supposidly used, I don't find that a particular, overall.

 

I realize there will always be inacurracies in any film about those days. I attempt to not let that ruin the film for me. Of course, the more accurate the better, but if the film has good acting, a good plot, a well written script, and good cinematography, that is the most important issues with me. Accuracy is more like icing on the cake.

[Sue Cauhape]

Great question! It's also pretty darned hard to answer. I LOVE John Wayne. Next Saturday AMC is showing three of my favorites: The Searchers, The Shootist, and El Dorado. Hard to pick my all-time favorite, but I think Mr. Wayne is incredibly sexy in Hondo.

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

HONDO was the only novel to win Louis L'Amour a WWA Spur award.  The Searchers is one of the 3 or 4 best Westerns ever made.  It's got a killer cast & John Ford as director.  The Shootist, based on a novel by Glendon Swarthout, is perhaps Wayne's best movie, True Grit not withstanding.  Swarthout's son, Miles, did the script for it.  His father required him to do it 'on spec,' meaning he didn't get paid unless the script was approved.  El Dorado is a good, though purely formulaic, Wayne vehicle.  There were 3, maybe 4 Wayne movies made at about the same period that used essentially the same plot, with only the cast varying.  The two that come to mind have Dean Martin as the drunk deputy in one, Robert Mitchum as the drunk lawman in the other.  Martin, at least, was playing purely to type.  Back in the early '60 there was a live interview with him & several other performers & they were all lit up like a Christmas tree.

[Sue Cauhape]

I agree about El Dorado. Rio Bravo is the Dean Martin version. I think I get a kick out of El Dorado because of the pace and the females, Maudie and Joey. Two kick-ass women. The dame in Rio Bravo drove me nuts, as she did Wayne's character. Maudie and Joey didn't play games; instead of chattering like magpies, they got straight to the point or, as in Maudie's case, laughed at Wayne's and Mitchum's characters when they discovered, much to their horror, she had been with both of them. Maudie rocks!

[Jim Holden]

That "Dame" in Rio Bravo - was Angie Dickinson - a very young Angie.  They made "Rio Bravo" as an "answer" to High Noon, with all the political bickering at the time about all the people of the town failing to support Cooper in High Noon - Wayne and the director wanted to make a moving showing the "professionals" doing the job and turning down Amateur Support.

The Song that Ricky Nelson and Dean Martin sang together was recycled - it was first used as the theme song of Wayne's "Red River" - then the composer put some words to it and used it in "Rio Bravo". 

Lots of things connect these old movies.

[Sue Cauhape]

I know, I know. Angie Dickinson is a fox. Frankly, gentlemen, she didn't appeal to me.  

As for "High Noon," I thought Wayne's complaint about the movie was when Cooper threw down his badge before he left town. Cooper's character's contempt was clear to me and I couldn't understand what the problem was. The whole town wussed out because of their cowardice. They wanted the professionals to defend them because they didn't have the courage to do it themselves. In "Rio Bravo," it seemed to me that the professionals didn't want amateurs to help because they'd get hurt/killed. 

This confuses me. Wayne was an ardent conservative and it was said that he thought "High Noon" was some kind of socialist comment. If anything, "Rio Bravo", with its "let the government take care of it" message, was  the socialist comment.

Or are my politics getting all befarkledup here?