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The Western Thread: Live from the Great Western Forum (1 Viewer)

TCM is showing the Man with No Name trilogy tonight.  A Fistful of Dollars kicks things off at 8PM EDT.

The channel often allows streaming and on demand viewing for a week after broadcast.

 
I was a Bacteriology major so I didn't get a lot of liberal arts electives to play with.  One I took was a film history course taught by the very opinionated neoformalist critic David Bordwell.  He taught a few weeks on a structuralist text called "Sixguns and Society" about the Western genre.

The author, the Westerly named Will Wright broke down the plots of the most popular Westerns (by US box office) from 1931 to 1972.  He divided all films into only four mythical plot structures:  The Classical Plot, Transition Theme, Vengeance Variation and Professional Plot.  It was an interesting book although Wright did go on with his examples to illustrate his argument.  It stayed with me though (more than the Bacteriology courses) because I still consciously categorize Westerns when I'm watching them.  If anybody's interested, the Google Books preview includes the pages where he defines the four plot types and the list of the 64 films analyzed grouped by category.

Shane was one the last cases and purest distillations of the Classical Plot, where a lone stranger rides into the story to save society.  Almost all the Westerns prior to 1950 followed this structure.  The fifties were a mix with the growth of The Vengeance Variation.  Rio Bravo was the first Professional Plot, which began to dominate the genre in the 60s.

 
Shane is a beautiful movie. Pure Hollywood magic with serious questions posed. 

Shane: A gun is a tool, Marian; no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.

Marian Starrett: We'd all be much better off if there wasn't a single gun left in this valley - including yours.

 
Ilov80s said:
Hopefully better than The Sundowners. The fake Irish and Aussie accents are pretty bad. I usually love Mitchum too, but I am struggling a bit with this one. 
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Never heard of it. Sounds like I'm not missing anything  :)

Chaos is right about Gunfight. Check it out

 
Don Quixote said:
Watching “Shane” tonight.  Such a great classic.
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My parents liked the movie enough that they not only named me Shane, they also gave me the middle name of.... wait for it... Alan.. 

Love my name now.. Hated it in school as most teachers knew the movie, but most kids didn't... some of them would say "Shane, don't go.. come back Shane" when I'd leave the classroom. :blush:

 
snogger said:
My parents liked the movie enough that they not only named me Shane, they also gave me the middle name of.... wait for it... Alan.. 

Love my name now.. Hated it in school as most teachers knew the movie, but most kids didn't... some of them would say "Shane, don't go.. come back Shane" when I'd leave the classroom. :blush:
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Oh those old time teachers who mess with the kids- usually the kids don't get the jokes. We had a kid named Marlon and one teacher would always yell "Stella!" as he'd go down the hallway. He was such an ###. He would also tell kids that he was going to be an actor and his stage name was "Tom Cruise" and that the actor Tom Cruise stole it from him. The kids are so gullible that they usually believe him. 

 
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Chaos Commish said:
Gunfight at the OK Corrall came on a few nights ago. Burt Lancaster as Wyatt. Kirk Douglas as Doc. I'm sure I saw it as a kid some weekend afternoon. I was skeptical because Tombstone is so good, and Kilmer's Holliday is greatness. I really enjoyed it though. My favorite part was being surprised by who played Billy Clanton.
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John Sturges made a passel of strong Westerns in the late 50s and 60s.  In addition to Gunfight, he directed The Magnificent 7, Last Train from Gun Hill and the sort of meh Clint Eastwood vehicle Joe Kidd. 

Sturges' Bad Day at Black Rock is an example of how flexible the old genre was.  It's a classical Western plot with a lone stranger who arrives in a small high desert town and confronts evil.  The stranger is the always excellent Spencer Tracy and the setting is the contemporary post-WWII West.  There's not much in the way of horses and shooting but it's a Western in my book.  The story was always especially resonant with me as a Japanese-American.

 
I'm watching Once Upon a Time in the West. I'm sure it's highly rated by all who know it, but I just wanted to say that Marisa Tomei got nothin' on Claudia Cardinale. 

 
Christo said:
Rio Bravo

El Dorado

Rio Lobo

The second greatest Western Trilogy.
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Another I like that hasn't been mentioned is The Sabata Trilogy.

 And a western I love and not mentioned is 1981"s Death Hunt starring Charles Bronson. Based on a true story but obviously fictionalized for film. With Lee Marvin, Carl Weathers, Angie Dickinson, Ed Lauter, Andrew Stevens.

 
For lighthearted and comedic relief westerns The Hallelujah Trail ( also by John Sturges )  and They Call Me Trinity are great movies.

 
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The Man With No Name said:
Another I like that hasn't been mentioned is The Sabata Trilogy.

 And a western I love and not mentioned is 1981"s Death Hunt starring Charles Bronson. Based on a true story but obviously fictionalized for film. With Lee Marvin, Carl Weathers, Angie Dickinson, Ed Lauter, Andrew Stevens.
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mmmm Angie Dickinson.  Big Bad Momma not a western but man oh man did I like that movie for many different reasons.

 
I watched a couple of Zapata Westerns in the past couple of months.  They're an odd sub-genre of Spaghetti Westerns with a definite Marxist bent.  They're always set in revolution-era Mexico and typically are a buddy story between a mysterious loner, usually a gringo paired with a Mexican bandit/revolutionary character.  The plots usually pit the two protagonists as rivals at the beginning who eventually join forces and gain respect for one another.  The villains are some combination of wealthy landowners, police/military and Catholic church figures.

Companeros stars Franco Nero as a the gringo nicknamed either "The Swede" or "Penguin" and Tomas Milian as a bandit who is consciously styled after Che Guevara.  It was directed by Sergio Corbucci, the other Sergio of Spaghetti Western fame.  It's a fun piece of entertainment featuring Jack Palance as a sadistic villain complete with mechanical hand, a pet falcon and an accent that's not of this planet.

Duck You Sucker is better known and is a bigger production.  It's the last Western directed by Sergio Leone and has a more epic scope than Companeros.  James Coburn plays the gringo (an Irish revolutionary) with Rod Steiger as a Villaesque bandit.  You know what you're in for when watching a Leone movie.  Duck You Sucker is a slight step down from TMWNN trilogy and Once Upon a Time but it's still worth watching.

Both films are available on Amazon Prime although Duck You Sucker is listed under its alternate title A Fistful of Dynamite.  Amazon also has one of the first Zapata Westerns A Bullet for the General, which I have in queue.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a stream of the other early Zapata Western Classic The Big Gundown.  I saw it a long time ago and thought it was terrific.

 
Just watched Hallelujah Trail and Soldier Blue again today.  Hallelujah trail was just as good as I remembered.  Soldier Blue was a different story it has been about 47 years since I have seen it.  I think I could probably go another 47 without seeing it again.  I have never been a real gore fest guy.  That is probably why I wasn't all that impressed with it when I was 14.  One thing though a young Candice Bergen is sure easy on the eyes.

 
Ilov80s said:
Some of these westerns have some great scores. What’s your favorite Western Score?
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I guess my two favorites are by the same guy.  Once upon a time in the west https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MZw_Iv0wdU and The good the bad and the ugly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFa1-kciCb4. Honorable mention would go to Shenandoah which I guess technically is not a western but still love the music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v9TUFLoapU&list=PL2m14ehSYkdjhDNqV4BLnZif3JScRV1Y9

 
I'm late to this thread, but anyone mention 'Lonely are the Brave'?

Kirk Douglas' favorite of his movies, with a lot of familiar faces in it.

Love, love, love this one.

 
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rustycolts said:
I guess my two favorites are by the same guy.  Once upon a time in the west https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MZw_Iv0wdU and The good the bad and the ugly https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFa1-kciCb4. Honorable mention would go to Shenandoah which I guess technically is not a western but still love the music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2v9TUFLoapU&list=PL2m14ehSYkdjhDNqV4BLnZif3JScRV1Y9
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You can't beat Morricone for a western score.

And Once Upon A Time in America is the greatest soundtrack in the history of film.

 
Finally saw The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. I swore I had saw it before but definitely had not. 

I'd put it up there with Hell or High Water as the best westerns of the 21st century. They did a really good job making it feel fresh and different from really most any other western, 

 
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Ilov80s said:
Finally saw The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. I swore I had saw it before but definitely had not. 

I'd put it up there with Hell or High Water as the best westerns of the 21st century. They did a really good job making it feel fresh and different from really most any other western, 
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Loved the pace of AJJ...

Especially in this age of incredibly short attention spans.

 
I was watching Stagecoach (1939) on TCM with my son earlier, and he got angry and had serious tears when I turned it off when it was time for dinner.  Made me pretty proud.

(Okay, so he’s a little under three, and I think he just liked watching the “horsies” — one of his other favorite things to watch is race replays on TVG on weekend mornings, which probably has an audience of toddlers and gambling degenerates — but I’m still taking it as a W.)

 
the swcer loves westerns more than any other kind of movie and a lot of good ones have been mentioned in here but i would add broken trail and lonesome dove it is pretty damned hard to beat robert duvall in a western bromigos take that to the bank also i loved open range it just ruled and silverado is also a total favorite of mine i liked both the original magnificient seven because steven fn mqueen thats why and also the new version as well take that to the bank brohans 

 
I love westerns. I have seen most of the ones mentioned here. There are a few here I missed. I will be checking them out.

Thanks for the youtube link to Lonely are the Brave

 
I live where many westerns were filmed. Its a lot of fun recognizing the mountain ranges and even streets in some of these movies. I used to love going to Old Tucson which was/is a working site for many westerns. Much of it burned down years ago and its not quite the same but still fun to visit.

Three Amigos was a fun western that featured lots of Old Tucson.

List of movies filmed at Old Tucson

 
On October 26, 1881, the infamous shootout at the OK Corral occurred at Tombstone in the Arizona Territory. Here are 5 things you probably didn't know about this famous gun battle in the Old West...

The OK Corral Wasn’t Where the Shootout Happened.
Nope, the shootout didn’t happen inside or even next to the eponymous corral. Shots were exchanged in a vacant lot on Fremont Street, down the road from the corral’s rear entrance. It was the movie, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, that brought the shootout to the public’s attention. Movie executives probably thought the name sounded better than trying to explain where the gunfight really took place.

No One Really Knows How the Shootout Occurred.
Historians aren’t so sure what went down during the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The Earp brothers and their friend Doc Holliday claimed afterwards that they were trying to disarm the cowboys, who were illegally carrying firearms when the cowboys opened fire. The surviving cowboys alleged that they were fully cooperating and had even raised their hands in the air when the lawmen started indiscriminately shooting them at point blank range. Witnesses to the event weren’t exactly helpful because their testimonies conflicted, and to further complicate matters, the transcript of the ensuing murder trial was destroyed in a fire. The truth is, we may never know for sure who provoked the shootout.

Wyatt Earp Wasn’t Really The Hero of The Shootout.
Wyatt Earp went down in history as the central figure of the gunfight. In reality, his brother Virgil was far more experienced than him in combat and shootout situations.  Virgil Earp had served during the Civil War in the Illinois infantry and had a lot of experience handling a gun, even shooting a man in the head from a distance with a Henry rifle, while his brother, Wyatt, was less experienced. Later, Virgil Earp was shot in the back from an ambush with a triple load of buckshot, and a few months later, another Earp brother, Morgan, was killed in a similar ambush.

The Gunfight Only Lasted 30 Seconds.
Yup, the dramatic confrontation that left three men dead and three wounded lasted less than a minute. In that span, around 30 shots were fired. The movie Gunfight at the O.K. Corral dramatized the shootout, showing the men heavily armed and engaged in a fight that spanned minutes. In reality, each man carried only a revolver apiece and in the confusion, nobody could be sure who fired the fatal shots.

They Made Movies About It.
Of the many filmed versions of the October 26, 1881, O.K. Corral shootout in Tombstone, Arizona, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was one of the most elaborate and star-studded. In the 1957 film, Burt Lancaster plays Wyatt Earp, the renowned lawman, while Kirk Douglas is the consumptive gambler (and gunfighter) Doc Holliday. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Film Editing and Best Sound Recording. The film was a big hit and earned $4.7 million on its first run and $6 million on re-release.

https://triviatoday.com/blog/featured.asp?a=1A8DFF

 
Classic Western Trifecta on TCM Tonight

8:00 My Darling Clementine- John Ford's telling of the Shootout at the OK Corral

10:00 Wichita- A Wyatt Earp story but if I remember correctly, it's not the OK Corral story but a different imagining of his the famed hero

12:00 Winchester '73-  the story of a legendary gun and the various heroes and villains who seek it out 

 
Ilov80s said:
Classic Western Trifecta on TCM Tonight

8:00 My Darling Clementine- John Ford's telling of the Shootout at the OK Corral

10:00 Wichita- A Wyatt Earp story but if I remember correctly, it's not the OK Corral story but a different imagining of his the famed hero

12:00 Winchester '73-  the story of a legendary gun and the various heroes and villains who seek it out 
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There are two more Westerns following these. Doc, a 1971 revisionist telling of the Doc Holliday legend starring Stacey Keach and written by famed NYC columnist Pete Hammill, and
Dodge City, a 1939 oater with Erroll Flynn miscast as a cowboy cleaning up a lawless town.  Dodge City was shot in gorgeous three-strip Technicolor and features one of the greatest bar room brawls on film.

 
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