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chero23
Guest
I love stagecoach great movie.
The times which were being portrayed, in my opinion goes to a time when men were men.
What is your favorite Western and who is your favorite actor in a Western?
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The times which were being portrayed, in my opinion goes to a time when men were men.
meltzerboy
New member
Yes, that’s the one. John Wayne, himself dying from cancer, plays a terminally ill, aging gunfighter.
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7_Sorrows
Guest
Stagecoach with John Wayne was good. How many Stagecoach movies are there? 3
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7_Sorrows
Guest
My Dad was built like John Wayne and he was Irish too. They could have passed as brothers in their younger years.
I just saw a little bit of The Shootist not long ago.
When I was young- Mclintock! and North to Alaska were two of my favorite John Wayne movies. They were comedic westerns. Not a lot of depth to them.
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Viki63
Guest
Nobody’s mentioned Gunsmoke! How can you ignore Gunsmoke, with Kitty and Doc and Matt Dillon? My first westerns and my dad’s favorites. Actually he was a lot like James Arness.
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tee_eff_em
Guest
I’ve never been a fan of Blazing Saddles. I know Mel Brooks is a genius, and I know the movie was lampooning the attitudes, but I just never found humor in the racist motives. :twocents:BLAZING SADDLES!
The best movie ever made!
Mel Brooks is a genius
BTW, I have heard it said that Mel Brooks says the movie could never be made today, not because of the lampooned racism, but because of the lampooned homosexuality. I fully expect the genius is correct. :sad_yes:
For my money, the very best comedic western, and among the best movies of all time (certainly it’s on my Top *N *list) is *City Slickers *(Castle Rock, 1991; Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, and the lates greats Bruno Kirby and Jack Palance).
Hi, Curly. Killed anyone today?
The day ain’t over yet…
“Save me an aisle seat”,
tee
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on_the_hill
Guest
I thought of it, and as a child I loved the show, and as an adult I listen to the William Conrad radio version every time it’s on XM Radio. I even dressed up as Festus for Halloween when I was 4 or 5 years old.
But it’s not a movie, and I assumed we were limited to movies.
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on_the_hill
Guest
The Sharon Stone one.
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7_Sorrows
Guest
No. This thread is not limited to movie westerns.
I watch Gunsmoke still today on one of the antennae tv stations. My grandparents watched Gunsmoke every Saturday night after Lawrence Welk. My fondest memories.
Tv westerns were great!
meltzerboy
New member
Watching Gunsmoke at our home was a ritual similar to watching The Ed Sullivan Show. My father in particular loved the show, as well as Have Gun Will Travel with Richard Boone, who played Paladin. (We named our parakeet Paladin.) Recently, I happened to see an episode of Gunsmoke on, I think, MeTV. It featured Bette Davis, of all people, who played a hillbilly mother seeking revenge for the death of one of her sons.
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KevinAK
Guest
The little known Barbarosa with Willie Nelson and Gary Busey.
meltzerboy
New member
Regarding John Wayne’s acting and his love of acting, I once saw a short film on the making of one scene in a western starring Wayne (I don’t recall which film), and the number of detailed suggestions made by Wayne to the director was amazing. He was something of a perfectionist in the art of movie-making.
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tomarin
Guest
I have to respectfully disagree. I’ve seen him in a lot of movies and he always seems to play the same stock character, gruff and rough but with a heart of gold (or at least gold alloy).
One movie of his which I love and in which he shows more intensity than usual is “Red River” – man he is scary – but even that is a one note performance.
I’m not trying to knock Wayne or say that everyone has to be a character actor - just that there’s not a lot of depth or nuance I can detect in the role that I saw him play over and over, whether he’s a cowboy, rancher, cavalry officer, submarine captain, fighter pilot, etc.
One movie of his which I love and in which he shows more intensity than usual is “Red River” – man he is scary – but even that is a one note performance.
I’m not trying to knock Wayne or say that everyone has to be a character actor - just that there’s not a lot of depth or nuance I can detect in the role that I saw him play over and over, whether he’s a cowboy, rancher, cavalry officer, submarine captain, fighter pilot, etc.
meltzerboy
New member
I just happened to have caught Little Big Man very recently on TCM. I hadn’t seen the film in over 40 years. It was an interesting movie, with Dustin Hoffman as a 121-year-old man reminiscing about his being rescued and raised as part of a Cheyenne Indian community in the Old West. It’s very different from John Wayne westerns in that it is really an anti-western, that is, looking at life from the perspective of the American Indian, for a change, instead of the White man. Richard Mulligan plays a very good character role as General Custer.
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Hoosier_Daddy
Guest
Does Three Amigos count as a western spoof, even though it is set in mexico and circa 1920s Hollywood?I’ve never been a fan of Blazing Saddles. I know Mel Brooks is a genius, and I know the movie was lampooning the attitudes, but I just never found humor in the racist motives. :twocents:
BTW, I have heard it said that Mel Brooks says the movie could never be made today, not because of the lampooned racism, but because of the lampooned homosexuality. I fully expect the genius is correct. :sad_yes:
For my money, the very best comedic western, and among the best movies of all time (certainly it’s on my Top *N *list) is City Slickers (Castle Rock, 1991; Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, and the lates greats Bruno Kirby and Jack Palance).
“Save me an aisle seat”,
tee
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tomarin
Guest
Right, the new westerns or anti-westerns turned the moral universe of the classic western on its head. Although I like those movies (although after all these years I still can’t bear to watch the maudlin scene in “Little Big Man” where Dustin Hoffman’s young native wife is heartlessly gunned down in an assault on the Indian camp by Custer’s men, running towards him and holding her baby no less - melodramatic much) I think they signaled the end of the Western as a genre.
I never liked Westerns much (I have observed a pattern according to which people’s natural taste is to like Westerns and hate science fiction movies, or vice versa, but rarely if ever both because of the way our brains are wired) until I discovered all the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns, which are still my favorites. Then I went back and watched some of the classic American westerns, and even some of the unsung and forgotten ones, the generic ones of which there were plenty. Studios liked to make them because they were cheap and guaranteed to find a family audience. They were kind of bread and butter movies that could be churned out many familiar actors would turn up in them, perhaps because their contracts required them to. They were reliable genre pictures with few surprises, similar to action pictures in the recent past.
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tawny
Guest
Hands down, my favorite: High Noon - Gary Cooper.
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Peebo
Guest
Greatest western…The Searchers…best western actor…John Wayne…the best ever western mini series…Lonesome Dove
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acadiANNA
Guest
The Three Amigos—the old one.
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tomarin
Guest
Yeah, same here. I agree pretty much with Alan Moore that Hollywood drains the life and originality out of everything. (Although I did enjoy the two Thor movies).
I feel like the independent existence these characters such as the Avengers had - the ones I remember from my childhood - has been obliterated by the colossal cultural footprint of these mediocre movies. I try buying reprints in trade paperback of the original classic comic books for my children but so far they avoid them and watch the movies and derivative television shows instead. The fact is there so much more that can be conveyed in a series run of comics than in a 90 minute film.
I feel like the independent existence these characters such as the Avengers had - the ones I remember from my childhood - has been obliterated by the colossal cultural footprint of these mediocre movies. I try buying reprints in trade paperback of the original classic comic books for my children but so far they avoid them and watch the movies and derivative television shows instead. The fact is there so much more that can be conveyed in a series run of comics than in a 90 minute film.
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