Saddle up for some great Westerns
Posted: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 6:43 AM by Paige Newman
Filed Under:
Movies
There’s something so basic about watching a Western. Good guys and bad guys. Horses. A Western is the perfect way to spend a fall afternoon (these films work better in the daytime, beer in hand, than in the evening). Here are some of my favorite types:
Starring Clint Eastwood: The best Eastwood Westerns are directed by Sergio Leone. Many of the actors are Italian and dubbed into English, and the voices just barely match the characters, which only makes them more enjoyable. “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly” (if you rent, get the director’s cut) features the wonderful Eli Wallach as Tuco (aka “The Ugly”). Eastwood and Wallach spend the whole movie trying to outsmart each other. It’s an “I hate my buddy” flick. The film is also clearly anti-war (though in this case it’s the Civil War), as evidenced when Eastwood’s Blondie overlooks the carnage and says, “I've never seen so many men wasted so badly.”
Classic Westerns: John Wayne, James Stewart, Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda. Cooper’s “High Noon” is the classic. My favorite is “Red River,” which tells the story of a standoff between a father (John Wayne) and his adopted son (Montgomery Clift) as they drive cattle from Texas to Missouri. Wayne’s philosophy is summarized in these words: “We brought nothing into this world and it's certain we can carry nothing out.” For those who think Wayne was just an icon who couldn’t really act, this movie will show you just how much range he truly had, especially when playing off a great actor such as Clift.
Warner Bros. |
The gang heads toward the final showdown in "The Wild Bunch."
|
Realistic violence: Westerns don’t get much more violent that Sam Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch” (again, rent the director’s cut), which tells the story of a band of aging outlaws (William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Ben Johnson among them) who must face off against deputized bounty hunters (including Holden’s old buddy Robert Ryan). This movie is brutal in a way that modern horror films can’t touch (you'll think Bonnie and Clyde got off easy). It’s the flip side of “The Magnificent Seven” because these guys are in no way “Magnificent.” They aren’t out to save anyone but themselves, but at the same time they are loyal to a fault. The image at the end of the film, when the four remaining men walk toward certain death together, will give you shivers.
Modern Westerns: There have been some great Westerns in the last few years, including the remake of “3:10 to Yuma,” “The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford” and my personal favorite, “The Proposition,” which features Guy Pearce as a gunslinger who is blackmailed into tracking down his own brother (Danny Huston) to kill him. Let’s hope “Appaloosa” and “Australia” keep the resurgence going.
Of course, the genre is about as vast as an open plain, so I can really only name a few favorites here. Do you like Westerns, if so what are some of your favorites and why? If not, why don’t you like them?
