The Western Movie Thread

PhantomStranger

New member
Today's movie:

"Johnny Guitar" (1954)
-Joan Crawford

Vienna has built a saloon outside of town, and she hopes to build her own town once the railroad is put through, but the townsfolk want her gone. When four men hold up a stagecoach and kill a man, the town officials, led by Emma Small, come to the saloon to grab four of Vienna's friends, the Dancin' Kid and his men. Vienna stands strong against them, and is aided by the presence of an old acquaintance of hers, Johnny Guitar, who is not what he seems.

Interesting little movie. Nothing great but interesting:)
 

oki9Sedo

New member
1. The Searchers (1956)
2. The Wild Bunch (1969)
3. Unforgiven (1992)
4. High Noon (1952)
5. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

They're my favourites.
 

otto rahn

New member
PhantomStranger said:
Today's movie:

"Johnny Guitar" (1954)
-Joan Crawford

Vienna has built a saloon outside of town, and she hopes to build her own town once the railroad is put through, but the townsfolk want her gone. When four men hold up a stagecoach and kill a man, the town officials, led by Emma Small, come to the saloon to grab four of Vienna's friends, the Dancin' Kid and his men. Vienna stands strong against them, and is aided by the presence of an old acquaintance of hers, Johnny Guitar, who is not what he seems.

Interesting little movie. Nothing great but interesting:)
Critics, especially european critics seem to LOVE that movie. I can't understand why.
 

PhantomStranger

New member
Today's Movie:

"Texas Across The River" (1966)
-Dean Martin

A Spanish nobleman gets mixed up with cowboys and Indians in this offbeat western comedy.
After Don Andrea accidentally kills his bride-to-be's ex-lover, he goes on the lam to avoid capture. He heads off to Texas, where his beautiful Southern belle fiancée, Phoebe, says she will meet him.
However, along the way, Andrea teams up with Texan Sam Hollis and his Indian sidekick Kronk, who are running guns through hostile Comanche territory and need a skilled rifleman. Although Andrea's gun skills are sharp, his lack of experience in this hostile environment leads to hilarious results.
Romantic complications develop when Phoebe catches up with Andrea but falls for Sam. Making the situation even more chaotic, Andrea becomes attracted to a young Indian woman.
 

PhantomStranger

New member
Today's movie:

"Maverick" (1994)
-Mel Gibson. Jodie Foster. James Garner

Bret Maverick, needing money for a winner take all poker tournament, faces various comic mishaps and challenges, including a charming woman thief and a Marshal who's not quite what he seems.

In my opinion this is one of the best movie adaptations of a TV series ever made. Good action and humor and it keeps to the spirit of the series.
 

PhantomStranger

New member
Today's movie:

"Red River" (1948)

Tom Dunson builds a cattle empire with his adopted son Matthew Garth. Together they begin a massive cattle drive north from Texas to the Missouri railhead. But on the way, new information and Dunson's tyrannical ways cause Matthew to take the herd away from Dunson and head to a new railhead in Kansas. Dunson, swearing vengeance, pursues.

Along with "The Searchers" this is probably one of Wayne's greatest films.
Great action and suspense and fine acting from the entire cast(y)
 

Niteshade007

New member
Yeah, but I found the homoeroticism a little too over-the-top and way too obvious. Even people who don't really understand film can get that some of the characters are gay, especially during the whole "I'll let you hold my gun if I can hold yours" sequence.
 

PhantomStranger

New member
"Broken Arrow" (1950)
-James Stewart, Jeff Chandler

In 1870, when white men and Indians are fighting bitterly, Tom Jeffords tries to arrange a peace by befriending Indian leader Cochise, but ends up fighting anger and prejudice on both sides.

One of the best of the 1950's westerns. Stewart, as always is excellent.
Good acting and story with a slightly sad ending. This is a fine movie.
 

San Holo

Active member
Niteshade007 said:
Yeah, but I found the homoeroticism a little too over-the-top and way too obvious. Even people who don't really understand film can get that some of the characters are gay, especially during the whole "I'll let you hold my gun if I can hold yours" sequence.
Whaaaat?Let's not read too much into it, buttercup.
 

Niteshade007

New member
It's really not reading too much into it. A lot of films did things to get them past the censors, and that was one of the more blatantly obvious ones.
 

San Holo

Active member
Call me naive, but I have seen Hawk's Red River many times and the thought of Cherry and Matt "holding each other's guns;) " never crossed my mind. I guess you can see what you want to in every movie. Please don't tell me that Hawks slipped in a little homoeroticism into my favorite movie- Rio Bravo.
An alcoholic, a teenager, a Sheriff, an outlaw, and a man with no teeth-5 men, all holed up in a hot, sweaty jail with no one to turn to but each other....:eek:
 

PhantomStranger

New member
Todays movies:

"The Plunderers" (1948)
-Rod Cameron

An Army officer pretends to shoot a sheriff (but not the deputy) and then goes undercover with a horse rustling gang.

Average western adventure. Nothing great but watchable.


"Fistful Of Dollars"
-Clint Eastwood

Sergio Leone's classic about a mysterious strangers involvement with warring factions in a Mexican border town.

One of the greatest western films ever made.:gun:
 

PhantomStranger

New member
Comanche Moon Premieres on CBS in January
Source: CBS
November 21, 2007


Val Kilmer (Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang), Steve Zahn (Rescue Dawn), Academy Award and Emmy Award nominee Rachel Griffiths (Hilary and Jackie, "Six Feet Under"), Karl Urban (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), Linda Cardellini ("ER"), Elizabeth Banks (The 40-Year-Old Virgin) and Wes Studi ("Into the West") star in "Comanche Moon," a new six-hour mini-series based on the book by Larry McMurtry, and the final chapter in the "Lonesome Dove" saga to be made into a movie, to be broadcast Sunday, Jan. 13, Tuesday, Jan. 15 and Wednesday, Jan. 16 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT, each night) on the CBS Television Network. Academy Award and Golden Globe Award winners Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, the writers and executive producer and producer, respectively, of the feature film Brokeback Mountain, are the executive producers and writers.

"Comanche Moon," the prequel to McMurtry's bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Lonesome Dove," which was the basis for the multiple Emmy Award-winning mini-series "Lonesome Dove," follows Texas Rangers Augustus "Gus" McCrae (Zahn) and Woodrow F. Call (Urban), now in their middle years, as they continue to deal with the ever-increasing tensions of adult life - Gus with his great love, Clara Forsythe (Cardellini), and Call with Maggie Tilton (Banks), the young prostitute who loves him and bears him his son, Newt (Joseph Castanon). Kilmer plays Captain Inish Scull, a Yankee aristocrat and hero of the recently concluded Mexican War. Griffiths plays Inez Scull, the Captain's sexy wife who doesn't hesitate to fill her time with other men when he's away from home. Wes Studi plays Comanche Chief Buffalo Hump.

Two proud but very different men, McCrae and Call enlist with a Ranger troop in pursuit of three outlaws: Buffalo Hump, the great Comanche war chief; Kicking Wolf (Jonathon Joss, "Into the West"), the celebrated Comanche horse thief; and Ahumado (Sal Lopez, The Astronaut Farmer), a deadly Mexican bandit king with a penchant for torture. Assisting the Rangers in their wild chase is the renowned Kickapoo tracker Famous Shoes (David Midthunder, "Into the West"). They are joined by their comrades-in-arms, Deets (Keith Robinson, Dreamgirls), Jake Spoon (Ryan Merriman, The Ring Two) and Pea Eye Parker (Troy Baker, Striking Range), in the bitter struggle to protect an advancing western frontier against the defiant Comanches who are determined to defend their territory and their way of life. The Rangers also encounter Buffalo Hump's violent outcast son, Blue Duck (Adam Beach, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit").

Director Simon Wincer and producer Dyson Lovell, who directed and produced "Lonesome Dove" respectively, served in those roles on "Comanche Moon." Wincer's previous works include "Into the West," "Ponderosa," "Crossfire Trail" and "P.T. Barnum," for television, and the feature films The Young Black Stallion, Free Willy, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man and Quigley Down Under.

"Comanche Moon" is a co-production of CBS Paramount Network Television and Sony Pictures Television. Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (Brokeback Mountain) and Paul Frank, Adam Shulman and Julie Yorn of Firm Films (The Exorcism of Emily Rose, "Criss Angel: Mindfreak") are the executive producers. Dyson Lovell (The Lion in Winter) is the producer. Simon Wincer directed from a script by McMurtry and Ossana.
 

Kingsley

Member
Hey PhantomStranger, great work!

I saw some of them, but realise there are plenty of westerns that are worth watching.
I saw the Assassination of Jesse James the other day. I was in the right mood to watch it, and enjoyed it. Glad to see someone in the Affleck family has a little talent ;)
 

PhantomStranger

New member
Today's movie:

"The Missing" (2003)
-Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchet

In 1885 New Mexico, a frontier medicine woman forms an uneasy alliance with her estranged father when her daughter is kidnapped by an Apache brujo.

Basically a reworking of "The Searchers" plot line. and while this film is not a good as the John Wayne classic, it still is a fine western adventure. Tommy Lee Jones is one of the few modern actors that truly looks like he belongs in westerns. A very good movie.
 

PhantomStranger

New member
"The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (1962)
-James Stewart, John Wayne

Senator Ranse Stoddard returns to the city of Shinbone in the Wild West, to go to the funeral of his friend, Tom Doniphon. To a journalist, who's wondering what the senator is doing in Shinbone, he tells how his career started as "the man who shot Liberty Valance". As a lawyer he came to Shinbone to bring law and order to the west by means of law books. When the stagecoach is held up by outlaws, he is savagely beaten by Liberty Valance. He survives the attack and is nursed by his future wife, Hallie. Hallie is being wooed by a local rancher, Tom Doniphon. Ranse teaches the people of Shinbone to read and write, all the while trying to find a way of bringing Valance to justice. He finally takes up a gun and faces Valance in a menacing shootout...

One of the greatest western films ever made. Great cast, excellent acting and terrific action. A true classic.(y)
 

oki9Sedo

New member
San Holo said:
Whaaaat?Let's not read too much into it, buttercup.

Every Western has moments like that. They're never intended that way, they just look like that in retrospect.

I remember a Western where Gary Cooper fights some guy and they strip each others clothes off during the fight...I think it was Man of the West. There's nothing intentionally homoerotic about it, but its hard not to think that at the sight of two practically bollock naked men rolling around in the grass.
 
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