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The Western Thread...

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
6f4759b306e2f0c11138e1624c8be767.gif


Directions: Listen to this little bop as you peruse the Westerns thread. Feel free to share your enthusiasm or disdain for the Western genre below...




Why Western movies?
"Westerns are the quintessential American movie genre - depicting life on the frontier, even as Hollywood was just struggling to get a toehold on that frontier. Westerns paint larger than life characters across larger than life natural landscapes, much in the way of the paintings of Frederic Remington. There is no genre with greater storytelling capabilities than the Western.

Life on the frontier is life on the edge of civilization. The western genre easily traverses the valley between society and the wild.

There’s nothing better than a hero putting on a pair of boots and a Stetson and riding out into the desert to right a wrong."
- Robert Frost (not the poet)

bfc1a770fb66b7fdb7abc89480d47ed8a8e5686c.gifv


Top 5 Westerns of all time according to IMDB:

1. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - 8.8
2. Once Upon a Time in the West - 8.5
3. Django Unchained - 8.4
4. The Treasure of Sierra Madre - 8.2
5. For a Few Dollars More - 8.2


Top 5 Westerns of all time according to Men_in_Boxes:

1. Deadwood series (HBO)
2. Lonesome Dove series
3. Once Upon a Time in the West
4. Hell or Highwater
5. Meeks Cutoff, Unforgiven, Dances w/ Wolves

Top 5 old ass westerns that still hold up according to Men_in_Boxes...

1. The Big Country (1958)
2. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
3. High Noon (1952)
4. True Grit (1969)
5. Shane (1953)

Top 3 revered old ass westerns that actually suck...

1. Rio Bravo
2. The Searchers
3. The Magnificent 7


Is There Will be Blood a Western?
I don't know.

Do they still make Westerns?
I think so. The Power of the Dog (Cumberbatch) just came out which supposedly explores toxic masculinity. 1883 is a new Paramount+ TV show written by Tyler Sheridan (Sicaro, Hell or Highwater, Yellowstone). Then Martin Scorsese has Killers of the Flower Moon coming out next year which may or may not be a Western.




Are there any great western themed videogames?
No, there are not. Desperados III is decent though.

val-kilmer-wink.gif
 
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jason10mm

Gold Member
Silverado is one of my favs. It captures every damn trope and is such a joy. Unforgiven and Tombstone are also great. I liked the new True Grit. Young Guns 2 is better than YG1.

The Young Riders, Magnificent Seven, and Adventures of Brisco Country Jr TV shows are all awesome.

I KNOW the OP meant the new magnificent seven was overrated, not the original.

The Quick and the Dead is underrated.

I can talk westerns all day long.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
6f4759b306e2f0c11138e1624c8be767.gif


Directions: Listen to this little bop as you peruse the Westerns thread. Feel free to share your enthusiasm or disdain for the Western genre below...




Why Western movies?
"Westerns are the quintessential American movie genre - depicting life on the frontier, even as Hollywood was just struggling to get a toehold on that frontier. Westerns paint larger than life characters across larger than life natural landscapes, much in the way of the paintings of Frederic Remington. There is no genre with greater storytelling capabilities than the Western.

Life on the frontier is life on the edge of civilization. The western genre easily traverses the valley between society and the wild.

There’s nothing better than a hero putting on a pair of boots and a Stetson and riding out into the desert to right a wrong."
- Robert Frost (not the poet)

bfc1a770fb66b7fdb7abc89480d47ed8a8e5686c.gifv


Top 5 Westerns of all time according to IMDB:

1. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - 8.8
2. Once Upon a Time in the West - 8.5
3. Django Unchained - 8.4
4. The Treasure of Sierra Madre - 8.2
5. For a Few Dollars More - 8.2


Top 5 Westerns of all time according to Men_in_Boxes:

1. Deadwood series (HBO)
2. Lonesome Dove series
3. Once Upon a Time in the West
4. Hell or Highwater
5. Meeks Cutoff, Unforgiven, Dances w/ Wolves

Top 5 old ass westerns that still hold up according to Men_in_Boxes...

1. The Big Country (1958)
2. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
3. High Noon (1952)
4. True Grit (1969)
5. Shane (1953)

Top 3 revered old ass westerns that actually suck...

1. Rio Bravo
2. The Searchers
3. The Magnificent 7


Is There Will be Blood a Western?
I don't know.

Do they still make Westerns?
I think so. The Power of the Dog (Cumberbatch) just came out which supposedly explores toxic masculinity. 1883 is a new Paramount+ TV show written by Tyler Sheridan (Sicaro, Hell or Highwater, Yellowstone). Then Martin Scorsese has Killers of the Flower Moon coming out next year which may or may not be a Western.




Are there any great western themed videogames?
No, there are not. Desperados III is decent though.

val-kilmer-wink.gif

Gotta have Unforgiven in there. Otherwise, you listed some goodies!
 
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is not just a great western, it's one of the greatest movies of all time.

On a separate (but related?) topic, I was pleasantly surprised by the video game Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. Short, fun, and just a great western atmosphere. This is coming from someone who generally doesn't like First Person Shooters, but Gunslinger was a lot of fun!
 

intbal

Member
Here's a surprisingly excellent Western that was a made-for-tv movie back in 1999. That's how I first saw it.
It's available on DVD, although someone has uploaded a version to youtube. Originally, the movie was the native 1.33 aspect ratio of TV. That's how it aired and that's how it is on the DVD. I strongly recommend that version, because you can tell that this youtube copy has been cropped top and bottom (lots of cutoff heads).

 

JBat

Member
I've always liked High Planes Drifter. Clint Eastwood being a complete dick the entire movie and making all the ass holes in the town look like even bigger ass holes.
Also The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Pretty much any spaghetti western Clint Eastwood was in
 
I find a million ways to die in the west pretty funny not as funny as Mel brooks western ,but I’ll watch it everytime it’s on cable.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
The Magnificent Seven doesn’t suck. Yul Brinner alone has more presence than several actors from a modern film.

I haven’t seen many westerns (ironic, as when I was young there was a western on TV basically every other day), but the Dollar Trilogy is absurdly good cinema.
 

Alx

Member
It's (almost) all about the Italian westerns as far as I'm concerned... the Sergio Leone ones obviously, but also those with Terence Hill & Bud Spencer (Trinita !), and the oft forgotten Great Silence.
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Unforgiven may be one of the few American Westerns I really love. The older ones with John Wayne etc never got my attention.

I do remember one western I watched as a kid, never could find its name. It was the rather common story of "guy who was the fastest shooter ever hung up his guns and tried to live a peaceful life, but other duellists try to find and face him". At one point the guy shot a coin mid-air to show off, which is what lead the others to him. There's another scene just after it's revealed he's an elite pistolero, where he corrects his fellow town dwellers for carrying their guns either too high or too low.
Does it ring a bell to anybody ?
 

Kraz

Member
Not highly regarded(although seems to be getting more popular) but among top of my favourite classics.

EDQ2ALz.jpg


After watching what I took as a nun as a prostitute with Sylvia in Brotherhood of the Wolf the character of a prostitute as a nun was fetching when flipping channels late one night. Good deceptive roles.
Liked and recommend the movie since.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
The Magnificent Seven doesn’t suck. Yul Brinner alone has more presence than several actors from a modern film.

Yul Brenner was great in it, but WTF is this scene?



Young kid gets rejected from suicide mission by the wise Yul Brenner...then proceeds to act like Yul Brenner murdered his entire family when he was a boy and challenges him to mortal combat? Then, after witnessing the meltdown, they think he's fit for the job?

I find a lot of times those old movies have scenes that are so unrealistic it's as if an imperfect AI wrote the story.

Classicrockfan Classicrockfan Bone Tomahawk was awesome. That ending ramped up like a mother****er.
 
Yul Brenner was great in it, but WTF is this scene?



Young kid gets rejected from suicide mission by the wise Yul Brenner...then proceeds to act like Yul Brenner murdered his entire family when he was a boy and challenges him to mortal combat? Then, after witnessing the meltdown, they think he's fit for the job?

I find a lot of times those old movies have scenes that are so unrealistic it's as if an imperfect AI wrote the story.

Classicrockfan Classicrockfan Bone Tomahawk was awesome. That ending ramped up like a mother****er.

Awesome just ordered the bluray. Thanks.
 
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Neo noir westerns are my shit.

no country for old men
Hell or high water
Galveston
The Rover
Bone tomahawk
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Just watched the first episode of 1883.

+ Great visuals.
+ Sam Elliott is a lead!
+ Big budget with lots of set variety.

- ****ing dour. I get it. The West was rough.
- First gunfight (Tim McGraw) was far fetched.
- Was that CGI fire?!

Show seems primed to be a hit. Premier got 4.9 million viewers and user scores on RT and IMDB are pretty high. I was a little underwhelmed but I'm in. Lots of potential with this one.
 
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Cocksman

Member
Just watched the first episode of 1883.

+ Great visuals.
+ Sam Elliott is a lead!
+ Big budget with lots of set variety.

- ****ing dour. I get it. The West was rough.
- First gunfight (Tim McGraw) was far fetched.
- Was that CGI fire?!

Show seems primed to be a hit. Premier got 4.9 million viewers and user scores on RT and IMDB are pretty high. I was a little underwhelmed but I'm in. Lots of potential with this one.

I liked it. Had no idea Billy Bob and Tom Hanks were in it .
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
4 episodes of 1883 (which is 4 hours) and the tone literally never deviates from this...

crying-shea-brennan.gif


Every character. Every scene. All the dialogue. Always. This. Tone.
 

Amiga

Member
Dances with Wolves anyone?

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is a great movie all-round, western or not. love how the title plays with your bias. the roles change depend on perspective. in the film, Lee, the Colonel has authority and command so he is the "good" to his government. to the audience, Clint is the main character, so he has to be the "good". but in the story Eli didn't start the double crossing, he just plays the hands he got dealt. so he is the closest to "good" of the 3.
 
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