The Good, The Bad, and the Western Thread

[Starks 0]

As I stated in CWDWAT 2005's The Proposition is fantastic. Story is about three brothers, two of whom are robbers and the other who's generally regarded as a complete pyscho. When the two robbers are caputred a local sherrif makes an offer to the middle brother: go out and kill the older pyscho brother or the youngest hangs. It's got a great cast with Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, David Winham, Danny Houston, Emily Mortimer and John Hurt all turning in stellar performances and the scoring and directing by Nick Cave is top-shelf. Highly recommended.

 

Agreed. The Proposition is probably the best Australian film of the past 10-20 years (since the Ozploitation films such as Mad Max and Road Warrior in the 1980's). The director John Hillcoat has just finished filming an adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men) post-apocalyptic novel The Road. It stars Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall, Garret Dillahunt and Michael K. Williams (Omar!). It's the film I'm most hyped about seeing this awards season.

 

As for Western's, while not a big fan (I usually avoid them), of the 3 western themed movies of the past year (3:10 To Yuma remake, There Will Be Blood and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford) I favoured TAoJJbTCRF (another Aussie director). Mainly for its' cast, gorgeous cinematography (does anyone know of a more beautifully shot film?) and it's willingness to break new ground within the genre by approaching it as a tale of celebrity. Casting Brad Pitt as Jesse James was genius.

[dubq 0]

I LOVED the Proposition!

[Henry Spencer 0]

Cave wrote it and co-scored it with Bad Seeds/Grinderman bandmate Warren Ellis, but he didn't direct it.

 

Besides favorites of mine that have already been mentioned (Once Upon A Time In The West, McCabe & Mrs. Miller), I'd like to once again advance Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man on the unsuspecting public. It's slow as molasses, but the steadily growing tension between unease and absurdist humor gets to me like few other movies.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

People think There Will Be Blood is a Western? Not seeing that.

[A.BUTCHER'S HOUSE OF RIBS 0]

A few of my faves. I'm also really looking forward to Appaloosa. It's directed by Ed Harris. Starring Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Irons and Renee Zellweger.

 

Winchester 73

Lonesome Dove

Quigley Down Under

Wild Bill

Django

Straight To Hell

Walker

 

[Lil' Bitch 0]

High Noon

 

Unforgiven

 

The Wild Bunch

 

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

 

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

 

The Searchers

 

Rio Bravo

 

3:10 to Yuma (both, but I prefer the original)

 

The Magnificent Seven

 

The Assassination of Jesse James

 

Tombstone

 

Once Upon A Time In The West

 

For a Few Dollars More

 

El Dorado

 

A Fistful of Dollars

 

High Plains Drifter

 

Pale Rider

 

Open Range

 

Guilty Pleasures:

 

The Quick and The Dead

 

American Outlaws

[NoCalMike 0]

Fistfull of Dollars

Good Bad & The Ugly

Tombstone

Unforgiven

Young Guns

 

(Young Guns 2 is a guilty pleasure of mine)

[Anakin Flair 0]

I really liked 3:10 to Yuma, if only for the ending. But I agree that Unforgiven is the best western out there, hands down.

[cabbageboy 0]

I am amazed at the lack of Ride the High Country love here. I would even say it's Peckinpah's best film. For all the talk about Wild Bunch, it actually really drags during the midsection where people aren't being blown to bits. The only truly interesting character in Wild Bunch was Robert Ryan's.

 

Maybe it takes seeing a bunch of Randolph Scott westerns directed by Budd Boetticher to get RTHC? Usually in those movies Scott is the lawman/bounty hunter and there's some morally dubious guy that is his reluctant partner (who has his own designs on money, women, whatever). The brilliance of RTHC is that it casts Scott against type as the morally ambiguous character potentially up to no good, and Joel McCrea is the honest lawman.

 

Unforgiven is Eastwood's best film in my opinion. It improves on each viewing and there are some real gray areas in it that come to light the more you see it. I do enjoy the spaghetti westerns on their own level but in some ways I think the hype for them is almost out of hand. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is a fun movie, but it's still entirely too long for a film that is much ado about nothing. But any of these being the "best western ever?" The cheesy dubbing alone prevents that.

 

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is a personal favorite of mine. If someone said The Searchers is a better film I wouldn't argue it. But Yellow Ribbon is something I'd much rather watch and enjoy.

 

I do think the Eastwood/Bronson movies made High Noon look like a relic though. Try watching High Noon sometime after watching a bunch of modern westerns. I always think "Why doesn't he just shoot these guys at the station?" That and quite honestly High Noon has a really lame villain. They spend an hour building up Frank Miller as this lethal badass and you expect Lee Marvin, Lee Van Cleef (who is IN the film as a lackey), or Richard Boone to get off that train. Instead it's just....some no name guy.

 

Tombstone is also a ton of fun, though for whatever reason I can't quite bring myself to call it an all time classic. Maybe it was the initial jarring viewing where the OK Corral happened about halfway through and it baffled me.

[Youth N Asia 0]

I really liked 3:10 to Yuma, if only for the ending. But I agree that Unforgiven is the best western out there, hands down.

 

And that's where 3:10 loses me. Dude's not going to go and jump on the train to get himself killed just so Bale's character can look good in his kid's eyes.

 

I love the Young Guns movies, they're among my all time favorites. Emilio as Billy the Kid is just great stuff

[Nighthawk 0]

I really liked 3:10 to Yuma, if only for the ending. But I agree that Unforgiven is the best western out there, hands down.

 

And that's where 3:10 loses me. Dude's not going to go and jump on the train to get himself killed just so Bale's character can look good in his kid's eyes.

 

I figured he was just going to escape.

[chuck415 0]

The Outlaw Josey Wales.

[Jingus 0]

Nobody's mentioned Stagecoach or The Shootist? Those were my two favorite Wayne pictures. More love here for Treasure of the Sierre Madre, High Noon, and Unforgiven too.

 

Is it just me, or is Tombstone the one western that EVERYone loves, even if they hate all westerns and never watch them?

 

Agent- If you haven't seen it yet check out The Proposition. Aussie western directed, scored and written by Nick Cave. Fucking killer.

How the fuck have I never heard of this movie. (Even if he didn't actually direct it.)

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Not too many have, even though it's got a great cast none of them are A-List celebs and I think it's theatrical release was limited.

[Ravenbomb 0]

There was a pretty sweet looking DVD in a tin case at Best Buy for like $12. I was this close to picking it up even though I hadn't heard of the movie. Maybe I'll head up there next time I get the chance and get it.

[Nighthawk 0]

I don't think it's particularly entertaining to tell you the truth, though it sounds like it would be.

[Starks 0]

Not too many have, even though it's got a great cast none of them are A-List celebs and I think it's theatrical release was limited.

 

It has a very under-rated cast IMO, Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Noah Taylor, Emily Watson, David Wenham, Danny Huston and John Hurt is a terrific ensemble. Pearce is probably the only member that a regular Joe walking down the street could name however.

 

The Proposition's release was very limited - 200 theatres according to boxofficemojo. It almost made more money in Australia ($1.56m) than the US ($1.9m). People may have thought it was direct-to-video, and the fact it's a foreign film probably makes it less appealing for a blind buy/rental. It came out on Blu-ray two weeks ago (with a RRP of $19!), and is well worth hunting down on that format given the awesome cinematography.

 

Hopefully John Hillcoat's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road will lead people to track down his earlier works and The Proposition will get the recognition it deserves.

[tonyjaymzretro 0]

only one person said Stagecoach?

Come on, people!

 

Western is my 2nd favrotie genre, behind Noir....i can pretty much like any western as long as its halfway decent, and a good western is better than most any movie for me

 

The Proposition is the best of the recent westerns, I'm really looking forward to Appaloose too