Western

  • Anthony Mann – Cimarron (1960)

    1951-1960Anthony MannRomanceUSAWestern

    Paul Tatara, TCM wrote:
    Some movie projects, no matter how promising, seem doomed to one form of failure or another. When RKO first filmed Edna Ferber’s popular Western novel, Cimarron, in 1931, it was a major critical success, and even snagged the Oscar® for Best Picture. But it was an expensive movie to make, and the studio lost a pile of money on it. Then, when MGM enlisted Anthony Mann to remake Cimarron in 1960, the production was beset with an assortment of problems, including studio interference and a misbegotten romance between its lead performers, Glenn Ford and Maria Schell.Read More »

  • John Ford – The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

    USA1961-1970ClassicsJohn FordWestern

    Quote:
    There are arguably no bigger cinematic icons of America than John Wayne – the right wing side of America steeped in violence and guns, and James Stewart – the left wing side of America rooted in humanity, understanding and intelligence. And there is arguably no finer chronicler of America’s mythology and past than John Ford. Put them together and you get one of the finest westerns ever made.Read More »

  • Lesley Selander – Dakota Lil (1950)

    1941-1950Lesley SelanderUSAWestern

    Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
    Although Marie Windsor plays the title role in Dakota Lil, she is shunted away to third billing, right after male leads George Montgomery and Rod Cameron. Montgomery is cast as a secret service agent Tom Horn, sent West to round up a gang of counterfeiters. He starts by gaining the confidence of dance-hall girl Lil (Windsor), one of the ringleaders. She, in turn, leads Horn to the brains of the operation, Harve Logan(Cameron).Read More »

  • Stuart Heisler – The Burning Hills (1956)

    USA1951-1960Stuart HeislerWestern

    Synopsis:
    This beautifully-filmed CinemaScope western spins the familiar plot of a greedy cattle baron taking the law into his own hands to monopolize a rich valley before legal claims can be filed on the land. Tab Hunter and Natalie Wood are the headliners here and their chemistry works well. Hunter is okay as a cowboy who wants to square matters for his brother’s murder. However, Ms. Wood is not very convincing as a Mexican girl, in spite of her fetching looks. Predictably, romance blooms, and Hunter and Wood team up to battle the bad guys who trail them like bloodhounds. The action is spotty but a solid cast of familiar character actors nudges the story along. The film has a fine climax, a derring-do affair in the spirit of the old west. The movie was based on a good Louis L’Amour novel and nearly measures up to this great storyteller’s work.Read More »

  • Clint Eastwood – High Plains Drifter (1973)

    USA1971-1980Clint EastwoodWestern

    Quote:
    A Stranger rides into in the dusty mining town of Lago, where the townspeople are living in the shadow of a dark secret. After a shootout leaves the town’s hired-gun protectors dead, the town’s leaders petition the Stranger to stay and protect them from three ruthless outlaws who are soon to be released from prison. The three have their sights set on returning to Lago to wreak havoc and take care of some unfinished business. A series of events soon has the townspeople questioning whether siding with the Stranger was a wise idea as they quickly learn the price that they each must pay for his services. As the outlaws make their way back into Lago, they discover that the town is not exactly as they had left it, and waiting in the shadows is the Stranger, ready to expose the town’s secret and serve up his own brand of justice.Read More »

  • Marlon Brando – One-Eyed Jacks (1961)

    1961-1970Marlon BrandoUSAWestern

    This is a western like no other, combining the mythological scope of that most American of genres with the searing naturalism of a performance by Marlon Brando—all suffused with Freudian overtones and masculine anxiety. In his only directing stint, Brando captures rugged coastal and desert landscapes in gorgeous widescreen, Technicolor images, and elicits from his fellow actors (including Karl Malden and Pina Pellicer) nuanced depictions of conflicted characters. Though the production was overwhelmed by its director’s perfectionism and plagued by setbacks and studio reediting, One-Eyed Jacks stands as one of Brando’s great achievements, thanks above all to his tortured turn as Rio, a bank robber bent on revenge against his former partner in crime. Brooding and romantic, Rio is the last and perhaps the most tender of the iconic outsiders that the great actor imbued with such intensity throughout his career.Read More »

  • Alejandro Jodorowsky – El Topo (1970)

    1961-1970Alejandro JodorowskyArthouseMexicoWestern

    The gunfighter El Topo (“The Mole”) and his young son ride through a desert to a village, whose inhabitants have been massacred. Bandits are nearby, torturing and killing the survivors. El Topo rescues a woman (Mara), who leads him on a mission to find and defeat the four master gunmen of the desert. Leaving his son with a group of monks, El Topo and Mara complete the mission, accompanied by a mysterious woman in black. The women leave El Topo wounded in the desert, where he is found by a clan of deformed people who take him to the remote cavern where they live. Awakening years later, he goes with a dwarf woman to a nearby town, promising to dig a tunnel through which the cave-dwellers can escape. They find the town run by a vicious sheriff and home to a bizarre religious cult. El Topo’s son, now a man, is a monk in the town. The completion of the tunnel leads El Topo, the townspeople, and the cave-dwellers to a bloody and tragic end.Read More »

  • Sydney Pollack – The Electric Horseman (1979)

    USA1971-1980ComedySydney PollackWestern

    After retiring from the rodeo where he was five-time all-around world rodeo champion, Sonny Steele is signed by multinational conglomerate Ampco to be the spokesman for their breakfast cereal, Ranch Breakfast. This corporate job, where he is paraded around on horses in electrically lit cowboy get-ups and where the publicity department makes him grow a mustache to look more like a cowboy, eventually sucks away at his soul, which leads to him taking up the bottle and often being drunk at events. Conversely, the publicity department tries to hide him from the media. Read More »

  • Henry Hathaway – Shoot Out (1971)

    1971-1980Henry HathawayUSAWestern

    Clay Lomax, a bank robber, gets out of jail after an 7 year sentence. He is looking after Sam Foley, the man who betrayed him. Knowing that, Foley hires three men to pay attention of Clay’s steps. The things get complicated when Lomax, waiting to receive some money from his ex-lover, gets only the notice of her death and an 7 year old girl, sometimes very annoying, presumed to be his daughter.Read More »

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