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During quarantine, I've been working through a list of Westerns, and in the past few weeks I've watched The Great Silence, Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Tall T. I didn't know noir westerns were a thing until the Criterion Collection tweeted about them, so I've added a few more to my list (I've got The Naked Spur on the way. The same men as Winchester '73!). The Great Silence was really good. Wonderful music (RIP to tha gawd Morricone) and great location shooting. Silence is such a great character for someone who has no lines, and the way it builds all the characters it great. I loved it. The only problem is that Klaus Kinski was a piece of poo poo child rapist, but I can't really hold that against the movie. Red River was incredible any time John Wayne was an active presence in the story. It kinda sags without him and the ending is a major letdown. From what I read, the original story ends with Matt shooting Tom and burying him on the ranch, which would have been a lot more satisfying of an ending. But drat, I love this kind of Western morality tale. Also it's gay as hell. She Wore a Yellow Ribbon did absolutely nothing for me. I didn't hate it, but it didn't really move me. It felt very reactive, like a season of Mad Men. It felt like there was supposed to be more narrative or thematic throughlines that just... didn't show up. Weird Confederate apologia didn't help. But goddamn did Ford know how to shoot a scene. The Tall T was exactly what I needed, a noir western I'd never heard of. Played out similarly to The Hitch-Hiker, just a small, intense, intimate crime thriller about ordinary people in over their heads. Swift, lean, and mean, it was gripping from start to finish, and particularly nasty. Also pretty gay.
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Jul 6, 2020 21:20
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I don’t really remember much about Red River other than that I was also disappointed by the ending, so it must be a pretty big letdown.
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Jul 6, 2020 21:22
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The Great Silence is an amazing film with the sole caveat you see the original ending. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWDfDhnthxE That's one of the most brutal endings to any film ever. Morricone probably lit several violins on fire composing that finale.
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Jul 6, 2020 22:05
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TheOmegaWalrus posted:The Great Silence is an amazing film with the sole caveat you see the original ending. You're absolutely correct but I almost feel like even mentioning the ending is a potential spoiler. Because I saw the movie blind knowing nothing about it and hoooo boy did it hit hard. So if you're considering watching The Great Silence just go watch it! Don't read anything more!
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Jul 6, 2020 22:10
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I had the pleasure of screening The Great Silence for an audience that had, for the most part, never seen a western before that week. They really dug it.
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Jul 6, 2020 22:29
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Where can I rent a copy with the original ending? Just tell me a service/platform and I'll watch it blind.
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Jul 6, 2020 22:33
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Jack B Nimble posted:Where can I rent a copy with the original ending? Just tell me a service/platform and I'll watch it blind. The one that's on Prime is what you want.
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Jul 6, 2020 22:38
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Is Treasure of the Sierra Madre considered a Western? Because that movie is awesome and features a weird but great Bogart performance.
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Jul 6, 2020 23:35
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big boi posted:Is Treasure of the Sierra Madre considered a Western? Because that movie is awesome and features a weird but great Bogart performance. I don't see any way to argue it isn't one, really
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Jul 7, 2020 00:55
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Saw The Great Silence; good music and interesting use of snow instead of desert, but I was surprised to read afterwords that it's considered a masterpiece. Maybe the ending just means a lot more in 1968 than 2020. Spaghetti westerns are always surreal, otherworldly tales to me, and maybe that undermines the impact of this one in particular, could just be me.
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Jul 7, 2020 13:45
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big boi posted:Is Treasure of the Sierra Madre considered a Western? Because that movie is awesome and features a weird but great Bogart performance. I always describe it as a Western. I just make sure the emphasize that it's specifically about digging for gold and greed and backstabbing, and that there isn't any actual cowboy action in it.
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Jul 7, 2020 13:49
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Criterion Channel added a new curated collection called Western Noir this month.quote:A new breed of westerns emerged after World War II, stained by film noir’s anxious, disenchanted mood and enriched by its psychological and moral complexity. Romantic myths of the frontier gave way to tougher tales of ruthless outlaws, corrupt cattle barons, gold-crazed prospectors, mercenary gunfighters, and lonely, damaged men obsessively pursuing vengeance for past wrongs. Essential noir actors found a home on the range: Robert Mitchum brings his cool, world-weary pessimism to BLOOD ON THE MOON and MAN WITH THE GUN, while Robert Ryan’s tortured tension anchors the gripping DAY OF THE OUTLAW. Women, long marginalized in westerns, wielded newfound power, but not without getting their hands dirty; the femmes fatales of western noir include Barbara Stanwyck (THE VIOLENT MEN), Ida Lupino (LUST FOR GOLD), and Marlene Dietrich (RANCHO NOTORIOUS). From brooding black-and-white dramas like STATION WEST and I SHOT JESSE JAMES to the harrowing, elegiac masterpieces of Anthony Mann, the West’s wide-open spaces prove as haunted and dangerous as any dark city. 
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Jul 7, 2020 13:51
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Basebf555 posted:The one that's on Prime is what you want. I'm pretty sure Kanopy's version also has the original ending. I had no clue there were any other endings. Franchescanado posted:Criterion Channel added a new curated collection called Western Noir this month. I don't have the Criterion Channel, but I might have to track down Lust For Gold if only for more Ida Lupino. I haven't seen much of her acting work but her directing work is great; The Bigamist is really good, and The Hitch-Hiker is one of the meanest and best noirs I've seen.
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Jul 7, 2020 13:55
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X-Ray Pecs posted:I'm pretty sure Kanopy's version also has the original ending. I had no clue there were any other endings. Do you not have an easy way to use the app? If so, you can easily get your money's worth out of using Criterion Channel for a month. I think they still offer a two week free trial.
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Jul 7, 2020 13:57
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Franchescanado posted:Do you not have an easy way to use the app? If so, you can easily get your money's worth out of using Criterion Channel for a month. I think they still offer a two week free trial. I'm okay watching stuff on my computer, and I think there's a Fire Stick app for the Criterion Channel, but there's always the thought of "do I need ANOTHER streaming service," especially if it's one that no one else in my household will use.
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Jul 7, 2020 14:50
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Prime is really THE place for spaghetti westerns. I just found Run Man Run and Ace High up there with pretty good transfers for movies that I don't think made it to Blu Ray.
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Jul 8, 2020 19:51
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I finished reading Glenn Frankel's new book High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic, which was a fairly enlightening history of the kinds of rhetorical navigation studios and artists had to do to survive the Red Scare in the late 40s and 50s. It also made sure to inform me more than once that Gary Cooper made sweet cowboy love to every woman on the lot for twenty years. I watched the movie again last night and goddamnit all, it's still so great. The tension operates at a perfect crescendo throughout its 80-something minutes, and there never was a Hollywood film that both earned and deserved a happy ending as much.
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Aug 10, 2020 15:14
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High noon is very, very good, and honestly the song, which I heard on a Frankie Laine album way before I saw the film, had me expecting something corny. Nope, not at all.
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Aug 10, 2020 15:30
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Have you seen Rio Bravo? Howard Hawk's response to High Noon where lots of amateurs volunteer to help with the local law enforcement and are turned down as not being competent for the jobs.
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Aug 10, 2020 17:11
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Rio Bravo is a way better movie than it should be given its circumstances of its creation
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Aug 10, 2020 20:08
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I've always liked El Dorado a bit more, but that's because I like Mitchum better than Martin. It also has a young Ed Asner as the main villain!
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Aug 10, 2020 20:14
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Rio bravo is actually next up on my chronological list 
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Aug 10, 2020 20:18
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Lumbermouth posted:I've always liked El Dorado a bit more, but that's because I like Mitchum better than Martin. It also has a young Ed Asner as the main villain! Also James Caan > Ricky Schroeder
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Aug 10, 2020 20:25
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It still kind of baffles me that anyone could dislike High Noon so much that they make an entire film in response to it like that. Thankfully Rio Bravo is still pretty good though.
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Aug 11, 2020 03:38
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John Wayne and Howard Hawks really didn't like communism and that's why they decided to make a "proper" version of High Noon.quote:I also knew two other fellas who really did things that were detrimental to our way of life. One of them was Carl Foreman, the guy who wrote the screenplay for High Noon, and the other was Robert Rossen, the one who made the picture about Huey Long, All theKing's Men. In Rossen's version of All the King's Men, which he sent me to read for a part, every character who had any responsibility at all was guilty of some offense against society. To make Huey Long a wonderful, rough pirate was great; but, according to this picture, everybody was a poo poo except for this weakling intern doctor who was trying to find a place in the world. I sent the script back to Charlie Feldman, my agent, and said, "If you ever send me a script like this again, I'll fire you." Ironically, it won the Academy Award. in short, gently caress John Wayne. He also tried to pressure Gary Cooper to drop out of High Noon by threatening him with never working in Hollywood again.
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Aug 11, 2020 10:17
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I hope John Wayne gets cancer.
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Aug 11, 2020 11:23
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He looks even worse next to Cooper, also a conservative Republican, who saw what HUAC was and tried to protect artists he respected from their nonsense. He even offered his name and cash to Foreman's proposed new production company after he got blacklisted, but was discouraged by basically everyone else in his life and had to back out.
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Aug 11, 2020 14:13
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If we're counting modern westerns I recommend Wind River(2017)
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Aug 14, 2020 02:28
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there really isnt a post apoc thread so is the Postman worth watching
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Aug 16, 2020 12:14
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Alan Smithee posted:there really isnt a post apoc thread so no if you want to see a post apoc Kevin Costner then watch Waterworld instead. At least that one has some fun parts.
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Aug 16, 2020 13:07
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I finally got around to watching one of the Western Noir films on Criterion Channel, which leaves at the end of the month. The Naked Spur, starring James Stewart and Janet Leigh, directed by Anthony Mann, loving slaps. Basically Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but with bounty hunters having their paranoia stoked by their captive, who hopes to break their trust enough to escape. Filmed in Technicolor in the Colorado Rocky Mountains in the 1950's, the locations are gorgeous. The world is beautiful. The cast rules. I love the blending of anti-heroics among the characters. Even the most likeable characters are flawed, either through selfishness or a broken past. Robert Ryan is an excellent villain. Definitely check it out before it leaves the service. edit: It's not on blu ray, and the rental on Amazon is SD, so CC may be the best way to actually watch it for a while! Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Sep 24, 2020 |
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Sep 24, 2020 15:53
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Franchescanado posted:I finally got around to watching one of the Western Noir films on Criterion Channel, which leaves at the end of the month. I rented it from the library awhile back, and it feels particularly gutsy for a western, especially making one of the main characters a soldier dishonorably discharged for raping a Native American woman. You also get to see Stewart turn in a nasty performance, and he plays it just as well as his more popular good guy roles.
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Sep 25, 2020 21:07
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Franchescanado posted:I finally got around to watching one of the Western Noir films on Criterion Channel, which leaves at the end of the month. Thanks for this, this movie does indeed honk. I might also keep my trial subscription to Criterion Channel.
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Sep 27, 2020 21:38
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Want say all the 70s list are leaving out Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. There's of course different versions out, but I recently followed Ride The High Country with the version of PG&BtK on Amazon right now and it's a really great double bill and it's really great to see the difference and similarities of Peckinpah in '62 and Peckinpah in '73. Honestly feel PG&BtK is Peckinpah at his best, even the compromised studio cut.
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Oct 8, 2020 17:52
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X-Ray Pecs posted:During quarantine, I've been working through a list of Westerns, and in the past few weeks I've watched The Great Silence, Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Tall T. I didn't know noir westerns were a thing until the Criterion Collection tweeted about them, so I've added a few more to my list (I've got The Naked Spur on the way. The same men as Winchester '73!). I just got done watching Corbucci's "The Specialists", and I've gotta say that I heartily recommend it. Corbucci's "Mud and Blood" (Django, The Great Silence, The Specialists), trilogy is easily some of the most forward-thinking westerns ever made.
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Oct 13, 2020 19:30
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Joe Gillian posted:I just got done watching Corbucci's "The Specialists", and I've gotta say that I heartily recommend it. Corbucci's "Mud and Blood" (Django, The Great Silence, The Specialists), trilogy is easily some of the most forward-thinking westerns ever made. I've never even heard of it, I'll keep an eye out for it!
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Oct 13, 2020 19:33
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McCabe and Mrs. Miller not only lives up to the hype, I now understand Altman in a way I didn’t before, and it’s now probably my favorite Western.
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Dec 6, 2020 20:09
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Still working slowly through Westerns, saw Cheyenne Autumn last weekend, really not the treatment I was expecting from John Ford. I think it illustrates a real change from his earliest films like Iron Horse and Stagecoach, you can see how his ever present interest in the narrative of the American West is changing as the decades go by. Beautiful landscapes and cinematography, as always.
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Jan 28, 2021 17:20
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Jack B Nimble posted:Still working slowly through Westerns, saw Cheyenne Autumn last weekend, really not the treatment I was expecting from John Ford. I think it illustrates a real change from his earliest films like Iron Horse and Stagecoach, you can see how his ever present interest in the narrative of the American West is changing as the decades go by. Beautiful landscapes and cinematography, as always. I checked this one off my list recently too, it's on HBO Max. From what I've read, it really is known as the film where Ford tried to reckon with his previous portrayals of Native Americans. And you can tell, it's a much more honest presentation of how they were treated than anything else he's done, at least of what I've seen. Franchescanado posted:McCabe and Mrs. Miller not only lives up to the hype, I now understand Altman in a way I didn’t before, and it’s now probably my favorite Western. Dang I wish I'd seen this post last month. Westerns were really my gateway to Altman because I blind-bought McCabe & Ms. Miller because of it's importance in the genre, not because of Altman. I'd never seen an Altman film before at the time, and the immersive world that he created in McCabe & Ms. Miller just blew me away. Of course I found out that it's a calling card for Altman, each film's setting is realized to the fullest extent, no matter what genre he's working in. And that allows for extremely interesting character work too, because when the stage is set so expertly you can then subvert expectations much more convincingly and effectively. The Criterion essay really opened my eyes to the mindset Altman had. It says, "The best way to demolish the old cliches, Altman decided, was to use as source material a novel that embraced them without irony", and includes a quote from Altman where he said, "I picked the story because it's the conventional thing. It's the most ordinary, common Western that's ever been told. It's every event, every character, every Western you've ever seen".
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Jan 28, 2021 17:51
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Jack B Nimble posted:Still working slowly through Westerns, saw Cheyenne Autumn last weekend, really not the treatment I was expecting from John Ford. I think it illustrates a real change from his earliest films like Iron Horse and Stagecoach, you can see how his ever present interest in the narrative of the American West is changing as the decades go by. Beautiful landscapes and cinematography, as always. The weirdest part of that one was the German-American Cavalry officer telling people he's "just following orders" when it comes to exterminating the Native Americans. At least, i think that's what the deal was, it's been a while since I've seen it. Seemed a little too on the nose for me.
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Jan 28, 2021 19:12
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