The Western Thread: Let's Gut Shoot Alvin And Feed Him To The Hogs

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > The Western Thread: Let's Gut Shoot Alvin And Feed Him To The Hogs

AFewBricksShy: Jun 19, 2003; of a full load.

Basebf555 posted:

I was primed to love The Ballad of Buster Skruggs but for me it just fell flat. I was pretty shocked, usually the Coens are money in the bank for me but not this one. Just not enough time to get to know any of the characters, and too many of the stories were depressing as hell.

I liked it a lot. The stagecoach one could have easily been a chapter from Lonesome Dove, if you just put Woodrow Call in the old guy's place.

I also just loved the idea of a completely sociopathic Roy Rogers type in the titular segment.

If that were a real book I'd read it in a heartbeat.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2018 19:53

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 22:07

AFewBricksShy: Jun 19, 2003; of a full load.

It is very true to it's name, but I liked Slow West as a modern western too.
Also Silverado from 1985 is pretty fantastic as well.

Edit:
Adding more.
Pale Rider
Lonesome Dove miniseries.

AFewBricksShy fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Nov 14, 2019

# ¿ Nov 14, 2019 20:38

AFewBricksShy: Jun 19, 2003; of a full load.

If anyone in this thread isn't already aware, The Mandolorian is pretty much a "Man with No Name" series set in the star wars universe.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2020 16:04

AFewBricksShy: Jun 19, 2003; of a full load.

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

# ¿ Aug 10, 2020 20:25

AFewBricksShy: Jun 19, 2003; of a full load.

PeterCat posted:

Someone needs to get a script to Denzel.

I haven't seen Posse in over 20 years, but "unfocused" is how I remember it. Good idea, good performances, but needed to be polished.

Another movie in that vein is Quigley Down Under.

Tom Selleck stars at Matthew Quigley, an American sharp shooter with an experimental Sharp's rifle that is enticed by Alan Rickman to come to Australia for work. What Rickman doesn't tell Quigley is he's hiring him to shoot Aborigines, who have learned to stay out of standard rifle range.

Tom Selleck makes a great western hero and it's a shame that we couldn't have seen Quigley: Up Over instead. He's got the screen presence and attitude, and he's got a unique firearm so he's already half way down the road to being a noteworthy character, but the story doesn't utilise him very well.

You can tell the only had Rickman for a couple of days of shooting, all his scenes are on the same set and he barely interacts with Quigley. The Australian countryside is a nice change from the American West, but they don't do alot with it. The Aborigines fill in the role normally held by Native Americans but I can't remember any distinctive characters from them and I'm not even sure any of the Aborigines had lines in English or with subtitles.

The biggest problem with the movie is tone. It wants to be a jaunty traditional western with funny music, very cliched Western types, and Tom Selleck would not have been out of place in any 40s or 50s Western. But the movie also has a plot that revolves around Rickman wanting Quigley to shoot any Aborigine he can find and features several scenes of the Aborigines being murdered by Rickman's men. There's also a love interest played by Laura San Giacomo who has gone crazy after smothering her infant son while hiding from Apaches in Texas.

Now, you can make a dark western, but Down Under swings to far from one extreme to another and it doesn't quite work.

Also, I'm sure there's something Freudian going on about American vs Australian Cowboys, based on this picture.

I haven't seen that movie in ages, but I still remember the ending. It's a great line.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2021 21:37

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > The Western Thread: Let's Gut Shoot Alvin And Feed Him To The Hogs