Western

Once Upon a Time in the West

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Once Upon a Time in the West
  • IMDb: link

Although I know many love it, I’ve never been a big fan of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. In fact the only film I really enjoy out of the “Man with No Name” trilogy is the second film – For a Few Dollars More. For my money Sergio Leone‘s best western, and his best film, is Once Upon a Time in the West.

Co-written by Leone’s longtime partner Sergio Donati, Once Upon a Time in the West is a love letter to the mythology of the Old West and more than thirty American Westerns Leone had deep affection (several of which are referenced throughout the film including High Noon, 3:10 to Yuma, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Iron Horse, and The Magnificent Seven).

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True Grit (2010)

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: True Grit
  • IMDB: link

More than four decades ago John Wayne won an Academy Award for his performance in True Grit as the drunken U.S. Marshall hired by a young woman to track down the man responsible for killing her father. It would be the first, and only, time the actor would take home an Oscar.

Deciding to remake the film, the Coen brothers went back to the original novel by Charles Portis to give us their reinterpretation of the story. The result is the brothers most mainstream film to date: a traditional western filled with strong performances and splashes of the filmmakers’ trademark wit.

The film begins and ends with the narration (provided by Elizabeth Marvel, who plays the character in later scenes) of Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld), who at the age of 14 travels to collect the body of her recently deceased father and hire a bounty hunter to track down his murderer (Josh Brolin).

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The Lone Ranger Definitive Edition (Volume One)

/ / Comics
  • Title: The Lone Ranger Definitive Edition (Volume One)

It’s all here: the lone survivor of a massacre, a white horse, the faithful Native American companion, a silver mine to forge bullets, and a mask. Writer Brett Matthews‘ take on the western icon The Lone Ranger may not be for everyone, but it suits me just fine.

At the heart of the tale is John Reid, a man deeply conflicted with the death of his brother Dan, weighing his need for justice and revenge, and still searching for his place in the world. Our hero is still the man we know, he just doesn’t know it quite yet. The comic is harsher (mirroring the landscape and time period) than most depictions, and the stories often involve tough choices and a fair bit of violence with each issue.

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The Book of Eli

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Book of Eli
  • IMDB: link

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. In a post-apocalyptic wasteland a wanderer (Denzel Washington) travels across a ruined landscape avoiding robbers, thieves, and cannibals.

He carries with him something important and valuable which the intelligent but mean-spirited head of a small town (Gary Oldman) will kill to possess.

This is The Book of Eli, and no one will ever accuse it of having a single original idea.

Part western, part post-apocalyptic thriller, and part psuedo-religious mess, the Hughes brothers (the guys who also screwed up From Hell) deliver a trainwreck of a film about one man’s quest to deliver the last bible in existence to the West Coast and the many, many men he kills who get in his way.

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Appaloosa

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Appaloosa
  • IMDB: link

“Which is how, fifteen years ago, I got to be a peace officer and Virgil Cole’s deputy.  Which is why I was with him now, still carrying the eight-gauge, walking the horses down a long, shale-scattered slope toward Appaloosa.”

The town of Appaloosa is under the thumb of rancher Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons), whose men take whatever they want.  After the marshal (Robert Jaregui) is killed by Bragg and his men the town council seeks outside help to solve their situation.

They enlist the help of two gun hands, Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and his longtime sidekick Everitt Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) to clean up the town and take Bragg down.  Cole’s mission to deliver justice is made more difficult by the arrival of a complicated woman (Renne Zellweger) and Bragg’s connections in Washington.

Western lovers should enjoy this film which pays homage in style to many old favorites.  I was also impressed that much of the dialogue from Robert B. Parker‘s novel was kept in the film adding a unique voice both harsh and humorous to the proceedings.

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