Official HTF Western Appreciation Thread (1 Viewer)

[Sam Favate]

My very observant and intelligent wife got me a copy of Silverado on Blu-ray for Valentine’s Day, replacing my old DVD (the one with the playing cards). (The last of my western collection not on Blu-ray.) Watched it today with the kids, one of whom had been asking to see a real western. I figured this was a good introduction. They both loved it. I did too. I hadn’t seen it in years (probably since the DVD came out), and sure, it’s not terribly historically accurate, but it’s loads of fun and it captures all the elements of the western perfectly. The beautiful scenery never looked better. Of course, now that I have this on Blu-ray, it’ll probably come out on 4K.

I also just finished season 3 of Hell On Wheels. Great show.

Thinking of showing the kids Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name films, so they can see where Boba Fett came from. What others are good intros for kids? (My kids are 13 and never saw a western before today. By the time I was 13, I’d seen tons. We live in different times.)

What other westerns has everyone been watching?

 

[TravisR]

Thinking of showing the kids Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name films, so they can see where Boba Fett came from. What others are good intros for kids? (My kids are 13 and never saw a western before today. By the time I was 13, I’d seen tons. We live in different times.)

My dad's all time favorite movie is The Magnificent Seven. That was one that I saw all the time as a kid.

 

[Tino]

The Cowboys is a great western with kids in it. Loved it since I saw it as a kid myself in the mid 70’s.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

While not a classic Western, just thought I would mention here because I thought it would be of interest, Kevin Costner is producing, directing, and starring in a new epic Western called Horizon which is set to start shooting this summer. Personally, I am very excited about this and can't wait to see this in a cinema.

 

[David_B_K]

Thinking of showing the kids Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name films, so they can see where Boba Fett came from. What others are good intros for kids? (My kids are 13 and never saw a western before today. By the time I was 13, I’d seen tons. We live in different times.)

What other westerns has everyone been watching?

I was born in the 1950's when westerns were ubiquitous. They are pretty sporadic now. Many of them are very serious with lots of tension. One that I always thought had a "fun" aspect to it without being a comedy is Delmer Daves' Cowboy starring Glenn Ford and Jack Lemon.

 

[jayembee]

What other westerns has everyone been watching?

Well, lately, I've been watching 1883 on Paramount+. An excellent Western series (with the King of TV Westers, Sam Elliott), though not for those who want to see hardy men coming, seeing, and conquering the wild west.

 

[dpippel]

My wife and I were camping in the Eastern Sierra last week, and we had a chance to stop by The Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine. What a treat! I was really impressed with the quality and thoroughness of the exhibits, and it was so interesting seeing the progression of films using the Alabama Hills and surrounding areas for location shooting, from the silents featuring Fred Thompson, Tom Mix, and Fatty Arbuckle to modern productions like Iron Man, Man of Steel, and Tremors. I thought I'd share a few of my very mediocre pics. If you ever get the chance to visit the Museum, it's well worth your time. Their collection of original movie posters alone is worth the stop!

 

[Tino]

My wife and I were camping in the Eastern Sierra last week, and we had a chance to stop by The Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine. What a treat! I was really impressed with the quality and thoroughness of the exhibits, and it was so interesting seeing the progression of films using the Alabama Hills and surrounding areas for location shooting, from the silents featuring Fred Thompson, Tom Mix, and Fatty Arbuckle to modern productions like Iron Man, Man of Steel, and Tremors. I thought I'd share a few of my very mediocre pics. If you ever get the chance to visit the Museum, it's well worth your time. Their collection of original movie posters alone is worth the stop!

View attachment 155343 View attachment 155344 View attachment 155345 View attachment 155346 View attachment 155347 View attachment 155348 View attachment 155349 View attachment 155350 View attachment 155351 View attachment 155352 View attachment 155353 View attachment 155354

Nice pics Doug.

Gotta start watching more classic westerns again. Still have a ton I haven’t watched.

 

[dpippel]

Same here, Tino.

 

[Tino]

Thinking back on all the classic westerns I’ve seen over the years since I started this thread, I would say my favorite decade is the 50’s. We need more westerns like the ones made in those years.

 

[dpippel]

Thinking back on all the classic westerns I’ve seen over the years since I started this thread, I would say my favorite decade is the 50’s. We need more westerns like the ones made in those years.

I love most western film eras, although practically all the 70's stuff taxes my patience, but after recently going through the Ranown Cycle Randolph Scott films, I'm inclined to agree with you.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The 70s weren’t my decade for westerns or just about anything else, really. I understand the historical significance of film from that era but outside of a handful of titles that seem to transcend their era, they just don’t work for me. It’s funny, when I hear certain critics and film fans talking about movies from now being a “chore” and “if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all,” that’s how the 70s stuff usually hits me.

I’d have to actually look at the list of all the westerns I’ve seen to see if there’s one era that stands out more than another, but the 50s are up there for me, 40s too, probably also 30s. I like a lot of the hour-long or 75 minute b-movie westerns from the 30s and 40s that are more about the charisma of their stars than reinventing the wheel. It’s good comfort food stuff.

 

[jayembee]

Well, part of what makes the 40s-60s prime for Westerns is the wealth of talented directors making them back then. John Ford, Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann, Budd Boetticher, et alia.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I can’t overstate how much Jimmy Stewart’s western films have meant to me. There was something about seeing him, with all of the associations that his persona brought with it, wrestling with hardship and moral ambiguity.

 

[Walter Kittel]

The 70s weren’t my decade for westerns or just about anything else, really. I understand the historical significance of film from that era but outside of a handful of titles that seem to transcend their era, they just don’t work for me. It’s funny, when I hear certain critics and film fans talking about movies from now being a “chore” and “if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all,” that’s how the 70s stuff usually hits me.

I’d have to actually look at the list of all the westerns I’ve seen to see if there’s one era that stands out more than another, but the 50s are up there for me, 40s too, probably also 30s. I like a lot of the hour-long or 75 minute b-movie westerns from the 30s and 40s that are more about the charisma of their stars than reinventing the wheel. It’s good comfort food stuff.

Hey, it is all subjective and everyone has their opinions, but I don't think I've read anything lately on the HTF that I could disagree with more than the bolded portion of Josh's post. While there are bad films every year, and the '70s have their share, it was a great time for filmmakers pushing the boundaries of what stories could be explored and how they could be presented to the film going public. Some favorites (mostly an exercise in nostalgia)...

1970 - Patton, Five Easy Pieces, Little Big Man, Catch-22, The Conformist, Rio Lobo.
1971 - The French Connection, Summer of '42, A Clockwork Orange, Dirty Harry, The Last Picture Show, Klute, THX 1138, Vanishing Point, Get Carter.
1972 - The Godfather, Deliverance, Jeremiah Johnson, The Getaway, The Cowboys, Silent Running, The Candidate, Fat City, Ulzana's Raid.
1973 - The Exorcist, The Sting, American Graffiti, Papillon, Paper Moon, Serpico, Badlands, Charley Varrick, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, High Plains Drifter, The Last Detail, Mean Streets, The Seven-Ups
1974 - Blazing Saddles, The Godfather Part II, Young Frankenstein, The Longest Yard, Chinatown, The Conversation, The Parallax View, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.
1975 - Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Shampoo, Dog Day Afternoon, Three Days of the Condor, Night Moves, Rollerball, Smile, Dersu Uzula, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Hard Times, Barry Lyndon.
1976 - Rocky, All The President's Men, Network, Marathon Man, Carrie, Logan's Run, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Shootist, Taxi Driver.
1977 - Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Annie Hall, The American Friend, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, New York, New York; Rolling Thunder, Slap Shot.
1978 - Superman, National Lampoon's Animal House, Heaven Can Wait, The Deerhunter, Midnight Express, Coming Home, Straight Time, The Driver, Days of Heaven, Comes A Horseman, Watership Down.
1979 - Apocalypse Now, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Alien, Being There, All That Jazz, The Black Stallion, The China Syndrome, Escape From Alcatraz, The Great Santini, Mad Max, Manhattan, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Rock N' Roll High School, The Warriors.

Everyone has their subjective opinions, but I think there is a LOT to like in the 1970s. Probably my favorite period of films extends from the second half of the 1960s into the very early 1980s.

- Walter.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Walter, it just so happens that many of the 70s films on your list are among the ones I do enjoy! There are some of my all-time favorites on that list!

But like you say, it’s all subjective, and if one watches thousands of movies over a lifetime, they’re not all gonna be winners. I never go into a movie thinking, “this is from the 70s so I’ll probably hate it.” It’s more that when I look back, in hindsight I’ve had more disappointments there than in some other periods. I honestly wished I liked the 70s movies that were letdowns more than I did. It’s almost more disappointing when you’re excited by a film’s reputation and for whatever reason it doesn’t click.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Blazing Saddles

Shoot, this might have been my second western! My dad gave it to me for Hanukkah when I was 9 years old and we watched it after my little brothers were in bed and it was the most I had ever laughed in my life. I got none of the references and it didn’t matter. Now that I’ve seen so many westerns as an adult, it’s like a brand new movie - I laughed at a whole new set of jokes after binging westerns for a couple years. And, I got to bring my dad to a showing of the movie with a live Q&A with Mel after the show - so fun to revisit it with my old man after all those years.

(My first western was a public domain VHS my great-grandmother’s husband gave me as a kid - The Terror of Tiny Town.)

 

[Walter Kittel]

Shoot, this might have been my second western! My dad gave it to me for Hanukkah when I was 9 years old and we watched it after my little brothers were in bed and it was the most I had ever laughed in my life. I got none of the references and it didn’t matter. Now that I’ve seen so many westerns as an adult, it’s like a brand new movie - I laughed at a whole new set of jokes after binging westerns for a couple years. And, I got to bring my dad to a showing of the movie with a live Q&A with Mel after the show - so fun to revisit it with my old man after all those years.

(My first western was a public domain VHS my great-grandmother’s husband gave me as a kid - The Terror of Tiny Town.)

That is a pretty neat anecdote. My folks really weren't into film that much so that wasn't something that I shared to a large extent with them. If my mom caught me watching Blazing Saddles when I was nine it wouldn't have been pretty. ( She took me to see Planet of the Apes in 1968 after I begged her relentlessly and I still remember how Heston's profanity at the finale of the film scandalized her. )

- Walter.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

That is a pretty neat anecdote. My folks really weren't into film that much so that wasn't something that I shared to a large extent with them. If my mom caught me watching Blazing Saddles when I was nine it wouldn't have been pretty. ( She took me to see Planet of the Apes in 1968 after I begged her relentlessly and I still remember how Heston's profanity at the finale of the film scandalized her. )

- Walter.

That was the first “R” rated movie that my dad ever watched with me. (Only the second one I ever saw, but my parents hadn’t been in on the first.) I don’t think my mom was happy when she found out, which is probably half the reason my dad did it

 

[Tino]

My movie going journey began in the 70’s with The Poseidon Adventure. Having only seen films on tv at that point, seeing such a film on a giant screen cemented my love for movies. 70’s films nurtured my obsession.

I think Blazing Saddles might have been the first western I had seen on the big screen in 1973 at 10 years old with my older brother, and laughed my ass off at the farting scene. I believe the second was John Wayne’s The Cowboys which I still love till this day.

I think between 1972 and 1980 I saw an average of 2-3 movies a week. Every cent I was able to earn I used to go to the movies.