What’s up with the American psyche? Have we forgotten the Old West movie genre? It seems to me that we haven’t seen a good western in ages…I happen to watch some of the reruns of the old “Bonanza” series, and it dawned on me …this stuff hasn’t been made since the 1960’s!
So what explains the desrth of westerns…is this genre all played out? Or are youngpeople completely turned off by horse and cowboys…
What’s the story?
I was wondering if Clint Eastwood would make a film version of Rawhide, since he was in the T.V. Show.
I wish someone would have made a film version of The Lone Ranger, instead they crap-it up for T.V.
How about Gunsmoke, Bonanza, then again look at what they did to Wild Wild West, I was Ok with Will Smith as James West, but Kevin Kline as Artemis Gordon - he just wasn’t him, and the dynamic between Smith and Kline wasn’t like in the show.
Maverick was OK, though, could have lived without Jody Foster.
There are alot of western shows I watched as a kid, (thrust upon me - parents influence) that would be cool to see as a movie.
Maybe people just like car-chases/ass kicking, better than cowboys and horses.
Or maybe Hollywood just didn’t re-coup the money back from Western Movies that they tried, and they don’t want to make that Gamble again, but then if Eastwood did Rawhide, with happening actors (Russell Crowe, Ryan Phillippe, or others) and made a killing at the Box office, maybe others would follow.
That’s just my take on it.
They’re still being made but probably not as frequently as they were in the '60s.
Dodge City
Guns and Roses
Hard Ground
From Australia: Ned Kelly
Nate and the Colonel
Made-for-TV, from November: The Outsider
Um…
I don’t know how to put this any more simply but…
Silverado, Young Guns, The Quick and the Dead, Unforgiven, Pale Rider, Quigley Down Under, Tombstone, Wyatt Earp
A sampling of ‘Westerns’ since 1985 (some of them pretty darned good).
Certainly the last 5 or 10 years has seen Westerns wane in the big name Hollywood game but there have been piles of TV Louis L’Amour movies on the go with the likes of Tom Selleck and Bruce Boxleitner in the saddle.
I think it may be a while before the Western earns some kinda nostalgic cache for a wide audience seeing as how we’re all getting more and more urbanified. Pretty hard for suburban kids to relate to a part of our past all wrapped up in politically unfashionable violence and bigotry and machismo. Worst case many younguns just find westerns ‘Hokey’.
Look for the upcoming ‘Hidalgo’ with Viggo to give us a new spin on the Western real soon like.
As for TV shows - there was The Young Riders and Brisco County, Jr a few years ago, and currently I believe one of the cable networks as a “Bonanza - The Early Years” shows.
StG
Bonanza - The Early Years has been cancelled.
Quality Western movies seem to be mostly on TV these days, especially TNT. Notice that the theatrical films CaptEgo mentioned date no later than 1995. I see lots of straight to video western fare at my local video store The problem is that it is too easy to make a really bad or deadly dull film if you screw up a western. I invite you to inflict the Dwight Yoakam ego-trip South Of Heaven, West Of Hell on yourself. Good cast, authentic scenery - but a pitiful script, improvised dialogue, and flat direction kill what could have been interesting.
I hope westerns make a major studio comeback, they recycle ideas and trends enough that almost everything comes back around again. I think they should try injecting the kind of wild action, epic scope, and loopy scenerios that made spaghetti westerns so successful for a time. Hollywood is over the top and so were many of the best Italian westerns. Shanghai Noon was a nice step in the right direction.
All The Pretty Horses could be counted as a fairly recent example.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man yet. This movie is brilliant and though rather weird and disturbing, it definitely illustrates the desperation and amorality in the Old West. It also operates on a whole other level as an allegory. Plus, if that wasn’t enough, the score by Neil Young is haunting. If you like Westerns, see this one.
And now for something completely different: my dream movie project would be to rewrite High Noon so that it all takes place in real time. The Gary Cooper part could be played to great success by David Duchovny, IMO, and he needs a good movie soon if he wants to keep having a career.
Last Man Standing, 1996. Had Bruce Willis and Christopher Walken in it.
Shoot out at the OK Corral, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - would be cool re-done, if done right (good cast, direction, they’ve already got a good story) I should say, not like alot of remade Hollywood movies - Crappy.
Does anyone have bought the option the make Zane Gray novels into movies?
The TV miniseries of Lonesome Dove was enormously popular and aired about 10 years ago, I believe.