MyMovies: Westerns
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- DirectorFred ZinnemannStarsGary CooperGrace KellyThomas MitchellA town Marshal, despite the disagreements of his newlywed bride and the townspeople around him, must face a gang of deadly killers alone at "high noon" when the gang leader, an outlaw he "sent up" years ago, arrives on the noon train.
- DirectorJohn SturgesStarsYul BrynnerSteve McQueenCharles BronsonSeven gunfighters are hired by Mexican peasants to liberate their village from oppressive bandits.
- DirectorHoward HawksStarsJohn WayneDean MartinRicky NelsonA small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a disabled man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy.
- DirectorOtto PremingerJean NegulescoStarsRobert MitchumMarilyn MonroeRory CalhounThe titular river unites a farmer recently released from prison, his young son, and an ambitious saloon singer. In order to survive, each must be purged of anger, and each must learn to understand and care for the others.
- DirectorGeorge StevensStarsAlan LaddJean ArthurVan HeflinAn ex-gunfighter defends homesteaders in 1889 Wyoming.Comments:
Summary: Archetypal Western **Spoilers**
******SPOILERS INCLUDED******
For me, Shane is the ultimate western. It is not my favorite, which is Hondo, or the one I consider the best, which is The Searchers, but more than any other, it represents the ideal, the dream, the `mythos' of the Old West. As Americans, we had lost our mythology. Biblical heroes still exist, but their lives, customs, manners and their world is so different from our own, that it is hard to see them as heroes for our modern world. But the men and women of the western frontier, as seen though the lens of a motion picture camera, were close enough to our modern world to become the Heroes, the archetypal Heroes, we needed. From William S. Hart to Marshall Dillon, they have provided us with the role models for what a Hero should be and Shane is the ultimate expression of that Hero and the Myth.
Shane is the stranger. We don't know his name or his origins, but we know what he is: he is the Hero, the quintessential archetypal Hero of the West. He comes from nowhere when he is needed and he returns to nowhere when his job is done. His job is to save good, decent people from the Villain who has power to harm them.
Many movies reflect different versions of the western myth, but in Shane it comes in its purest, most simplified form. Shane, the gunfighter, drifts into the valley trying to escape his past. He meets Joe and Marian Starrett and their son, Joey, They are homesteader trying to create a life for themselves. They and the other homesteaders are threatened by Rufus and Morgan Ryker, ranchers who see the farmers along the river as a threat to their access to water in times of drought. They use their cowboys to threaten and attack the farmers. With Shane's help, the farmers are able to stand up to the Rykers and their cowboys. So the Rykers hire Jack Wilson, a vicious gunfighter, to kill Shane. In a climactic gunfight in the saloon, Shane defeats and kills Wilson and the Rykers, Then wounded, he rides from the valley, alone, as Joey calls after him: `Shane…Shane, come back Shane.'
Simple and straightforward, Shane is the ultimate expression of Hero of the Old West. We may not actually believe he exists, but we like to think he does. - DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneClaire TrevorAndy DevineA group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process.
- DirectorRichard T. HeffronStarsJames WhitmoreSam ElliottNed RomeroIn a period when many thought that "the only good Indian is a dead Indian," Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce won the admiration of the American public.
- DirectorJohn FarrowStarsJohn WayneGeraldine PageWard BondArmy dispatch rider Hondo Lane discovers a woman and young son living in the midst of warring Apaches and becomes their protector.
- DirectorWilliam WylerStarsGregory PeckJean SimmonsCarroll BakerA New England sea captain in the 1880s arrives at his fiancée's sprawling Texas ranch, where he becomes embroiled in a feud between two families over a valuable patch of land.Comments
Summary: Perfect
Every once and awhile, a movie comes along that is so near to being perfect than any change, no matter how small, would diminish it. Well, that's The Big Country. It has three of my favorite actors: Jean Simmons, Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston in parts that they were born to play. It has Burl Ives in a knock your socks off performance as the noble patriarch of an ignoble tribe. It has Chuck Conners in one of the lowest, slimiest, meanist characters in modern westerns. It has the big country - and unless you have seen this movie, you can't understand what that means. The land itself is a character in this movie. It is the object of veneration, love and lust for four of the major characters: Charles Bickford, Carroll Baker (sp?), Charlton Heston and Burl Ives. And it has the music. The music is as big and as beautiful as the country and as perfect as all the performances. If you have never seen it, please do. You will not regret it.
DATE: 2003-10-30
http://comments.imdb.com/title/tt0051411/usercomments-49 - DirectorClint EastwoodStarsClint EastwoodVerna BloomMarianna HillA gun-fighting stranger comes to the small settlement of Lago and is hired to bring the townsfolk together in an attempt to hold off three outlaws who are on their way.Comments
Summary: I still don't know what I think about this movie
I first saw High Plains Drifter when it opened. I didn't understand it and I didn't enjoy it. I think I got hung up on painting the town red. I've seen it 5 or 6 times since then. I'm still not sure I understand it and I still don't enjoy it. I don't think that it is possible to really enjoy this movie, it is much too dark and depressing. But I respect it and I respect Clint Eastwood for making it. Nothing in it is what you expect or what it seems. Even the setting is strange - a town in the middle of a desert that seems to be beside the ocean or at least a very large lake. After seeing Drifter and The Beguiled, I began to realize that Clint Eastwood would never fit into any mold. There are other actors that might have been willing to do this movie, but they were not stars who made their fortune playing characters like The Man with No Name or Dirty Harry.
DATE: 2003-08-03
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068699/usercomments-54 - DirectorSam RaimiStarsSharon StoneGene HackmanRussell CroweA female gunfighter returns to a frontier town where a dueling tournament is being held, which she enters in an effort to avenge her father's death.
- DirectorUli EdelStarsSam ShepardEric RobertsRandy QuaidAn outlaw band rides into a town that is actually Purgatory, between Heaven and Hell.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJames StewartJohn WayneVera MilesA senator returns to a Western town for the funeral of an old friend and tells the story of his origins.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJohn WayneJeffrey HunterVera MilesAn American Civil War veteran embarks on a years-long journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches after the rest of his brother's family is massacred in a raid on their Texas farm.
- DirectorBurt KennedyStarsRaquel WelchRobert CulpErnest BorgnineAfter she is raped by the trio of outlaw brothers who murdered her husband, a frontierswoman hires a bounty hunter to instruct her in the use of a gun so she can exact her revenge.
- DirectorSergio LeoneStarsHenry FondaCharles BronsonClaudia CardinaleA mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
- DirectorTom GriesStarsCharlton HestonJoan HackettDonald PleasenceAging cowboy Will Penny gets a line camp job on a large cattle spread and finds his isolated cabin is already occupied by an abandoned woman traveler and her young son.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsJames StewartRichard WidmarkShirley JonesA corrupt marshal is pressured by his army friend into negotiating the release of white captives of the Comanches, but finds that their reintegration into society has its consequences.
- DirectorSam PeckinpahStarsJoel McCreaRandolph ScottMariette HartleyAn ex-union soldier is hired to transport gold from a mining community through dangerous territory. But what he doesn't realize is that his partner and old friend is plotting to double-cross him.
- DirectorRichard BrooksStarsBurt LancasterLee MarvinRobert RyanAn arrogant Texas millionaire hires four adventurers to rescue his kidnapped wife from a notorious Mexican bandit.
- DirectorGeorge P. CosmatosKevin JarreStarsKurt RussellVal KilmerSam ElliottA successful lawman's plans to retire anonymously in Tombstone, Arizona are disrupted by the kind of outlaws he was famous for eliminating.
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsGreer GarsonDana AndrewsCameron MitchellGreer Garson plays a female doctor who plans to introduce modern techniques of medicine to old Santa Fe in 1880, but is opposed by an established doctor.
- DirectorRichard WilsonStarsYul BrynnerJanice RuleGeorge SegalIn New Mexico, a Confederate veteran returns home to find his fiancée married to a Union soldier, his Yankee neighbors rallied against him and his property sold by the local banker who then hires a gunman to kill him.
- DirectorMartin RittStarsPaul NewmanFredric MarchRichard BooneJohn Russell, disdained by his "respectable" fellow stagecoach passengers because he was raised by Native Americans, becomes their only hope for survival when they are set upon by outlaws.
- DirectorCharles HaidStarsLamont BentleyTom BowerTimothy BusfieldThe all-black US Cavalry Troop H pursues Apache warrior Victorio while dealing with racial bigotry and myths about their designated enemies.