Westerns

Sir O · 01-25-2003, 10:27 AM

Can someone please explain to me why "Westerns" are good movies? I mean, I've seen a few that I could sit through...Unforgiven for example...but even supposed GREAT westerns are just boring to me. I can't sit through them, I can't be interested. High Noon is supposed to be a great film. I turned it off after about 20 minutes. Am I missing something?

diceisgod · 01-25-2003, 03:29 PM

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (as well as many of Eastwoods earlier westerns) is a great movie. I've never seen a John Wayne western but many people think his were great. You need to have an interest in experiencing things that were before your time to be able to appreciate them maybe.

PeterDragon · 01-25-2003, 05:30 PM

The Western was American melodrama. The Good Guys in the White Hats, and the Bad Guys in Black Hats. Life on the frontier, where there were little rules, and you had to defend yourself.
It isn't the location, it is the action. Star Trek (the original) was pitched as "Wagon Train in outer space". Star Wars has similar setup to many westerns.

The Magnificent Seven (essentially a re-make of "The Seven Samuri") is one of my favorite westerns. Good, Bad, & the Ugly, & Shootout at the OK Corral come to mind.

Not everything is for everyone. A lot has to do with what society can identify with. An urban kid today probably can't identify with the wide open spaces of the old west, but a good story is a good story, no matter where it takes place.

Sir O · 01-26-2003, 12:33 AM

Quote:You need to have an interest in experiencing things that were before your time to be able to appreciate them maybe.

That's the weird thing...I could literally name hundreds of movies that came out before I was born that I'd put above anything that came out in the past five years. It's just this particular genre that does nothing for me. Maybe I'm just looking for something that just isn't there...

Quote:The Magnificent Seven (essentially a re-make of "The Seven Samuri") is one of my favorite westerns. Good, Bad, & the Ugly, & Shootout at the OK Corral come to mind.

I was discussing this with a friend of mine today, he's a film student at NYU and a big time fan of the westerns. He's the one that recommended High Noon, and after I told him how it bored me to tears, he told me to check out The Magnificent Seven, that it might be more my style. I've already seen The Seven Samurai and loved it - Kurosawa's probably my favorite director ever, definitely top 3 with Welles and Kubrick - so I'll give that one a shot. Same with The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - it seems to be the film that everyone mentions when talking about great westerns.

LyricalGomez · 01-26-2003, 01:53 AM

Although it's not the greatest, Tombstone is worth a watch just to see Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday.

The Sleeper · 01-27-2003, 02:42 PM

This genre doesn't interest me in the least, but I did like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Ken'sPen · 01-27-2003, 03:12 PM

Big Country with Gregory Peck,

great movie

defines what being a man is all about.

Spitfire · 01-30-2003, 03:10 PM

The only Western I really like is High Plains Drifter with Clint Eastwood. Ghost comes to town to get revenge on all the people who watched him get killed. It's kind of a horror/western, and it's funny to watch :fuggin:

Teenweek · 01-30-2003, 04:53 PM

I always loved Hang em High with CLint Eastwood.

JimmyBlueEyes · 01-30-2003, 11:46 PM

The Good the Bad and the Ugly, High Plains Drifter, Hang em High, Tombstone,and definitely Blazing Saddles, ya gotta see em.
There was one on TNT a few years ago called Purgatory, with Eric Roberts, it was actually pretty good along with the supernatural aspect of it.

Edited By JimmyBlueEyes on 1043970544

kindred · 01-31-2003, 12:02 AM

My dad is a huge Magnificent Seven fan. His plan was to have seven boys and name them all after the characters in the Magnificent Seven. My brother was name Chris, after Yul Brynner. If I had been a boy, I would have been Vin, after Steve McQueen.

Thank god I was a girl...

FNMoron · 01-31-2003, 12:08 AM

Quote:The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (as well as many of Eastwoods earlier westerns) is a great movie. I've never seen a John Wayne western but many people think his were great.

as much as it saddens me to say... i kinda agree with DIG on this... i love all the old Clint Spaghetti Westerns, but i can never seem to get myself to sit thru any John Wayne movies... they just bore the Hell out of me...

Hey Ladi · 02-03-2003, 04:11 AM

Quote:The only Western I really like is High Plains Drifter with Clint Eastwood. Ghost comes to town to get revenge on all the people who watched him get killed. It's kind of a horror/western, and it's funny to watch

I was half watching this the other day
I didn't get it, I'll have to stay for the whole thing next time

one thing that was particularly odd, was that'd he raped two chicks & they turned around and thought he was the greatest :crackhead:

Can anyone tell me what the bed sheets & red paint were for?