Movie Westerns

First a little background. In earlier posts I've discussed music, books, and even a little about sports, all of which are activities I play and work at on a regular basis. But it's time I talked a little about my favorite pastime, the one valued above all others, the Holy Grail of my hobbies (to paraphrase Jean Shephard) - movies.

I have lots of music, books and sports equipment, but I am most proud of my movie collection which currently includes around 1500 titles. Supplementing the theatrical releases are many TV movies and miniseries, and boxed-sets of favorite TV series, bringing the total number of VHS tapes, Laserdiscs, DVDs and BluRay disks to well over 2000.

It's always risky to talk about numbers. Someone could get the idea that it's a contest, and there is always someone who can boast bigger numbers. But it's not my intent to compete. Rather, the noteworthy thing about my movie collection is that despite its size it remains an active part of my everyday life. I watch movies a lot - classics, new releases, dramas, comedies, sequels, prequels and documentaries.

I watch movies intently in private with headphones. I watch them in small groups of similarly afflicted friends, occasionally in marathon sessions of especially revered material (like the three extended-version Lord of the Rings movies in one 12-hour sitting or all eight Harry Potter movies in one weekend sequestered at the cottage). I also often watch previously viewed movies while doing chores or working projects in the "lab", stopping my activity from time to time to enjoy the best scenes. I know. I may have a problem. But I'm still in denial, so it's okay from where I sit.

My only dislike among the various genres is gory horror. I watch movies to feel good and learn things, so the slasher-chainsaw-Freddy Krueger shtick eludes me. Who could feel good watching that stuff? There is one exception to this aversion and that is Stephen King. I certainly don't put him in the same league as Freddy and Jason, but he does write some pretty scary stuff. Thankfully most of his work that has been committed to film has been done so with his influence, so there is nearly always a solid and interesting story giving purpose to the scary parts.

I could go on about the world of movies in general, but it would take me much longer than my typical post (which I know can already be a bit on the long side). So I have opted to share my thoughts and views on movies by genre over several posts in the coming months. That will be more fun for me and perhaps even launch a manageable dialog or two about your favorite movies. I'd like to start with westerns, which is my second favorite genre (my favorite is sci-fi, but it will take me a while to work up to that one - there are a few childhood ghosts to exorcise first :-).

So what is it about westerns? Is it the larger-than-life heroes with six guns hanging off their belts? Or the ever-present bad guys (in black hats of course) free to roam about and menace the unsuspecting? Is it the wide-open spaces where you can run into just about every kind of calamity imaginable (including dinosaurs - I happen to own what I believe are the only two true cowboy-dinosaur movies, Valley of the Gwangi, a James Franciscus vehicle, and The Beast of Hollow Mountain starring Guy Madison, TV's Wild Bill Hickock of the '50s).

Or is this preoccupation with westerns just a natural interest in the closest thing we have to an American mythology in which our most basic cultural traits - good and bad - are amplified in every way by the wild and often larger-than-life characters and feats portrayed in these films? (I feel the term mythology is appropriate here as I have a number of documentaries that clearly indicate how ordinary, grimy and unglamorous most of the old west really was. Yet, I and others willingly make the leap of faith about the accuracy of six-shooters, the pure hearts of pioneers, the beauty of saloon women, and the ability of people wearing gunbelts and cowboy boots to dodge a hail of bullets while dashing across open spaces to dive unscathed behind water troughs, without ever losing their hats. Ah, we love it so.)

I think my own fascination with westerns is a combination of all these things plus one other attribute - simplicity. While there are certainly exceptions, in most westerns you know pretty early in the movie who's good and will survive, who's bad and will get his or her just desserts, and who will likely be an innocent victim (those would be the actors you've never heard of with speaking parts in the opening scenes). In more recent westerns the white hat/black hat rule has faded a bit, as screenwriters have worked hard to break out of the mold and keep the genre interesting. But the trained eye can still usually sort things out by the end of Act 1.

Because of this predictability, the attraction of the western is seldom "what" is going to happen. There's going to be shoot-em-ups, fistfights, horseback chases and at least one poor soul tossed through a glass window. Rather, it's usually the "how" things are going to happen that counts. Has the writer or director put a unique twist on a particular typical western scenario, or has an actor brought an especially interesting interpretation to a classic western character or stereotype? The driving interest in more recent westerns has often been an emphasis on reality, introducing a generous dose of the grime and grit mentioned above into our perception of the old west. It's the clever and sometimes original treatment of the "how" that holds my interest in a western and earns it consideration for my "A" list.

It's difficult to make a case for or have a consensus on the best westerns ever or even on an overall top 10, as there are just too many. Sometimes I think half of the movies made between 1930 and 1960 were westerns, and the vast majority are eminently watchable if you're a westerns fan. So here are a few I find interesting and would recommend.

The top of my "A" list has to be Lonesome Dove. This six hour saga is almost in a class by itself. It has it all. Two of the most interesting and entertaining characters in movie history (let alone western movie history), ex-Texas Ranger captains Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call. Add to that a marvelous story about life, death, adventure, relationships, hardship and hope, and an all-star cast including Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Angelica Houston, Robert Urich, Danny Glover, and Chris Cooper, among other well-known names.

Lonesome Dove also has several of those unique scenes that turn a really good film into a classic. One of them involves the hanging of a former close friend who, as Captain Call later puts it, "fell in with a bad bunch". But in a final act of redemption, the fallen friend spares the heroes from carrying out the painful sentence by spurring his horse out from under him on his own, leaving himself dangling in death. In the BluRay special features interviews Duvall describes the scene as one of the most emotional moments he has ever experienced in his long and fabled career.

Another unique scene was Woodrow sitting bedside with a dying Gus (who would not permit the saving of his life by amputation of his one remaining but gangrenous leg) who, slipping into delirium, tries to keep straight his separate notes to the two women who love him. Of course, the purpose of the scene is to emphasize just how much these two rugged, independent and private men loved each other in the only way permitted in their culture, not an easy message to deliver in any genre.

There are actually four stories in the Lonesome Dove saga, two occurring in time prior to Lonesome Dove, Dead Man's Walk and Commanche Moon, and one after, Streets of Laredo. All of these books have been made into TV miniseries with a variety of actors playing the key roles. None of the companion pieces quite rises to the lofty level of Lonesome Dove, but all are worthy efforts and provide very interesting back stories on the main characters. I could talk about the Lonesome Dove world all day, but I think you get the idea so I'll move on.

Tombstone is next on the list. This retelling of the Wyatt Earp/OK Corral story is a fun and entertaining ride. Kurt Russell plays Wyatt, bringing his unique style and rugged manner to the role (think Snake Plissken of Escape from New York with a handlebar mustache, a Colt 45 and a full-length duster). Val Kilmer complements Russell with an outstanding performance as the tuberculosis-ridden, quick-draw artist, gambler/drunk/womanizer sidekick Doc Holliday who always seems to be there to save Wyatt when needed. Add in the supporting cast of Sam Elliott and Bill Paxton as Earp brothers Virgil and Morgan, Dana Delany as the love interest, and Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, Stephen Lang and Thomas Haden Church as the bad guys, and you've got yourself a good time. And that's not to mention Billy Bob Thornton and Charlton Heston in minor supporting roles and an opening and closing narration by Robert Mitchum.

But the real contribution of Tombstone is that it rolls on past the OK Corral gunfight to tell the story of a humbled but revenge-driven Wyatt returning with Doc and a few other compatriots to take on the notorious gang known as "The Cowboys", the source of the Earps' troubles as the marshalls of Tombstone. This is when things really heat up, leading to a number of classic scenes. First among these is Russell's "You tell'em I'm comin', and hell's comin' with me" warning to Ike Clanton (of the Cowboys) with his foot on Ike's neck after Wyatt had foiled an attempt by the Cowboys to kill him and Virgil. Then there's Val Kilmer's heckling of Biehn's deftly portrayed Johnny Ringo with the line "I'm your huckleberry" while tapping the butt of his shoulder-holstered pearl-handled pistol. This puts the classicly educated but somewhat looney Ringo over the edge just when it would have been better for him to keep his cool.

Another great scene from earlier in the movie is Russell's Earp dressing down a bullying faro dealer played by Billy Bob Thornton by boxing his ear and dragging him out into the street. There are many, many more memorable scenes in this film, but I'll stop here. Let me just say that I think Tombstone is the most fun 140 consecutive minutes of western action ever put on film.

Next on my "A" list are two Sergio Leone classics, Once Upon a Time in the West and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. To me, these two films represent the peak of westerns as mythology (unlike Lonesome Dove and Tombstone which both strive for a sense of realism). Both Leone films have big-name casts, are set in sweeping vistas, have iconic bad guys, and accentuate action scenes by prefacing them with long, drawn-out facial close-ups of the antagonists readying for battle without dialog, all set to haunting and usually crescendoing musical themes. To the viewer, it feels like you're watching a fuse burn down to a keg of dynamite. Talk about larger than life.

One of my favorite scenes from Once Upon a Time in the West is Jack Elam in a minor supporting role observing a fly buzzing around his head while kicked back on a straight-legged chair leaning against a wall waiting for a train to arrive. Elam eventually draws his pistol and traps the fly in the barrel of the gun against the wall, without disturbing his precarious seating arrangement, of course. Charles Bronson as the film's hero and Henry Fonda as the hired killer "Frank" (generally considered the most evil character he ever played) have a number of great scenes as the movie slowly but relentlessly works its way to the inevitable showdown. Jason Robards and Claudia Cardinale round out the cast of main characters with Keenan Wynn and Woody Strode appearing in supporting roles.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly has an equally stellar cast with Clint Eastwood reprising his "man with no name" personna as "The Good", Lee Van Cleef bringing his sinister visage to the role of "The Bad", and Eli Wallach masterfully taking the role of Tuco, "The Ugly". One of my favorite scenes is Tuco sitting in a bath overflowing with soap suds with an enemy who has caught him unprepared aiming a gun at him. The enemy (of no consequence to the overall plot of the movie) is reciting the series of past wrongs committed against him for which he is going to kill Tuco. After hearing the man rant for several minutes, Tuco shoots the enemy with the gun he has prudently taken with him into the bath. While the enemy lies bleeding to death a few feet from the bath, Tuco instructively tells him, "If you're going to shoot, shoot. Don't talk." Sage advice, if a bit untimely.

The plot of the film unfolds with a number of equally entertaining scenes, culminating in a  showdown in a graveyard in which a secret treasure is supposed to be buried. The final confrontation drags on, with alternating closeups of the three combatants slowly moving into position, each eyeing the other two alternatively, calculating just who will shoot whom, all with Ennio Morricone's famous score roaring in the background. Until the play is made. Great stuff.

The final film on my personal "A" list is Unforgiven. This Best Picture Oscar winner from 1992 does as good a job as any film in selling how little order (and soap) was actually in the old west. From the opening scene with Will Munny (a supposedly reformed murdering train robber played by Clint Eastwood) pushing and pulling his hogs back into their pen of foot-deep mud, to the assassination in a privy, to the torturing of an itinerant gunman English Bob (played by Richard Harris) by the sadistic sheriff Little Bill (played by Gene Hackman), to the final scene where Will lays the town low, it's a journey through grunge. And I'm guessing that's exactly how things were.

Eastwood is excellent, especially toward the end of the film as the crazed bad man out for revenge. The other notable in the film is Morgan Freeman as Munny's old sidekick and partner in what was planned to be one last job to claim a $500 reward offered by a madam for killing a cowboy who had taken a knife to one of her girls. As western justice would have it, Freeman's character is the one who loses his will for doing the deed. He bails, but ends up getting the worst of it just the same, captured and tortured to death by Little Bill.

My favorite line from the movie? Definitely Eastwood's honest but sobering comeback to the third and much younger member of the gang, the self-styled Schofield Kid (played by Jaimz Woolvett) upon the Kid's attempt to justify the murder in the privy because the victim "had it comin'". Munny just stares out over the landscape, whisky bottle in hand, and says "We all got it comin', Kid" - a succinct yet profound expression of the fundamental truth of Will Munny's world.

Another good line was Munny's response to a pulp fiction writer who asked him about his strategy for taking out the room full of armed men he was up against in the revenge scene. You know, who gets shot first based on relative skill and weaponry? Munny's response was "I've always been lucky in the order". Simple, like the rule about we all got it coming. And that's how every character is portrayed in this movie. Each accepting his or her fortunes in life, or lack thereof, and playing things out to the end. You have to love it.

Well, that's quite enough about my favorite westerns. Perhaps someday we'll team up for some viewings. But in the meantime, I'd like to close with a short list of other notable films in this genre that I would recommend. So here's a few more westerns I like to rescreen from time to time, in no particular order.

The Big Country - Former sea captain Gregory Peck runs into a feud over water rights and the hand of a little rich girl. Peck's character runs afoul of local ways as his way of dealing with the world is much different, albeit just as if not more effective. One of the highlights is an extended fistfight scene (runs for several minutes) between Peck and the ranch foreman played by Charlton Heston (who also fancies the girl) that when it's over seems to have no clear winner. I've only witnessed a couple of real fistfights in my life (both long ago), and they both went just about how this film version does.

Invitation to a Gunfighter - Yul Brynner plays an aging gunfighter hired by a spineless town mayor, played by Pat Hingle, to eliminate a returning Conferate soldier, played by a very young George Segal, whose land has been swindled away. Brynner's character has a change of heart when he learns the full story and decides to humiliate the townspeople by treating them badly until they come to their senses and do the right thing. There is a great poker scene where Yul wins a hand with a "natural" five kings (no wild cards).

The Mask of Zorro - A clever re-booting of the Zorro legend with admirable performances by Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta Jones. But the real fun is Anthony Hopkins as the original Zorro, training and passing the torch to Banderas.

McKenna's Gold - Another Gregory Peck vehicle, this one about the search for lost gold in a secret canyon (had to be at least one of these on the list, right?) It's not Treasure of the Sierra Madre, but it has its moments with an ensemble cast including Omar Sharif, Telly Savalas, Keenan Wynn, Julie Newmar, Lee J. Cobb, Raymond Massey, Burgess Meredith, Anthony Quale, Edward G. Robinson and Eli Wallach. How could you not like this movie?

The Magnificent 7 - Another ensemble cast led by Yul Brynner and Steve Mcqueen, supported by among others Charles Bronson, James Coburn and, once again, Eli Wallach. The fun of this one is Yul's character "interviewing" and hiring a team of gunfighters to defend a village of farmers that Eli's horde of Mexican banditos have been terrorizing.

Rio Bravo/El Dorado - I list these two John Wayne films together because I usually can't tell them apart. They're both about a broken down drunk sheriff (Robert Mitchum in one, Dean Martin in the other) that Wayne's character decides to help out of a scrape. Each film has a young newcomer that joins the mix (James Caan in one, Ricky Nelson in the other), and an old geezer sidekick (Walter Brennan in one, Arthur Hunnicutt in the other).

The plots of both films are pretty standard (as they are almost exactly the same) with a fair amount of humor between the inevitable confrontations and gun battles. What makes these two films fun for me is that both were made during Wayne's later period, when he was older but not old. So you get the fully developed John Wayne complete with big hat, swagger, furrowed-brow frowns and that "I'm always in charge wherever I am" attitude. The Duke at the top of his game. The two movies are highly entertaining with excellent performances by the supporting casts including both Mitchum and Martin in their respective roles.

I know this discussion only scratches the surface of the world of westerns, and there are many, many worthy offerings and western stars going unrecognized. From the early days there is Hoot Gibson, Ken Maynard, Bob Steele, Roy Rodgers, Gene Autry and my personal favorite Lash LaRue. Later, in the 40s and 50s there's Audie Murphy, Jimmy Stewart, Richard Widmark, Randolph Scott, Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin and Jack Palance. I have much-loved films featuring nearly all of these old heroes. But the dozen films discussed above (14 if you include the passing reference to the two cowboy-dinosaur movies) are very old friends and among the most valued members of my movie collection.

I'd love to hear about your favorite westerns and any recommendations you might have for broadening my horizons in this genre.

Until next time, Happy Trails!