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Some of my spicy Western hot takes (will provide elaborations if asked):
First up: Pale Rider is trash. Some good scenery, but really, just watch Shane again. High Plains Drifter is better than Pale Rider, but still not particularly good...
Feel free to add your own.
First up: Pale Rider is trash. Some good scenery, but really, just watch Shane again. High Plains Drifter is better than Pale Rider, but still not particularly good...
Feel free to add your own.
Second hot take: Modern Westerns aren't really Westerns, they're crime films set in the West with a couple cowboy hats thrown in (the exception would be the Singing Cowboy sub-genre). No Country, Alfredo Garcia, Hell or High Water: not Westerns.
Third: Silverado is also trash. Boomers playing dress-up. Movies like this and Young Guns are what tricked people into forgetting the 60s/70s Westerns and thinking Unforgiven (as good as it is) broke any new ground in the genre.
Fourth: I've said this before, but I think Craig S. Zahler's dialogue in Bone Tomahawk is a poor attempt at doing Charles Portis, and is sometimes downright embarrassing.
Fifth: Pollack and Redford screwed Jeremiah Johnson up. Milius's script is masterful. Anything good in the film is in his draft. In lieu of a climax they have a montage of fighting that looks like the opening credits to a TV show, and then JJ is just like, "hey I'm done fighting"
Sixth: I don't really love either film, but I think Kevin Costner was a way better Wyatt Earp than Kurt Russell. As an actor, I like Russell better than Costner, but his acting in Tombstone makes me cringe.
Seventh: if an article about Westerns ever refers to the White Hat/Black Hat dichotomy, you can stop reading immediately. This was not only never a thing, the author is just trotting out old cliches in lieu of research and insight.
Eighth: 50s Westerns are the most reliable and consistent in quality. 30s, 40s, 60s, and 70s Westerns are the most interesting but a mixed bag.
Ninth: the portrayal of Comanche activity in the novel/screenplay of The Searchers is not racist, but actually an accurate depiction of their modus operandi. The depiction in the film is racist though... 1/2
...but not in a way unique to the times. Its racism stems from its lack of fidelity w the culture in terms of casting a white actor to play Scar, using different Indian dialect for the Comanche, and making a mockery of their brilliant battle strategies, among other things 2/2
Tenth: the stripped down poetry Ford was attempting in My Darling Clementine was refined in the underrated Wagon Master. Clementine is better overall, but Wagon Master is less flawed. In fact, it might be a perfect Western.
Eleventh: the ending, setting, and villain in The Great Silence are all great, but the film doesn't work overall. A mute hero is a good idea on paper but makes for a dull lead. The Frank Wolff comedy is embarrassing. The pacing makes it a chore. Corbucci did much better work.
Twelfth: The Westerner is Gary Cooper's best Western.
Thirteenth: High Noon is a great film with a contrived, unrealistic storyline. In fact, any Western where a town is helpless against a small group of bandits is fantasy. Ask the James-Younger gang, the Dolans & a dozen others.
Fourteenth: Samurai films do not translate well into Westerns. The Magnificent Seven and A Fistful of Dollars both have their moments and are obviously influential, but are also fundamentally flawed and drag. The Magnificent Seven somehow feels longer than The Seven Samurai.
Fifteenth: analyzing a Western's socio-political context is often the most boring way of discussing it and reeks of trying to legitimize an inherently pulpy genre (like when someone says a Horror film is a metaphor for addiction, or whatever) 1/1
High Noon is about McCarthyism, The Wild Bunch is a reaction against the violence in Vietnam, Sgt. Rutledge is about Civil Rights, etc. Ok, cool. Now what? 2/2
Sixteenth: it's an absolute mess, but Verbinski's Lone Ranger is great fun.
Seventeenth: when Spaghetti Westerns, specifically those of Sergio Sollima, tried to inject some Marxist ideas into the proceedings, they didn't trust their stories to do it organically. Cuchillo giving bread to kids and telling them to divide it equally? Fuck off.
Eighteenth: Leone, the great poet of bombast, didn't really have anything to say or much insight into human psychology, and when he made attempts, he faltered greatly. I love most of his films as purely sensory experiences. They're among my favorite Westerns because of that...1/2
But TGTBATU's war commentary is "it's pointless", OUATITW pretends it's about the death of the West but is basically just riffing on the groundwork laid by other Westerns, Duck You Sucker is a fun middle finger to the political Westerns but I still don't know what it's saying 2/2
Bonus non-Western Leone content: Once Upon a Time in America is like hanging out with an unpleasant drunk for 3 hours, alternating between uncomfortable crassness and whimpering sentimentality. Leone is still on my Mount Rushmore of Western directors though.
