A Fistful of Westerns: A Cinephile's Look at an Age Old Genre

Ever since the invention of cinema first graced Earth, people have been making westerns. The first western film was made in 1903, back when the Old West was practically still around!. It was called The Great Train Robbery. It followed a very simple plot. It was exactly what it sounded like. Some guys robbing a train. The genre has evolved quite a bit since 1903. Going through ups and downs. Reaching its peak around the 50s and 60s then slowly but steadily fading from the public conscience. There have been few great westerns in the last decade: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, True Grit, 3:10 to Yuma, and Django Unchained are the only ones that come to mind. If it weren't for people like Clint Eastwood and The Coen Brothers, I believe the genre would be completely dead. If you haven't noticed by now, the western is a genre very dear to me. I've been watching them since I was first captivated by Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid as a small child. I remember being completely blown away after experiencing The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in the fifth grade. I could never get enough cowboy hats, six shooters, and sweeping shots of the expansive western landscape. I sometimes fell away from the films in search of others, but I always came back. Nothing captured my imagination quite like a good western film. Maybe it was the

wondrous sense of adventure. Maybe it was the thought of a wide open and exciting unconquered land where anything was possible. Maybe I just love a good hero story and the Wild West is a good template for the story. Maybe it's a mix of all of them. No other movie genre is so distinctive and exciting as is the western. It can be used simply as an action movie template (i.e. For a Few Dollars More) or for a deep and meaningful story (i.e. Duck, You Sucker and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford). It can even blend the two as The Searchers did. It's a malleable genre. And a wholly wonderful one at that. Westerns can be big and ambitious and epic as in Django Unchained and Once Upon a Time in the West. Or they can be small scale pictures like Rio Bravo or High Noon. I have to say, I'm partial to the epic western.  Many directors have ventured into the western, some more successful than others. I'd say the most adept at making western movies are Sergio Leone and John Ford. Leone has been a favorite of mine for quite some time. He's made what are some of my favorite western films and has an unmistakable style that's indistinguishable form other directors. Plus, he always collaborates with composer Ennio Morricone. Morricone's music can make even
the most mediocre westerns seem wonderful. Not that any of Sergio Leone's movies are mediocre. My favorite, as you probably know, is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Yet, he has made many other great films, like Duck, You Sucker and Once Upon a Time in the West. I consider Duck, You Sucker to be an under seen and underrated masterpiece with one of Ennio Morricone's best scores. As I mentioned before, Leone has a very distinct style. Close ups, violence, shoot outs, and emphasis on the lone outlaw. In all of his movies, there is a singular hero. Or some silent/charismatic type that fits in with his original Man with No Name character played by Clint Eastwood in the Dollars Trilogy. Charles Bronson in Once Upon a Time in the West. And a mix of Rod Steiger and James Coburn in Duck, You Sucker. There's also almost always some epic shootout or standoff towards the end of Leone's western films. My favorite being in either For a Few Dollars More or Once Upon a Time in the West. John Ford's westerns on the other hand are slightly more peaceful and character driven. My Darling Clementine is a very sweet hearted western were the violent shootout doesn't come towards the end, similar to High Noon. Except My Darling Clementine is a much better movie in

general than High Noon. The Searchers also strays away from the violence mostly until the last ten minutes or so, and focuses on racial issues, the landscape, and John Wayne's character. It has bits here and there, but nothing compared to a Sergio Leone movie. None of this is bad for either director, it's just their different styles. Both very good. The Searchers is my favorite John Ford movie by the way. There are other directors like Andrew Dominik, Quentin Tarantino, and The Coen Brothers who have made great westerns, but have only done it once or twice. They have practically mastered the genre on a first try. Each of their films are imprinted with a particular style, though. It would be awesome if they could make another film like that. There's a common misconception that westerns, at least older ones, are very cliche and often boring. This is very, very wrong. I have watched quite a few western movies in my life and very few of them have seemed cliche or boring at all to me. Almost every western I've seen has been distinctive and I may be bias just because I like and appreciate the genre so much, but I've only seen a few westerns I really didn't like. High Noon is a critically lauded film starring Gary Cooper. It won Oscars and everyone seems to love it. I did not. It was boring and slow and DID fall into cliches often. The "big" payoff at the end wasn't big at all and Lee Van Cleef was completely wasted as an actor. Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo follows a similar premise to High Noon but does it better and with more excitement and style. I didn't love Rio Bravo either but it did what High Noon couldn't. Dead Man which was directed by Jim Jarmusch was so slow and not enjoyable I couldn't finish it. Out of all of Sergio Leone's movies, I actually dislike A Fistful of Dollars the most. Don't get me wrong, I love all of his movies, that one just is the weakest. It also came off a tad cliche at parts. I feel as he went on, Leone became a better director and better at holding the audience's attention. Most people don't realize but there is are different sub-genres in the western genre. There's the well known spaghetti western, popularized by Sergio Leone. The spaghetti western often involves the film being shot in Italy, lower budgets, traditionally more violence, and selfish character motives. The spaghetti western is my favorite sub-genre. Then there's the Revisionist western, which I'm not as familiar with. That involved the changing of ideals and landscape in the not so Old West. One of my favorites is the neo western. The neo western takes place in a contemporary

American west setting, but makes use of western tropes and themes like, shootouts, wide open landscapes, and a lone hero (or anti-hero). Some examples are No Country for Old Men, 2 Guns, Desperado, Brokeback Mountain, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. No Country for Old Men is the best example of a neo western in my opinion. One could even argue that Rian Johnson's 2012 sci-fi flick, Looper, is a neo western (or I guess sci-fi western). It fits the categories. A future setting not in the Old West. A lone anti-hero. Shootouts. Open western landscapes. Bruce Willis' character even uses a futuristic revolver. Unfortunately the western is going out of favor. but I feel like the neo western may be coming into play. This excites me because the neo western is a malleable and interesting genre that a lot could be done with. Who knows? Maybe in a few years the neo western will be as popular as neo noir has become. As I mentioned before, the western is going out of favor. It's very depressing. The last western released, The Lone Ranger, flopped really badly and got less then favorable reviews. Quentin Tarantino was originally going to make another western called The Hateful Eight to follow up Django. He now isn't going to make that. The next big western coming out is Seth MacFarlane's A Million Ways to Die in the West. It's a comedy and has the potential to be very bad. Really the only good comedic western is Blazing Saddles. The state of the western is a sad one. I truly love the genre and hope it doesn't befall the fate it looks like it's headed to. In the mean time, go watch Duck, You Sucker or The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford! Go watch The Searchers! There are a whole lot of fantastic westerns out there and I've only scratched the surface. I still have to watch How The West Was Won and Unforgiven, along with many other westerns I've yet to watch. It's a vast and awesome genre that doesn't get enough credit. The western is old, wonderful, and exciting. It always will be. That's all for now. Happy Viewing.
If you haven't done so already, you can follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies. Thank you for reading!

          

Once Upon a Time in the West review

I really hate the word epic. It's overused in all the wrong ways and it's never used when it should be. In the case of this movie, I believe the word epic can be used.

As you very well may know, I'm partial to westerns. Sergio Leone westerns in particular. And since I'm trying to watch a lot of westerns to learn about and understand the genre more, it was only natural of me to watch Sergio Leone's famous 1968 western, Once Upon a Time in the West. I had tried to watch the whole thing about a year ago, but I kept getting distracted and not being able to finish it. Finally, I sat down and watched the entire film from start to finish. While I can't say it's Leone's best movie, it certainly is a very good one. Once Upon a Time in the West is a story of Jill McBain (Claudia Cardinale), whose family was killed by a group of land hungry bandits led by the very evil Frank (Henry Fonda). Cardinale teams up with the notorious Cheyenne (Jason Robards) to help her stay safe. Meanwhile, a stranger known only as Harmonica (Charles Bronson) also helps Cheyenne, while simultaneously attending to his own agenda. I feel like Sergio Leone movies just get better as they go along. Starting with the very good A Fistful of Dollars, and getting increasingly better from there. The only exception of the rule is that The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly came before Once Upon a Time in the West. In all fairness, it is quite difficult to beat The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The rest of his movies follow that path though. Maybe because he just got more and more experienced. Once Upon a Time in the West is one of his later films, and one of his best. It combines serious drama with classic western standoffs and good acting. While I really do love all of Sergio Leone's westerns, the acting in them is never great. Granted, I've unfortunately never seen Once Upon a Time in America. Sure, Clint Eastwood's outlaw is a classic character, but is the performance really good? He is passable, but most of the other roles can be laughably bad. What makes Once Upon a Time in the West stand out is its talented all star cast. Charles Bronson is alright in the role of Harmonica. He plays him with a nice mix of deadpan and comedy, while still maintaining the mystery of the character. Jason Robards is good too as Cheyenne. He's nothing truly special though. Henry Fonda is deliciously bad as the main criminal, Frank. I don't think I've seen Fonda play a bad guy before, but he is good at it. The real star here is Claudia Cardinale. She is talented, pretty, and able to carry this movie on her shoulders. I haven't seen her in anything else but I'd certainly like to. Despite the film being made in a time when woman weren't as respected, Cardinale plays a strong and independent woman who isn't a nagging housewife or Playboy girl. She isn't exploited here, and she isn't left in the background either. Cardinale is front and center, showing off her skill. And that is just were she deserves to be. As I mentioned above, this film is really epic. It spans a whole three hours, and makes use of every minute. The last forty minutes are riveting. There is an incredible gunfight, and a terrific bittersweet ending that shows us that no matter what, the growth of the West will prevail. Ennio Morricone's terrific score helps too. The composer always teams up with Leone for his films, and the finished product is always great. I recommend you to listen to all of his western musical scores. They're all great in their own way. Overall, this movie is about the hardiness and promise of the Old West. It rings with the message of prevailing through the darkness and triumphing evil. It's a good old fashioned adventure epic. It's not Sergio Leone's most meaningful western, (Duck, You Sucker takes the cake for that) but it's a hell of a lot more thoughtful than some of his other stuff. I do recommend the movie. It's nowhere near perfect, but it still is awe inspiring and  good. Happy Viewing everyone. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies!         

Duck, You Sucker review

Never heard of or seen this movie? You better fix that.

I hadn't heard of Duck, You Sucker (which is sometimes known as A Fistful of Dynamite) at all until I got a box set of Sergio Leone films for my birthday. It came with the obligatory Dollars Trilogy with Clint Eastwood (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly), but it also came with this movie called Duck, You Sucker that I hadn't ever heard of. Well, last night I popped it in and watched it. What followed was one of the most wonderful, thoughtful, and awesome westerns I had ever seen. The film is about a low class bank robber named Juan (Rod Steiger) who teams up with a charismatic I.R.A explosives expert named John Mallory (James Coburn) to heist a large bank in Mexico. Yet, instead of that they get thrown head over heels into the Mexican revolution. One of the reasons I was so blown away by Duck, You Sucker was the fact that it was so different then most of Leone's other westerns. It had some similar parts to it, but it really felt completely different than his Dollars Trilogy or Once Upon a Time in The West. It dealt with much more political subjects and seemed to go a lot deeper into character than most of his other films. Don't get me wrong, I love his other movies to death. Yet, this one was different in such a good way. It starts out with Juan boarding a stagecoach filled with rich white people, all of them looking at him in disgust and being generally racist and elitist. This was when I started to see Leone grappling with issues like class discrepancy and stuff like that. I thought he was just touching on a subject like that. No, about halfway through the film it starts really dealing with the Mexican revolution and how it affected the Mexicans. One shot shows soldiers just massacring rebels in pits, and not just the adult men. Women and children are not spared. The film isn't all horrifying war stuff like that though. It somehow manages to take comedic scenes, exciting western action, and very emotional and in depth scenes and marry them in a beautiful way. There are certain parts that are very cool classic Leone western scenes. Then there are these very touching exchanges between Juan and John that are just beautiful. There's also a series of flashbacks that give John's character some background. They all take place in what we think is Ireland and are all done incredibly well. The amount of range this film has is fantastic. I honestly can't recommend it enough. Another great thing here are the explosions. Nowadays we have CGI explosions in our movies. It's amazing to see that when stuff gets blown up in this movie, it's for real. The explosions look so raw and real, because they are. It's better than CGI could ever do. There's one scene in particular where a bridge is blown up. It's one of the most incredible things I've seen on film. One trademark of Sergio Leone films are the musical scores done by Ennio Morricone. You probably have heard The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly one, or maybe some of the others. They all have a very distinct sound. They remind me of a warrior marching into battle, or two men facing off in a gunfight. The score for Duck, You Sucker is one of Morricone's best. It started off kind of slow and I was quite skeptical, then it get's better and it really grows on you. To tell you the truth, I'm listening to it right now. When the movie started out it seemed like any other Leone film. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. But it seemed like it could be a For a Few Dollars More-esque bank heist western. I really liked that movie so I was excited. Instead, I got a politically charged and very emotional film with a lot more thematic weight than any western I've seen in a while. I haven't seen all of his movies so I can't say for sure, and I'd want to watch this again before I made any judgements, but Duck, You Sucker may be my favorite Sergio Leone film. And this is coming from someone who genuinely loves The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Again, I'm not too sure about that yet. Duck, You Sucker is different then most classic westerns I've seen because it mixes great western style and tropes with heartfelt messages and serious character development. If you haven't noticed by now, I really loved the film. I'm surprised this hasn't reached the level of notoriety that many western (particular Leone) movies have gained. It's better than many, like High Noon, that have become quite famous. With Duck, You Sucker, Sergio Leone proves yet again that he is a master of the genre. If you haven't seen it, I urge you to do so as soon as you can. Duck, You Sucker is funny, epic, exciting, and really damn terrific. Thanks for reading! You can always follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies! Happy Viewing!

#tbt A Fistful of Dollars review

This is the western that all other westerns wish they were.
I absolutely love westerns. Some people think they're cliche and outdated. Personally, I think they're great. It seems westerns are going out of style, unfortunately. Yet there have been a few modern triumphs. For example; Django Unchained, 3:10 to Yuma, or The Coen Brother's True Grit remake. Back in the 50's and 60's, the Old West was in style. The days of John Wayne and the six shooter. One notable western star of the time was Clint Eastwood. Before he became the rambling old person he is now, he was in many films of the genre from The Outlaw Josey Wales to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is part of Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy (aka, The Man with No Name Trilogy). Starting with A Fistful of Dollars, arguably the best in the series. This movie is a classic western. Filled with shootouts, big dusty landscapes, and lots of Old Western weaponry. The plot is quite simple, yet it works so well. An unnamed drifter arrives in a small Mexican town and finds two rival families at war. He uses his incredible gun slinging skills and his wits to put the two families against each other, while also helping a mother get back to her family. There is a preconceived notion many people have that old movies are boring and not worth watching. I will admit, some older movies take on a slightly slower pace then would be desired. Yet, there are many old movies that are just as exciting as new ones. A Fistful of Dollars is one of those. It's an enjoyable and fun film that doesn't sacrifice content and quality for more action. I can honestly say this goes up with some of my favorite westerns of all time like Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid and Django Unchained. One major component to the film is it's incredible score from Ennio Morricone. Morricone did the musical scores for most of Sergio Leone's films. His awesome score for A Fistful of Dollars adds more to the film than most soundtracks usually do. I think only Jurassic Park has ever had a score so powerful and important to it's movie. Movies like Dollars paved the way for more modern "neo westerns' like No Country for Old Men, 2 Guns, and practically every Robert Rodriguez movie. Without great westerns like this, the movie industry itself would be completely different. It's something you could call revolutionary. A landmark in filmmaking. It also boasts one of he most memorable performances Eastwood has ever given. To some (not me), A Fistful of Dollars seems very outdated and cliche today. I think it is not. A Fistful of Dollars is one of the movies that were so well done, that it was copied off of and used as example. This is THE western. I think it's a real shame there aren't more westerns out there today. It's a great genre. And A Fistful of Dollars is a great film. Happy Viewing and Happy Throwback Thursday. Remember, you can follow me on Twitter @WhitsMovies and like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/WhitsMovies.