The Good, The Bad, and The Official Western Thread

[gwynplaine]

 

[C. Lee]

Today I watched -

THE MOUNTAIN MEN (1980)

Starring Charlton Heston, Brian Keith, Victoria Racimo, Stephen Macht, John Glover, Seymour Cassel, William Lucking, and Victor Jory.

It's 1838, mountain man Bill Tyler (Charlton Heston) hunts for a fabled valley where the beaver are as plentiful as the stars in the sky (a stubborn and hard headed venture seeing as how he has been told the market for beaver is dramatically falling off). After saving the Blackfoot woman Running Moon (Victoria Racimo; The Day of the Dolphin, The Mystic Warrior, Prophecy) from a Crow raiding party, she decides she wants to stay with him. She does this at first mostly to get away from her abusive psycho husband Heavy Eagle (Stephen Macht; Raid on Entebbe, The Choirboys, The Monster Squad), and he reluctantly takes her on....but they grow to love one another. Together, they hunt and trap the Rockies and it's surrounding area, have numerous run ins with the vengeful Heavy Eagle and his warriors, and meet such others as; Tyler's oldest friend and fellow mountain man Henry Frapp (Brian Keith; The Wind and the Lion, The Yakuza, Young Guns), young adventurer Nathan Wyeth (John Glover; RoboCop 2, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, Scrooged), 110 year old chief Iron Belly (Victor Jory; Gone with the Wind, Papillon, Cheyenne Autumn), and weasly foul minded trapper La Bont (Seymour Cassel; Faces, Minnie and Moskowitz, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie). It all leads to a one on one showdown between Tyler and Heavy Eagle over who shall have Running Moon.....[BLACKOUT]and when Running Moon shoots the **** out of Heavy Eagle as he's about the kill Tyler, we know definately who she wants.[/BLACKOUT]


Written by Heston's son Fraser Clarke Heston. The theatrical directing debut of Richard Lang (up to this point known best for directing the TV series Kung Fu and Harry O).

Full of rude crude and hilarious off color humor (mostly from Brian Keith in his second best performance in a movie (the first being his Theodore Roosevelt in THE WIND AND THE LION)....and lots of graphic violence.

Beautifully shot in the state of Wyoming in the Bridger Teton National Forest and Shoshone National Forest....many scenes look like they were shot for a nature calender.

I have been looking for years for a widescreen version of this movie. I have the old fullscreen VHS tape and the only DVD released (many years ago) is also fullscreen....but last night the ENCORE WESTERN channel showed it in widescreen and I burned it to DVD....I am a happy man today.

 

[Art_of_Crime]

I need to watch this movie again. It was on TCM a year or so ago, but I had to leave in the middle of it.

 

[Mike_D202]

If you guys haven't seen it yet, "Last Stand" with Arnold Schwarzenegger plays out just like a Western (especially the end fight, the music even gets into it).

 

[Black Narcissus]

Navajo Joe

Burt Reynolds.

That's all.

 

[Black Narcissus]

I just bought the BR and goddamn. It still holds up pretty damn well.

I actually prefer this over Unforgiven.

 

[Mightmitenot]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BwpB_XJPlU

Burt Lancaster The Kentuckian. Introduced Walter Mathaugh.

 

[Hunter Rider]

I just bought the BR and goddamn. It still holds up pretty damn well.

I actually prefer this over Unforgiven.

This has one of my favourite Eastwood lines, when the young bounty hunter comes to try and collect on Josey and he gives him a chance to walk away and the he says he can't as it's what he does for a living and Josey replies "Dying ain't much of a livin' boy."

 

[Black Narcissus]

I decided to get more Clint classics.

Pale Rider

High Plains Drifter

 

[gwynplaine]

 

[Hunter Rider]

Spock as a cowboy!

 

[gwynplaine]

^

Spock Holliday t:
Is that Josh Randall's Winchester?

 

[C. Lee]

That pic is from the movie CATLOW....he plays a mean snot in that one (a bounty hunter who prefers them dead rather than alive).

Nimoy did a lot of TV westerns before STAR TREK....many times playing native Americans.

 

[gwynplaine]

That pic is from the movie CATLOW....he plays a mean snot in that one (a bounty hunter who prefers them dead rather than alive).

Nimoy did a lot of TV westerns before STAR TREK....many times playing native Americans.

I didn't know that, thanks for the info

 

[Hunter Rider]

^

Spock Holliday t:
Is that Josh Randall's Winchester?

Spock Holiday? I like it!

Here's a question, best version of Doc Holiday?

 

[Hunter Rider]

That pic is from the movie CATLOW....he plays a mean snot in that one (a bounty hunter who prefers them dead rather than alive).

Nimoy did a lot of TV westerns before STAR TREK....many times playing native Americans.

Is it worth a watch?

I could see that in truth during that time period, he was a more credible choice than some actors they used.

 

[gwynplaine]

Spock Holiday? I like it!

Here's a question, best version of Doc Holiday?

I like all of them but my favorite is probably still Kirk Douglas, maybe because I'm a big Kirk Douglas fan.

 

[C. Lee]

Here's a question, best version of Doc Holiday?

Two of my favorites are - Jason Robards in HOUR OF THE GUN and Val Kilmer in TOMBSTONE.

Is it worth a watch?

I could see that in truth during that time period, he was a more credible choice than some actors they used.

CATLOW is a decent but not great movie. It's based off of a Louis L'Amour book, so it gets points for that....it seems to wander a bit from what I remember. It follows the characters of Catlow (Yul Brynner) a likeable outlaw that is being hunted by his old friend a sheriff (Richard Crenna) and a ruthless bounty hunter (Leonard Nimoy). You have shootouts, robberies, Indian attacks.....

 

[Black Narcissus]

Jack Nicholson did a western.

Any good?

Also, I have not seen Heaven't Gate..Is it worth it?

 

[Eddie Dean]

Missouri Breaks? Very good.

 

[gwynplaine]

Jack Nicholson did a few Westerns, which one? The Shooting, Goin' South and maybe a few others and like Eddie Dean said MB? I like both GS and MB but haven't seen The Shooting, but Nicholson has a great look in it and it's directed by Monte Hellman so it might be worth checking out.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Jack Nicholson did a few Westerns, which one? The Shooting, Goin' South and maybe a few others and like Eddie Dean said MB? I like both GS and MB but haven't seen The Shooting, but Nicholson has a great look in it and it's directed by Monte Hellman so it might be worth checking out.

I actually don't know which one. I remember hearing it did not have a wide release and it was made in the the late 60s-early 70s. I saw the one he did with Brando.

 

[Black Narcissus]

Hang Em' High

I found another Tarantino inspiration for Pitt's character from Basterds. The scar on his neck is definitely a homage to this film.

 

[C. Lee]

Jack Nicholson did a western.

Any good?

He did around 5 movies and guested on 4 or 5 TV westerns. None were very memorable except for MISSOURI BREAKS and that was more because it co-starred Brando than anything else.

Also, I have not seen Heaven't Gate..Is it worth it?

I happened to have watched HEAVEN'S GATE just a few weeks ago. It was the 3 hour 26 minutes version......cut out 2 hours and 26 minutes and it might be ok. It is full of long extremely crowded "look at me, I'm directing hundreds of people doing nothing that really has anything to do with the story" scenes. In my opinion....it is pretentious and overblown, boring until the last 45 or so minutes (when it becomes an extended shootout between scores of people). It's filmed in a "muddy/fuzzy" way. Apparently Cimino wanted to show the dusty west...so it all looks like it was filmed during a sand storm.

If you want to see a famous (or infamous) movie or want to check out some early work by Christopher Walken....then yeah, go ahead and watch it. But if you want to watch a good (or even fair) movie of the western genre....I can't recommend it. I can spend a great deal of time explaining the reasons why I think it is not worth watching......having trouble coming up with any reasons (other than the 2 mentioned above) to watch it.

 

[Black Narcissus]

@ C.Lee

I can scratch off Heaven's Gate. It sounds like a drag. Thank ya!

The Brave
Johnny Depp directed a western of his own in the 90s, but it did not have a US release. The euro critics seemed to love it and the US critics hated it.