"I never killed a man who didn't need killin"

[Mayerling]

it's sad how true a statement this is...as a lifelong film buff/historian I can't believe how shameful the Oscars have become... if you spend a ton of money you can win.. if you don't play the game... no matter how good your film is... you won’t even get a nomination...

Steadmund Brand

Absolutely correct. If I can tear us away from the West and Westerns for a moment:

Among my books on film is a nice "coffee table" book in paperback from the 1980s about the making and marketing of the 1933 classic "King Kong". I did not realize that it was made in part from sets used the previous year in another film I really like "The Most Dangerous Game" with Joel McCrae, Fay Wray, and Leslie Banks. The enduring popularity of the tragedy of the title character and how "'twas beauty killed the beast" is shown by how frequently the character is resurrected in remakes or sequels or all sorts.

One of the last chapters of the book was entitled, "Remember 'Cavalcade'?" This is in reference to the awarding of the 1933 "Best film Oscar" to the movie version of Noel Coward's over-the-years play "Cavalcade". It starred Clive Brook in the movie version (remember Clive Brook? He was Marlene Dietrich's ex-lover in "Shanghai Express" and portrayed Sherlock Holmes a few times. He actually was a fine actor). Nobody would recall "Cavalcade" today except die-hard film historians and Coward fans (and the latter would prefer his comedies like "Private Lives" and "Hay Fever" and "Blythe Spirit").
But I finally saw part of it in 1997 when, on the 70th anniversary of the first Academy Award show they did an over-the-years retrospective of the "Best films". They showed "Cavalcade"'s most notorious or best known moment: the two newly weds talking about their hopes and dreams while on a ship on their honeymoon, under a starry April sky. As they leave (and this is also in the play) the husband picks up his wife's wrap that was covering the life saver hanging on the rail - which says "RMS TITANIC" on it. That night the best film award went to James Cameron's retelling of the tragedy, "TITANIC". It's not a bad film, but for money the best of the films on that disaster was "A NIGHT TO REMEMBER" (1958) with Kenneth More, Laurence Naismith, Honore Blackman. That film actually concentrated on the disaster itself. "A NIGHT TO REMEMBER" was not nominated for best picture of 1958.

Jeff

[Steadmund Brand]

One year I delivered brochures for about 4 weeks to earn enough to see "Nobody".

And was worth every minute I bet!!!!

Steadmnund Brand

I almost think a what is your favorite Terence and Bud film thread is needed... but probably too few people on here remember or like them...Watch Out We're Mad is my favorite by the way

[GUT]

Oh Terence Hill and Bud Spencer.... how sad that NOBODY ( pun intended) in the States has seen or heard of them (well.. except the few terrible films Terence made in Hollywood in the 80's)

Steadmund Brand--

One year I delivered brochures for about 4 weeks to earn enough to see "Nobody".

[Steadmund Brand]

I guess I should put together a list of some of my favorite westerns

In no order

The Good the Bad and the Ugly
For A Few Dollars More
Fist Full of Dollars
The Shootist
El Topo
The Magnificent Seven
The Man who Shot Liberty Valance
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Unforgiven
They call Me Trinity/Trinity is still My Name
God Forgives.. I don't
My Name is Nobody
Ace High
Death Rides a Horse
Blazing Saddles
The Wild Bunch
Greed
There Was A Crooked Man
Fistfull of Dynamite(A.K.A. Duck you Sucker)
Django (1966!!)
The Great Silence

I could go on and on.. so I better stop for now

Steadmund Brand-

(Western isn't my favorite genre either)

[Steadmund Brand]

Now spaghetti, "They call me Trinity".

I also liked the Good the Bad and the Ugly and For a Fistful of Dollars, but Unforgiven was great as well.

Oh Terence Hill and Bud Spencer.... how sad that NOBODY ( pun intended) in the States has seen or heard of them (well.. except the few terrible films Terence made in Hollywood in the 80's)

Steadmund Brand--

[Steadmund Brand]

Winning the best picture oscar is a good indicator of how bad a movie is

it's sad how true a statement this is...as a lifelong film buff/historian I can't believe how shameful the Oscars have become... if you spend a ton of money you can win.. if you don't play the game... no matter how good your film is... you won’t even get a nomination...

Steadmund Brand

[kensei]

I'd also like to give a shout out to the remake, re-imagining or whatever you want to call it of "True Grit" just a few years ago. I thought it was amazing. I'm not going to say that John Wayne wasn't a great American hero or that he doesn't deserve his legendary status because he most definitely does, but at the same time I think it has to be said that he didn't have that much range as an actor. Jeff Bridges does, and his Rooster Cogburn was a grizzled, growling version of the character that I think was much more true to life than Wayne's. I remember sitting in the theater thinking oh please let them have preserved that great line "Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!" And of course they did, and when Bridges delivered it he snarled it like an animal. I'm not saying Wayne's delivery wasn't good, I just think Bridges' was much more realistic for a man about to charge across a clearing and single-handedly fight several armed men to the death.

And also, the part after that when he's trying to get the girl to medical help before she can die from snakebite and has to take her horse because his has been killed in the fight and he just rides it and rides it until it drops from exhaustion and he has to shoot it and go on on foot as the girl screams and cries for it- good god, that absolutely ripped my heart out and made me shed a tear. And that's exactly what movies are supposed to do.

[kensei]

One that I really liked a lot was "The Missing" (2003), though a lot of people think it's too hokey. Cate Blanchett, Tommy Lee Jones, and a story about the search for a kidnapped girl who's been taken by an Apache sorceror, or "brujo." I know the witchcraft elements won't appeal to everyone but it ends up in classic Western shoot-em-up style. I for one enjoyed the supernatural parts, and Jones had some chilling lines as he tried to explain to Blanchett what they were dealing with:

"I knew a brujo that could put an arrow in you from one mile away. I saw a brujo lay his hand on a child's head one time, one time. That child fell down on the ground, clamped up, and spit up white bees til she died."

Val Kilmer had a cameo in that as a cavalry officer, so I'll also give a nod to "Tombstone" in which he gave such an amazing performance as Doc Holiday and which has got to be on my top five list of favorite Westerns. "The Missing" also had this absolute little firebrand of a child actress in it named Jenna Boyd who must have been around ten years old at the time. Not sure what she's done since but I swear she was the best actor in the whole film.

[RockySullivan]

Red river is great too

[Robert]

"The Seven Faces Of Dr Lao" was an entertaining remake of 'Shane' for children.

[Hatchett]

In Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Dylan wrote and performed the sound track. There were a number of songs, including Knocking on Heavens Door. There were two called just "Billy."

[Mayerling]

Sorry Jeff I meant Bob Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door" from Pat and Billy.

I've seen both of those Billy the Kid Movies, really liked Left Handed Gun. "Billy the Kid" I wasn't so keen on by Taylor saved it.

Haven't heard Bob Dylan's song about Billy. Maybe it's on You Tube.

"Billy the Kid" was MGM's attempt to cash in on 20th Century Fox's 1939 success about the James Gang, "Jessie James" with Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda and Randolph Scott). But the 20th Century fox film was better in terms of story. "The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Bob Ford" actually painted a better - and more frighteningly correct - portrait of James as a psychotic killer. On the other hand I loved Henry Hull's pro-Jessie newspaper editor in the Power film, who ends every editorial with the exclamation that anyone who disagrees with his sentiments ought to be taken outside and shot down like a dog. You can't beat that kind of dialog!

Jeff

[GUT]

Hi GUT,

There are also two earlier Billy the Kid films. One is "Billy the Kid" with Robert Taylor (1941) and the other is "The Left Handed Gun" with Paul Newman and John Dehner as Billy and Pat Garrett.

What's "Dylan's Song" about?

Jeff

Sorry Jeff I meant Bob Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door" from Pat and Billy.

I've seen both of those Billy the Kid Movies, really liked Left Handed Gun. "Billy the Kid" I wasn't so keen on by Taylor saved it.

[Mayerling]

Another no one has mentioned

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

Coupled with Dylan's song.

Hi GUT,

There are also two earlier Billy the Kid films. One is "Billy the Kid" with Robert Taylor (1941) and the other is "The Left Handed Gun" with Paul Newman and John Dehner as Billy and Pat Garrett.

What's "Dylan's Song" about?

Jeff

[GUT]

Another no one has mentioned

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

Coupled with Dylan's song.