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The novel of the homestead cabin writes itself. It was a prologue of possibilities, of quails and tarantulas and Joshua tree groves and sunshine. Since then, its chapters, experienced at a 2,500-mile distance, waver between comedy and tragedy and tearjerker, with the love of my life, the cabin, being both beautiful and ugly, stoic and needy, a magnet . . . → Read More: Enter My House Justified; or, Skirmish at the Old Homestead Cabin  We’ll find ’em in the end, I promise you. We’ll find ’em. Just as sure as the turnin’ of the earth. —Ethan Edwards (John Wayne), The Searchers (1956) The Meaning of Life was easier to know before World War II. They were bad; we were good. Since 1945, it’s been harder to maintain the line in the . . . → Read More: Did the Duke take the Myth to the Grave?; or, Tim Neath’s Search through Western Films  6 comments  Cowboy Mythos, Cowgirl Mythos, Movie Quotes, The Good the Bad the Fugly, Uncategorized, Wild Western Web  cowboys in sheffield, creative spark 2012, did the duke take the myth to the grave, life in an abandoned town, martha and ethan, the searchers, tim neath, western art, western cliches, western movies, western themes Writing a novel is hard work. Writing a good western can be even more daunting: westerns, which tend to have plotlines so well traveled you can drive a wagon train through them, nonetheless require historical specificity and a protagonist who typifies rugged individuality—laconic and gimlet-eyed from the start or in a dude-to-hero arc. So whenever I read . . . → Read More: Writing the High Country; or, Author Larry Bjornson on His Western, Wide Open 2 comments Cowboy Mythos, Cowgirl Mythos, Pulp Westerns and Paperbacks; Book Reviews, The Good the Bad the Fugly, Uncategorized, Wrangling a Novel abilene 1871, american west, essential western plots, larry bjornson, novel writing, Western, western themes, wide open, wild bill hickok, wild west, writing a western novel As I was saying before paying work and Valentine’s Day and the call of the West in the form of watching The Stalking Moon, starring Gregory “Awesome Gimlet-Eye” Peck, epic westerns aren’t my cuppa tea. Or joe. I’d just finished spinning my snark about epic westerns in an earlier post when Nuts4r2 “Awesome Gimlet-eyed Film Reviewer” called . . . → Read More: Et tu, Cimarron?; or More Rules for Epic Westerns 2 comments Cowboy Mythos, Cowboys Gone Wrong, Cowgirl Mythos, Film Reviews, Men Were Men and Women Were Women, Movie Quotes, Reel Life vs. Real Life, The Good the Bad the Fugly, Uncategorized, What Would Gary Cooper Do? cimarron, epic westerns, glenn ford, land rush in movies, maria schell, men in westerns, Once Upon a Time in the West, racism in westerns, sexist westerns, western cliches, western themes, women in westerns Westerns = Greek drama. And shut up, Aeschylus is so not rolling in his grave. He’d have appreciated the golden-boy good looks of John Wayne in John Ford’s Stagecoach and the film’s subtle yet sharp critique on so-called civilized society–the stagecoach journey as a vehicle for a development of a humane community that cannot survive in . . . → Read More: Men Will Be Men and Women Will Be Women; or, The Sexual Frontier of Epic Westerns 2 comments Cowboy Mythos, Cowboys Gone Wrong, Cowgirl Mythos, Men Were Men and Women Were Women, State of the Union 2011, The Good the Bad the Fugly american west, cimarron, cowboylands, epic westerns, essential western plots, silver-screen western hero, western cliches, western genre, western men, western movies, western themes, western women, westerns, wild west True Grit has accomplished the impossible. Unity! It’s a miracle! It’s hope, change, and Old West dialogue all mixed together! True Grit has bridged the red state/blue state divide, Frank Rich of The New York Times writes. It’s a hit with coastal elites and Middle America family-values families alike, something that the blue/red mix of voters . . . → Read More: The Purple States of True Grit; or, Bridging the Gap, One Movie Theater at a Time 2 comments Cowboy Mythos, Film Reviews, Reel Life vs. Real Life, State of the Union 2011, The Good the Bad the Fugly, Wild Western Web coen brothers true grit, corporate malfeasance, cowboy code, essential western plots, frank rich true grit, purple states, red state blue state, silver-screen western hero, true grit, western film posters, western heroines, western journey, western movies, western themes, westerns I thought I liked westerns until I saw Ten Wanted Men, 1955, directed by H. Bruce “Lucky” Humberstone, who never wasted a shot, even when it was shitty. But if you can sit through this slog-fest of clichés and stilted dialogue and incongruous shots and dead airspace, westerns are your life. Bad western clichés, gawd . . . → Read More: The Good, Bad, and the Fugly; or, Silver-Screen Western Clichés in Ten Wanted Men 3 comments Film Reviews, Men Were Men and Women Were Women, Movie Quotes, The Good the Bad the Fugly, WestWays: Traveling in the American West blazing saddles, bruce humberstone, civilization vs. wilderness, lee van cleef, leo gordon, lucky humberstone, old tucson studios, randolph scott, richard boone, skip homeier, ten wanted men, western cliches, western themes |
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