. . I wouldn’t have it any other way . . We can’t do justice to this great movie in a short blogpost. It would

. A Western-lover’s Western . . In a post-Heaven’s Gate period of drought when A-Westerns weren’t being made (Cimino had almost sunk the genre single-handed),

. . Clint’s masterpiece . . Only the third Western to win an Oscar for Best Picture – Cimarron (RKO, 1931) and Dances with Wolves

. The high noon of the Western motion picture . . Right, here’s the situation: you are on a sinking ship with a full cargo

. Next in an occasional series on Western cinematographers . .         . Master of light and shadow . . James Wong

. Rooster Cogburn, no grit? Not much! . . The 1969 filming of the great Charles Portis novel True Grit was a perfectly splendid Western.

. . It gives you that buzz . . One huge benefit of modern times has been that we can travel. Only the other day,

. . First in a series of posts on Western cinematographers . .   The eye behind the lens . . Robert Surtees (1906 –

. If it weren’t for the acting, direction and writing, September Dawn might be alright . . Films which deal with Mormons and Mormonism have,

. . Attack that fort! . . Last night there was a pretty average but quite enjoyable Western on French TV, Fort Yuma. It stars

. . Howdy, everyone. . . I’m back. . Sorry to have been away for so long. . But in the next few days I’ll

. His name was Somebody . . 1973. Henry Fonda is 68. He accepts a part in what turns out to be his last Western.

. . Pretty awful . .  Sadly, Henry Fonda’s last two Westerns were pretty awful and that was very unfortunate after such a fine career.

. . A big hand for Firecreek . . Although the direction and editing of Firecreek could have been tighter and the pace of this

. . A favorite of aficionados . . This is a delightful light Western in which Henry Fonda (Howdy) and Glenn Ford (Ben) shine as

The mysterious stanger   Although far from my favorite Western and flawed in many ways, Shane still stands as an iconic example of the genre. Every

. . More shepherd’s pie . . Once you get over the bemusement of an entire 1950s Mexican village speaking with British accents (and, shockingly,

. Well worth it . . What a great Western actor Gregory Peck was.   In some ways, perhaps, he was the wrong choice for

. . Gobble, gobble . . This picture reminds me a bit of the turkey How the West Was Won with its bloated budget, its

. A rare thing – a mediocre Gregory Peck . . After the considerable and deserved success of True Grit (Paramount, 1969), Universal must have wanted

. . A fine Western actor . . Gregory Peck (April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003) came from a Roman Catholic San Diego family

. . Commercial Batjac – but that’s OK . . The War Wagon was another 60s Western in which Wayne, in exactly the same costume

  The end of the buffalo   Brit Stewart Granger (born in posh Kensington, London in 1913; died in rich Santa Monica in 1993) had

. . Shepherd’s pie . . In the tradition of the ‘shepherd’s pie’ western (what I call British oaters; European westerns have to be named

I’ve just been in the Netherlands for a few days and what did I come across in the small town of Delft, famous for Vermeer

. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons… .  . Anything for Billy (Simon & Schuster, 1988) is in many ways the exact

. Splendid . . It was a magnificent achievement in 1969 to make such a fine film, the John Wayne True Grit, from such a great

  A confused adolescent   Another Billy book. So many have been written, I know, but this one can be kept in the top drawer.

. Grim, dark, stark, this film still has the power to shock . . Westerns that have little action, a lot of talking and are

. . What a spaghetti western ought to have been . . Sixties and seventies Eurowesterns have their fans (I am not one) and the

. . A box-office break-even only, it has quality . . . This film is directed by Robert Altman and it shows. It has the

. Not my cup of tea – and not a Western (the two things are related) . . By some accounts this movie is a

. I call that bold talk for a one-eyed fat man! . . The novel True Grit (Simon & Schuster, 1968) by Charles McColl Portis

. The Lincoln County War and Billy the Kid: the truth behind the fiction . .   . The book   Robert M. Utley’s book

. . Well-constructed, professional and also fun . . . The Big Trail was not the springboard to megastardom that Wayne must have hoped. All

. . It’s all rather turgid, really . . One-Eyed Jacks is a rather second-rate Western which is supposed (but often you wouldn’t know it)

. It’s real . . For those interested in the history as well as the myth of the West, few places repay visiting more than

. . This Western ticks a lot of the boxes . . Smaller Billy the Kid movies from minor studios don’t have to be junk.

. Mud, murder and mayhem . . The famed HBO series created by David Milch which ran from 2004 to 2006 and too suddenly stopped

HAPPY NEW YEAR, blog-pards. . And I hope 2011 will be wild and woolly for you. Billy the Kid will not receive a posthumous pardon

. Worth seeing, for the curiosity value . . It is extraordinary, really, how far movies came in only a decade. In 1939 John Ford

. . It’s a nice little film . . John Wayne’s first film as a producer was Angel and the Badman, a love story really,

. A hard-bitten marshal of the Rooster Cogburn kind . . John Wayne’s antepenultimate Western, Cahill is a conventional AV McLaglen flick enlivened by some

. . “An even bigger piece of crap than El Dorado.” (Robert Mitchum) . . Oh dear. This was the last of the Howard Hawks/John

. I never will play the wild rover no more . . I try not to talk about, for example, “Henry Hathaway’s True Grit” or

. The (not so) Great Train Robbery . . The series of big commercial Westerns John Wayne made in the 70s were  successful at the

. From Hell to New Mexico . . Henry Hathaway made only one really great Western. It was, of course, True Grit (Paramount, 1969). But

Down that Oregon Trail . . . An open range ahead A blanket for a bed A friendly fire while lonely coyotes wail That’s life

. Mikhail Bakunin would have enjoyed it . . . Clint Eastwood himself regards The Outlaw Josey Wales with particular affection and seems to suggest

. A love quadrilateral – or even pentagon . . Teen idol Edd Byrnes, Kookie the parking lot attendant from 77 Sunset Strip, never really

. . Straight down the (telegraph) line . . My late pa would have loved The Telegraph Trail. It’s fifty-four black & white minutes of straight-down-the-(telegraph)

. Very funny . . I have said that True Grit‘s French title of 100 Dollars pour le Shérif is the worst ever translation of a

. . The Titanic sinks again . . .I’m coming dangerously close, on this Western blog, to reviewing non-Westerns. It is true that I do

. A Movie with Zip . . .Isn’t it sad, and telling, that a film set in Montana has now to be shot in Mexico

. A highly entertaining picture . . .. Not so much a Western as a poker movie set in the nineteenth century, A Big Hand

. Directed by Walsh, starring Coop, written by Busch: it should have been good . . In my rambling writings I have made no secret

Pragmatists?   . Mind, this ‘philosophy of the Western’ thing can be taken too far. B Steve Caski, in another essay in the book The

. They go their own way . . Lone Western heroes are self-reliant critters. They go their own way and depend on no person. They

. . Explosive fun . . Two 60s Westerns which have quite a bit in common are Rio Conchos and 100 Rifles. . Rio Conchos