Year Of The Western! #9 Ride in the Whirlwind (1966)

So coming down of the fun italian high of the The Hills Run Red, we come back to America for a film that I am sure was important to those that made it at the time it was made, but I don't know how well the statement holds up over the years.

Film #9 Ride in the Whirlwind (1966)

Here is the imdb.com cast listing. Here is the wikipedia page about the production. 

Normally, I like to dig a little deeper into the starting plot of each of these films in order to better set up my thoughts and feelings on it. Not this time. I am going to use the description from imdb.com:

Three cowboys, mistaken for members of an outlaw gang, are relentlessly pursued by a posse. 

That's about it. Oh, and a homesteader with his wife and daughter are held kind of hostage for a bit.

Okay, there's a little more than that. The outlaw gang starts off the film by robbing a stagecoach and then the three cowboys happen to stumble across the outlaws shack, but the thieves aren't looking to start more trouble and the cowboys aren't looking to cause any, so there is an uneasy communion between them: the cowboys are fed and allowed to put their horses up the night, and they wordlessly agree to look the other way and will head out at dawn.

The posse shows up, assumes everyone is a thief, and lays siege it the shack. Two of the cowboys get away, one is shot. The outlaws either burn to death in their shack or end up getting hanged. The posse then goes looking for the two that got away. 

The two cowboys find a small family home and hold them hostage until they believe it safe to take the farmer's horses and then get out of the area. The posse locates them, shoots one of them, but they manage to escape. While fleeing, the shot one tells the other to leave him behind, knowing that he is about to die. He crawls off to be a distraction to the posse, while the lone cowboy rides off in the desert.

That's your movie. Sounds somewhat exciting and tense, right? Not at all. This is one of the longest 82 minute films I have ever seen. Scenes go on for a long time, showing the mundane life of the west. These are hard people living hard and dirty lives and one day looks just like the next. I can appreciate that from a thematic and intellectual standpoint, but as a film, I just don't think it works all that well.

After reading about the origins of the production (please see the wikipedia link above), I see how and why this film is the way it is. It was very low budget ($750,000) and they needed every minute of the old farmer whacking at a stump and washing his fact to get to a feature length run time. I also appreciate Roger Corman's thought process of convincing the director to make two westerns (this one being the second) instead of one as they were already going to be putting the pieces together to make the first, so why not use a lot of the same actors and locations for a second film? It's a great business decision but not the best artistic one.

I should note that Jack Nicholson is kind of the lead in this film, while also writing the script and co-producing it. I can see he tries to ground the dialogue in reality and that is a little different than the rest of the films I have watched so far, but it doesn't really elevate the film all that much. His character of Wes, one of the three wrongly accused cowboys, is kind of whiny and not at all heroic. 

Its an interesting choice considering that it goes against expectations, but that's about it.

That's really what this film is trying to do, go against expectation. No one is heroic. The posse, outside of hunting down bad guys, has no real character or identity. The outlaws themselves are pretty much flat (props to Harry Dean Stanton's character rocking a badass eye patch though), and the homesteaders are bland as well.

If he was an option in a video game, I would play as him.

I found out there is a term for this kind of sub genre, Acid Western. Even after reading the entry on Wikipedia, I don't know if I truly get it. It could also just be that this is what they consider to be an early version of it and that it crystallizes into a purer form later (El Topo, which I am trying not to read too much about right now as it is later on my list, seems to be big part of this discussion). It could also just be a matter of being alive at that time when it was challenging and interesting to see films being made that were bucking the system. This one was just not for me.

Check out the scene below. Normally I link to a favorite scene but I don't really have one but this is as close as I can show you to what I mean about not much going on. 

A family is held hostage and there is no real tension there. What could have been a good slow burn just fizzled. You may disagree, but I don't see it. 

I will give this film credit for when the outlaws get burned out of their shack, the camera lingers on the two that are wounded just lying inside. Its not stated, but you know they burn alive in there. Also, how matter of fact the other two were hanged. The way their feet swing and dangle with no score playing helps sell how bleak that moment really is.

Much like Shane, this film may have helped set the stage for other more thought provoking ideas to be made with the clothes of a western, so I will give it that. The uncertain future at the end for Wes felt appropriate and feels like Nicholson was trying to speak about what the second half of the 1960s may have felt like to him. I just don't know if that makes it a film worth revisiting. 

Western Checklist (nowhere near official or scientific):

• Weird gang member names? Harry Dean Stanton was named Blind Dick. Nothing more to be said there. 
• Beautiful landscapes? Oddly enough, no. It probably was just the lower production quality and also the intent of the filmmakers but the scenery was just as bland and scrubby as the characters felt. There was a box canyon that had some interesting formations but that lost its appeal as I watched what felt like a five minute unbroken take of two men trying to traverse loose soil and rocks in cowboy boots. 
• Does a building catch fire? Yes. And it is boring.
• How many Ernest Borgnines? None, but Jack Nicholson and Harry Dean Stanton were nice surprises to see show up.
• Does it have a theme song with the name of the film in the title? No. The score was bland as well. So here is an unrelated Marty Robbins song that was a number one hit the same year the film came out.

Rating:

I am going to give this 2 out of 5 tin stars. This film is more of an interesting concept than actual watchable film. If I wanted to see how dirty, hard, and boring life can be in the old west, I am sure I could find some interesting documentaries about the subject. 

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Year Of The Western! #8 The Hills Run Red (1966)

I wondered when I would be getting into Italian Spaghetti Westerns. I think this is where my heart truly belongs. After finding out how 'El Deguello' in Rio Bravo lead to the music in A Fistful of Dollars and how that film would go on to be one of the most iconic westerns of all time, I knew I needed horns and strings to emphasize the dramatic moments between a wronged man and the one who caused it.

Film #8 The Hills Run Red (1966)

Here is the imdb.com cast listing. Here is the wikipedia page about the production. 

The film starts off with two men riding in a covered wagon, Jerry Brewster (Thomas Hunter) and Ken Seagull (Nando Gazzolo). They have stolen over $600,000 in cash from the US government and see that the US army is now on their trail. The men make a decision, whoever gets the highest card will keep the money and the other will stay in the wagon to draw the army away. Jerry draws the low card but he makes sure to tell Ken to take care of his wife and child if he doesn't make it. Ken said he will and jumps off the wagon. Jerry is caught by the army and does not give up Ken. Jerry is then put in prison for five years (more on that in a minute). As soon as he gets out, he heads to his old home to find his wife and child. They aren't there and a journal kept by his wife reveals that Ken never told her about the money or bothered to take care of her. Jerry is furious and then finds out that Ken knows he is alive and has sent men to kill him. Jerry receives aid from Getz (Dan Duryea), an old man that has his own goals. Getz convinces Jerry that if he wants to get his revenge, he better let Getz tell Ken that Getz killed him, so that way Jerry is now free to take action however he wants. Jerry then becomes Jim Huston with a singular mission: find and Kill Ken Seagull. 

This is the first straight up revenge western I have seen in the list. I can say I enjoy the straight ahead path the plot takes. There is very little fat here (the film is around 85 minutes), and it covers a lot of ground in a hurry. 

Let me just get to my favorite part of the film (from a story telling stand point) right away. If the link below works correctly (as it is a link to the ENTIRE film... so if you want to watch it, enjoy!), it is about six minutes into the film and we see Jerry enter prison. You get the entire story of his five year stay (even the crazy barbwire box he kept spinning in while trying not to touch the sides) and it takes all of a minute and half to get through it. 

Had this been an American made western, I feel like we would have spent a half hour here, really driving home how much prison broke him. This was a very modern story telling way to get a lot of good information across and just seeing him stagger outside not being used to the direct sunlight, you understand he is broken, but he kept his word. 

I appreciate the cannonball like velocity that Jerry, who takes the new name of Jim Houston, carries with him to meet his goals. He is a bad man, but he is after a badder man, so he will do whatever it takes to get there. The way that he gets the entire town of Austin killed or running away scared because he convinces them that they can ambush Ken's men is equal parts genius and pure crazy. 

It does lead to a very visually interesting scene (forty nine minutes in if you want to watch it on the Youtube link above) with Ken's men leading a bunch of horses into a box canyon. Jim has his men dump bundles of flaming sticks to cause the horses to panic and stampede while the men pick off the riders below.  This does lead to Ken's right hand man, Garcia (the over the top in the best way Henry Silva) to pay back the town by running in and shooting most of them. So, in the Great Plans Hall of Fame, I don't think you will see this one there. 

Those actions do lead to having a really fun showdown/shootout at the end of the film though. The town is empty. It is just Jim, his son (oh yeah, he lived and is not nearly as annoying as the kid in Shane, and quite handy with a slingshot), and Getz, against Garcia and the remainder of Ken's men. What unfolds is equal parts badass and Looney Toons as there are many times dynamite is thrown to amazing effect. At one hour, fourteen minutes in, there is a great short moment of a dynamite drop that would make Bugs Bunny proud. This is not a complaint. I found the entire town showdown sequence great and it made you believe that these two men and boy had a real chance of turning the tide. 

The final meet up between Jim and Ken does not disappoint and the tension ramps up as it is mostly played in the dark (the real dark, not the blue filtered dark of early westerns). 

The ending is wrapped up short and sweet and is the happiest ending you can possibly think of after Jim RUINED an entire town (let's just say that some of the characters pasts weren't revealed until the last moments of the film). Don't think about it too much and enjoy the ride you were just on. 

So the other thing I wanted to mention before finishing my thoughts on The Hills Run Red is the musical score in this film. IT IS AWESOME (caps! I must mean it). I had to look up the composer, Leo Nichols. I wasn't familiar with their name so I made just more one click and found out that was a pseudonym for Ennio Morricone. I don't know what else to say, I may have to find this and buy it. I will admit to already owning the score to The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly but have not seen that film in its entirety (It's on the list, don't worry, I will get to it). So hopefully I can put this one beside it.

This was a nice palate cleanser after Shane. Shane is an important film. The Hills Run Red is a fun film. I think sometimes that is enough. 

Western Checklist (nowhere near official or scientific):

• Weird gang member names? Not that I can recall. Jerry changing his name to Jim Houston is a great western name though.
• Beautiful Landscapes? Considering this was filmed in Rome at Dino De Laurentiis Studios, it provided a much different background compared to the US and Mexico locations shown so far. It was very pretty in its own way. Though it is hard to appreciate it in the beginning as the action starts immediately, there are some nice green hilly areas with distinct rocks jutting out. It was a nice change of scenery for sure. 
• Does a building catch on fire? Does throwing dynamite into buildings count?
• How many Ernest Borgnines? None, but Henry Silva had quite the interesting career. 
• Were there any weird zoom ins on people's faces just as they finished talking? Yes, plenty. That feels like something I am going to see more of as I watch the Spaghetti Westerns. 
• Does it have a theme song with the name of the film in the title? No, but it has a very 60's ballady song 'Home To My Love' that plays a few times in the film that I kinda like.

And because I can't not link it, he is some of the score from the film. 

Rating:

I am going to give this 4.5 out of 5 tin stars. The Hills Run Red is as good as any film to introduce somebody to the concept of a Spaghetti Western and it will only take half the run time they usually take. I dig Thomas Hunter as Jerry Brewster/Jim Huston and I really believe his drive for revenge. The very very end is a little too neatly wrapped up but it is easily forgiven because the music in this film can make me forget about that part of it very easily. Highly recommended!

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Year OF The Western! #7 Shane (1953)

So it turns out that I made a mistake and thought Shane came out in 1963, not 1953. So in my grand attempt to watch these 30 films in order is undone by about 10 years. Honestly, this is a mistake that I am glad I made because that put Johnny Guitar first on my list and that film really got me excited for all the different possibilities a western could be. Had I seen Shane first, I think I would have felt similar about the hope of different stories being told, but I feel that my enthusiasm would not have been so high. 

However, having 6 other films under my belt gave me the opportunity to process Shane a little differently than I would have otherwise.   

Film #7 Shane (1953)

Here is the imdb.com cast listing. Here is the wikipedia page about the production. 

The main plot of the film is as follows: Sometime after the Civil War, a group of homesteaders in Wyoming are being harassed by a cattle baron, Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer) who wants to have all the valley to himself. He is escalating the attempts to scare them away and the farmers are being forced to make a decision: fight or flee. In the middle of this, a lone mysterious man named Shane, with a six shooter and riding a horse (Alan Ladd) crosses paths with the default leader of the homesteaders, Joe Starrett, (Van Heflin) and his family. 

Not that it was intentional, but the plight of the open range cattlemen versus the sodbusters was a theme in the previous film I watched, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. That one was the end of that story and Shane is more about the beginnings of that struggle. Evidently a lot of westerns were influenced by the Johnson County War, a series of fights between cattle companies and settlers from 1889-1893 (If you are anything like me and like deep dives into wikipedia, enjoy!).

I was happy to see Van Heflin again after seeing him 3:10 to Yuma, I appreciate his down to earth sincerity and no nonsense approach to what is right and wrong. It is easy to almost believe this is the same character from that film in the way both handle their decision making. 

This was my first exposure to Alan Ladd, who plays Shane. He has a quiet demeanor but his performance shows that due to his dark gunfighter he knows that he could easily shoot his way out of any situation, but he really wants to try to live a life making the valley a better place without violence with the Starrett family. He knows he is idolized by Starrett's son Joey (Brandon De Wilde, more on him in a minute), but he is quick to downplay the glamor of the gun. He knows that once the trigger is pulled, there is no coming back. Ladd doesn't look like your typical western lead and I wasn't sure what to make of him at first, but by the end I really liked his performance. 

Joey. I was warned about a frustrating child performance before watching Shane, and boy howdy am I glad for the heads up. I understand that child acting and what to expect from it during the 1950's is vastly different than it is today, and I also understand that Joey's character is supposed to be the heart of this story because not only is the fight for the valley about right and wrong, it is about legacy and what will make a man a man, guns or hard work, and he is supposed to be a witness to his father's determination and to Shane's bloody brutal solutions, but wow, this kid was annoying.

The fact that he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role that year really blows my mind (Jack Palance was also nominated for the same award, could you imagine how mad he would have been to lose to that kid?). Your mileage may vary. I don't see it. 

So what makes this film worth seeing for me and belong this list? The approach to the gun violence is very different than anything I have seen so far and it surprises me as it is the oldest film in the list and that I won't see its effects till later. Director George Stevens wanted to show the audience the real terror of guns and did so by taking the sound of a large weapon and firing it into a trash can. This created a cannon shot of a sound effect that totally did not make me jump 10 feet when watching this with headphones on. It is a stark contrast to the light pinging and zinging sounds I have heard in other westerns so far. The gun in a monster and its roar is deafening. 

Stevens also incorporated some wire pulling effects with the actors when they were to get shot, causing them to be pulled backward against their will, giving more weight to the gunshots themselves. 

This scene, which does not have any of the main actors outside of Jack Palance (which I should note is impressively badass in the short time he is in this film) but it is my favorite. Here, Jack Wilson (Palance), is working for Ryker and is attempting to draw the homesteaders into drawing their guns first as then it will be perfectly legal to defend themselves when they easily kill the out matched farmers. Wilson knows this particular farmer, Frank "Stonewall" Torrey (Elisha Cook Jr.), can be provoked over his previous enlistment as a Confederate in the Civil War. 

The pause when Torrey realizes that he just killed himself and then Wilson smiles and shoots him is not something I was expecting and I can see how this will germinate into future films. It is also one of the few moments in the film that is not over powered by music and it is much more impactful because of it. The slow jangle of Wilson's spurs is enough to instill dread.

This is an important western in for what it would set the stage for later and much like things that are first, that doesn't always mean they are the best. I can appreciate what it was doing but I don't think this is one that I will revisit. 

Western Checklist (nowhere near official or scientific):

• Weird gang member names? Not really. I appreciate that the town/general store was named Grafton's as it matches the name of my home town. My Grafton has like two more buildings (and a Wal-mart) than this Grafton.
• Beautiful Landscapes? The distant Grand Teton mountains in the background were breathtaking and very different from the desert and southern plains of the films I have seen so far. I think it helps showing how rough and beautiful they are and reflects the lives of the people living there.
• Odd musical cue's early in the film to denote whimsical comedy? Not that I could hear, but there may have been as I stated before that this film is just crammed to the brim with music.It started to wear me down after awhile
• Does a building catch fire? Yes, Ryker's men set fire to a homesteaders' place after they moved out. It was a dick move. 
• How many Ernest Borgnines? None, but Jack Palance showing up gave the second half of the film bigger stakes, even though he couldn't get on his horse properly. 
• Does it have a theme song with the name of the film in the title? No, but the opening score is quite nice and I am sure it brings a tear to men of certain age anytime they hear it.

Bonus info: I honestly thought I knew Shane from an episode of Married With Children when Al was desperately trying to get home to watch his favorite western but got stuck in a grocery store. Turns out that film was actually Hondo with John Wayne. This has caused me to think Shane was John Wayne (Shane Wayne?) until this time yesterday.

Rating:

3.75 tin stars out of 5. Alan Ladd as Shane was great, Jack Palance was pure evil and I enjoyed that, and Van Heflin was solid as well. I did like this story better than The Searchers but the kid really sunk it for me. It's not his fault (it's totally his fault) but every moment he wasn't speaking, the film was better for it. Unfortunately he spoke a lot. Come back Shane? Nah, I think I am okay.

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Year Of The Western! #6 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

I was worried about how I would feel about another John Wayne/John Ford film after just coming off of The Magnificent Seven. Learning about the limitations placed on John Ford in order to get this film shot and the troubled relationship he had with John Wayne during the production made me appreciate what this film really was about, the end of era, in more ways than one. 

Film #6 The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

Here is the imdb.com cast listing. Here is the wikipedia page about the production. 

We meet Senator Ranse Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart) and his wife Hallie (Vera Miles) as they arrive by train to the small town of Shinbone. Their visit is kept secret by Ranse but a young local reporter finds out about it. They follow Ranse to the undertaker and find out he is there to oversee the funeral of Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). When the press admits to never having heard the name of Tom Doniphon, they demand that Ranse tell them who he is. Ranse then tells them a story that took place twenty five years prior. The film then goes back to that time when Ranse was a younger lawyer looking to bring law to the frontier and how immediately his stagecoach gets robbed by Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin), who introduces him to the 'law of the west'. Battered, Ranse ends up in the care of  a husband and wife who run a restaurant with a younger Hallie working there as well. Ranse meets Tom, a man who also understands and lives by the law of the west, who is trying to court Hallie and sees Rance as a bit of fool for wanting to use books and not guns to enforce the law. 

As we know from the beginning of the film, Ranse makes it out of his collision course with Liberty Valance and ends up married to Hallie. What we don't know is how that all went down and how Tom factors into it. It doesn't quite go the way you expect, and I respect this film all the more for it.

Ranse arrives at a pivotal time in this (unnamed) territory's history. It is on the verge of a vote to send delegates to the territory capital city in order to send two men to DC to apply for statehood. The locals want the protections and guarantees of what becoming a state would mean, but others (mainly ranchers and men like Liberty Valance) want to keep the area a territory as there would be less accountability and oversight of their actions. So enters a lawyer who wants to teach everyone how to read, to write, and how law and order works at a time when many are trying to keep everything the way it was because it suits them just fine. 

At a few different points Ranse is challenged about his beliefs that using the rule of law should lead to Liberty Valance being arrested but no one (including the well meaning but completely spineless Marshall Link Appleyard played by Andy Devine) will do it. The only person not afraid of him is Tom but unless Liberty is directly in his path, he doesn't care about what he does or doesn't do. 

Here is a scene that establishes the three main leads and their motivation. Lee Marvin's Liberty Valance has just forced his way into the restaurant that Ranse is helping out at and has just bullied away people at a table he wanted. 

Liberty is the typical cruel old west villain here, tripping Ranse and causing him to drop the steak on the floor that Tom had ordered. Liberty forcing Ranse to pick up the steak is show of power that Tom is going to have none of. He gets into a stand off with Liberty, demanding that he pick up the steak and not Ranse. As both men posture and show the room who is the tougher man, Ranse picks the steak up out of frustration. He knows how ridiculous it is to have pissing contest over a fallen steak and wants everyone else to see how petty it is too. 

Rance eventually realizes that he has to take up a gun in order to deal with Liberty. Problem is that he isn't very good with it and everyone knows he will likely be killed if he stays. Rance knows if he runs that all his talk about the law and doing what's right will have been for naught and Shinbone will fall to fear and not move forward like they want to. 

This leads to a really powerful scene where the clearly outmatched Ranse faces offer against Liberty in a darkened street. Toying with him, Liberty shoots some pottery by Ranse's head and then hits him in the right arm so he is not able to shoot (however ever poorly) with his good hand. Liberty is laughing at Ranse as he is slow to to grab the gun with his free hand while his other has blood spilling over his fingers. Then, Liberty is shot dead and the town sees Ranse standing and holding his gun.

Now the hero, he is tended by Hallie who kisses his forehead to show she loves him. Tom sees this and heads to the bar to get drunk and spiral out of control. He tosses one of Liberty's remaining men outside and yells at the Marshall to do his job with the other of Liberty's men. The entire saloon is shocked to see Tom so angry and distraught and mainly get out of his way. 

He loved Hallie and was adding a new room to his home for her when they got married (as everyone, but Hallie, assumed). Tom goes into his home, chucks a lit lantern into the new room and just sits in his chair as the place is engulfed in flames. A friend of his rushes in to save him at the last minute.

Rance goes to the capitol city of the territory for the political meeting to determine who goes to DC to apply for statehood. Rance is nominated but the opposition is accusing him of ignoring the law when he shot Liberty. Rance quickly exits and runs into Tom. Tom, who clearly doesn't like Rance because he won Hallie's heart, tells him what really happened that night with the showdown. Tom shot him with rifle at range but out of sight of the rest of the townsfolk. He knew that Rance had to be the one to be seen to ending it.

After learning the truth, Rance goes back into the meeting to accept the nomination and cement his future as a successful politician and governor. Tom's story is never really known except that he died with the truth only a few knew.

Once Rance's tale is over, the news story is ripped up. "This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Liberty being shot ended the Old West. Rance moving forward with statehood was the start of a new age. Tom knew this but also knew that he was part of the Old West and without Hallie, he didn't really have a place in the new age. As much as it destroyed him, he knew it was the right thing to do.

The placing of the cactus in bloom on Tom's coffin is a sad and proper sight. It showed Rance that Hallie will care about Tom even though she chose him. 

I didn't want to go that much into the plot but it felt important as it was the only way to get across how I feel about the film. Knowing that John Ford said that he preferred to make this in black and white and on soundstages because it was 'real photography' but understanding the reality that the studio didn't want to give him the money to shoot on color film or on location in Monument Valley, of course he would want to print the legend of John Ford, The Western Film Maker, and not the truth of a studio not trusting an aging talent that was getting bored with the film making process. 

Jimmy Stewart was good in the film. I was worried that his particular way delivering lines would conflict with John Wayne's delivery but it worked out okay. The times they did interact together were quite good. Seeing Steward one punch Wayne to the ground was a surprise and Wayne's look of confusion that gave way to respect was a nice touch.  

John Wayne's performance was yet another shade different that The Searchers and Rio Bravo. He played defeated very well in the last portion when he knew he lost Hallie. It's not the same brokenness as The Searchers's Ethan, but he was heartbroken. 

Lee Marvin as Liberty Valance was great. He was a monster with his bullwhip and how he would keep swinging it against his target until his men stopped him was scary. 

I liked this film a lot more than The Searchers. I will give the former its due to the beauty of the landscapes and the challenging character John Wayne played in it. What makes this one better is the stronger story and the long look at what happens to those when a secret is kept, even for the greater good. 

Western Checklist (nowhere near official or scientific):

• Weird gang member names? Liberty is a weird one. Weirder still is Major Cassius Starbuckle (played by John Carradine). It makes me want to order a Venti Cassius Latte at Starbuckles.
• Beautiful landscapes? None. None whatsoever. It works in this film's favor as it does feel like Shinbone is a cramped town that is ready to burst with growth.
• Odd musical cue's early in the film to denote whimsical comedy? No, and it feels like that particular aural oddity is working itself out as we move through the years.
• Does a building catch fire? Yes, the above mentioned scene with John Wayne setting fire to his own home is devastating.  
• How many Ernest Borgnines? None, but one of the Liberty's gang members is Lee Van Cleef, who I can't wait to see in some of the later films on this list.
•  Does it have a theme song with the name of the film in the title? Yes and no. A song was written and released but it was not in the film. Evidently, halfway through the song's production, the studio released the film, so the song does not appear in the film. It is a lovely song and may have been a bigger hit at the time than the film itself.

Rating:

4.25 tin stars out of 5. It would feel odd rating this the same as The Searchers when I enjoyed it more than that film. It is a great film with a great story that makes you question what you know about your heroes. It showed that the Old West had to end and give way to modern society and this film very much showed that it had to give way to a more sophisticated western.  

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Year Of The Western! #5 The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Five films in and five different experiences. I understand a genre can can stretch and explore different elements. Heck, this is unrelated to westerns, but take a look at this trailer for Fox's upcoming New Mutants Film. That is a straight up horror film hiding out in the X-Men universe. And I think that kind of stretching is long overdue with super hero comic book films (There are some examples of this already, but the bulk are just origin stories or beat em ups). It looks like I was not giving westerns enough credit for the vast differences in stories it can tell while guys are just wearing hats and shooting guns. 

Knowing ahead of time that The Magnificent Seven is a remake of The Seven Samurai already tipped me off that I was in for a different kind of ride.  

Film #5 The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Here is the imdb.com cast listing. Here is the wikipedia page about the production. 

The behind scenes drama on this surpasses Johnny Guitar. The links above will give you that story and I will speak to it a little later because it is will be worth noting as I get more into my thoughts about the film.

The plot is very straight forward but the amount of characters and motivations complicate it in very satisfying ways. A poor mexican village is raided by bandits lead by Calvera (Eli Wallach). He takes most of everything but leaves them just enough to survive on until he comes back. The villagers are tired of just scrapping by and decide to head north into Texas to get guns. When the trio of villagers arrive in Texas, they meet Chris (Yul Brynner) who tells them they can buy weapons but that men with guns are cheaper. So, hearing their plight and seeing what small amount of money the village can put together, Chris agrees to locate gunslingers to face off against Calvera. Along the way, Chris picks up the following crew: Vin Tanner (Steve McQueen), a gambler with no money that doesn't want to take a job as a grocery clerk to make ends meet, Harry Luck (Brad Dexter) a guy who is convinced Chris has a bigger score in mind than the 20 dollars offered, Britt (James Colburn) a gangly unassuming man who is the best there is a with a gun and knife and likes the challenge, Bernado O'Reily (Charles Bronson) a famous gun for higher that has fallen on hard times, Lee (Robert Vaughn) a dapper wanted man who's unsure about his abilities anymore, and Chico (Horst Bucholz), a young hot head who wants to prove he belongs with the rest of Chris's men. They then set up their defenses in the town and train the villagers to fight knowing Calvera is coming sooner than later. 

This film is all about the important question, 'What's worth fighting for?' Each man has their own motivation for why they take the job and for some it changes after they get to know village and see how badly Calvera has damaged their day to day living and their spirit. This town may never amount to anything other than being a small plot of farmers, but that doesn't mean that its people should live in fear and not hope that their hard work will provide for their family and their future. It is almost a matter of principal that the seven take a stand against Calvera. A man should not be allowed to take from others with force what he has not worked for. The seven aren't necessarily good men, they are there because they are being paid after all, but they understand there is a difference between right and wrong and good and evil.

A good example of this is when the men sit down to a large meal and O'Reilly comes in to tell them how little the town has to live on and what meager meals they serve themselves. There is no argument, they stand outside and feed the town the food they have. It is a small moment but it shows their inherent honor.  

So when Calvera shows up to take what he thinks is his ("If God didn't want them sheared, he wouldn't have made them sheep") and meets the seven for the first time right before the halfway mark of the film, it lights the powder keg that is the ending showdown. 

Most of the seven calling out Calvera for being the bully and thief he is while his forty men look on is very powerful. There is a certain type of macho pride posing that I feel like is prevalent in westerns and it shows here, however Chris and his men are confident in their ability and are trying to use words to send Calvera on his way first, so it doesn't feel so much like a pissing contest but more of an attempt to resolve the situation as men talking to men before taking it to the inevitable bloody conclusion. Yul Brynner's calm demeanor when he tells them to ride on is just cool. When Steve McQueen says, 'We deal in lead, friend,' is not only bad ass, it is a statement of fact. 

When the lead is dealt, it comes with consequences. Not everyone makes it out and that was refreshing to me as it felt very natural to expect to see that with such uneven odds that some would not make it, but for a big budget western in 1960 with a lot of great names in the cast to have some of them die was a bold decision. 

There is a sense of weight and loss here. You get to know the town and the seven, so when you see someone like the hard ass O'Reilly telling the children of the village in his last breaths to look at how brave their fathers are for standing up and fighting for their families and their town, it packs a punch. When Lee finally overcomes his fear and fires his guns, you actually cheer for him but that victory is taken away so fast that it stops your breath. 

After reading about how the relationship between Brynner and McQueen deteriorated during the course of making this film, and how the screenwriter refused to show up on set to assist with rewrites and how the rest of the cast was worried they wouldn't get their fair share of screen time, this film should have been a disaster. The fact that I bought into Chris and Vin's friendship until the very end is a testament to what happens behind the scenes doesn't always end up in front of the camera. 

It is ironic that a film about unity against big odds would be built upon such chaos. Somehow though, the parts do come together into a greater whole. 

This is a great film and I look forward to chasing down The Seven Samurai and the 2016 remake.

Western Checklist (nowhere near official or scientific):

• Weird gang member names? Not that I can recall but Calvera's name is very close to calavera, Spanish for skull, which is good name for a bad guy.
• Beautiful Landscapes? Absolutely. This was shot in Mexico and their mountains are very different than that of Monument Valley. The trees and the streams brought a different feel to this film and it was wonderful.
• Odd musical cue's early in the film to denote whimsical comedy? No. Not even when Chico was taunting a poor emaciated bull.
• Does a building catch fire? No. In fact, the town gets some nice new walls in the process. Way to go, Magnificent Home Makeover Seven!
• How many Ernest Borgnines? None, but you don't need him when you have Charles Bronson. His speech to the kids about what true bravery is was a surprisingly deep moment for the sarcastic and usually silent O'Reilly.  
• Wait, is that a robot? Yul Brynner's outfit is the exact same one they had him in 1973's Westworld. Having seen that first, I didn't appreciate how devoid of emotion that character was versus his performance here as Chris. Its a cool look. Scarier as a robot though.
• Does it have a theme song with the name of the film in the title? No, but the score by Elmer Bernstein (check out his work, he has shaped your day to day life and you didn't know it) is pretty much what cemented how all American westerns would sound moving forward. (In fact, while watching this film, I couldn't help but think of The Three Amigos due to a similar plot hook and the music... which he did).

Rating:

Five tins stars out of five! This is a great film with great performances and many many highly quotable lines. I can easily see myself coming back to this film again once I am done with my list. There is a reason why this story works and why it is used over and over and over again. 

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Year Of The Western! #4 Rio Bravo (1959)

So as soon as I came off the unexpected high of 3:10 to Yuma, I saw that the next film on the list was another two hour plus John Wayne film (if I recall the next three are John Wayne films). I had a feeling that it was going to be another series of vignettes that didn't necessarily belong together, much like how I felt much of The Searchers ending up being.

Rio Bravo does have a lot of wandering story threads and functions very similarly in scope like The Searchers but I have come away from it with a different feeling. 

Also, little did I know parts of this film would influence a lot of things I love.

Film #4 Rio Bravo (1959)

Here is the imdb.com cast listing. Here is the wikipedia page about the production. 

First, let me provide this bit of trivia about 3:10 to Yuma. Supposedly (and this is from the internet, and I can't pin down the source), this film and High Noon made Howard Hawks want to make Rio Bravo. The suggestion of hope is something that he saw in them and wanted to make a more optimistic western. So points to me for catching something like that 60 years after it came out. 

The plot of Rio Bravo is simple. The story is not. Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) has arrested Joe Burdette (Claude Akins) for shooting an unarmed man in a bar fight that broke out because Joe was degrading the local town drunk, and former deputy under Chance, named Dude (Dean Martin). Burdette has a wealthy brother, Nathan (John Russell), who can pay as many men as he wants to try and break his brother out of jail, but can't risk doing it plain sight as it would tarnish his trusted businessman persona. It becomes a waiting game for Chance as he can't call for help because it won't come fast enough and he doesn't want to endanger the townsfolk. So he tries to keep everything moving along as business as usual until the Marshall can come and take Joe away. 

There is a young man named Colorado (Ricky Nelson) who is really good with his guns but wants to not pick a side in the coming quiet siege of Rio Bravo. But his want of revenge may draw him into the conflict.

To complicate things, there is young lady, no actual name, listed as Feathers in the cast (Angie Dickinson) who is stuck in town due to the stagecoach stopping service because of the Burdette situation. She may or may not be a traveling poker thief and she knows she frustrates Sheriff Chance in the best way possible.

Also, Chance has a older crippled guy named Stumpy (Walter Brennan) watch over Joe and the upkeep of the jail while he is out dealing with whatever Burdette's men are up to. God. Damn. Stumpy. 

So what this ends up becoming is a story about a Sheriff trying his best to keep himself and his town together, a former deputy trying to find himself again outside the glass walls of a bottle, a young hired gun finding a purpose, and a young lady finding what she thought she lost. Oh, and Stumpy makes all kinds of Stumpy talk.

I appreciated the different version of John Wayne I saw here. He is more vulnerable than broken here versus his role in The Searchers. He wants to see Dude get back on his feet but only knows tough love. He knows he is outgunned by Burdette's men and is always trying to stay one step ahead of whatever they are planning next, succeeding sometimes, failing others. His John T. Chance is a very human character. And he actually smiles once in a while too.

Dean Martin as Dude was a surprise to me. I wasn't quite sure what to expect out him. I know he acted in some films, but I didn't expect the quiet somberness he brought and how he struggled to walk the sober line because he knew Chance didn't really have anyone else. He is the heart and soul of the film and he carries it well.

My favorite scene in the film is when he and Chance chase one of Burdette's men into a bar after they were ambushed in the night. You can see the confidence Dean has at the start but how it slips away in an instant when the men start calling him out for being a drunk. His redemption at the end of the scene is earned and is pretty bad ass.

Colorado has a smaller story as his stance of not getting involved soon goes away when his boss is shot by Burdette's men because he offered to help Chance. Credit to Ricky Nelson, who looks a lot like Elvis (well to me) at times, because his softer spoken delivery is not a sign of weakness but of assuredness. He knows he is good with his guns and doesn't need to prove it to anyone else.

Feather's story is bit more complicated because it is not quite clear what she truly wants until towards the end of of the film. I blame it more on the script than Angie Dickinson. She was smart and had a few great zingers hurled at the men, but her character never really crystallized for me like the other male leads did.

And Walter Brennan as Stumpy was fine, I guess. He was brought in to be the cranky and complaining comic relief. I feel he was best in small doses. Rio Bravo did not agree and had him say something stupid almost every chance he got. He did get one great moment when he was staring down Nathan Burdette, the wealthy brother not in jail for murder, and told him that his 368 (I think) acres weren't much for Nathan to take, but they were everything to him. It showed that even though he was the butt of the joke often, Stumpy had some skin in this game too.

A couple more things I want to mention before I forget. There is a section where Nathan pays a spanish band in the local bar to play 'El Deguello' over and over again to remind Chance and his men that this song was played for the men inside the Alamo by the Mexican army before they eventually broke their standoff. It is a great piece of music and very haunting. 

Sergio Leone asked composer Ennio Morricone to write music similar to El Deguello for A Fist Full of Dollars. So it is easy to see how Rio Bravo shaped how the later Spaghetti Westerns, and westerns in general, would sound. 

To take that one step further, the director of Rio Bravo, Howard Hawks (please take a moment and read up on him. There is a staggering amount of work that changed the way movies were made), made 1951's A Thing From Another World, which John Carpenter would later remake as 1982's The Thing... with a score from Ennio Morricone. I have to respect Rio Bravo for just how it affected one my favorite films of all time. 

For my frustrations with The Searchers not quite always moving the plot forward (I get it, they were searching), I liked getting to know these folk. I even forgive the film when it took a 5 minute detour right before the climax to let Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson sing different songs. I am just glad John Wayne didn't have to sing too.

Rio Bravo is deserving of its title. It isn't just about one man, it is about the town. It is about what is doing what's right even when you know that it is going to be hardest thing to do. It is about knowing you don't have to go alone against everything, sometimes a friend will throw a stick of dynamite for you to shoot at. Even if that man is Stumpy.

Western Checklist (nowhere near official or scientific):

• Weird gang member names? No, but Joe Burdette was played by Claude Akins, the voice of reason in the iconic Twilight Zone episode 'The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street.' Interesting that he gets to be the cause of a gang wanting to commit violence.
• Beautiful Landscapes? Not that many. Outside of the opening, the bulk of the film took place in Rio Bravo. Bonus points given for the 'El Toro Rojo' saloon (Red Bull!).
• Odd musical cue's early in the film to denote whimsical comedy? Not that I can recall. There was some good humor in here that does hold up well. Not Stumpy related, though.
• Does a building catch fire? No, but one does get dynamited. Way more awesome.
• How many Ernest Borgnines? None, but this film would have gotten 6 tin stars had he been in it.
• Does it have a theme song with the name of the film in the title? Yes, and it was done by Dean Martin. Man can croon the paint off a barn.

And in honor of my least favorite character, Stumpy, here is Will Ferrell's Walter Brennan impersonation (I can't prove it but just listen to his voice and line delivery) as old timey prospector Gus Chiggins. Who wore it better? 

'Ohhhhhh peaches!'

Rating:

I am going to give this 4 out of 5 tin stars. Rio Bravo is a good movie and it can show that a western can be a good showcase for multiple characters under the encroaching shadow of danger. John Wayne was fun to watch but Dean Martin steals the show. Very much recommended. 

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Year Of The Western! #3 3:10 to Yuma (1957)

It's interesting to me what was once a technical limitation can become an artistic and story telling strength. Black and white is how we understood film for over fifty years. Yes, there were advances on making films in color as early as 1903 with The Great Train Robbery and 1915's The Birth of a Nation. The former painted individual portions of the image frame by frame and the later would dye sections of the film different colors to denote the different portions of the story (example, Lincoln's sections were purple). These early experiments were not only to see how effective it could be, but how it could shape a person's experience with their work. 

Once color had been regularly added to films (my very unscientific research shows that this mainly started showing up in the mid 1920's, here is a link to some info about the first color all talking western), it was only a matter of time when the economy of such a process would make it that color was going to cost the same as a black and white film. Before that happened completely, black and white did exist side by side as ways of making major studio films. There were separate Academy Awards for Best Art Direction from 1940-1966 for black and white films and for color films.

Even in AFI's top 100 films, the first two Citizen Kane (1941) and Casablanca (1942) are black and white and the next two The Godfather (1972) and Gone With The Wind (1939) are in color.

After watching the first two films in my list for the Year Of The Western and seeing them both in color, it didn't occur to me that any films made after them would be in black in white. I don't know why that possibility didn't cross my mind, maybe it is because I associate black and white more with television of this time and not films.

But then I realized that Psycho came out in 1960. Hitchcock could have made that in color but purposefully chose black and white and the shower scene is all the more effective for it (also, chocolate syrup is cheaper than mixing fake blood).

The palette that is chosen is just as an important a decision as is the other tools picked when telling the story you want to tell. 3:10 to Yuma understood this. I now do too.

Film #3 3:10 To Yuma (1957)

Here is the imdb.com cast listing. Here is the wikipedia page about the production. 

This was the cure for what ailed me after watching The Searchers. I got a sharp, relatively lean, 90 minute literal ticking clock suspense film that just happen to use a western's clothes.

Hard on his luck rancher Dan Evans (Van Heflin) happens to come across a stagecoach robbery being committed by Ben Wade (Glenn Ford). Knowing that he would get himself shot for trying to stop it, Dan stands by while Wade and his outfit rob the stagecoach and send his horses away (so that Dan can't ride ahead and alert the sheriff). 

Dan heads back home to tell his wife about what happened and you learn that they are just hanging on by a thread financially due to a long running drought. She convinces him to head into town to try to borrow two hundred dollars from a local banker so that they can get access to water for their herd. 

Dan runs into the sheriff and his men as they are assessing the stagecoach robbery and find out that Wade's gang headed into town. The local drunk (Henry Jones) was the last to head out so he saw that Wade was still in town alone. The sheriff and townsfolk plan on arresting Wade and convince Dan to help them out. He does so reluctantly, but he knows it is the right thing to do.

When they capture Wade, one of his outfit sees that he is arrested and rides out of town to round up the rest of Wade's men and come back to get their leader. 

The sheriff comes up with a unique plan to stay ahead of the outfit. They decide they are going to make them believe a stagecoach is holding Wade and send them chasing it in the opposite direction of where they intend to take him, Contention City, where a train will be stopping at 3:10 the next day headed to Yuma. The only problem is, they need two men to take Wade and hide him until the train comes. Dan, hearing that the man who owns the stagecoach line is offering two hundred dollars to do this, volunteers. This sets the stage for our hesitant hero and the charming villain to be forced into an odd partnership as neither one wants to particularly be where they are.  

It took me longer to get through the basic set up as this is the most plot driven film I have seen yet (out of three, I know), but I can enjoy a complicated set up. It means more opportunity for drama, twists, and character beats that you don't see coming. 

From the jump, you see what Dan is all about. He has been trying to play by the rules his whole life and wants to make the right decisions. He tells his wife that once the drought breaks, all will be green. You know they both want to believe that, but they don't really. He knows getting anywhere near Ben Wade is bad news and will put his family in jeopardy. But he also knows that the money is too good to pass up. I expected the good man will make the hard choice to save his family. What I didn't expect was Ben Wade to be one of the most compelling characters I have seen in a film in a long time.

Not knowing much about Glenn Ford, I was blown away with how charismatic, intelligent, and romantic his Ben Wade is. When reading up on his casting, he was offered the part of Dan but turned it down, wanting the role of Ben Wade instead. Ford was known for playing the good guy, this was his rare turn bad and it really elevates the film.

I never doubted for a second that if you let your guard down around Wade, that he would take advantage and more than likely kill you. I enjoyed how he seemed to take everything in stride, always being him, always asking questions, trying to find a crack to exploit, or to lull you into thinking there was a common ground. Glenn Ford's near smile with every line made you believe that he was always entertained by the challenge at hand, and that he was a step ahead. 

Also, he has his own sense of honor and justice. He made sure the stagehand that was killed in the beginning of the film was taken to his home ("A man should be buried with he lives") and that he was willing to pay Dan two dollars for the inconvenience of driving away his horses as that held up Dan's ability to herd his cattle that day. Even at the end of the film, he makes a decision based upon his own code, even if it will likely catch him some trouble from his own outfit. 

Below is a nice bit between Dan and Ben towards the end of the film. It's within 30 minutes of the train arriving and it has been found by one of Ben's outfit that he is in Contention City. It is now a matter of what will happen first, the train arriving or Ben's men coming in to get him. Just watch the way Glenn Ford keeps trying to chip away at Dan's resolve and motivation.

It's not by accident I mention Hitchcock above when talking about 3:10 to Yuma. When upon reading that the decision was to make this film in black and white instead of color, I appreciated that they were they were telling a story that had many shades of gray while being shot in stark black and white. It's a great contrast to the characters and the story being told. Also, as the clock ticks closer and closer to 3:10, what starts out as a rather straight forward plan gets more and more complicated, raising the tension until the moment Dan has to make the decision to walk Ben out of the hotel to the train station. It has shades of Hitchcock all over it.

I really liked this film a lot. It didn't get in the way of itself with any distractions ("I don't like fat," Ben says to Dan over dinner and it might as well sum up the film) and it wonderfully piled on problem after problem as time was running out. I know I went on about Glenn Ford, but credit should go to Van Heflin as Dan as well. You can see the struggle on his face and the weight of the world on his shoulders. There wasn't really a weak performance in the whole film (even the child actors were tolerable, not an easy feat back then). 

I will say this film ends of a optimistic note, but not hopeful. It could have easily been a super happy ending in which the good man gets rewarded but it doesn't go that far. It suggests things might get better. That feels about right for this film and what was going with the west at that time. Keep moving forward. It has to rain some time. 

Western Checklist (nowhere near official or scientific):

• Weird gang member names? Not that I can recall. Ben's right hand man was named Charlie Prince. It would have been better if he was named Prince Charlie, though.
• Beautiful landscapes? Even in black and white, the west still is purty.
• 1957 horses terrified? Didn't look like any horses were traumatized in this film. That poor pocket watch didn't make it though.
• Odd musical cues to denote whimsical comedy? Not that I can recall. There were some spots of humor to be had, but the tone of the film stayed pretty serious on all accounts. 
• Does a building catch fire? No. Insurance rates were not affected in Brisbee or Contention City.
• How many Ernest Borgnines? Zero, however the town drunk, played by Henry Jones, is in one of my least favorite episodes of the Twilight Zone, Mr. Bevis. 
• Does it have a theme song with the name of the film in the title? Yes, and it is pretty good. 

Rating:

I would give this 4.25 of our 5 tin stars. It is a very solid concept that fits well as a western. The plan to get Wade to the Contention City is a smart one and the way his outfit complicate it is smart as well. What really sells this film is the dynamic between Dan and Ben. Having them being forced into a hotel room and talking to each other gives this film a more psychological feel than what I have seen so far. Highly recommended!

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Year Of The Western! #2 The Searchers (1956)

I forgot to mention in the previous post that I am going to be watching all 30 of these films in their production order. I originally planned on just picking at random but I feel like that may be doing an injustice to some of the later titles as they had 10, 20 years to build upon what came before them. 

Also, I feel like that film making technology and styles change a great deal so I would not want to inadvertently judge an older entry versus a newer one based upon what may well have been the norm for making a film at that given time.  It would be like me judging This Island Earth against Star Wars.

With that being said, let's dive right into my feelings on...

Film #2 The Searchers (1956)

Here is the imdb.com cast listing. Here is the wikipedia page about the production. 

Let me start by saying you may not get more American Western than John Ford directing John Wayne. This is purely opinion (please feel free to point me in a direction if that statement is not mostly accurate), but when I think of the older westerns, Ford and Wayne come to mind first. 

Tentatively, I was thinking this would be more in the mold of the traditional western, and if you happen to watch this out of the corner of your eye, you would be correct. It has a former soldier, on a mission to save a family member from some less than good Comanche Indians, but what it actually is though, is more of a study about a man who has fought in two wars (as a Confederate in the Civil War, and implied, the Mexican Revolutionary War) and has nothing to show for it. 

Ethan Edwards (Wayne) returns to his brother's family and their homestead in 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War. There he gets reacquainted with his extended family, mainly his two young nieces and 'adopted' nephew Martin Pawley (pre-Jesus and pre-Star Trek Jeffery Hunter). Shortly after, he is approached by a local Texas Ranger and called into assist with some cattle that had been stolen from a nearby farm. While the group is out, it becomes clear it was a ploy by the Comanche to lure the men away so that they can raid the homesteads. Edwards returns to find his family's home smoldering, the adults murdered, and the nieces taken by the Indians. This sets in a motion a 5 year journey for Ethan and Martin as they cross the painted desserts and snow covered mountains for any small sign that their family members may be alive. 

Ethan is not a likable man or one worth cheering for. He doesn't much care for authority and he hates Indians. His hatred of them is so much that you wonder during the course of the film if he really cares about the missing family or he just needs another reason to never stop going to war. He even tosses Martin's possible mixed heritage in his face calling him a 'carpet head' on more than one occasion. However, this doesn't mean you can't feel some sympathy for him. He is haunted and stunted. Even when he is trying to do the right thing, he has to insult someone or push them away. 

This example below is about midway through the film when another member of his search party (not Martin, he is the dark haired kid), believes they found the older of the two nieces and wants to rush the Comanche camp and save her.  

He protected the younger men, boys really, from seeing the mutilated body of a young girl. Even though he is shouting them down for asking questions, he is trying to do the honorable thing. "...As long as you live, don't ever ask me more..." That softer broken delivery of that line is where Ethan shows there is more than his hard case exterior. And it is one of my favorite parts of the film.

Another favorite part of the film? Monument Valley. 

This is the second thing that comes to mind when I think of American Westerns and this film is filled to the brim with beautiful wide shots and long-takes of the valley. The VistaVision Technicolor process make it look like you could take almost any outdoor shot and turn it into a painting.  

After doing some reading on this film and realizing that it inspired many of the film makers I love and their future works (i.e. George Lucas was inspired by the homestead fire here and used it in Star Wars IV for when Luke comes to find his family burned) and how this one is on many, many, Best Films Of All Time lists, I can say I appreciate what it did. I can't say that I loved it.

The pacing in the film is odd. Again, I can forgive it because much like Johnny Guitar, that might just be the way the studios did back it then, but it feels much more noticeable in The Searchers. There are stray story beats that don't really add to the overall experience (there is a sore spot towards the middle where Martin writes a letter back home and explains how he accidentally got married to a Indian woman that ultimately doesn't affect the outcome in any significant way) and for a film that is to supposed to take place over the course of five years, you have a hard time seeing how much time has passed until the very end when they give John Wayne some convincing graying hair. 

I wish I could say that I loved The Searchers. I wish I could say that from the first beautiful shot of the doorway opening to Ethan's approach to the homestead, to the final shot of him standing alone as the doorway closes, that this would have been just one of those Great Films that knocks you on your ass and you stare at it gobsmacked and realize that you are having a singular experience that only this film creates. But I can see why others do. There is a lot to love here. I just feel like the parts don't equal up to the whole.

I have a feeling that in the remaining 28 films there will be ones that will send me over the moon and a few that will leave me flat. That is the fun and exciting part about this for me, I just don't know what I will love until I get there. And the important part is that I keep Searching...

Western Checklist (nowhere near official or scientific):

• Weird gang member names? The Comanche Warchief was named Scar (and was a blue-eyed jewish actor).
• Beautiful Landscapes? Yes, yes, 1 million times yes. 
• 1956's horses terrified? There were some horses that were chugging through 3 foot deep snow that had to be mad, but not scared. I am pretty sure John Wayne may have actually shot a buffalo though. That thing didn't drop like a prop.
• Odd musical cue's to denote whimsical comedy? Yes, but not as many as Johnny Guitar. There was also a comedic fist fight near the end that was enjoyable but didn't add much to the film.
• Does a building catch on fire? Yeah, the one homestead, some teepees, and John Wayne throws a glass of tequila at stove that causes a LARGE fireball that I don't know if it was intended to be that that scary. 
• How many Ernest Borgnines? Zero, sadly. We did get John Wayne's son, Patrick Wayne, as a US solider with the worst line delivery ever. 
• Does it have a theme song with the name of the film in the title? No, but it does have a theme song named The Sons of the Pioneers.

Rating:

I would give this 3 out of 5 tin stars. Interesting direction with the main character being hard to root for and hard to care about. John Wayne, when not just shouting at people, is very believable in his need to keep going even if the end doesn't really get him what he wants. I can appreciate the coming of age portions for Jeffery Hunter's character even if his performance is borderline annoying at times. The long shots of the dessert and the panning shots during the action sequences are beautiful and hold up. Your mileage may very!

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