Western Movies

[Nordicdusk]

Originally Posted by Justin101

I’m in the same boat and I asked Dem last year for some suggestions and he recommended the Randolph Scott films which are on Indicator Blu-ray and I loved them all.

Horror will always be my number one genre and when i joined here i thought i knew horror boy was i wrong i had so much catching up to do other genres i enjoyed were left behind

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Nordicdusk

Horror will always be my number one genre and when i joined here i thought i knew horror boy was i wrong i had so much catching up to do other genres i enjoyed were left behind

There is always a film you’ve never seen or a band you’ve never heard and that’s brilliant in my opinion. Finding some you’ve never experienced before and loving it is such a fantastic feeling!

Let the exploration begin!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Cowboys (1972)

John Wayne plays a rancher deserted by his regular help who decides to hire 11 teenage schoolboys, the oldest being 15, for a cattle drive across 400 treacherous miles.

A wonderfully juicy late career turn from John Wayne and equally strong performances from Roscoe Lee Browne and Bruce Dern make this one of the great 70's westerns. The boys, quite literally cowboys, were a mixture of actors and genuine ranch hands who complement each other brilliantly. Not one lad appears out of place or can't act, and not one of them grates on the viewer.

Mark Rydell directs the film with great competence and along with photographer supreme Robert Surtees really shows the American west as a vast, unforgiving yet also beautiful landscape.

Controversial at the time - there's a brutality on show you wouldn't expect - and still so thanks to shocking story twists, this feels like the kind of film that would be an influence on Stephen King as a document about boys coming of age, without giving any plot details away.

Highly recommended.

There's an excellent documentary on the Blu-ray reuniting some of the cast including director Mark Rydell, Bruce Dern and Roscoe Lee Browne and their stories from the time regarding Wayne, despite coming from completely opposite ends of the political, generational and acting spectrum, are heartwarming.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972)

Gary Grimes plays a young man who blags his way onto a cattle drive in this short (88 mins) but very sweet revisionist western.

Seemingly ultra realistic in it's attention to detail about grimy life on a drive as we get to know the characters. Most things go smoothly on the drive itself except when Grimes is asked or volunteers to do things to help out.

It's sorting out his 'help' that causes most of the chaos which ensues, such as getting their horses back from rustlers who outwitted the boy.

The violence is strong and bloody but justified in that Peckinpah ultra violent anti-violence way and the lines between the good guys and the bad guys can become a little blurry at times but there's definitely redemption not to mention Christian hypocrisy during the bloody finale.

All in all The Culpepper Cattle Company is an excellent western as well as a classic coming of age story.

I must re-watch The Spikes Gang. Another coming of age western which also teams up Gary Grimes and Charlie Martin Smith, but this time with added Ron Howard.