Who likes Spaghetti Westerns?

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
If we're talking modern westerns, then I have two current favorites:
The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford.
The Proposition.

I'll have to check them out when I have the time. I remember Casey Affleck being nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for his performance in TAoJJbtCRF. Interesting fact- the role of Robert Ford came down to a choice between Affleck and Shia LaBeouf (Transformers). Thankfully, they didn't choose LaBeouf.

I think my favorite "modern" Western would have to be Tombstone. It had so many great scenes, and the cast was great as well.

Originally Posted by DeepO
Adding No Country for Old Men to the bunch of mentioned good modern westerns.

No Country for Old Men was *incredible*… one of my favorite movies of the last 5 years. But can it really be considered a Western?

Originally Posted by JDR13
I'll have to check them out when I have the time. I remember Casey Affleck being nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar for his performance in TAoJJbtCRF. Interesting fact- the role of Robert Ford came down to a choice between Affleck and Shia LaBeouf (Transformers). Thankfully, they didn't choose LaBeouf.

I think my favorite "modern" Western would have to be Tombstone. It had so many great scenes, and the cast was great as well.

Tombstone was great, but somewhat more Hollywood-ish in my mind. But Val Kilmer was beyond brilliant as Holliday.

That said, I think Casey Affleck is just about as good in Jesse James - an extremely convincing performance.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Tombstone was great, but somewhat more Hollywood-ish in my mind. But Val Kilmer was beyond brilliant as Holliday.

It's amazing to me how overlooked Tombstone was that year. Kilmer should have been a shoe-in for a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

Dying aint much of a livin boy

Originally Posted by JDR13
No Country for Old Men was *incredible*… one of my favorite movies of the last 5 years. But can it really be considered a Western?

Yeah, might be a bit stretchy.
In words of Ethan Coen, "It is a sort of western … and sort of not."
Personally, I see it as western noir .

Yeah, I don't really think of it as a western either. Then again, I don't much like it - but that's not important.

Val Kilmer completely dominated every scene he appeared in that movie. iirc there was a similar movie in the same year, Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp. i wonder how many saw that?

there's been a number of good modern Westerns like 3:10 to Yuma

A couple of years ago I watched Shane again for the first time since I was a little boy. I actually mixed it up back then with that Elvis Western.

Shane I had my wife watch with me and she loved it so much she brought it to her elderly patients and they all loved watching it again too.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance was great because it was so anachronistic. It moved from the adventure stories for kids with John Wayne saying pilgrim in his 10 gallon hat to Jimmy Stewart - the two pillars of their era of Westerns.

One critic once mentioned of Stewart that he had to make all his movies in the30's and 40's to be effective and do these roles in the 50's.

the newer 3:10 to Yuma itself was a remake of a 50s movie starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin but good story though.

there has been some westerns with comedic elements such as maverick (mel gibson), quigley down under (tom selleck) and cat ballou (jane fonda) and of course will smith's wild wild west.

Originally Posted by lanux128
Val Kilmer completely dominated every scene he appeared in that movie.

Definitely… but my favorite scene in the movie was when Kurt Russell bitch slapped Billy Bob Thorton.

"Go ahead, skin it! Skin that smokewagon and see what happens… "

Classic!

Originally Posted by lanux128
and of course will smith's wild wild west.

Ugh…. lets keep the discussion limited to movies worth talking about.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I think my favorite "modern" Western would have to be Tombstone. It had so many great scenes, and the cast was great as well.

Did you watch Silverado? A great homage to the classic western with spectacular action, charismatic characters and almost a dozen high profile actors. This is quality cinema at its best, and a very entertaining movie. I liked Young Guns, but Silverado is so much better. Maybe because nobody involved in it had to pretend he's good.

Originally Posted by lanux128
Val Kilmer completely dominated every scene he appeared in that movie. iirc there was a similar movie in the same year, Kevin Costner's Wyatt Earp. i wonder how many saw that?

Costner's movie is good. Maybe a bit too long, but there's not much to dislike about it. And as always, Doc Hollyday is the real star.

Originally Posted by lanux128
there has been some westerns with comedic elements such as maverick (mel gibson), quigley down under (tom selleck) and cat ballou (jane fonda) and of course will smith's wild wild west.

I wouldn't put Quigley on this list. It has a couple of good laughs, but it's mainly a serious movie. An underrated little gem.

To widen the horizon a bit to include Sci-Fi Western, Firefly, Serenity and Trigun deserve a mention.

For the offbeat counter-culture Western I think 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller', and 'Little Big Man' should be mentioned, and even 'Soldier Blue', since it gives a more likely accurate portrayal of how things probably went down. Basically things escalating into a massacre. Considering the time the last movie was made, during the height of Vietnam, it was pretty simple to draw parallels to the slaughter of the indigenous peoples, the indians, to something like Mei Lai. Those films are more westernish than true Westerns.

For classics also 'Winchester '73.' The 50's and the 60's were the golden age of Western's. Something unlikely to be repeated.

Leone rulez, etc, etc…


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHZpO6aNLwE

Originally Posted by JDR13
No Country for Old Men was *incredible*… one of my favorite movies of the last 5 years. But can it really be considered a Western?

I've only read the book … the movie is in our Netflix queue …

Very interesting movie. Lots of western elements in it.

imo No Country for Old Men is a good movie. kept me on the edge of the seat and Javier Bardem's bad-ass character was very convincing. however it missed a crucial scene that is common in westerns..

for those who haven't seen it yet, don't click the spoiler button.