you got westerns, congratulations! : D
we all get a time period, event, or civilization when we are entering our 30's. i got world war 2.
this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2025
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I got gay space communism 👋
Western are really underestimated, to say the least. Obviously, there is a lot of crap but also a lot of great (and daring) content.
I swear modern movies just have actors narrating and renarrating what they’re doing because they know you’re on your phone not really paying attention.
/me (sadly but) approvingly nodding. Either it is because the audience is not paying attention or because the audience is (quickly) losing its ability to follow a story-line and needs things to be constantly and heavily underlined for them?
Replying to myself, for anyone reading this: don't pass over novels either. Western was a written genre as well as a movie genre.
I mean, Western once was a highly popular literary genre and not just because they were easy reads.
Like with movies there was a lot of crap but there was also some true gems. Works that are still really relevant nowadays... and there is still the occasional new novel that is published that will have you wonder why there isn't more like it.
To name just 1 old-ish (I'm almost the same age as this book so, no, it's not old it's just getting aged enough to deliver all its qualities to the amateur :p) and 2 recent-ish books:
- True Grit, Charles Portis. Yep, the story that inspired the 1960-something movie with John Wayne and, imvho, the much more interesting 2010 version.. that made we run buy the novel ;)
- Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry.
- The Revenant, Michael Punke. The book that inspired the excellent 2015 movie with Leonardo DiCaprio.
There are so much more, not forgetting short stories too, or essays and memoirs! All those books are waiting in many public libraries barely ever read, always willing to surprise the adventurous reader that will be daring enough to change their habits and pick them instead of what they usually read.
And if you're an audiobook person, Willie Nelson has narrated some Louis L'Amour novels. They're not terribly long and interesting enough.
Wasn't there an article recently where [some streaming company] openly admitted to exactly that?
Fake edit: Pretty much, yeah
Real edit for context:
Multiple screenwriters report that company executives are sending back scripts with requests to narrate the action, such as announcing when characters enter the room.
Netflix knows we are on our phones all the time, with as many as 94% of people tinkering on their devices while watching TV, according to a 2019 study commissioned by Facebook. Dumbed-down scripts that lack nuance and visual cues can help viewers with divided attention follow along, making them less likely to turn the program off.
holy cow(boy)!
And that's why AI will be our next screenwriter. And that's also why most audience will demand even more of it.
Sad times we're living in, that will cost us a lot more than loosing our ability to focus on a effing story with animated picture on the screen. Because it's the exact same people with the attention span of a goldfish, unable to follow already simplified story-lines, that will be persuaded they know perfectly well what they do and need not to inform themselves before they elect this or that candidate. Democracy is officially on its way out.
If you're looking for suggestions, I really liked "My Name is Nobody".
With obvious exceptions like "Blazing Saddles", I had figured that most of the old Westerns were the same sort of tense, action-fests.
While those are great, I was surprised to find "My Name is Nobody" to be a legitimately funny comedy and also intriguing.
If you just stick with Clint Eastwood flicks for a while, you're in for a treat.
"Two Mules for Sister Sara" was another great one.
There have also been some more contemporary westerns that "get it".
I think the opening to "The Harder They Fall' is an homage of sorts to Van Cleef's introduction as Angle Eyes in "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly".
"The Old Way" is a Nicholas Cage romp that's also interesting.
Two Mules is such a great movie. Saw it as a kid, and many times since. Each time I pickup some new nuance, as I've learned more about life and the history of Mexico.
If you like My Name Is Nobody, you may also enjoy They Call Me Trinity. I haven't seen My Name Is Nobody, so I can't compare them, but they are both Western comedies co-starring Terence Hill, so it wouldn't surprise me if they have some similarities. Trinity also has a sequel, but I haven't had a chance to watch it yet.
Also, I realized that when a cowboy does a super quick draw and shoots 3 men before they can draw it’s just like an anime when there is a flash and the hero sheathes their sword, with enemies falling over dead.
Makes sense, especially for Fistful of Dollars, Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Fistful was the Western version (as in shot for shot remake) of Kurosawa's Yojimbo, a samurai movie. Anime also got it from samurai flicks and Kurosawa was the guy for that. He made more money from the Fistful of Dollars settlement than he did from Yojimbo, though.
For even more (out possibly much less because it's not great) fun, there's a movie called The Warrior and the Sorceress that's also a remake of the same film, except it's fantasy and has a topless sorceress running around. It's got David Carradine playing a character named Kain. It came out during the sword and sorcery boom of the 80s (Conan, Sword and the Sorcerer, Deathstalker, Beastmaster, and a bunch of others). Speaking of other Sword and Sorcery flicks, at last one of the scenes is recycled from Deathstalker.
I'll ask since you seem to know about westerns. I'm trying to figure out the best John Wayne movies to watch and there seems to be a mixed consensus on which ones are good hooks for his many movies. Do you have any recommendations? I have no experience at all with his movies and only want to watch them because my dad is a huge fan. Unfortunately my dad just passed so I can no longer ask him which ones I should watch but I want to get an appreciation for the things my dad cared about.
Depends on what you're looking for, honestly. I'm partial to The Cowboys, Sons of Katie Elder, and El Dorado. My brother is a big Rio Bravo, Big Jake, True Grit, and Donovan's Reef fan (the last is not a Western but when I texted him he insisted that I include it, I completely disagree). True Grit is probably the "best" one, and The Searchers gets recommended a lot.
I read your first sentence and panicked. I know about those movies in particular because of the Kurosawa ordeal (and really liked all three). I watched John Wayne as a kid and young man with my grandfather. Other than that maybe Bone Tomahawk, Tombstone, and The Quick and the Dead are the only ones I've seen. Oh! And Seven Samurai (also Kurosawa),The Magnificent Seven, and parts of Star Wars.
Aren't El Dorado and Rio Bravo the same story with different actors?
I'd give Donovan's Reef a mention, though it definitely isn't a western. I'd put it in the WWII genre.
True Grit and Big Jake are great character studies, trying to understand why he (and other characters) behave the way they do, why the relationships between characters are what they are.
Aren't El Dorado and Rio Bravo the same story with different actors?
Yep! I like Robert Mitchum. I also like the fact that John Wayne was older and less invincible. They also did Rio Lobo but my brother and I agree that was the worst one.
I always forget which two are the same story, and agree it's better with Robert Mitchum - he just plays that part so well.
Italian westerns are so much better than American westerns. The characters are actually complex. Sometime check out the movie that’s spawned the genre: Django
Italians were (maybe are, I don't know) willing to try shit to see what sticks. Look at their horror. Our slasher movies are heavily influenced by Giallo. The horror movie landscape would be completely different if Italian filmmakers weren't betting daring.
One of my greatest mindfucks was high plains drifter when the protagonist
spoiler
rapes a woman but it's later revealed that he's probably an undead spirit of vengeance and she 'deserved' her fate.
That's a tough one, in every way. It's not obvious what he is, and what's going on.
Great movie though - very different than a typical western.
Exactly, that's why it was such a mindfuck to me. Did NOT expect that to go the way it did.
There's a couple comedy Westerns with James Garner that I'll watch whenever they come up:
Support Your Local Sheriff
Support Your Local Gunfighter
Similar story in both, James Garner is great at his Jim Rockford persona.
Some other westerns:
Once Upon a Time in the West
Angel and the Badman (younger John Wayne, black&white)
Hellfighters is John Wayne, but not a western.
you should watch the OG Cowboy Bebop! it's anime cowboy bounty hunters... in space!
pretty much a Western set in the near future/present.... many direct homages to old Western movies throughout.
Fully agree on the modern movies spoon feeding (or at least, most mainstream ones.)
I'm lucky, there's a little indie theatre about a joints' walk away from my place so I've caught a few great Westerns there. As much as I loves them, I know if I'd been at home, the distractions/phone/cat/anything else etc would've been overwhelming on hour 2 or 3 of slow panning across a desert vista...