Lester Siegel (Alan Arkin): Nobody does westerns anymore.
John Chambers (John Goodman): It's ancient Troy.
Siegel: If it's got horses in it, it's a western.
--from the movie Argo, 2012
Last week, I wrote about musicals and how, even though I'm a fan, I can't just pop any musical into my blu-ray player and enjoy it. With one or two exceptions, I typically have to be in the right frame of mind to watch one.
When I think about it, there's really only one other genre of film that I have to be in the right mood for--and that is the western. I've tried to understand why. Maybe it's the background which always seems so stark and empty, yet at the same time really bright. It's like a prerequisite for a western that it must be set in some bleak, uninhabited area with lots of wide, open spaces and dirt. Maybe there's a small town on a dirt road with a dry goods store, a saloon, and a whorehouse a couple of miles from where the protagonist lives on a farm or a ranch. Normally, this sort of thing doesn't do anything for me.
Again, I have to reiterate that I do really like westerns. If nothing else, I deeply admire it as a distinctly American art form. I just have to be in the right mood to watch one. I've found that the best time to watch them is on a Sunday morning or early Sunday afternoon. I find that time of day/week seems to put me in the right mood for a western. (This is also an ideal time for epics, war films, and anything starring Steve McQueen.)
I should clarify that there are two exceptions--I can watch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Blazing Saddles anytime without having to be in the right mood for a western. You can read my thoughts on Saddles here.
When discussing westerns, two actors immediately spring to mind--John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. Of the two, I'm a bigger fan of Eastwood, probably because he clearly appreciates the craft of filmmaking. He doesn't just act, he also produces, directs, and in the last couple of decades has even composed his own scores. In fact, Warner Brothers even named one of their scoring stages after him.
I sat down to watch this film recently, partially because it's one of my favourite Eastwood films--as I understand it, it's also one he's especially proud of--but also because it's celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and I'm kind of a dork about things like that. I was even kind of in a western mood. I hadn't watched it in over a decade and I had forgotten how good it really was.
In the film, Eastwood plays a simple Missouri farmer whose wife and son are murdered in front of him by renegade Union soldiers during the Civil War. He then joins a group hellbent on vengeance. After the Confederacy surrenders, his group is offered amnesty, but he refuses to join them. He watches from a distance as they are double-crossed and executed.
Assuming correctly that they'll be coming for him, he goes on the run trying to help one member of his group (played by Sam Bottoms) who was wounded trying to escape the slaughter. Along the way, he reluctantly picks up stragglers--a couple of Native Americans, some settlers from Kansas, and even a stray dog. They ultimately band together to protect each other from bounty hunters and hostile Union soldiers.
Eastwood not only acted, but he also produced and directed the film. Based on the novel Gone To Texas by Forrest Carter (you can Google him if you're so inclined), the film co-stars Chief Dan George, Sondra Locke, Geraldine Keams, Paula Trueman, John Vernon, Bill McKinney, and Will Sampson. This week, please enjoy The Outlaw Josey Wales.
Until next week, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that governments don't live together--people live together.
Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!
The Reverend Will the Thrill
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