Tag: Western
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The Western Movies Clint Eastwood Admires, Even Though He Didn’t Star in Them – Surprising and enlightening
Two of Clint Eastwood’s favorite Westerns had a big impact on his own work in the genre. The Western genre was waning in popularity by the time Eastwood became a movie star in the 1960s, but his work in the Dollars movie trilogy or Hang ‘Em High helped keep “Oaters” alive in the years that…
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The Significance Of The Ending Of “The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly” In The Context Of Both The Film And The Concept Of “Seems Like Old Times”
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” defines the spaghetti Western as a genre, an epic tale of betrayal and greed that paints the American frontier through Italian lenses as a place of unforgiving violence. The ending of the film, which centers on the iconic Mexican standoff, became so famously re-enacted and parodied that it…
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What did the confrontation between Wyatt Earp and Johnny Tyler in “Tombstone” reveal about Earp’s tactics in handling difficult situations?
Billy Bob Thornton improvised his role in 1993 western epic Tombstone. Wyatt Earp is an iconic real-life lawman best remembered for the gunfight at the O.K. Corral alongside his brothers and Doc Holliday. His story has been brought to the big screen many times, including My Darling Clementine and Gunfight At The O.K. Corral starring…
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What does Kevin Costner’s perspective reveal about the significance of ‘Open Range’ in his journey as a Western actor?
He broke out in the baseball movies, but if there’s anything Kevin Costner is best known for these days, it’s the American Western. The 68-year-old actor, who scored one of his first major roles in the all-star 1985 Western Silverado, has had two major hits in the genre in recent years, first co-starring in the…
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The Last Word on Westerns: Clint Eastwood’s ‘Unforgiven’ Closes the Chapter
Unforgiven is both a love letter to and total demystification of the genre. It portrays the Old West as a violent, savage place while Eastwood’s Munny is no hero. In almost any other Western, the final shootout is framed as a cathartic release where the bad guys finally get their comeuppance; in Unforgiven, it’s a…
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A Star’s Perspective: Shirley MacLaine’s Troubling Time on Eastwood’s Set
Back in 1970, Clint Eastwood starred in the Western Two Mules for Sister Sara opposite Shirley MacLaine, who turns 89 today. Elizabeth Taylor had been the first choice, but she’d decided to shoot in Spain with Burton on his latest movie instead. Originally both Eastwood and Two Mules for Sister Sara director Don Siegel were…
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The Mighty Have Regrets: Clint Eastwood’s Candid Reflections on Past Work
Paint Your Wagon – The Universally Disliked Western Musical Out of all the critically panned films and box office bombs that he’s ever witnessed, the unflatteringly wacky ’60s musical is perhaps one of Clint Eastwood‘s greatest regrets in the entirety of his otherwise glorious career. Helmed by late theatre and film director Joshua Logan, Pain…
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‘Dances With Wolves’ actor : Nathan Chasing Horse’s Two-Decade Allegations
Las Vegas police has arrested and raided the home of a former Dances With Wolves actor turned alleged cult leader accused of s**ually assaulting young Indigenous girls during a period spanning two decades. Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse, who goes by Nathan Chasing Horse, was taken into custody Tuesday (31 January) afternoon near the North…
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Uncovering the Truth: Could 200-Year-Old Blood Stain Redefine Billy the Kid?
Henry McCarty, the man better known as ‘Billy the Kid’, was an outlaw of the Old West who reportedly killed eight men before he was gunned down during a stand-off with officers. Orphaned at the age of 15, he committed a number of thefts before he joined a posse who sought to expel Sheriff William…
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John Ford’s Timeless Aesthetic: The Intersection of Fact and Legend
Great Movie John Ford and John Wayne together created much of the mythology of the Old West we carry in our minds. Beginning with “Stagecoach” (1939), continuing from 1948 through 1950 with the Cavalry Trilogy (“Fort Apache,” “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” and “Rio Grande”), and finally to 1962 and “The Man Who Shot Liberty…