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John Wayne’s final movie serves as a benediction for gunfighters at the dawn of the 20th Century, and for Wayne’s career as a celluloid gunfighter. It does the latter better than the former, making it more of an obligation for fans of the Duke than for Western fans generally. The Shootist b…
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Lauren Bacall: strong & lovely
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A Toy Story knock-off inspired by classic Westerns, Rango is populated with reptiles and rodents instead of toys. Unfortunately its uncuddly creatures aren’t especially relatable, even though they’re in recognizable human dilemmas, a la Pixar’s playthings. Rango’s larger problem is a st…
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Classic Westerns come no more accomplished than Winchester ’73. It ably weaves a tale around “The Gun that Won the West,” the Winchester 1873. This Precious changes hands almost as often as My Precious in Lord of the Rings, …
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Rock Hudson before Indians played Ind...
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A big budget disaster when it came out at the end of the Sixties, Paint Your Wagon is a modestly entertaining extravaganza today. Faint praise? Indeed, for a musical comedy that is long on star power and short on memorable songs and effective humor. Oh yeah, it’s also long on time. I watc…
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Jean Seberg: lovely, not distinctive
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Marilyn Monroe didn’t want to appear in River of No Return, nor did Otto Preminger want to direct it, especially if Marilyn was to star. Studio contracts forced them into it and we’re all the better for it today. River of No Return is a fine mid-Fifties Western, with surprising Italian root…
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Marilyn sings: Let it wash over you.
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In Old California is a simpleminded recreation of Old Sacramento in 1848 and then 1849, made in 1942. A quasi-historical tale, it mostly exists to showcase John Wayne looking quite-the-dandy, from Boston even. The settings are the thing now: pre-49er San Francisco and then up the river to Old…
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John Wayne, the Boston Dandy
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John Wayne starring in an Old West fairytale based on a Louis L’Amour story endows Hondo with loads of old fashioned panache, yet saddles it with too many cliches for enduring greatness. That’s in 2D however. Having seen it years ago in 3D, I recall it as being better but still not great. It…
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The trailer hypes Hondo a bit too much.
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Gary Cooper walking alone down a dusty Western street to confront a gang of killers is as iconic as Hollywood gets, making High Noon an archetype even more than a legend. That’s quite a weight. Fortunately the movie itself is engaging, suspenseful and tight. A mere 85 minutes, it runs in ne…
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High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My D...
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The great Elmore Leonard wrote two kinds of scripts, great ones and, well, er, the great Elmore Leonard wrote one kind of script, not counting the two genres he wrote: Westerns and darkly funny crime dramas. Known more now for the latter, he was a modern master of the former, populating his hair…
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Guitar kicks in 40s into the Joe Kidd...
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Think the title is long? Consider yourself warned: this boring movie never seems to end, meandering for nearly 2½ hours. Plus it commits the deadly sin of assuming that the viewer is familiar with the particulars of Jesse James’ early legend, without which the poorly told story has no narrative… |
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