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Terror on the P...
Great 66 Points 2022

Revisionist Westerns pack a punch, especially when shorn of everything non-elemental. Terror on the Prairie packs one hell of a punch, simultaneously elemental (Gina Carano plays a totally traditional wife and mother.) and revisionist (She’s also an ultra badass.). Plus, she’s smarter than the …

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WikChip Image Gina Carano cleans up well.
The Magnificent...
Very Good 70 Points 1960

Samurai cowboys save a poor village in ye old Mexico, riding in to one of the greatest themes of all time. Fifty years on, the all-star cast impresses less than the bravura music — the Marlboro jingle still arouses.

The Magnificent Seven famously remakes Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai

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WikChip Video Elmer Bernstein's Magnificent Theme
Unforgiven
Perfect 73 Points 1992

Just as Goodfellas is the ne plus ultra of mob movies, Unforgiven is the apotheosis of Westerns. In classic Western form the movie endorses the ethos of the lone righteous man doing what needs done, while at the same time baldly debunking the glorification of gunfighters in the Wild West. T…

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2 Replies
  • Wick – Good call, Terry. A benchmark movie.
  • TerryEinstein – One of Clint Eastwood’s best and darkest movies. W...
Hostiles
Great 83 Points 2017

The American Indian Wars were mostly over by 1892. Bad blood ran deep, with bands of crazed killers roaming the land, as other combatants tried to move on with life after wartime. Writer-director Scott Cooper adroitly uses this brutal and beautiful milieu for a piercing story about a cavalry capt…

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Butch Cassidy a...
Perfect 83 Points 1969

The Old West ended when Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hightailed it to Bolivia. Old Westerns ended when Paul Newman and Robert Redford became Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, outlaw charmers the likes of which the Silver Screen had never seen before. Four Oscars plus three additional n…

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WikChip Video Bewitching Musical Interlude
Appaloosa
Very Good 83 Points 2008

Crisp and charismatic Western, done classically yet with an ironic sensibility. Fans of Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen and Westerns won’t be disappointed.

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1 Reply
  • Wick – Regarding "BrianSez's Review":/movie_reviews/1976-ap...
The Lone Ranger
Good 83 Points 2013

The Lone Ranger is Tonto’s movie. Good thing, since Tonto is played by Johnny Depp. Everybody knows this, just as everybody knows Johnny Depp is mighty white. Ironically, only in P.C. Hollywood would it be politically acceptable for a white guy to play an iconic Indian character in a 21st ce…

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WikChip Image Depp's look from a White painter, per...
True Grit
Great 100 Points 2010

Darker and more realistic than the 1969 original featuring John Wayne, this 21st Century retelling of a classic Wild West retribution story succeeds in almost every respect — often funny, richly evocative, shockingly brutal, cleverly revisionist. That last comes from the clear hero – a 14 year …

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WikChip Image Tall in the Saddle: Hailee Steinfeld
1 Reply
  • Wick – Regarding "BrianSez's Review":/movie_reviews/2926-tr...
3:10 to Yuma
Good 114 Points 2007

A traditional Western presented with richly modern production values, 3:10 to Yuma fails to satisfy due to an ultimately silly story and run-of-the-mill performances.

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