In the eighties the Hollywood western was all but replaced by a new genre: the buddy-cop movie. That right there might tell us that Westerns were really always seen as movies. It's arguable that westerns were the birth of the movie experience. For decades they accounted for a huge majority of studio pictures. In the late 70's that percentage plummeted. Some cinefiles theorize that this change in studio programming was related to the release of the 1974 Mel Brooks comedy western, Blazing Saddles. Blazing Saddles, some say, shined a giant spotlight on the racism inherent in the Hollywood western, causing a shock wave that left the genre limping until it was revived with a new epoch in 1992 with the Academy Award winning Unforgiven. Now it seems that most Western directors are aiming for Film status. Pictures shooting from the hip, however, often miss the Film target and "PA-ZANG!" ricochet into Flickdom.
Tombstone . . . MOVIE.
Just the right mix of romance, bro-mance, and epic bad-assery flickers across the silver screen in this nearly perfect Western. Unforgettable quotes- "I'm your huckleberry." - iconic imagery, (and Sam Neil) put this picture near the top in the great category of Western MOVIE.
The Quick and the Dead . . . FLICK!
If the principal actor in your picture can't stop making the "man-aint-it-cool-I'm-in-a-western" face, you're probably making a FLICK.
Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford . . . FILM.
Critics have called this a character study, but I see it more as a cinematic poem. The methodical pacing, mesmerizing pictures, and lyric narration pulled strait from the source material make 'Assassination' a modern classic FILM.
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Tombstone . . . MOVIE.
Just the right mix of romance, bro-mance, and epic bad-assery flickers across the silver screen in this nearly perfect Western. Unforgettable quotes- "I'm your huckleberry." - iconic imagery, (and Sam Neil) put this picture near the top in the great category of Western MOVIE.
The Quick and the Dead . . . FLICK!
If the principal actor in your picture can't stop making the "man-aint-it-cool-I'm-in-a-western" face, you're probably making a FLICK.
Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford . . . FILM.Critics have called this a character study, but I see it more as a cinematic poem. The methodical pacing, mesmerizing pictures, and lyric narration pulled strait from the source material make 'Assassination' a modern classic FILM.
