Potato Western

The Saloon Western board
1

There’s a new genre in town :slight_smile:

2

Potato westerns was what Danish westerns produced in the early 70s were called :slight_smile: So the Irish stole our genre title? How rude.

3

Now I’m curious as to why a Danish western would be given a title like Potato western.

4

Well it was coined by the Danish press at the time in 1970. And Denmark is basically potato country. Potatoes with gravy is more or less a national dish. Was then and is now :slight_smile:

5

I actually didn’t know that Denmark was popular for potato’s, I only thought that was an Irish and Idaho thing lol.

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6

Well Denmark is a famous potato country at least in Denmark :slight_smile:

Not that many potato westerns were made though. Here is a wikipedia entry for the ‘genre’:

In Danish though. Kartoffel translates to potato.

7

The Canadian province of Prince Edward Island is also well known for their potatoes that are grown in PEI’s distinctly red earth. That being said, here in Atlantic Canada we are more well-known for the seafood.

I like to imagine if there was a name given to Canadian westerns it would either be “poutine western” or “maple western” :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
8

I watched this movie in the cinema at the weekend.
The movie showed the misery of the famine and the politics of the time well, without just dwelling on it too much - including failure of the potato crop/house evictions/jail & transportation to Australia for minor crimes/food leaving the country for England while people starved/offering soup to those who denounced their RC religion etc. - all the happy stuff.
Then a revenge story layer is added - with a man returning home after fighting with the English army in Afghanistan to find his family either dead or starving as a result of the above. He goes on the revenge trail starting with the lower level traitors until he gets as far as the landlord. All the time, the man is being hunted by an ex comrade and a young English soldier.
I don’t know the lead actor James Frecheville who says little in the movie or Freddie Fox who plays the young English soldier. I enjoyed the roles played by Hugo Weaver, Stephen Rea and Jim Broadbent.

I would recommend this movie but I am not sure how it would be viewed outside of Ireland.