I watched The Culpepper Cattle Company again recently. Easily one of the best westerns I’ve seen. Definitely in my top 10 non-spaghettis.
That’s brutal! Makes cut-throats nine seem tame by comparison lol
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The Kid (2019) - recent Vincent D’Onofrio directed western starring Ethan Hawk as Pat Garrett and loosely based around a story tied to Billy The Kid. A decent enough western for a one time watch, I’m not sure if I’ll revisit or not. I do like Ethan Hawk and he does a good job here.
It also stars Chris Pratt as the bad guy and I’ve never liked Chris Pratt so I enjoyed the ending.
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Day of the Outlaws. Quite excellent
The Yellow Mountaint. Okay
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Like Autephex I also watched the
The Kid - Vicent D’Onofrio (2019)
Another take on Billy the Kid history, this one centered in a differemt line of characters that cruises with The Kid himself.
Not a bad ideia for a film from the director private Pyle, sorry Vicent D’Onofrio taking the focus from the story we all now, or it would just be another film made about Billy the Kid.
There’s of course one similar scene to Sam Peckinpah movie, when the kid escapes prison.
I liked this well made western, mostly a vehicle movie for actor´s to shine, and they do. Ethan Hawke normally an actor that seems always to be acting in effort goes rather ok as Pat Garret, also the other ones, even the youngest one, but what surprised me was Chris Pratt playing against type as the villain, solid performance.
There are film that are ok despite the actors, while other are only OK because of the actors, The Kid goes more in the last category, it lacks a more aggressive approach from the director, but it seems that movies likes this or made this way are the norm these days.
In conclusion not a bad films, but not a specially good one also, one of those works that you will not remember to watch again in the future, but for a one watch or a casual review it will work out nice.
In the end I can recommend a view from The Kid
3,5 out of 5
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Pretty much how I felt about it.
The only real gripe I had was with the monologue towards the end about how what’s important is what people remember about you, your legend, all that stuff that has been repeated in so many movies regarding this story… its so contrived by this point I couldn’t believe they actually wrote it into a movie in 2020. Really had me rolling my eyes, and its a shame because the ending was building up so nicely prior to this.
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Field of lost shoes
A civil war movie. Is this also considered as a western? For me it is.
Cadets from the Virginia military institute are used during a battle in the Shenandoah valley.
Pretty decent movie. But confusing as soms main characters are against slavery. This would put the military institute in the North but it is in reality southern. The battle is depicted in a decent way, but a bit too much heroïsm for the cadets.
A one time watch.
Bite the bullet
Decent western about a horse race. I liked Hackman better than in The Hunting party.
The movie is just entertainment. Not expecting more. Must have been ages ago that I had seen it because some scenes were afwully familiair but I could not remember the movie itself.
Cheyenne Autumn (1964) - John Ford
Writing about John Ford films it’s never easy, most of his cinematographic work is very good off course, but also a difficult task because there’s a complexity not alway easy to explain.
This was ford Last Western, an epic about the migration of the Cheyenne Nation, and their attempted to return to the their ancestral land from they were expelled.
It’s like an apology for the treatment of Indians not only in the real events but also films.
And then in a dramatic and emotional film, there’s the Dogde City sequence with James Stewart as Wyatt Earp, made as a comic relief. For strange as it seems I didn’t felt it came out place in the film.
The acting is very professional like in all of Ford’s films, and even if my favorite Ford films are in Black and White, the cinematography it’s excellent with some memorable scenes.
A very methodic film, its John ford revisionist western made in 1964.
I liked
4 out 5
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7 Men from Now (1954) Budd Boetticher
Interesting Western that I just watch by chance, about a sheriff that blames himself for the death of his wife, and promises t track down and Kill the men who did the robbery where his wife was killed.
I’ve never seen it before, at least in a full viewing, an what have I missed, it’s a terrifying western, with Randolph Scott and Lee Marvin.
The story is well displayed with the revelations about the main characters coming over the film, making the all thing very interesting and also making a fine character development.
Both start and finish are among the best I’ve seen really, the final showdown is fantastic.
The line between bad guys good guys in this western can’t really be called a line, the motivations, greed revenge shade every character, making difficult to distinguish good from bad .
There’s a normal but nerveless good acting work and a fine direction work, but the extra in the film is the story the screenplay, it turns a regular B type Western into something superior.
I can really recommend this one, it was Lee Marvin that made me watching, but Marvin is just one part of great film.
4 out *****
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The Homesman (2014)
Newish western directed by Tommy Lee Jones and featuring a fair number of known actors. Weird movie in a way that feels like it just wasn’t put together very well or something… despite having a good cast, nobody seemed to put out much of a performance. Direction feels a bit flat overall. I didn’t think I was going to like it much but it changes tone a bit midway through and this helps to redeem it. Worth watching for the second half and end, but directing doesn’t seem to be TLJ’s strong point
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I also watched this quite recently - my second attempt.
Liked it much more this time, but it is a tad slow and bleak … though I think it’s deliberately flat in presentation in order to convey a dreary unglamorous West. My god, the wild west is as dreary and boring as hell … but the acting here is pretty good and the story kept me interested.
Had to laugh at the idea of Hilary Swank being described as plain and therefore unmarriable, by at least two characters.
Maybe not a masterpiece, but a ‘darn’ good effort from Tommy Lee, who is hard to dislike 
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I may have been a bit distracted from fully appreciating the movie, as I’ve been practicing guitar while watching lately. Some movies this works better than others. Great for movies that don’t require much attention
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Never Grow Old (2019)
The Bravados, 1958
A superlative tale of a revengeful Gregory Peck chasing, and hunting down, the killers of his wife.
The cast includes a very young Lee Van Cleef, Stephen Boyd, and Henry Silva…all value for money. Worth watching.
John Cusack … a zero talent actor who seems to believe his characters are cool and dangerous !!!
Couldn’t even get through the trailer … when I hear that smug cliched delivery - and see that wimpy looking dude acting like a tough guy … 
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This was actually one of the biggest problems I had with the movie. I wasn’t buying Cusack’s performance at all… it was really bad. The way he talks is ridiculous. If they had a proper bad guy then maybe? But nothing about it was really grabbing my interest. Honestly I turned it off after the first hour with still another 50min to go
I was shocked to see all the extremely high rated reviews praising this movie on IMDB. They’re all talking about it like some kind of masterpiece in modern westerns.
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That’s a problem with imdb reviews, most of them are written by people who either loved or hated that particular film so most of the reviews are either praising 10/10 or dissing 1/10 ratings.
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Friends and family reviews 
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Watched this when it first came out.
It’s a decent film but just doesn’t come close to the book which is excellent.
I generally swear off reading all reviews, particularly reviews on sites like IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes - they are consistently at odds with my own opinions about movies. There have been so many times when I was put off watching a movie from reviews but ended up loving it when I finally decided to watch.
I am familiar with the issue of people related to the production putting up fake reviews but they are usually easy to spot - fake reviews always have a certain character to them… all the great reviews (and there are a lot) for this film seem to be genuine.