r/Westerns

All great. I know most would go with Unforgiven, but The Outlaw Josey Wales is my favorite.

Mine definitely has to be The good bad and the ugly.

The running time of The Tall T is very brief. Almost like a temporally overgrown episode of Gunsmoke. And that's fine. This film is taut, compressed and direct. Unlike more ambitious--or pretentious--Westerns such as Once upon a Time in the West, and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, there is absolutely no flab or dead air. The story is economical, the pacing is at a swift gallop, and the climax hits like a cannonball.

Randolph Scott is a delight in the lead. Before seeing him in Ride the High Country some time back, I had never even heard of the man. Now, the more I see of Scott, the more I think he'd make an excellent choice for the fourth face--along with Duke, Clint and Cooper--on a Western Mt. Rushmore.

You can't, of course, have a great Western without strong villains/henchmen, and TTT holds a full house with Richard Boone, Henry Silva, Skip Homeier.

Boone's Frank Usher is a classic Burt Kennedy villain--he penned the film's screenplay--in that he's a thoroughly nasty piece of work but still retains a few shreds of humanity. (Much like Claude Akins' character in Comanche Station.) The scene where he takes a plate of food and coffee to the sleeping captive Doreen Mims (Maureen O'Sullivan), and then pulls a blanket over her exposed shoulder is quite touching. He behaves as a father to a daughter he will almost certainly see murdered within 48 hours. One can well imagine the conflict in his mind.

Usher also takes a shine to his prisoner Pat Brennan (Randolph Scott), and the latter evinces a grudging respect for the former, too. As good as TTT is, it would have been better still if the relationship between Brennan and Usher had been fleshed out further. This would have increased the impact of the ultimate battle between the two at the movie's conclusion.

Silva also leaves an impression as the soulless Chink who positively salivates at the thought of killing people.

On the other hand, Arthur Hunnicutt's performance as a crusty old stagecoach driver was somewhat disappointing. I like Hunnicutt a great deal, but he was not in top form for TTT.

In the last analysis, this a little gem of a Western. It's tough, well-acted, sharply drawn, and it gets straight down to business. TTT belongs in every Western buff's DVD collection.

I have found some really interesting "western products" on RockHatter store, but I have never purchased anything there. The reviews seem to be a little weird, like two different people posting the same picture of the product. According to trustpilot, it does not have a good reputaion. Does anybody have some experience with this store?

It's a dam' rare thing when I prefer something new to something old, but this is one of those times. Now I certainly respect the original 3:10 to Yuma (1957). Most Western experts rate it one of the best and I'm not about to say they're wrong. However, much like My Darling Clementine, it just didn't do all that much for me. I didn't feel the slow boil of tension the film is known for. And without that tension, what have you got? Boredom in Bisbee and a coma in Yuma, I suppose. Maybe that's a bit harsh, but I really have no great desire to see it again.

The 2007 effort, on the other hand, has much more bravura and zest. There are only a couple of preposterous postmodern anachronisms, such as Dan's wife whining because he made some decision about the ranch without consulting her. Hello! This was southern Arizona in 1884 and it was a man's world, not one in which a young shrew posted a tell-all video on Tik Tok if her hubby went out drinkin' with the boys rather than taking her to the Taylor Swift concert.

This film features several excellent performances. Logan Lerman as the boy coming of age in the Old West, is very good. Peter Fonda showed well as a hard-bitten Pinkerton. Alan Tudyk was sympathetic and slightly droll as Doc Potter. And Russell Crowe was all he's cracked up to be as Ben Wade. I do feel like the 2007 Wade was fleshed out better than the 1957 iteration.

Ben Foster gets plenty of praise for his portrayal of Charlie Prince, but I'm ambivalent about him. For the most part he does a very good job, but there are a few cases where the slightly geeky 21st-centery Boston spoilt thing comes to the fore and undermines his portrayal. It takes one heck of an actor to free himself entirely from his time and place and Foster isn't quite good enough to pull it off.

Perhaps what I most admire about the picture is Dan (Christian Bale) putting his life on the line to earn the admiration he covets so much from his son. And he earns the great respect of Ben Wade into the bargain. That sort of striving after respect through acts of conspicuous bravery and heroism is classically Western. Indeed, it seems that in the Old West status was conferred less by fame and fortune per se, and more by the manly virtues. Quite remarkable that a film made in 2007 dilated on a theme that by that time and even more so now, is considered infra dig.

Sing along with DD and Howard to "Black Hills Of Dakota" from the 1953 Warner Brothers film "Calamity Jane".

Take me back to the black hills
The black hills of Dakota
To the beautiful Indian country
That I love

Lost my heart in the black hills
The black hills of Dakota
Where the pines are so high
That they kiss the sky above

And when I get that lonesome feelin'
And I'm miles away from home
I hear the voice of the mystic mountains
Callin' me back home

So take me back to the black hills
The black hills of Dakota
To the beautiful Indian country
That I love

Take me back to the black hills
The black hills of Dakota
To the beautiful Indian country
That I love

Lost my heart in the black hills
The black hills of Dakota
Where the pines are so high
That they kiss the sky above

And when I get that lonesome feelin'
And I'm miles away from home
I hear the voice of the mystic mountains
Callin' me back home

So take me back to the black hills The black hills of Dakota
To the beautiful Indian country
That I love

To the beautiful Indian country
That I love

Narrated by Roy Rogers. From "Melody Time" released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1948.