To round out WESTERN WEEK, here’s a quick round-up of some of our favorite Westerns — none too unconventional to mention! FROM ELBEE: DUDES (1988) [collector’s edition blu-ray via shout factory] If we’ve learned anything […]
Category: Hi Ho SilverScreen
LIVING IN A GRAY AREA: ‘BONE TOMAHAWK’ AND MORAL COMPASS
Set in a blazing hot desert, Bone Tomahawk opens with David Arquette’s Purvis slitting a man’s throat. Almost immediately thereafter, we meet his partner-in-crime, Buddy (Sid Haig), who lectures Purvis on the proper way to […]
‘JOHNNY GUITAR’: A WESTERN DREAM
Editor’s Note: an earlier version of this essay first appeared at Cinepunx.com A long time ago, Francois Truffaut, maker of fancy French films, thought this little American Western called Johnny Guitar had such grace that […]
The Western With a Participation Trophy: ‘THE QUICK AND THE DEAD’
When I volunteered to write an article about the 1995 western movie The Quick and the Dead, I fully intended to write something entirely positive. After all, I’ve watched this movie several times and liked […]
BATTLE GOTH AND THE TROJAN WHORES: ‘DJANGO’ AND ‘THE CROW’
The heart of Texas holds a bright shining star, but what if it is really a black hole? When considering the grim side of Western films, this seems perfectly reasonable. Anti-heroes readily populate our cultural […]
A ROUGH AND TUMBLE XMAS WITH THE DUKE
John Wayne is an American film icon, but to me, he’s also an annual reminder of the most wonderful time of the year. While I cannot think of anything “wonderful” about 2020, when I think […]
‘THE BORDER’: JACK NICHOLSON’S SHARP HOMAGE TO ‘HIGH NOON’
The Border is one of those quiet movies of which seemingly very few Jack Nicholson fans have heard. Coming off of Kubrick’s high-profile adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining, the actor went back to his […]
DEAD MAN: JIM JARMUSCH’S TRANSGRESSIVE WESTERN TONE POEM
There is something romantic about a film genre set in unexplored territory in a bygone period, places untouched by Western civilization, where right and wrong are settled by the spin of a gun barrel, a […]