| Author | Message | ||
     Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.72 |
http://horror.about.com/od/horrorthemelists/tp/horrorwesterns.htm | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
Haven't "DEAD BIRDS" and R.Howard's "THE MISSING" been left out of the horror/western list? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
There's some shite on that list, isn't there? | ||
| Paul_finch (Paul_finch) Username: Paul_finch Registered: 11-2009 Posted From: 92.0.197.237 |
I quite liked VALLEY OF GWANGI. An odd film certainly, but worth it just to see the lassoing sequence and the fight with the tyrannosaur in the cathedral. I once had the pleasure of shaking Gwangi's hand - and it nearly fell off. In 1976, while still at school, I was invited to meet Ray Harryhausen and see some of his monsters. Gwangi was one, and though it was only 10 years old, time had not been kind to it (or to any of them). I didn't realise this when I grabbed it by the paw. How embarrassing would that have been? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
VALLEY OF GWANGI is brilliant - a childhood classic. You met Ray Harryhausen? I am so jealous...so, so jealous. | ||
| Mark_samuels (Mark_samuels) Username: Mark_samuels Registered: 04-2010 Posted From: 86.133.23.20 |
Rolf Harris came to my school when I was eight. Not quite as exciting; lovely bloke though. Mark S. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
I've met Harryhausen twice at the festival of Fantastic Films in Manchester. I got him to sign my copy of Bradbury's Graveyard for Lunatics last time he was there. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
They missed out 'Ravenous' (1999) - a great horror western imo. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.72 |
Giancarlo - I actually included Dead Birds on the original list, but I don't think anybody knew what I was wittering on about. Personally, I think Dead Birds is a gem, possibly the best. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.72 |
Yes, of course. What a great film, Steve. Antonia Bird is a very interesting director. | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.209.217 |
'Ghost Town', (the 80s film) is actually rather good. 'Grim Prairie Tales' is worth watching too. 'Black Noon' sounds fascinating. Even though it's set in Africa, I've always thought of Richard Stanley's 'Dust Devil' as a horror western. Also as a masterpiece. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.72 |
Simon - I saw Grim Pairie Tales' as part of the wonderful Moviedrome series. Alex Cox was still presenting then. And yes, Dust Devil is indeed a horror western, and yes again, a masterpiece. Have you seen the uncut version? I hear it restores several key scenes. | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.209.217 |
Yep, I have it on DVD. A classic, classic movie. And I really want that Simon Boswell soundtrack on CD... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRHGHgfombE | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
I considered 'The Proposition' (2005) a kind of ordeal horror western - as well as arguably the best western of its decade. A wonderful throwback to the blood, dirt and sweat of the 1970s! 'Dust Devil' is indeed a horror masterpiece. As I've said before, second only to 'Seven' in the 1990s. | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.209.217 |
Oh, Frank- to answer your question properly!- as far as I know I've only seen the full version. First time I got to see it was when they showed it on Channel 4. I think that version was fully restored, and it seems to be the same as I have on DVD. So many wonderful lines: 'The desert knows her name now. He has stolen both her eyes. When she looks in the mirror she will see his spirit, like a shawl blowing tatters in a haze. And beyond the dim horizon, a tapestry unfolding, of all the avenues of evil, and all of history set ablaze.' Magic. | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.122.209.76 |
And I really want that Simon Boswell soundtrack on CD... Did you know that soundtrack CD included in the 5 disk DVD set has an almost entirely different selection of cuts from the Varese Sarabande CD release? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
I knew that...because I own it. Dust Devil might just be my favourite horror film of all time. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
I own the film in three different versions on DVD - a bootleg, a German print, the five-disc special set. I also have the soundtrack on my MP3 player and listen to it regularly. I adore that film.  | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
I considered 'The Proposition' (2005) a kind of ordeal horror western - as well as arguably the best western of its decade. A wonderful throwback to the blood, dirt and sweat of the 1970s! I couldn't agree more, Stevie. | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
IMHO, Peckinpah's "THE WILD BUNCH, beside Western, would figure well in a Horror top-list! | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
The western peaked in the late 60s imo with the two greatest examples ever made: Leone's 'Once Upon A Time In The West' & Peckinpah's 'The Wild Bunch'. I keep changing my mind about which is the greatest... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Thee were some amzing westerns made in the 1970s...some of the best. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.176.105.55 |
That reads really well if you do a corny pirate accent. Or possibly a hollywood version of broad yorkshire... | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
As to horrorwesterns, I think the original DJANGO, the one with the maghine-gun in the coffin, is another one deserving consideration. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
Shiver thou timbers. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
In the 1970s there was only one way left to go for the western - deconstruction of what had always been the most historically inaccurate but mythically satisfying genre in cinema ('The Iron Horse', 'Dodge City', 'Red River', 'The Naked Spur', 'The Searchers', 'The Magnificent Seven', 'How The West Was Won', 'Ride The High Country', etc.) by unromantic concentration on graphic detail and relentless downplaying of the pseudo-glory aspects - this resulted in the genres last great decade imho ('Soldier Blue', 'A Man Called Horse', 'The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean', 'Ulzana's Raid', 'Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid', 'The Missouri Breaks', 'The Outlaw Josey Wales', 'Heaven's Gate', etc. ) Since then there have only been sporadic notable additions to the genre of which Eastwood's 'Unforgiven', Hillcoat's 'The Proposition' & Tommy Lee Jones' 'The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada' stand out for me. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.166.117.210 |
I'll take the 70s westerns over the 60s ones any day...although The Magnificent Seven is my favourite western film of all time. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Yes, the implication was that Django was some sort of demonic avenger quite possibly returned from the dead - nice one, Giancarlo. It was the direct inspiration for Eastwood's explicitly supernatural 'High Plains Drifter'. | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.24.29.249 |
>>I'll take the 70s westerns over the 60s ones any day... I dunno, the 60s had some pretty good westerns as well. Ride the High Country, Hombre, El Dorado, the Dollars trilogy, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Once Upon a Time in the West, True Grit, The Professionals, The Sons of Katie Elder, Cat Ballou. Not to mention the greatest western of them all -- Carry On Cowboy. >>Since then there have only been sporadic notable additions to the genre While I wouldn't call them cinematic masterpieces Tombstone, Silverado and Appaloosa are all westerns for which I have a soft spot. Oh, and Shanghai Noon; aside from all the Jackie Chan slaptick kung fu I like to play "spot what westerns they ripped off their ideas from". | ||
| Giancarlo (Giancarlo) Username: Giancarlo Registered: 11-2008 Posted From: 85.116.228.5 |
What about "GINGER SNAPS BACK"? | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.4.240.23 |
Gosh, this thread has made me realize just how deficient I am in the Western genre... I've seen some of the biggies, but not many others... I could walk to where so many of these were filmed (put "Corriganville Ranch" in imdb to see!), and yet have seen so few.... I wonder, Stevie, if your analysis of the two "ages" of the Western match my increasing viewpoint of the character construction of the "golden age" vs. today - jaded/broken characters achieving positive goals then, naive/idealistic characters gaining tempering half-loaf goals now. Could it be an effect of the Great Depression? Where everyone was to some degree "broken," so that was the base from which they started their stories? Which lasted through the War years, and beyond, until it finally faded with the onslaught of the new world of the 50's and 60's... and so the great and gradual reverse.... With this latest economic downturn, will we see - from some distance yet - a return to characters achieving positive/happily-ever-after goals again?... | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.72 |
What about Once Upon A Time In The Midlands (Shane Meadows?). No, seriously. It's the classic archetype writ bold, very bold The title's a bloody giveaway to start off with. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Craig, it is my view that we are entering a Second Great Depression and, as in the 1930s, that will result in an upsurge of feelgood movies, sentimental fantasies and "little man overcoming all the odds" parables. Escapism is what the public always craves when times are hard. In the real world we'll also see a necessary return to community co-operation and socialist values as well as petty and organised crime going through the roof. It took a World War to sort things out the last time, maybe this time it'll take a full-scale alien invasion lol.  | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.72 |
Come on the full-scale alien invasion. Remember that scene in Independence Day with all those idiots standing on top of the skyscraper, waving welcome placards, that's me that is. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.234.38 |
The only western I can watch again and again is Once Upon a Time in the West. I have it on dvd and all that, but would still go and see it in a cinema if it was on. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Finally got to see it on the big screen last year and was on a high for days afterward. An awesome experience!! |