Western Movies

Hardin Biopic

harden-western moviesFew movie producers can claim to being enshrined on the surface of the moon. Larry Zeug is the exception: “When I worked at Rocketdyne, I was in the experimental department, and we built the LEM that landed on the moon. They had a plaque that we all signed, and it was engraved. So my name’s on the moon.”

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IN THE WORKS

upcoming westerns_streep-swank-russel-jonesTommy Lee Jones will be starring, directing and writing an adaptation of Glendon Swarthout’s classic novel The Homesman, costarring Meryl Streep and Hilary Swank.

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Remembering Ernest Borgnine

Ernest-BorgnineErnest Borgnine, Oscar-winning actor and perennial favorite of movies and TV for more than six decades, died on July 8, at the age of 95. Borgnine worked in film continually from 1951 up until about June of this year, easily switching back and forth between dramas and comedies.

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McLintock! Memories

ohn-wayne,-kathrine-Ohara_mclintockIt’s the movie people always ask me about. ‘Oh, I love John Wayne, but McLintock! has to be my favorite!’”

Actor Ed Faulkner punctuates this statement with an easy laugh and a degree of earned pride. His role, as the son of Bruce Cabot’s character, Ben Sage, triggers the wild mud brawl, which ranks among the most famous of Wayne’s movie moments. Audiences loved the knockdown comedy of 1963’s McLintock!,

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Feud-Mania

Costner_Hatifled_McCoys_westernsThe dictionary defines a “feud” as a “long-running argument or fight between parties—often groups of people, especially families or clans.” This includes vendettas, blood feuds, private wars and, if you ask me, street rumbles, gas station price wars and long-standing neighborhood barbecue battles.

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A New Yawk Jesse James

westerns_badmen-posters_larry-robert-ryan"It never made any sense to put me in Westerns, because I never lost my ‘dem doity boids!’”

Larry Tierney punched the end of his New Yorker-accented statement with a pull on his drink.

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The Iconic Duo

butch-cassidy_sundance-kid_1969-westernThe last great year for Western movies was 1969, which saw the release of three classics: The Wild Bunch, True Grit and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (all three films feature actor Strother Martin in memorable roles). Getting three terrific Westerns in the same year seemed exceptional at the time, and it now seems beyond imagination.

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Honoring Elmore

Westerns_justified_graham-yostThe success of FX’s Justified, created by Graham Yost from Elmore Leonard’s short story “Fire in the Hole,” is by now as familiar as Raylan Given’s Cattleman’s-style hat crafted by Baron Hats.

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8 Classic Westerns

classic_train_wetserns_moviesThat the train would inspire the world’s first narrative film, Edwin S. Porter’s 1903  Western The Great Train Robbery, makes complete sense to us.

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The Mean-Nice Man

Michael-Preece_henry-hathawayBefore his extraordinary career as director of more than 500 hours of television, including 62 episodes of Dallas and 70 of Walker, Texas Ranger, Michael Preece cut his teeth as script supervisor for some of the toughest directors in the business: Anthony Mann, John Ford, Sam Peckinpah and Henry Hathaway.

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Hollywood’s Honest Abe

Abraham-Lincoln-honest-abe-western-vampire

The Western was in a holding pattern, for the most part, in 2011.

We had Rango, which pulled out a shopping cart full of awards, including “Best Animated Feature Film” in this year’s Oscars.

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Our Favorite Movies, TV Series & DVDs of 2012

est-of-wetsern-movies_john-wayneWe run into John Wayne fans everywhere we go in this great nation of ours, and by New Year’s Day, after the holiday gifts have all been exchanged or traded in for something better (hey, it happens!), we bet a lot of them will have big smiles on their faces.

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Wyatt Earp Wannabes

wyatt-earp-film-wannabe-look-a-like-actors_true-westMore than 40 actors have portrayed Wyatt Earp, but few have even slightly resembled him. Which of the following actors do you believe best captures the real Wyatt? (Hint: the later the film, the more careful the makeup job.)

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The Soul of Django Unchained

Quentin-Tarantino-django-unchained-movie-reviewQuentin Tarantino has called his upcoming film Django Unchained a “Southern,” as it takes place in the South, moments before the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter. His story of runaway slave Django (Jamie Foxx)

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The Big Kiss Off

movie-postesrs-my-darling-clemetine-herny-fondaJohn Ford’s 1946 classic film, My Darling Clementine, the story of Wyatt Earp and the O.K. Corral gunfight, is anything but a forgotten film classic—

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The Stickler

jim-hatzsell_movie authenticator_westerns“Did you sketch this picture of my daughter?” Cindy Costner, Kevin’s wife at the time, asked a Union soldier during a lull in the Dances With Wolves filming in 1989.

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A.K.A. John Ford

barry-fitzgerald-the quiet-man-john-wayne-john-fordSean Martin Feeney arrived in Los Angeles from Portland, Maine, in 1914 at the age of 19.

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On the Trail with Gus and Call

gus_call_lonsome-dove_on-the-setWhen Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove was published in 1985, virtually every review included the term “epic.” “Deeply affecting” was a close second in the flow of praise for what one critic called “the Great Cowboy Novel.”

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Marfa, Texas

mafia-texas-giant-movie-location-james-deanCalled one of the last American frontiers, Marfa got its start as an 1883 water stop for the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway. This semiarid region features dry steambeds and a mountain terrain made up of the Davis, Chisos and Chinati ranges.

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Good for Nothing

spaghetti-westerns-good-for-nothing_inge-rademeyerInge Rademeyer and Mike Wallis are a team and a couple; together they wrote and produced a completely original, extremely entertaining Western called Good for Nothing.

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Tom Mix: The First Western Superstar

Tom Mix began his career with the 101 Ranch Wild West Show.

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True West Site Guide

Mission

True West captures the spirit of the American West with authenticity, personality and humor by linking our history to our present. Whether you call it the Wild West, the Old West or the Far West, America's frontier history comes to life in True West, the world's oldest, continuously published Western Americana magazine.

Western movie fans, re-enactors, history buffs and road warriors, we got your history covered: outlaw, cowboy, Indian, lawman, gunfighter, fur trapper, miner, prospector, gambler, soldier, entertainer and pioneer. Check out these True Westerners now!
 

Product of the Month

The Illustrated Life and Times of Wyatt Earp

Wyatt Earp

"Your book is fascinating, coupling your powerful illustrations [and] tracking...from birth to Tombstone to the legend [Wyatt] had become;...even Wyatt would approve." --By Hugh O'Brian, of the TV series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp

"Hands down the definitive books on Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday." --By Allen Barra, New York Newsday