Once Upon a Time in the West

One of the downsides to doing this challenge is that I’ve seen too many westerns. I’m now to the point where I feel that when you’ve seen one western, you’ve seen them all.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I love this movie, its fantastic. I might be a bit biased as I LOVE Clint Eastwood and I think it would be an awesome movie if it was just him reading the phonebook. I recommend everyone to see this movie, you won’t regret it. Yes, its nearly 3 hours long but whatever, its still good.

You’ve heard it a billion times but I just worry that people will read this and think I’m crap. I’m just really tired. And I think I’m, once again, loosing my determination for this challenge. I won’t stop but I am so close to just going ‘yeah, I watched it, done.’ My challenge isn’t to watch and review 212 films, its just to watch but I feel bad if I don’t review because… I don’t know but whatever, I do. Not that anyone reads these except my mum lol.

My Darling Clementine

This film seems pretty ordinary to me. It doesn’t really have any ‘bizang’ to it. I’ve seen far better Westerns. Its about this guy and his brother gets killed so he becomes the marshal of a town to hunt the people who killed his brother down.

The cattle is gone! And the music literally goes ‘dun dun duuuuuuuun!’

You can’t kill people off in the first 10 minutes because we don’t know enough or care enough about them when they do die. Unless, of course, the reaction to his death is incredibly emotional which, in this film, it wasn’t. It just didn’t work for me, I didn’t feel sorry for him and therefore didn’t join the main characters and they wanting for revenge.

Cowboys don’t drink champagne, that’s just weird!

Shakespeare in a Western? Really?! Nice to see an Englishman in a Western who wasn’t a bad guy, though…

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

I really liked this movie! The plot line is relatively easy to follow and its almost border lining into a comedy, rather than a typical Western. Its about these two guys that are on the run from the law, basically.

I’m a little confused about what the sepia tone of the beginning, middle and end scenes represent. I thought, at first, that they were the parts that they know where fact and the rest is what is rumored to of happened and that sepia was used to show it as ‘old footage’ showing that its ‘real’. However, as the movie went on, I don’t think that’s the case. I think that maybe its just to remind the audience that this is history they’re talking about. However, it does say at the beginning “Most of what follows is true.”

I only have one bad thing to say about the fantastic casting of Robert Redford and Paul Newman; they don’t look old enough to be ‘over-the-hill’ robbers. But aside from that, they’re brilliant together, there’s so much chemistry, they just ooze with ‘best-friend-forever-ness’. However, I am confused because they discover stuff about each other as they run from the law. I don’t know whether they’ve just met and they just happen to really get along or if the script is supposed to show us that even BFFs don’t know everything about each other.

The comedy is my kind of comedy. Its not laugh-out-loud funny but it makes you smile. Redford and Newman have great comic timing and style, they just bounce off one another with teasing and jokes that BFFs do say to each other. Don’t wish to go on about this but it does really make me miss my friends back in England.

Their relationship with the woman is weird… almost like they’re having a threesome but without the BFFs getting together; they just take it in turns to ‘be’ with her. Weird…

It was interesting to see the bicycle make a little appearance in a Western. It oddly works as a little sidekick to the horse.

Blazing Saddles

Oooo I loved this movie, its so funny! And I think I like it even more because it takes the piss out of westerns which I’ve been despising lately.

The white men are incredibly racist to the black people but they’re portrayed as the dumb, stupid, bad people and the black people are the smart, good guys.

What made me realize that this was going to be on hell of a weird western spoof was when Hedley Lamarr starts humping the statue. Then there’s the cattle in the saloon.

I love that the Governor has ‘GOV’ stitched onto the back of his jacket and the KKK have ‘have a nice day’ on their robes.

The new sheriff takes himself hostage and OMG, its so freaking funny, especially the townsfolk’s reaction.

There is a scene completely dedicated to farts and burps, a male paradise.

I love the little nod to Loony Toons.

Madeline Kahn is a great comedic actress!

I love just how quick The Waco Kid is, totally ripping on those ‘fast cowboys’.

Tehehe, there’s a great scene where he’s getting all the bad guys to list their ‘qualifications’ such as rape and murder, then one of the guys has gum in his mouth and he gets shot because he didn’t have enough to give to everyone.

I love that they totally break down the forth wall and interact with the audience and say things that show that they’re just acting and that this is a movie. They break the fourth wall so much that, during a big fight, they actually break a wall and land in another movie set! Then some of the characters go to the cinema to see ‘Blazing Saddles”! Brilliant!!!

Love the toll booth! Why are cowboys on horses going through a toll booth so damn funny?!

Then they drive off into the sunset in a limo. Genius.

The rest of the review shall be my favourite quotes and the main reasons why I think you should all watch this movie:

Rio Bravo

5.06PM – I’m getting pretty sick of Westerns even though this is only the 10th Western I’ve watched.

8.35pm – This film was pretty good, as far as westerns go. Its about a Sheriff and some other men making sure a brother doesn’t try to help his brother escape from jail.

The scenes with John Wayne and Ward Bond are fantastic, great acting.

This is the first western I’ve seen that has a storyline about alcoholism. I noticed that there is loads of drinking in westerns so I thought it was brilliant that they took notice of this and showed a man trying to battle with alcoholism. I found myself really getting into it and cheering when he managed to stay strong.

Dean Martin plays a guy called ‘Dude’. Its pretty funny seeing ‘cowboys’ say ‘dude’.

Blood in the beer! Ew!!!!

Its so bad that I loved seeing the characters rolling up a cigarette because it reminded me of my best friend back in England, Sarah, who smokes like a chimney. It’s a nasty habit but it made me smile and think of my Sarah.

Angie Dickinson [Feathers] is so beautiful! And not only that, but she’s a great, strong female character with the tiniest waist ever and the coolest boots!

I did a little research and when the Sheriff [Wayne] kisses Feathers [Dickinson] it’s a 52 year old kissing a 28 year old. Now THAT’S an age gap!

I found myself going ‘ooooo bitch slap!’ when Dude [Martin] slaps Chance [Wayne].

I loved the song scene! Kind of needed it with Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson in the cast!

Nelson looks like Zac Efron a little…

I strangely loved the scene where Stumpy [Walter Brennan] threw dynamite and Chance and Dude would shoot them to make them go off. I don’t know why but I just loved it, probably because I can imagine Gene Hunt doing it [Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, look them up, great TV shows].

It wasn’t that bad of a western thanks to the cast and simple storyline.

117/212

Kate
xoxo

117/212

Kate
xoxo

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid

Thanks to the lovely Karen who has friended me on Facebook, I shall use this little intro section to do a little intro to the movie’s plot. However, my version of the plot may differ to the actual plot because I’m weird and a bit thick so yeah… anyways, ‘Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid’ is about Pat Garrett chasing after Billy the Kid. They used to be BFFs but then Pat Garrett become a deputy and had to arrest Billy the Kid for killing someone so Pat Garrett chases him across Old Mexio or somewhere like that, I can’t remember.

The beginning is nice because it cuts very nicely between the past [in sepia tone] and present [colour]. I didn’t fully understand what was happening but I thought, visually, it looked pretty good.

“Sweet Mary’s ass!”

I love the soundtrack! Some great songs on there!

A lot of pink paint in this movie. Though I think we’re supposed to believe its blood…

“Why don’t you take your money, shove it up your ass, and set fire to it?”

James Coburn [Pat Garrett] has lovely hair for an old man!

There is a beautiful shot where one of the characters [think Billy the Kid] is on his horse, riding next to a lake and the audience can only tell what he’s doing because they can only see him via his silhouette in the reflection on the lake. It was beautiful, trust me.

There is a whole lot of killed friends in this movie. AND there are only two real displays of emotion towards the dead friends. One which was actually the wife and she smiled in a sad farewell as her husband walked away wounded [think signifying he was going to heaven but it was weird and out of place but still sweet]. And another was the final death and is rather understandable and a nice change of no emotion.

Its all a bit confusing but it slowly comes to light what is happening. I feel that there were too many times when I went “wait, what? Why is… what the… oh, wait, ok, NOW I get it…”

Some harsh racism in this movie but its needed to show how brutal it was back then.

There’s a nice little [tame] orgy in this movie so don’t watch it with your parents…

The whole film is a little slow and doesn’t really pick up the pace at all. But its alright, just could have been faster and more stuff happening.

Best of Enemies. Deadliest of Friends.

110/212

Kate
xoxo

The Searchers

It’s an alright film. I feel that you’d have to really be in the mood for a Western to enjoy it.

I know that’s what it was like at the time but I hate the over-acting. The only descent actor there was John Wayne.

I felt no sadness towards the family’s death. I think its because I didn’t see them enough on screen or I just felt no connection to the characters.

HA! Spotted a mistake! When they uncovered the dead Native American, he was clearly breathing.

Gorgeous shots of the landscape.

There were a few humorous parts like the young man accidentally buying a wife. Also, the fight between these two young men was quite funny too, they were just so poliet to one another! Then one of them found a fiddle and was like “wait, there’s someone’s fiddle!” “Oh… someone take this, please.” Then the Captain/Reverend got shot in the bum; that never fails to make me laugh.

The more I watch these Westerns, the more I fall in love with horses. They really are such beautiful creatures.

The plot was good [though that’s the writer of the book that this is based on’s doing rather than the film makers] and it is visually quite stunning but… I don’t know, I just hated the acting [except John Wayne].

103/212

Kate
xoxo

The Man Who Would Be King

My 100th film! I’ve now watched 100 films since the beginning of this year! Will probably do ‘big celebration’ for my 106th film because then I’ll be half way through my challenge!

Anyways, this was a good film to have as my 100th, got to love a bit of Sean Connery and Michael Caine.

Michael Caine’s makeup in the opening scene made me think of Team America which has ruined practically every movie for me because now I seem to not be able to get through a movie [mainly action] without thinking about Team America!

Sean Connery and Michael Caine are a great pair though I feel there could have been a tad bit more best friend chemistry but it was still pretty damn good.

I laughed when the army was walking by. The army is a mixture of different towns/cities, each town/city wearing a different colour. It looked like the opening to the Olympics.

Mrs Michael Caine makes an appearance. I didn’t know who she was but my mum and dad immediately went “MRS CAINE!” We thought it must have been funny for Michael Caine to see his wife be ‘married’ to Sean Connery.

This movie should be seen for the location shots alone. They had a great location manager.

This movie is the [now] classic tale of the test of BFFness [best friend forever-ness]. The moral of the story is… don’t give your BFF power because they’ll bugger it all up.

Bit of a crap review but it was really good.

100/212

Kate
xoxo

Dances with Wolves

Its actually not as bad as my dad made it out to be *glares at dad*. It is long, its very very VERY long but its good… its kind of like watching episodes of a TV show back-to-back. So I’d recommend you watch this if you have nothing else to do for the whole day.

I clicked ‘play’ and was just about to take my first bite out of my Easter cookie [which tasted like something my dad would use for DIY but what do I expect for 50¢] when the first shot we see is of a LOT OF BLOOD! So don’t eat when you’re watching the start. Also, I’d advise vegetarians or animal lovers not to watch this film either, it will just upset you and make you cry and make everyone around you annoyed with you for your crying.

I didn’t think it but I actually laughed quite a few times in this movie. It has some surprisingly elements of humor and I loved it! Its mainly between the differences between the two cultures [‘white’ and the native Americans] but I’m still surprised that I found myself giggling.

It is VERY long, nearly 4 hours and within 19 minutes of the film, I could already spot parts that could have been very easily edited out. Maybe I could see what could have been chopped and put onto the DVD as additional scenes because I want to be a film editor when I leave college but I think everyone can agree that nearly 4 hours is too damn long for a drama. But, like I mentioned at the beginning, it isn’t boringly long, it just feels like a TV show omnibus.

The costumes and set are fantastic, I totally felt the era.

The animals, especially Two Socks [the wolf] and Cisco [the horse], are beautiful. However, I kept finding myself giving the animals voices, like what they’re thinking. I amuse myself sometimes!

Nice butt shot.

I’m so jealous of Kevin Costner’s hair. Its so full of volume and silky and a lovely colour!

2hr 13min mark and we have an intermission! Seriously! I don’t know why I found this so amusing.

Kevin Costner’s character’s name changes to Dances With Wolves! I know that I probably should of worked it out a lot sooner that when it was actually said on the screen.

I loved the story of how Stands With A Fist got her name, I could picture it happening in my mind as she told her story.

Kevin Costner directed this movie as well as starring and producing it and… is it immature of me to think its weird to direct your own love scene?

Tehehe, love the name Smiles A Lot.

OMG DEAD DOG!!!

Wow, go Grandma! YAY! Go little kids, go!

I loved that when one of the men died, they gathered around the fire and exchanged funny stories about the deceased. That’s what funerals should be like, not all this sadness.

Ignore what people say about this film. Its good. Long. But good. If you’ve watched TV show episodes back-to-back, you can deal with watching this movie.

95/212

Kate
xoxo