Why aren't there more Western movies

[Paul H. Rayton]

I had a friend tell me, years ago, that he didn't like the musical film "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" because ... he didn't like "westerns". That show is a full-blown musical [1954, Jane Powell & Howard Keel, directed by Stanley Donen, and released in 35mm and 70mm versions] , but with a very western setting -- Oregon in 1850. So does that make it a "western"? I thought my friend was being a bit arbitrary, but this discussion here brought that incident to mind.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

According to IMDB.... " In 1850 Oregon, when a backwoodsman brings a wife home to his farm, his six brothers decide that they want to get married too."

There also exists a 1:77 Flat version of this movie, believe it or not. Was one of the few films shot in awful Ansco Color.

[Marcel Birgelen]

What about 'Independence Day'? Sci-Fi and mostly shot out west.

The movie features The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, so this is clearly a comedy. :P

But I still remember the entire first act of the movie being about the big countdown to the big, synchronous boom that laid ashes to many of the U.S. most recognizable landmarks. That's the Sci-Fi part? The Western part is where The Fresh Prince shoots down the alien fighterthingy and drags the slimy behind him in his parachute back to "Area 51" I presume? Or is it the part where they hack infinitely more advanced alien space tech using a Macbook and a computer virus? :P

[Mitchel Wagner]

Can we check 'True Woman' and 'Brimstone' as Westerns ?

[Martin McCaffery]

That show is a full-blown musical

As was Paint Your Wagon. Client Eastwood AND Lee Marvin.

[Frank Angel]

There also exists a 1:77 Flat version of this movie, believe it or not. Was one of the few films shot in awful Ansco Color.

Couldn't be any worse than DeLux Color which started turning red before the end of the first week after it got out of the lab.

[Paul Finn]

For the best in "Pure Western Entertainment", I'll take movies like High Noon and Shane and Rio-Bravo with stars like John Wayne, James Stewart, Gary Cooper.

Paul Finn

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

DeLuxe and Metrocolor 70mm prints turned red while the show was running and would have to be replaced every 90 days or so depending on how the powerful the arcs were. Agfa 70mm prints did not seem to have the same problem for what ever reason.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

For the best in "Pure Western Entertainment", I'll take movies like High Noon and Shane and Rio-Bravo with stars like John Wayne, James Stewart, Gary Cooper.

Paul Finn

Unforgiven is also prety hard to beat

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Couldn't be any worse than DeLux Color which started turning red before the end of the first week after it got out of the lab.

I think Clint always regretted singing to the trees...

[Marcel Birgelen]

Unforgiven... directed by, written by and acted by... Clint Eastwood. That guy could make a movie on his own.
A movie that left such an impact on Metallica, they had to name not one, not two, but three songs after it...*

Can we check 'True Woman' and 'Brimstone' as Westerns ?

Yes, we can!

But at least Brimstone, I'd check in as a... Progressive Western? Or... New-Age Western? Or maybe we can call those Spaghetti Western-style Westerns more like "Soft Westerns" and more realistic, harsh takes on the genre "Hard Westerns"?

We could call a story that's a Western at heart, but wrapped in something else a "Western Core", so we could call Back to the Future III a Western Core Sci-Fi. Or a Sci-Fi Core Western?
We could call a "Modern Western" that checks all the "inclusivity boxes" and is made for "Modern Audiences" a Tripple-W: A Wild Woke Western.
So many opportunities, an entirely undiscovered country of genre-crossovers!

* Actually, it was named after the 1960s movie and the first single was released about a year before the movie came out... but heck, who gives a damn about facts when you can make your own?

Edit: Wrongly aligned keyboard.

[Bobby Henderson]

I still can't get over how great a film Unforgiven turned out to be. I've watched the movie many times yet some scenes really still get to me. My favorite scene is late in the movie where "The Schofield Kid" (Jaimz Woolvett) is coming to grips with admittedly having killed a man for the first time. The regret of it is suddenly hitting him like an avalanche. The exchange between him and Bill Munny (Eastwood) is one of the most poignant scenes I've ever seen in a "Hollywood" film.

The Schofield Kid: (drinking from a whiskey bottle) Was that what it was like in the old days, Will? Everybody ridin' out shootin? Smoke all over the place, folks yelling, bullets whizzing by?
Bill Munny: I guess so.
The Schofield Kid: Shit, I thought they was gonna get us. I was even scared a little. Just for a minute. Was you ever scared in them days?
Bill Munny: I can't remember. I was drunk most of the time.
The Schofield Kid: (taking a drink, laughing) I shot that fucker three times. He was taking a shit and went for his pistol and I blazed away. First shot. I got him right in the chest.
Say, Will?
Bill Munny: Yeah?
The Schofield Kid: That was the first one.
Bill Munny: First one what?
The Schofield Kid: First one I ever killed.
Will Munny: Yeah?
The Schofield Kid: You know how I said I shot five men? It weren't true.
Uh, that Mexican that come at me with a knife, I just busted his leg with a shovel. I, I didn't kill him or nothing, neither.
Bill Munny: Well, you sure killed the hell outta that fella today.
The Schofield Kid: (smiling) Hell yeah. (takes a drink) I killed the hell out of him, didn't I? Three shots and he was taking a shit!
Bill Munny: Take a drink, Kid.
The Schofield Kid: (drinks) Jesus Christ.
Bill Munny looks in the distance at a woman approaching on horseback.
The Schofield Kid: It don't seem real. How he ain't never gonna breathe again, ever. How he's dead. And the other one too. All on account of pulling a trigger.
Bill Munny: It's a hell of a thing killing a man. Take away all he's got. And all he's ever gonna have.
The Schofield Kid: Yeah. Well, I guess that had it comin'.
Bill Munny: We all have it comin' kid.

My Uncle John hated Unforgiven for how Eastwood's character transformed into a kind of villain at the end of the movie: "All right, I'm coming out. Any man I see out there, I'm gonna shoot him. Any sumbitch takes a shot at me, I'm not only gonna kill him, but I'm gonna kill his wife, all his friends, and burn his damn house down." My Uncle hated that, among other things in the movie. It didn't fit with his notion of what a Clint Eastwood western should be. But Bill Munny's lines at the end of Unforgiven are an illustration of the paranoia that can exist in truly violent people. They assume many others are just like them. If it's so easy for them to do the terrible things they do then anyone else can do the same.

My Uncle John also hated The Empire Strikes Back for the dark tones and cliffhanger ending. Yet that turned out to be, arguably, the best out of all Star Wars movies.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

IDK Bobby, I have read through your post twice and in place of all the Bill Munny's, Bill Murray keeps popping into my head instead...

[Dave Macaulay]

Unrelated to westerns... but the early two strip 15/70 IMAX 3D systems had one of the "eye" film's emulsion towards the lamp, the other towards the lens (it made sense but I can't remember why). The former would bleach out to a pinkish tint in not many showings. I think they either revised the printing process to have both the same orientation to use the estar base as a UV filter, or added a UV filter in the light path.

[Mike Blakesley]

I still can't get over how great a film Unforgiven turned out to be.

I remember when we played that movie. A guy I know who loves Westerns came to it. I was sure he would love it. He came out afterward saying "Well that was about the worst movie I ever saw." He didn't elaborate what was so bad, and I've always wondered what rubbed him wrong on it -- but maybe he was expecting more of a "fun" Western, the way many of the older ones were. They were fun, but serious when they needed to be. Kind of like comparing the original True Grit (fun) to the remake (way more serious).