Order Your DVD From Amazon Today!

Get Blog Posts by Email

Your email:

Follow Us

Cowboy Spirit Blog

Current Articles | RSS Feed RSS Feed

Friday Friends: The Six-Gun Western is Not Dead

  
  
  
True Grit Six Gun Western

CowboySpirit.TV - This week's edition of Friday Friends comes from Chris Hicks writing for the Deseret News.

The Six-Gun Western is Not Dead

The Western is not dead, but it does seem to have been kicked to the curb.

While every other movie genre is well represented in the 21st century, a theatrical release of one or two Westerns each year seems like cause for celebration, especially if one happens to be a big-budget effort with a recognizable cast.

This is a movie form that was once at the top of the heap, far ahead of low-budget, B-level fantasy comic-book adaptations. But now, of course, colorful skintight costumes and super powers have usurped the 10-gallon hat and six-guns once worn by John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Randolph Scott, Audie Murphy, Joel McCrea and other stars that drew audiences to outdoor epics from the early silent era well into the 1970s.

As if to demonstrate the transition, ever since "Star Wars" critics have referred to sci-fi adventures as "Westerns in space." [Read the rest at: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765560098/The-six-gun-Western-is-not-dead.html ]

Have you subscribed to the Cowboy Spirit Blog yet? Get every post by email so you don't miss a thing. You can sign up for free at http://www.CowboySpirit.TV/blog.

Comments

While I suppose that Star Wars could have been seen by many as a space-western, I just found it to be full of action and adventure, the kind of movies I like more than any other. I am a child from the 50's and grew up in the 60's when western movies and TV shows were very popular from Gunsmoke (the longest running western on TV) to Bonanza. Clint Eastwood was one of the actors who made great movies (spaghetti westerns not withstanding), but my favorite actor of that era and still is, John Wayne. The Duke made the best westerns and those he made with John Ford are classics of the genre. The new True Grit movie with Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn is good in it's own way, but for those of us who saw the original with John Wayne in that role, we cannot see anyone else being Rooster Cogburn or any other of The Duke's characters. I'm sure I speak for a number of people my age or older when I say there was no one like The Duke and never will be again, though some run a pretty close second.
Posted @ Friday, March 16, 2012 1:14 PM by Lisa Hayes
The 1960`s film The Alamo was a great movie but we can only speculate how it would have turned out if John Ford had been the director. John Wayne took a lot on himself by directing, producing and starring in the film, which must have been quite a heavy task. Andy Heydon (England).
Posted @ Saturday, March 17, 2012 5:39 AM by Andrew Heydon
Comments have been closed for this article.