by John M. Floyd
I have, for some reason, been writing a lot of Western stories lately. They're still suspense stories, I suppose, and they certainly contain a fair amount of lawbreaking and wrongdoing. Let's call them historical crime fiction.
I've also been watching a lot of Westerns, but that's nothing unusual. I of course love the classics--Shane, High Noon, The Searchers, Unforgiven, Once Upon a Time in the West, Lonesome Dove, The Wild Bunch, Dances With Wolves, The Magnificent Seven--but I've stumbled across a few new ones that I enjoyed as well. For those of you who like that kind of thing, here are five excellent Western films that came out fairly recently. The one I liked best is listed first, down to the one I liked the least--but I thought all of them were well done.

2. Bone Tomahawk (2015) -- The plot in a nutshell: four men from the frontier town of Bright Hope set out to rescue a woman kidnapped by a cannibalistic Indian tribe. The cast includes Kurt Russell, Matthew Fox, Patrick Wilson, David Arquette, and Richard Jenkins. Authentic and ultra-violent (the villains here would give Hannibal Lecter nightmares), and filmed in California. Written and directed by S. Craig Zahler.
3. Tracker (2010) -- An overlooked and visually stunning movie with British actor Ray Winstone in the title role. Filmed entirely in New Zealand, it's a story of the evolving relationship between a hunter and the man he's hunting, and features a truly satisfying twist ending. Directed by Ian Sharp. (Not to be confused with The Tracker, an Australian film from 2002.)
5. Mystery Road (2013) -- The only present-day Western in this list, with the bleakest setting I've ever seen and an almost unknown cast. The only actors I recognized were Hugo Weaving and Jack Thompson, and they aren't exactly household names. The plot: a detective returns to his home in the Outback to investigate the murder of a young girl. Filmed in Australia and directed by Ivan Sen.
That's it. Let's hear it for horse opera, both here and abroad. Now, back to reading and watching mysteries . . .
6 comments:
My favorite is still Tombstone, but that's mostly because of Val Kilmer's Doc Holliday and a script that includes these lines:
Turkey Creek Jack Johnson: Doc, you oughta be in bed, what the hell you doin this for anyway?
Doc Holliday: Wyatt Earp is my friend.
Turkey Creek Jack Johnson: Hell, I got lots of friends.
Doc Holliday: I don't.
Doc Holliday: Nonsense, I have not yet begun to defile myself.
Doc Holliday: It's true, you are a good woman. Then again, you may be the antichrist.
Yep. Doesn't get much better than that.
Yep, that's a fine movie, Eve. And Kurt Russell does as great a job in Bone Tomahawk as he did in Tombstone--he's just (like all of us) a little older. I thought the shootout at the O,K. Corral in Tombstone was especially good because it was so realistic--like the one in Open Range.
One of my favorite Western cable series was Deadwood--up close to where you live.
Oddly, I dash off a Western once in a while and don’t have a clue where to send them. Mine are drama, suspense, and kind of an edge of mystery.
I have to check out your list. Thanks, John.
Is it fair to mention the Spaghetti Western, La resa dei conti, ‘The Settling of Scores’ aka The Big Gundown? Starring *the* Lee Van Cleef and an international cast. It has a great bad guy, too.
Leigh, the truth is, there aren't many markets out there, for short Western stories (but I write 'em anyhow). I'm glad to hear someone else does too.
Yep, I've seen The Big Gundown, with good old Lee Van Cleef. The only time I ever liked him as much as I liked him in the Italian Westerns was in Escape From New York, which will always be one of my favorites. Yes, I know--I never grew up . . .
It's weird, John, that these movies come out and they just sort of disappear. Thanks for the heads up.
And by the way, I thought I had posted this not too long after your post went up but now I see it's not there. Don't know what happened. Hope this one gets through.
Thanks, Paul. Yes, there's not much said about Westerns these days--I found these mostly by browsing Netflix and Amazon Video offerings. I'm a movie maniac anyhow, so I spend a lot of (too much, probably) time with that king of thing.
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