The starkness of the American west has always lent itself to tales of violence and retribution. This is the essence of the Western: men and women, squinting to the sun, square off against one another over primal issues. Love. Hate. Greed. And, of course, revenge. Dramatically speaking, vengeance can be a one-note affair. As an…
When I was a kid, I loved to listen to the radio. I listened to whatever was on: the soap operas, the crime shows, the comedies, the variety series, and the westerns. Of them all, The Lone Ranger was my favorite. Maybe it was the theme music. As far as I’m concerned, there’s never been…
According to the LA Times, new photos of Wyatt Earp’s early life came to light this week when two brothers discovered Earp’s personal photo album in an antique shop. Inside the worn, leather-bound album were more than two dozen tiny tintype and carte de visite pictures showing Earp as a child, a teenager and a…
I don’t know about you guys, but I love a good western. This is exactly why I was very excited that the people behind the awesomeness that is Breaking Bad are taking a shot at a western. The new show is called Hell On Wheels and follows an Outlaw Josey Wales-type plot with a southern…
I met a guy at a party one night who told me he didn’t like classic films. Without telling him anything about myself, I asked him why he didn’t care for the old stuff. “It’s campy,” he said. “It’s just so fake and over the top. The actors always act like they’re trying to broadcast…
We had previously shared the sad news (Woe, Kemosabe) that Disney’s The Lone Ranger, starring Johnny Depp as Tonto, had been nixed due to werewolves and a ballooning budget. But the folks over at Geek Tyrant are singing a different tune. According to their site, the movie is now back on track to be produced…
Ever seen a really, really bad movie? Perhaps one of these criminally bad noir flicks we were talking about? You know, the kind where the actors clothes change from one frame to the next and coherent plot is really more of a suggested guideline than a necessary element? It is these movies that are celebrated…
Via, TVLine: A&E has shown tremendous savvy (we think) and ordered the first 10-episode season of Longmire, based upon the novels by Craig Johnson. The series stars Robert Taylor as Absaroka County, Wyoming’s Sheriff Walt Longmire, also Lou Diamond Phillips as his friend Henry Standing Bear with Katee Sackoff and Bailey Chase as his deputies.…
We’ve been discussing what might have happened in the later years of Etta Place, after the disappearance of the so-called Mrs. Sundance. Well, what if Butch Cassidy had survived the showdown? Geek Tyrant reports that the upcoming movie Blackthorn, directed by Mateo Gil and opening in early October, aims to answer that cinematic question in grand fashion.…
What are “Ramen Westerns?” Imagine a spaghetti western as a starting point. Samurais and sharpshooters are not all that different. An iaidō instructor compared his Japanese martial art of drawing the katana, striking an opponent, removing blood from blade, and placing sword back into scabbard in one fluid motion to the smooth, practiced movements of…
