I've been back into westerns lately but newer ones this time. (I already went through my Wayne/Eastwood days.)
I really liked Seraphim Falls but how can you get two non-Americans to try and pull off old west accents? Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan were painful to listen to; thankfully there was minimal speaking.
Also recently watched Wild Bill because I love Jeff Bridges. It may be full of historical inaccuracies and classic 90's over-the-top film making but I was entertained the whole time.
Next on my list is The Missing with Tommy Lee Jones and then Dead Man with Mr. Depp.
And I'm taking suggestions.
If you like Jim Jarmusch, you'll love Dead Man. Slow moving. Beautiful. Sunday afternoon viewing for me.
Dunno how far your sensibilities go, but Deadwood remains one of the best TV series ever and probably one of the best works in the English language for some time. But it is very graphic in every way without in my opinion ever being gratuitous. Still, can help but to recommend it, even to the most pious of Christians. But even secular folks pass on it simply for its language. Which I cannot imagine, some of the most beautiful lines I've heard my tongue in a long time. That is not to bring in the sexual element. It is a fierce and poetic realism.
There's always No Country for Old Men, but you probably have seen it.
There Will be Blood
TV series Firefly followed by the film Serenity
What constitues a Western, I tend to look on rather liberally.
Missed it at the week it was that the "art house theater" but Meek's Cutoff looks to be great. Waiting for it on DVD.
You say newer, but have you seen the classics like High Noon?\
Again depending on your sensibilities: Brokeback Mountain.
That is all I have off the top of my head. The Western genre is not my wheelhouse.
I've only been exposed to Broken Flowers but I thought that movie was amazing. Slowing moving, beautiful? Yeah that'll do just fine Sir! I'd put There Will Be Blood in the slow moving-beautiful genre.
I've heard too many good things about Deadwood to not have checked it out yet. I'll need to add DVD's back to my netflix sub so I can get it. Plus its on my list of places to get to this summer if I can get the time off.
Western for me is really anything set early 1800's to early 1900's in America, predominantly in the west. Doesn't have to be the classic western style though. I'm open to oldies I haven't seen (such as High Noon) and the less traditional such as Brokeback (Ehh, was overrated). I can't believe I missed High Noon, I guess that should've come right after Springfield Rifle for me. Plus Gary Cooper kills it in The Fountainhead.
Thanks orthonorm, you've provided a good couple weeks of stuff. Can I tattle on you to God when I miss my prayer rule?
What is your wheelhouse?
I think the Western genre has a certain conglomeration of themes that can place it outside a specific time and place and let's not forget that the great Samurai films had an enormous impact on the development of American Westerns (often directed by German film makers) and the so-called Spaghetti Western. And that a lotta Sci-fi are westerns in space.
I tossed
Brokeback in there cause it has to be mentioned. Over-rated for sure, but important nonetheless.
If you haven't check out some of the earliest classics in the Western genre, I think you will be well surprised by their quality and how they hold up. A lot of innovative stuff was done in them, again often by German filmakers (Lang for instance) who left before things went nutz after the Weimar Republic. (Berlin was the film capital of the world at the time.) Some of those films were a great source for some of the directorial style elements which became emblematic for the Renaissance of 70's American film.
Glad you are open to
Deadwood. Milch originally pitched it as a series set in Roman just after the time of Christ dealing with Roman city police. The series was going to open with St. Paul being taken to his death.
HBO was already in planning for the production of
Rome so Milch had to "relocate" his idea. And being a genius (I truly mean this and do not use it lightly) put in the last American gold rush.
Milch is a big fan of St. Paul and it comes through in
Deadwood. But Milch's intent in both his pitched series about Roman police and
Deadwood was to explore the notion that a single idea is what brings persons together always with opposing forces working against and with each other to form a community.
In the Roman series, that idea would have been the Gospel.
In
Deadwood, it is gold.
Also in
Deadwood, Milch turns to explore the very Western notion of freedom and how personal violence without much outside authority vs. institutional violence with any outside authority differ in degree and quality.
Also, like Flannery O'Connor he meditates on the shocking and violent nature of grace occurring under the most unexpected circumstances.
Any way, I'll stop babbling.
If you are open to the Japanese work which informed the American Western and then was informed by the American Western. I can give a long list of those worth watching. I don't recommend stuff just for film history nerdom, but stuff that holds up.
My wheelhouse is ain't a singular genre, maybe I'll explain tomorrow after some shut-eye.
