Things I Learned:
1. When you blend Westerns with other genres, it’s not always a total fail! Last year, a movie called “Cowboys vs. Aliens” was released. I didn’t see it, but I’m guessing it tried to blend sci-fi with western and based on reviews, it wasn’t very good. Though, a Doctor Who episode that’s basically high noon with a cyborg did an okay job. Silverado is the only thing I’ve seen that does it spectacularly.
2. Some may argue that this is not blended with any other genres. I can see their position. Though, this is a sort of spoof, it is very easy to take seriously and not start laughing.
3. Sure, there were a lot of great Western movies around the 60s, 50s, and even 40s, but this was the one that showed me that great Western movies kept getting made! I definitely have to investigate good westerns that were made around this time. For instance, Unforgiven (1992) is meant to be really good and I haven’t heard of it prior to this research. In fact, outside of spaghetti westerns and High Noon (1952), I’ve hardly made a dent in the genre.
4. John Cleese stars in this Western and though he is one of my favourite English actors, he doesn’t really do a good job. He plays a sheriff and to be honest, I think that this was a bit of miscasting. It was obvious that he didn’t fit the role. I’m guessing that Kevin Kline (who also starred here and did an excellent job) and Cleese were/are friends, because they also starred together in a Fish Called Wanda (1988), so personal bias from Kline may have been involved, but I don’t know what they were thinking with that one.
SPOILERS FOLLOW
5. Danny Glover also appears here and I think he is my favourite actor in this movie. I find his role extremely engaging. Westerns are often related to the racism of the time and here, Glover plays the son of landowner, who gets shot and his land stolen. With Emett and Jake (Scott Glen, Kevin Costner respectively), he resists.
SPOILERS END HERE
6. Call me sexist for not mentioning any female actors yet, but to be honest there aren’t too many female roles here, let alone major ones. I’d say the most major is Stella, played by Linda Hunt and she does do a pretty good job. I don’t know if I’m biased to her because she narrates the God of War videogames, but she’s pretty good here.
A
BenjaminCore 