WESTERN SUNDAY #14: The last cowboy

MONTE WALSH

(2003)

Josh topples all previous attempts at awesomeness with Tom Selleck's favorite role: Monte Walsh!

Monte Walsh and Chet Rollins are long-time cowhands, working whatever ranch work comes their way, but "nothing they can't do from a horse." Their lives are divided between months on the range and the occasional trip into town. Monte has a long-term relationship with prostitute Martine Bernard, while Chet has fallen under the spell of the widow who owns the hardware store. Camaraderie and competition with the other cowboys fill their days, until one of the hands, Shorty Austin, loses his job and gets involved in rustling and killing. Then Monte and Chet find that their lives on the range are inexorably redirected.

WESTERN SUNDAY #13: Miike does Corbucci

SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO

(2007)

Hershal brings an Eastern Western, wherein a Japanese director channels Italian Westerns inspired by American filmmakers who were inspired by Japanese samurai movies....!!

A revolver-wielding stranger crosses paths with two warring clans who are both on the hunt for a hidden treasure in a remote western town. Knowing his services are valuable to either side, he offers himself to the clan who will offer up the largest share of the wealth.

WESTERN SUNDAY #12: HONDO! In gloriously awful 3-D, sort of!

HONDO

(1953)

Kurt brings the John Waybe classic Hondo, in really terrible 1950s anaglyphic 3-D as Satan intended it!

Army despatch rider Hondo Lane discovers a woman and her son living in the midst of warring Apaches, and he becomes their protector.

WESTERN SUNDAY #11: The Fox and the Bandit...

ZORRO: EL BANDIDO and ADIOS, EL CUCHILLO

(1960)

Josh brings a 1960 Zorro two-parter, originally aired on The Wonderful World of Disney!

Mexican bandits fleeing north to California under the leadership of clever and charismatic El Cuchillo (The Knife) ride into Los Angeles and decide to steal a shipment of silver. Don Diego quickly becomes suspicious of them and saves the day as Zorro, but the sword fight between El Zorro and El Cuchillo has to be aborted when Sgt. Garcia and his lancers arrive. Nevertheless, Zorro leaves Cuchillo with a "Z" slashed into his coat and a warning to get out of California.

WESTERN SUNDAY #10: Sharon Stone, gunslinger.

THE QUICK & THE DEAD

(1995)

Hershal brings the Raimi, replete with goofy DiCraprio-ness and Sharon Stone's bewbs.

The Quick & The Dead is the story of 'The Lady', a gunfighter visiting the town of her father's killer, John Herod. At the time of her visit, a contest is being held. A contest of dueling. She joins, thinking it will help her get vengeance, and meets former henchman for Herod, Cort, and Herod's son, 'The Kid'.

WESTERN SUNDAY #9: Vampire gunslinger!

CURSE OF THE UNDEAD

(1959)

Kurt introduces a Universal Monster to Western Sunday!

The cinema's first vampire Western! Young women in a small Western town are dying one by one of an unknown malady involving massive blood loss. The Carter family's ranch is being terrorized by ruthless land baron Buffer. And a mysterious black-clad gunfighter with an aversion to sunlight has just arrived in town!

(I would glady have posted the trailer, but I can't find the damned thing!)

WESTERN SUNDAY #8: Civilizing Oz...

THE PROPOSITION

(2005)

Josh brings Western Sundays back to the Outback with this bleak tale of revenge and betrayal!

Rural Australia in the late nineteenth century: Capt. Stanley and his men capture two of the four Burns brothers, Charlie and Mike. Their gang is held responsible for attacking the Hopkins farm, raping pregnant Mrs. Hopkins and murdering the whole family. Arthur Burns, the eldest brother and the gang's mastermind, remains at large has and has retreated to a mountain hideout. Capt. Stanley's proposition to Charlie is to gain pardon and - more importantly - save his beloved younger brother Mike from the gallows by finding and killing Arthur within nine days

WESTERN SUNDAY #7: Jumping the shark with Angelica Huston...

SERAPHIM FALLS

(2006)

Hershal brings a stark and Spartan western drama that goes apeshit with weird supernatural cameos at the end!

In the 1860s, five men have been tracking a sixth across Nevada for more than two weeks. They shoot and wound him, but he gets away. They pursue, led by the dour Carver, who will pay them each $1 a day once he's captured. The hunted is Gideon, resourceful, skilled with a knife. Gideon's flight and Carver's hunt require horses, water, and bullets. The course takes them past lone settlers, a wagon train, a rail crew, settlements, and an Indian philosopher.

WESTERN SUNDAY #6: Mr. Ugly Comes To Town!

THE BIG GUNDOWN

(1966)

Kurt initiates Lee Van Cleef into the Western Sunday tradition with The Big Gundown!

Jonathan Corbett is a gunman thought to have eliminated all the bandits of Texas. For this he is proposed for the candidacy to the Senate of the United States. In exchange he has only to support the construction of one railway line. Only after he accepts does he comes to know that the Mexican Cuchillo has raped and killed a 12 year old girl. Corbett leaves on a long manhunt. During this hunt Jonathan gets to know its adversary better and discovers a variation on the crime of which the accused Cuchillo may not be as guilty as he first thought.

WESTERN SUNDAY #5: There are some things a man just can't run away from.

STAGECOACH

(1939)

Josh kicks it old school with the first great collaboration between Duke Wayne and Pappy Ford!

Varied group of characters with nothing in common are stuck together inside a coach besieged by bandits and Indians. Considered structurally perfect, with excellent direction by John Ford, it's the film that made Wayne a star as the Ringo Kid, an outlaw looking to avenge the murder of his brother and father. The first pairing of Ford and John Wayne changed the course of the modern western. Stunning photography by Bert Glennon and Ray Binger captured the mythical air of Monument Valley, a site that Ford was often to revisit. Based on the story "Stage to Lordsburg" by Ernest Haycox.

WESTERN SUNDAY # 4: Say my name, Laura San Gianomo!

QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER

(1990)

Hershal brings on some Sellecky goodness as Magnum himself rocks the Outback with his trusty 1874 Sharps Buffalo Rifle!

Sharpshooter Matthew Quigley is hired from America by an Australian rancher so he can shoot aborigines at a distance. Quigley takes exception to this and leaves. The rancher tries to kill him for refusing, and Quigley escapes into the brush with a woman he rescued from some of the rancher's men, and are helped by aborigines. Quigley returns the help, before going on to destroy all his enemies.

WESTERN SUNDAY #3: Django, have you always been alone?

DJANGO

(1966)

Kurt presents the Sergio Corbucci Spaghetti Western masterpiece that begs the question: what the hell is in that coffin, Django?

A coffin-dragging gunslinger enters a town caught between two feuding factions, the KKK and a gang of Mexican Bandits, and is caught up in a struggle against them.

WESTERN SUNDAY #2: 80s All-Star Awesomeness

SILVERADO

(1985)

Josh brings the Costner for Lawrence Kasdan's 1985 mega-western!

Kasdan clearly set out to make an old-fashioned Western, but he couldn't help bringing a hip, self-conscious attitude to the proceedings. Silverado thus finds its own funky tone--sometimes rousing, sometimes winking. Four cowpokes converge on a little Western burg called Silverado; they're played by Kevin Kline (a distinctly modern kind of Western hero), Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, and the rowdy young Kevin Costner. Kasdan peppers the somewhat generic action with smart dialogue and a parade of quirky supporting players, including John Cleese as a sheriff who seems to have stepped straight from a Monty Python sketch into an Old West saloon. Bruce Broughton supplies the music, a real throwback to the glory days of thundering Western themes.

WESTERN SUNDAY #1: Jimmy Stewart does Badass

THE NAKED SPUR

(1953)

Megan kicks off Western Sundays with an Anthony Mann classic!

A bitter Howard Kemp heads westward to the Rockies from Abilene, Kansas on the trail of murderer Ben Vandergroat and the $5000 reward on Vandergroat's head, money after which Kemp lusts in order to re-purchase the ranch that his absconding fiancée had sold during his stint in the army. Kemp unexpectedly crosses paths with an old, star-crossed gold miner, Jesse Tate, and with a recently-discharged soldier of questionable repute, Roy Anderson. Teaming up, they nab Vandergroat and his girl, Lina Patch, but Vandergroat tries to turn his three distrustful, avaricious captors against each other during the return trip.