Nov
9
Westerns, from Steve Leslie
November 9, 2008 |
This site is devoted to revealing lessons that will endure for a lifetime. One of the familiar themes that Daily Speculations has offered over the years has been Westerns.
1. L'Amour. One of the favorite writers discussed here is Louis L'Amour. In researching Mr. L'Amour's work, I have decided to list my favorite films that are based upon Louis L'Amour novels for those who would like to watch a movie inspired by Mr. L'Amour's work. They are in no particular order of personal preference.
Hondo Short story "The Gift of Cochise" 1953 John Wayne
The Shadow Riders 1982 Tom Selleck, Sam Elliot
The Quick and the Dead 1995 Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone, Leonardo DeCaprio
Conagher 1991 Sam Elliott, Katherine Ross
Crossfire Trail 2001 Tom Selleck,Virginia Madsen
2. My favorite Westerns in general
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence
Tombstone
Open Range
Fort Apache
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
High Noon
Unforgiven
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Tom Horn
The Magnificent Seven
3. My favorite Western Miniseries
The Sacketts
Lonesome Dove
4. My favorite Western Comedy
Support your local Sheriff
Kim Zussman insurges:
What about the Italian favorite “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”? (Also known on Wall St as “The Three Faces of Heave”).
Lots of market parables there, including the tug-of-war between fear and greed, continuously changing levels of deception, unhuman fearlessness, and a whole way of life based on fairy-dust.
OK not fairy-dust; gold.
Great fun with Eli Wallach and Clint Eastwood, ca 1966.
Comments
9 Comments so far
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How could you leave off Blazing Saddles? Reminds me of something going on today in America viz Obama. I wonder who is going to get the last laugh with the new sheriff in town.
Your civility is so much more appealing than your incivility but that's par for the course. Now as far as contributing, I thought anything conducive to ballyhoo deflation was a worthy contribution in and of itself but I might have been mistaken and the blog's laudable goal might be just that. For more contribution, here's my blog's address http://musingsofatrader.blogspot.com/ but I'm not sure it will hold any interest to you, just as many of your posts do not to me. If only other posters could "contribute" a little more and you a little less, this blog would be more faithful to its byline.
How can any list not include “Shane”?
There are a few categories I left off
Network Television
Gunsmoke 20 seasons
Bonanza 14 seasons
Cable
Deadwood 3 seasons HBO
Musicals
Too many to respectfully mention but here are a few
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Oklahoma
Paint Your Wagon
Showboat
Cat Ballou
Family
Old Yeller
I am not sure if one places Blazing Saddles as a western. But it is truly is worth consideration on some level.
Shane is Shane no doubt!
No discussion of Westerns should appear without mention of the best Western novel of all time, and the second greatest business novel, Monte Walsh, and the greatest Western writer, Jack Schaeffer. Regrettably the movie and television versions of the novel treat it as comical rather than poetic and poignant. Jack Schaeffer and Patrick O'Brian should be must additions to Jeff Watson's noble list. vic
Don't forget the Wild Bunch. The most unusual is The Terror of Tiny Town (it's all midgets). The Zoro series is fun, too.
Here is the wikipedia link on Jack Schaffer or Jack Schaefer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Schaefer
Interesting fact about Jack Schaefer is that he was born in Cleveland, graduated Oberlin College, attended graduate school at Columbia and evidently did very little traveling out west holding journalism posts principally in the east. He did move to New Mexico in 1955
He also wrote Shane in 1963.
Monte Walsh was a movie with Lee Marvin and Jeanne Moreau in 1970 and redone in 2003 with Tom Selleck and Isabella Rosselini.
Here is a very extensive list of Westerns. It really jogs the memory.
http://www.filmsite.org/westernfilms6.html
This is a list of the top ten westerns as voted on by the AFI and a link to this very informative website.
Winners: The Searchers (1956) (# 1), High Noon (1952) (# 2), Shane (1953) (# 3), Unforgiven (1992) (# 4), Red River (1948) (# 5), The Wild Bunch (1969) (# 6), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) (# 7), McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) (#
, Stagecoach (1939) (# 9), Cat Ballou (1965) (# 10).
http://www.filmsite.org/westernfilms.html
This is a great discussion.
The valuable lessons applicable to trading found in L’Amour’s works are too plentiful to list. However, a personal favorite comes from Galloway; “Folks like to stop at rivers, but the smart ones always cross the river first, and then camp. The river might rise up during the night and hold them in for days.”
As I think on the great westerns and the principal characters, I try to simplify and encapsulate a few characteristics of the frontiersman. Whether it is John Wayne, James Stewart, Gary Cooper, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen Ward Bond, Alan Ladd, or the dozens of other leading men, they all try to project a level of integrity and perserverence an indefatigable spirit set against a very untamed and often very cruel and unforgiving world.
Perhaps one particular line resonates loudly in James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans. There is one scene with Hawkeye and Cora discussing the chance she may be captured. In a display of loyalty, courage and tenaciousness Hawkeye pronounces:
“You try to stay alive, I will find you.”
Assuredly there are many more?