Vera Cruz
Vera Cruz (1954) is the second of two successive westerns that Robert Aldrich made for Hecht-Lancaster Productions at United Artists. At the time that Vera Cruz was made Lancaster was… Read more »
Tag: western
Saddle The Wind
Saddle The Wind (1958) should be a classic western. Rod Serling’s script brings an existential dread to the familiar tale of a brother trying to pull his younger brother back… Read more »
Buffalo Soldiers
I was pretty excited when I saw that the Criterion Channel would be streaming Buffalo Soldiers (1997) as part of their Black Westerns series. I can remember when this movie… Read more »
The Naked Spur
This short piece about Janet Leigh was originally written and published in 2010. Let’s talk about Janet Leigh’s character Lina in Anthony Mann’s film The Naked Spur (1953). Though her social… Read more »
Red River
I have always found the westerns of Howard Hawks to be sentimental and the westerns of John Ford more nostalgic by comparison. This juxtaposition is only necessary because in my… Read more »
Buffalo Bill & The Indians
The cinema of Robert Altman is unique in the history of American filmmaking. More than any other director, Robert Altman has been able to apply his style to every genre… Read more »
Vengeance Valley
“The Skipper” was how I knew Burt Lancaster as a kid. His real name was unmanageable to a three year old. He was just “The Skipper” because that’s what his… Read more »
Gunfight At The O.K. Corral
“We’re playing two pre-Freudian fags. We’re in love with each other and we don’t know how to express ourselves that way-we just kind of look at each other and grunt… Read more »
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Altman’s film McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a film of cultural anxiety and masculine identity, tied more closely with the time of its production than to the era in which its… Read more »
The Revisionist Western
“I created ‘The Westerner’ because of anger – anger at never-miss sheriffs, always-right marshalls, whitewashed gunfighters … anger at TV’s quick-draw tin gods who stand behind a tin star or… Read more »
