John Ford's The Iron Horse was released. A grand epic dealing with the building of the transcontinental railroad, this movie placed Ford in the first rank of American directors.
Friday, August 28, 2009
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My Top Twenty-Five Favorite Westerns
- The Man from Laramie
- Red River
- The Naked Spur
- Winchester 73
- Ride Lonesome
- One Eyed Jacks
- Stagecoach
- The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
- The Horse Soldiers
- The Shootist
- Seven Men from Now
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
- Shane
- My Darling Clementine
- The Magnificent Seven
- Ride the High Country
- Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
- The Wild Bunch
- Major Dundee
- They Died With Their Boots On
- High Noon
- Rio Bravo
- Fort Apache
- She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
- The Searchers
Other people... treasure memorable moments in their lives: the time one climbed the Parthenon at sunrise, the summer night one met a lonely girl in Central Park and achieved with her a sweet and natural relationship, as they say in books... What I remember is the time John Wayne killed three men with a carbine as he was falling to the dusty street in Stagecoach...
Walker Percy, The Moviegoer
Walker Percy, The Moviegoer
William S. Hart (1864-1946)
The Authentic West
I don't know how much the Western film means to Europe; but to this country it means the very essence of national life. I am referring now to the later frontier-- the frontier of the range and the mining camps, with all its youthful follies and heartbreaks and braveries that we know and love best. It is but a generation or so since virutally all this country was frontier. Consequently its spirit is bound up in American citizenship.
William S. Hart, 1916
William S. Hart, 1916
Broncho Billy Anderson (1882-1971)
The First Western Star
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Tom Mix (1880-1940)
Showmanship
Followers
The most interesting of the classic movie genres to me are the indigenous ones: the Western, which was born on the frontier; the Gangster film, which originated in the East Coast cities; and the Musical, which was spawned by Broadway. They remind me of Jazz: they allowed for endless, increasingly complex, sometimes perverse variations. When these variations were played by the masters, they reflected the changing times; they gave you fascinating insights into American culture and the American psyche.
Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
John Wayne (1907-1979)
The Icon
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Harry Carey (1878-1947)
The Natural
I have always felt that the Western is one of the few art forms that Americans can lay claim to.
Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Ben Johnson (1918-1996)
The Real Thing
The march West is our Odyssey.
Andre Bazin
Andre Bazin
John Ford (1894-1973)
The Master
American social development has been continually beginning over again on the frontier. This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion westward with its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish the forces dominating American character. The true point of view in the history of the nation is not the Atlantic coast, it is the Great West.
Fredrick Jackson Turner
Fredrick Jackson Turner
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