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in that they are loosely connected by theme/subject/style only.
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Well, they are connected by plotline a lot closer than that. If it was the same cast but with different names and sort of doing the same thing then maybe, but having the same names half the time and clearly following some of the same plotlines/timelines, like Wayne's wife arriving in Rio Grande and then being buried at the fort in Yellow Ribbon, as well as the exact same actor/character being the new scout in Rio and then the trusted ace scout in Yellow...that's the exact same storyline.
Except they switched Wayne's name, so you then wonder if it is or not.
I just watched
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and loved it. I really can't believe I'd never seen this film before. The script is just great and its amazing how the different acting styles of Stewart and Wayne work well to emphasize the clash between the two paradigms the two characters represent.
It features very complex situations/conflicts, yet based in a simpler western plotline. If Leone's Once Upon a Time...commented on the transition between the old and new west, this film does it in spades and with perhaps more imagery.
For example, Vera Miles loves the "new" west of Stewart and commits to it, but she also in the end pines NOSTALGICALLY for the "old" west of Wayne, a perfect representation of American society as a whole. After all Ford himself made quite a career out of it.
And of course the film not only discusses the very real problem of transitioning the old west law by force to the new west legal recourse, it also questions whether one can exist without the other at all when we see Stewart's dilemma.
Wayne is able to relieve Stewart of the guilt of violence as a deterrent but clearly the two must work hand in hand. It seems like wishful thinking for Stewart to be so easily relieved of his guilt, though in the end it seems he may have just as much guilt about the myth that surrounds him.
There are just endless layers to this fantastic film. Definitely a film I will now buy.
That puts me at 157 down, 183 to go.
Like Brook, finishing this S&S thing will go a long way to getting my purchased disc pile under control, to say nothing of bumping up my 2003 and 2004 films lists.
However, the S&S is probably the best thing I have done to increase my filmic vocabulary because of its wide scope.