2015- The Year the Western Rides back into Town! (1 Viewer)

At present there are 4 high profile westerns with solid casts on tap for this year:


The Hateful Eight - From Quentin Taratino





Slow West - From John MacLean





Bone Tomahawk - From S. Craig Zahler





The Revenant - From Alejandro Inarritu

Kurt saddles up in Bone Tomahawk...

Fassbender and Smit-Mcphee head west...

I've watched 30 western movies so far this year, plus at least that many TV western episodes. There's tons of stuff on Encore Western and YouTube to satisfy one's fix, plus my own DVD collection. As for these new films, I'm looking forward to the Tarantino, but the others look too arty for me. I may give the Russell a chance--because it's...well, Russell!

Well, yes, there are plenty of older westerns to rewatch however I am excited that we have 4 high profile westerns arriving this year I can go to a theater to see. I think it is great there are new westerns being made...particularly these which all feature A-list talent which should make them high profile releases. If you enjoy westerns, Vic, I think you should head to the theater to see these and support the idea that people still want to see this kind of film getting made.


Slow West looks pretty great and people seem to feel it will be successful.

Don't forget The Salvation, with Mads Mikkelsen, which should be getting a home theater release soon. Or, now available, The Homesman, which I liked quite a bit.

I also really liked The Homesman. Have not seen The Salvation yet but will definitely check that out. I really like Mads so it will be cool to see him in a western.

I just read on IMDB that Hateful Eight is the first film since Khartoum to be shot in Ultra Panavision 70 and a 2.76:1 aspect ratio!

Now if they can just get some snow to fall in Colorado, they can keep shooting The Hateful Eight.

If anybody wants to check out another snowbound western while we wait for The Hateful Eight to arrive and you enjoy a good Euro western and don't mind it being in German then try this:





It is beautifully shot in spectacular locations and uses some modern pop music on the soundtrack...Quentin would approve...and is obviously made by a guy that loves and has watched a lot of westerns.


I won't give anything away but this was a cool "Sauerkraut Western" from 2014.

When I saw OCEAN'S 11 back in 2001, I was struck by the chemistry between George Clooney and Brad Pitt and hoped they would act in a western together. At the time I visualized them in a remake of MAGNIFICENT SEVEN with Clooney in the Yul Brynner role and Pitt in the Steve McQueen role. But I thought a better and more likely project to star the two of them would be a remake of FOUR FOR TEXAS (1963) with Clooney in the Frank Sinatra role and Pitt in the Dean Martin part. As for who could fill Ursula Andress' and Anita Ekberg's...ummm, shoes...just pick from whatever Euro stars are currently in vogue (a few years ago it would have been Monica Bellucci, for one). FOUR FOR TEXAS, directed by Robert Aldrich, was a potentially interesting project that got botched somehow thanks in part to Sinatra and Aldrich not speaking to each other during most of the shoot. I always felt a better film could be made of it.


In any event, it'll never happen. It was just a thought. Oh well...

Yes, not sure Clooney would do a western. I think his back problems would not allow him to spend much time on a horse so they probably would need to use a double for most of the riding in the film. However, not a bad idea for a remake. I have not seen Four for Texas in a long time.

One of my favourite westerns is partially snowbound - The Tall Men. Excellent German blu-ray, surprised it hasn't been released anywhere else.

If you like westerns, check out The Salvation, as previously mentioned. It is a very good film, and Mads is great in the lead role.

A good friend of mine read "The Hateful Eight" when the screenplay was leaked. He told me it was so dark in tone it was hard to get through. And he said the title is fitting because you will hate all the main characters.

I'm a Tarantino fan so I'm still looking forward to it, but my friend said he was glad he read it first so he can skip wasting $12 to see it.

Bryan^H said:

A good friend of mine read "The Hateful Eight" when the screenplay was leaked. He told me it was so dark in tone it was hard to get through. And he said the title is fitting because you will hate all the main characters.

I'm a Tarantino fan so I'm still looking forward to it, but my friend said he was glad he read it first so he can skip wasting $12 to see it.

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Hateful characters can still be interesting. They're still human. A lot depends on what the actors bring to it. In cases like these, it's the actor's job to make the hateful character interesting and compelling even if they wouldn't have anything to do with such characters in real life. They have to believe in the character and understand him/her in the first place in order to make a case for that character's progress in the screenplay.


I just read an interview with Orson Welles in which he stated that he "detested" the characters he wrote for himself in CITIZEN KANE, TOUCH OF EVIL, MR. ARKADIN and THIRD MAN (he wrote his scenes for that film). But it was his job to make you understand them and recognize their humanity.


Besides, isn't it highly likely that the final script for HATEFUL EIGHT has been changed a lot since the leaked version?

Seems pretty common to Tarantino films that the characters are scumbags of some type however when they are brought to life onscreen they end up being quite entertaining. So, I do think it would be hard to judge what the finished product might be based on the screenplay. There is that old saying that you make a film three times, once in the writing, once in the shooting, and finally in the editing.

Reggie W said:

Seems pretty common to Tarantino films that the characters are scumbags of some type however when they are brought to life onscreen they end up being quite entertaining. So, I do think it would be hard to judge what the finished product might be based on the screenplay. There is that old saying that you make a film three times, once in the writing, once in the shooting, and finally in the editing.

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Yeah, I've read most of Tarantino's scripts after seeing the movies and there's generally an element of humor that comes across onscreen that might not be apparent on the page. I guess there's something in the actors' performances and Tarantino's handling of them that needs to seen rather than read.


For example, the last scene of Inglourious Basterds when they On the page, it's pretty ruthless but seeing it performed, it's darkly humorous and satisfying. Or maybe I'm just a sicko.

Vic Pardo said:

Hateful characters can still be interesting. They're still human. A lot depends on what the actors bring to it. In cases like these, it's the actor's job to make the hateful character interesting and compelling even if they wouldn't have anything to do with such characters in real life. They have to believe in the character and understand him/her in the first place in order to make a case for that character's progress in the screenplay.


I just read an interview with Orson Welles in which he stated that he "detested" the characters he wrote for himself in CITIZEN KANE, TOUCH OF EVIL, MR. ARKADIN and THIRD MAN (he wrote his scenes for that film). But it was his job to make you understand them and recognize their humanity.


Besides, isn't it highly likely that the final script for HATEFUL EIGHT has been changed a lot since the leaked version?

Click to expand...

I'm sure Tarantino changed some of the script, as he was pretty upset about the leak. The friend that read it told me no spoilers(well very minor I guess), but he being a Tarantino fan like myself I had to ask what he despised about what he read.


He said:

Minor spoiler