What happened to westerns?

[Adam]

There is a statute of limitations on spoilers isn't there?

Yeah, and it ends after I've seen the movie.

 

[lsiberian]

I love and own Unforgiven. In fact it was my first blu-ray movie. I love Clint Eastwood and he's up their with Gene Hackman and Richard Dean Anderson for my favorite actors.

Unforgiven had Hackman and Eastwood so you can imagine my bias for the film.

 

[STRONGBADF1]

I love and own Unforgiven. In fact it was my first blu-ray movie. I love Clint Eastwood and he's up their with Gene Hackman and Richard Dean Anderson for my favorite actors.

Unforgiven had Hackman and Eastwood so you can imagine my bias for the film.

 

[lsiberian]

 

[Tarub]

Personally I love the old westerns. I don't get why they are no longer done.

"Studios won't greenlight many Westerns unless there are lots of big names. If the movie is okay it will make money here, but the main reason why studios don't roll with Westerns much is because the genre does not make enough money overseas.
There are many movies that tank when released in the U.S., but studios are able to recoup their money with DVD sales and releasing the movie overseas. Foreigners have no concept of "the Old West" and simply don't watch Westerns enough for studios to justify paying for them."

"They never made a lot of money and by the sixties were suffering from serious saturation in the us tv/film market. When Heaven's Gate came out in the 1980s and flopped badly that really crushed westerns. Westerns simply lost their appeal and became outdated. Now they just come back to the screen in little bursts of films. Westerns are not as popular as they were 40 or 50 years ago and even if you make a really good western (Jesse James, 3:10 to yuma), they just dont make any substantial money. Directors have not quit westerns, there just isn't enough interest from audiences and studios to want to tap into that market."

 

[jostenmeat]

My friend recently brought over The Searchers, with John Wayne. I am quite paranoid of bad transfers, and so I researched it a bit before I even let him put it up on my system. It looked fantastic.

There isn't a thread for it, and the search function brought up just a few hits, all of them in the Movies with High Replay thread. I figured I'd throw my blurb in this one instead.

It was over a week ago, but I remember that they filmed it using VistaVision, which was a higher resolution film during its time. For the restoration, not only was the director no longer with us, but the negatives were useless/destroyed. They had to use the (if I got the term right) black and white separation masters, and then apply color. The team at Warner had to get together and surely make a lot of difficult decisions regarding coloring choices. I know some people have issues with color timing choices, but someone's gotta do it.

It looked really fantastic, and is probably the best looking western I've seen since How The West Was Won. The film itself was not as good as HTWWW, but still a worthwhile watch for those interested in this genre.

 

[Lordoftherings]

One of my favorite western.

The last blu-ray that I purchased was "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly".
And I must say the picture quality is subpar.

I wished the'd remaster it better.

* Still glad to have it in my collection then.
But it's not much better than my Special Edition DVD version.

 

[dapack69]

They are just waiting to find a cure for cancer. Once that is done they will thaw out John Wayne and bring him back to life, westerns will be back again.

 

[MatthewB.]

Not new but new enough, I loved Silverado, Unforgiven and Tombstone, and although a western in space lets' not forget the TV series "Firefly" which used a ton of western elements in the series, everything from old fashioned whore houses, to train robberies and old time saloons, all in space, including bounty hunters and shootouts.

Newer westerns I loved were 3:10 to Yuma, Hildago, The Assisination of Jesse James, and although I didn't like the movie at all, it was still a western of sorts, Brokeback Mountain.

 

[radridd]

Man, I thought Appaloosa was horrible.. 3:10 was decent.. Open Range was good.. And Unforgiven was great.

I will agree on this one. Worst movie Ed Harris has ever done and he produced it.

 

[Lordoftherings]

One of my alltime favorite.

I cannot wait for the blu-ray version of "Once Upon a Time in the West".

 

[lsiberian]

Not new but new enough, I loved Silverado, Unforgiven and Tombstone, and although a western in space lets' not forget the TV series "Firefly" which used a ton of western elements in the series, everything from old fashioned whore houses, to train robberies and old time saloons, all in space, including bounty hunters and shootouts.

Newer westerns I loved were 3:10 to Yuma, Hildago, The Assisination of Jesse James, and although I didn't like the movie at all, it was still a western of sorts, Brokeback Mountain.

I love Firefly it was an amazing series.

The Searchers will be something I definitely check out. Once Clint started directing he made some great films. Dirty Harry is tough to top though in my book.