What Killed the Western?

Clint's best western was "The Outlaw Josey Wales", which IMHO is the best western ever.

 

I'd have to vote for PC as well, besides all the particulars, the whole idea of being a man's man is almost offensive nowadays. In addition, Mexicans and Indians are unfortunate souls who, we, the evil white man is mercilessly oppressing. For a western to work nowadays (ie, appeal to the mass of fools) it'd have to be from the Indian or Mexican perspective, and of course feature gratuitous sex in teepees/the woods and mounds of cleavage.

On a side note on PC, watched Friday the 13th last night (AMC is doing a scary movie week). I'd never seen it before beginning to end, but at one point there's a snake in the cabin and one of the guys literally hacks like a foot off of it, right there on screen. My raised-in-the-PETA era self couldn't believe they actually did it, but smiled knowing that not too long ago people had better things to do then whine about animals.

 

I wondered why they fizzled out as well and thanks to the miracle of cable TV, Kenny Rogers told me why. It was featured on the History Channel (Rogers) not too long ago as well as A&E feature about Eastwood... the market becaome overflooded.

There were a ton of B rate unknown studio productions that jumped on the bandwagon as the way to make a hit was to make a western. The fever then switched over to disaster films in the following years. Which explains why you have an all star cast in the awful flick, The Towering Inferno where most of them were Western hit vets. McQueen, Holden and company were in Westerns a few years prior, then public wanted to see complete chaos. Where the big names went, so did everyone else making a movie and eventually it became a story of seen that, or different than the last one cause now they have an indian robbing a bank instead of a vengeful bounty hunter. Legends were not immune, which explains why a great such as Lee Van Cleef ( For a Few Dollars More, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, ) were on the tail end of the disaster craze like having a role in Escape From New York.

RocketBoy

 

Guess the western killed itself.

Cows, good guys, bad guys, 1-2 chicks, a bank.

Always the same stuff.

Version A :
Bad guy steals cows, good guy gets him, girl is in awe, cow too.
Version B :
Bad guy is...well bad to girl, good guy gets him, kisse the girl, screws a cow.
Version C :
Bad guy robs the bank,good guy gets him...girl and cow wait

 

Unforgiven has to be one of the best westerns ever, if not THE best.

John Wayne was best in "The Searchers". Thats a fantastic movie.

What killed the western? Easy: KEVIN COSTNER.




Terry

 

Actually, the most politically incorrect western ever was "Blazing Saddles" Freaking funny stuff that will never be made again.

Silverado ranks pretty highly on my list too.