tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347718.post4413728661373013826..comments2024-03-28T02:21:05.851-07:00Comments on VINYL IS HEAVY: A fog of unfunny. On the new Westerns.Ryland Walker Knighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09233954424885027837noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347718.post-24358530315291314442021-08-12T00:03:25.576-07:002021-08-12T00:03:25.576-07:00OMG~!!!!! into your huge blog for almost the last ...OMG~!!!!! into your huge blog for almost the last hour.|I think the admin of this website is really working a lot.|Thanks for posting this up on your blog.|I am surprised at how slow your article loaded on my lap top.|Thank you for writing these great website.|The shorter response is that I don't know very much about the subject, a longer answer is that I'm going to understand what I'm able to Thanks for this post. I found it to be very encouraging. I really learned a lot because of you.<a href="https://op-best.com" rel="nofollow">휴게텔</a><br><br />opbestcom8https://www.blogger.com/profile/03588619150443491345noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347718.post-36991421175446197742007-09-21T17:22:00.000-07:002007-09-21T17:22:00.000-07:00Jen and Ry,Will do. Deadwood is on now my library ...Jen and Ry,<BR/><BR/>Will do. Deadwood is on now my library to-get list.<BR/><BR/>Only for y'all.Boonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02857832534463228577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347718.post-84393609078641158562007-09-20T11:16:00.000-07:002007-09-20T11:16:00.000-07:00Mr. Boone, Deadwood is exactly what you want: str...Mr. Boone, Deadwood is exactly what you want: striving to live, life besides the gun battles, and needing to make love and community. The show knows it's putting to bed the ol cliches: Hickok comes to Deadwood to die.<BR/><BR/>Trust me, and come west.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347718.post-34076370889795914492007-09-20T10:29:00.000-07:002007-09-20T10:29:00.000-07:00Sorry to say, Steve, but you're wrong about Deadwo...Sorry to say, Steve, but you're wrong about <I>Deadwood</I>. That show is beauty. And not just about killing.<BR/><BR/>That said, I like what you say about the genre being taken up in "other" genres. I've been thinking a lot about genre and this idea seems to work. Isolation and frontiers. And promises. I dig the idea that Michael Mann is reworking the western, especially in MIVI. That movie is all about spatial relationships. I'd love to see a Western with no guns, but Deadwood, while violent, isn't about the violence as much as it is about how humans work one another over psychologically (not physiologically). It's the most metaphysical Western I've seen, without ever saying anything metaphysical. Just check it out. This reply is kinda aimless, and I apologize. Gotta go read about another frontier fight: The Pelapanesian War.Ryland Walker Knighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09233954424885027837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347718.post-450671988792436882007-09-19T14:26:00.000-07:002007-09-19T14:26:00.000-07:00thanks for your thoughts here...i especially like ...thanks for your thoughts here...i especially like your imagry of "re-inventing the wheel" vs. fastening it together.<BR/><BR/>i for one, know i will certainly be tracking the "awards buzz." It's what i do.RChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11340006144797496514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347718.post-12058551883333038572007-09-19T08:56:00.000-07:002007-09-19T08:56:00.000-07:00Westerns are deaddeaddead. Hood movies and urban c...Westerns are deaddeaddead. Hood movies and urban crime sagas are supposed to be the new westerns, but few big time filmmakers have found a way to give them that kind of mythic stature. Michael Mann goes there sometimes. No Country for Old men looks about right.<BR/><BR/>It's about frontiers and isolation. It takes imagination to search out the new frontiers, but they're everywhere. People get hung up on genre, preserving dead ones like they're loved ones on life support. Let it go. Unforgiven tied it up in a bow.<BR/><BR/>I don't see any reason to go back to the wild West unless the filmmakers take an interest in something other than the men with guns. Never watched Deadwood or Dead Man, but peeks at them give me the impression that they're just as concerned with blood and murderin' bandits as any other Western. Boring. The Proposition told me/showed me nothing new. And I don't care how the railroads got built or the collusion between the thugs and the land barons.<BR/><BR/>I want to see how ordinary people lived and strove and made love between the gun ballets. In fact, I don't wanna see no more guns. Give me a Western without guns, and I'm there.Boonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02857832534463228577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347718.post-69793427608866361932007-09-19T00:34:00.000-07:002007-09-19T00:34:00.000-07:00I'd like to clarify: I haven't seen the new Jesse ...I'd like to clarify: I haven't <I>seen</I> the new Jesse James movie. My impression is based on the advertising.<BR/><BR/>If Pitt works for the movie, then that's gravy. Johnny Depp is about the prettiest boy around - and he was perfect for <I>Dead Man</I>. That's not to say it needs to be as good as <I>Dead Man</I> to be a success. Anything that keeps the genre going without having to be the end-all-be-all is good enough for me!<BR/><BR/>Incidentally, my gut also takes issue with the long title. I prefer something shorter like <I>I Shot Jesse James</I> - and then mold the screenplay into something that's first person.Jeffrey Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04923435451049982632noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347718.post-63101584568336175472007-09-18T18:03:00.000-07:002007-09-18T18:03:00.000-07:00Yeah, "the Proposition" didn't register as much th...Yeah, "the Proposition" didn't register as much the second time around. I still like it but the difference between the Varsity's screen and my little television made a drastic change.<BR/><BR/>Danny Huston kills it though.Mikeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08400927064697543220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347718.post-4299857913963779262007-09-18T13:39:00.000-07:002007-09-18T13:39:00.000-07:00I don't think there's anything the Western says ab...I don't think there's anything the Western says about America that it doesn't also say about Australia or anywhere else Europe colonized. Civilization/wilderness, city/country, European/Native, law/crime, these are the dichotomies the genre is built around, and none of them are particularly American.<BR/><BR/><BR/>That said, Unforgiven, Deadwood and Dead Man is a ridiculously high standard to hold any movie to. I haven't seen either of these films yet, but telling me they aren't as good as Unforgiven isn't all that enlightening.Sean Gilmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16124894627028920508noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347718.post-19762466559354391002007-09-18T11:37:00.000-07:002007-09-18T11:37:00.000-07:00JEFFREY: Yeah, I like Brad Pitt, too. I think his ...JEFFREY: Yeah, I like Brad Pitt, too. I think his being pretty works for the kind of movie Dominik wanted to make but the movie fails itself. And yeah, movie stars throughout the genre have been pretty. Even with the 'stache and the beady glare, Timothy Olyphant is the prettiest thing on <I>Deadwood</I>. (No, not Molly Parker, but maybe the little girl, Sofia, could beat him.) What I mean to say is, "Stars being pretty is irrelevant to the success of a Western, isn't it?" I mean, Johnny Depp has a model's bone structure, right?<BR/><BR/>MIKE: I forgot to think about <I>The Proposition</I>. For now I'll say it's pretty good but after a second viewing it did less for me. And it's not about America, which seems like a requirement for anything to be considered a Western in the sense I'm using the word (as a genre). The Western is as much about the promise of America's vastness as it is about guns and horses. This Aussie movie retains some of that in Danny Huston's kicks butt character/performance but it is very much about the absence of promise, about barrenness. This is what distinguishes <I>Unforgiven</I> but each character operates under this ideal of America where you can make yourself into whomever you want given the right drive, and tools. That said, I need to see both again before I can offer any kind of solid criticism. What I mean to say is, "Yes, that movie is worthy, but it's got its problems, too, as does anything." Maybe I do like it more than I'm letting on... more later, I imagine.Ryland Walker Knighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09233954424885027837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347718.post-52116933009625959882007-09-18T11:21:00.000-07:002007-09-18T11:21:00.000-07:00Don't sleep on "the Proposition".Don't sleep on "the Proposition".Mikeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08400927064697543220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347718.post-26577975514029254032007-09-18T10:45:00.000-07:002007-09-18T10:45:00.000-07:00But Brad Pitt is really pretty.I thought this was ...<I>But Brad Pitt is really pretty.</I><BR/><BR/>I thought this was pretty funny. The first thing I thought was that Pitt was too pretty to be in a western. (And I more or less like him as an actor.) That's been a main problem with many westerns from the 80's on. A re-occuring joke about stuff like <I>Young Guns</I> and Ang Lee's over-hyped <I>Ride With the Devil</I> was saying that "those were some pretty girls wearing cowboy hats!" Not that Montgomery Cliff or Ricky Nelson weren't pretty boys, but they fit in with the particular westerns they were in.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, I largely agree with your assessment on the genre these days. There are some great ones (<I>Dead Man</I> & <I>Deadwood</I> come to mind) but I think the last great decade for westerns was the 60s.Jeffrey Hillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04923435451049982632noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347718.post-26268607183321281082007-09-17T13:01:00.000-07:002007-09-17T13:01:00.000-07:00I like Dead Man; haven't seen Open Range. Jarmusch...I like <I>Dead Man</I>; haven't seen <I>Open Range</I>. Jarmusch is really self-serious, too, but only in spurts and levied by the otherwise hilarious dialogue. Plus, the Indian is named Nobody! And "Machine" is maybe the best town name outside of "Deadwood"...<BR/><BR/>These two are the, uh, newest "westerns" I've seen in a while. Good luck with the Mangold. I think it's a little easier to swallow since it doesn't try to be anything but a time-killer. But not in a <I>Panic Room</I> kind of way. In a James Mangold almost-posing kind of way.Ryland Walker Knighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09233954424885027837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8347718.post-63421132053188788812007-09-17T11:22:00.000-07:002007-09-17T11:22:00.000-07:00I agree that Dominik's film is extremely self-seri...I agree that Dominik's film is extremely self-serious, but I really liked it anyway. I'm seeing <I>3:10</I> today, but I've got an aversion to all things Mangold and don't expect much. But this post got me thinking -- what do think of Jarmusch's <I>Dead Man</I>? And Costner's <I>Open Range</I>, for that matter?David Loweryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02844946230991009106noreply@blogger.com