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Westerns movies
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Western movies have always been attempted and have strived for perfection. There has been a few that really captured the motion picture, history, and of course the actual story itself; but of course only one can take the cake. The movie, Tombstone is an action-filled film that is sure to entertain no matter what audience. Based on true events, the movie does an excellent job of portraying the correct history about the events that went on in Tombstone, Arizona. Everything from wardrobe, slang, props, and much more that was displayed in this outstanding movie couldn’t have hit the nail on the head any better. Just in case you may not have seen Tombstone, I believe it’s beneficial to know the plot, important details, history and information about …show more content…
the actual main characters of the movie. Tombstone was filmed in 1993 and directed by George P. Cosmatos. Although all characters and some parts of the movie were based on true events, the movie was written by Kevin Jerre, (“Full Cast & Crew.”) The timeframe is in the 1880’s where towns had practically no laws or enforcement. The movie stars the character Wyatt Earp who was played by Kurt Russel. Wyatt Earp (a retired deputy sheriff), and his two brothers Morgan Earp (Bill Paxton), and Virgil Earp (Sam Elliot) set off with their wives to start a faro business in the lawless town of Tombstone, Arizona. Settling in, they run into Wyatt’s good friend Doc Holliday, (Val Kilmer,) who is suffering from severe tuberculosis. Things go well for a while for the Earps and their business, but when troubles arise when a foolish group known as the “Cowboys,” and their leader Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn) stir shit up, things goes completely wrong. That’s when the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place and many more bloody events that happened after that. One of the reasons I really enjoy watching Tombstone is all the action and intensity that went on at the O.K. Corral scene. Because of the foolishness of one of the members of the “Cowboys,” it resulted in the murder of the town’s marshal. After no punishment from the law, Wyatt Earp and his brothers believe it is time to put some enforcement on in this town; this didn’t go well with the “Cowboys.” They were threatening to kill Wyatt Earp and his brothers saying, “You’re going to bleed, you got a fight coming, coming today.” Wyatt, Morgan, and Virgil decided to take a stand and present them with a gunfight. They asked their dear friend Doc Holliday to assist them with a shotgun. Walking down to the corral side by side they eventually meet up with a line of the cowboys. Standing across from the cowboys left to right is Doc, Morgan, Wyatt, and Virgil. Everyone has their right hand on their waist ready to pull out, shoot, and kill the enemy. Doc gives that famous wink to one of the cowboys, and that’s when it starts to go down. Bullets are flying all over the place and it’s looking really good for the Earps. Doc runs out of shells for his shotgun, so he quickly pulls out his Colt .45 single shot action and starts blowing people away. The intensity of the scene and all the action really drew me in to watch more. It is one of those movies where there are some gruesome parts, but not too gruesome where it becomes unbearable to watch. Another thing that is unique but may be somewhat hard for some people to understand is the slang they use in the movie. Tombstone is a movie that takes place in the 1880’s, so there are some words and slang that could be confusing to some people.
It makes the movie because that is how they really talked back in the day, but it as well can be confusing for viewers which can be a downfall. Doc Holliday definitely uses a lot of slang. He uses the words and phrases, “You’re a daisy if you do,” and “I’ll be your huckleberry.” Those are just a few of the famous lines of Doc Holliday in the movie. Daisies represent death, so when Doc Holliday said, “You’re a daisy if you do,” he was really threatening and warning that person he was in a bind with. When he said, “I’ll be your huckleberry,” it’s kind of like how we say now, “I’ll be your valentine.” He meant he’ll be sweet and he’d be whatever you’d possibly need. Doc Holliday was also referred to as a “lunger;” when someone had tuberculosis back in the 1880’s, they were always called a “lunger,” because they’re suffering a chronic disease of the lungs, (‘Lunger | One That Lunges’.) Even though some of these phrases may be confusing, it really adds great detail to the movie. Tombstone had a lot of great details to it such as the wardrobe, props, and even the …show more content…
setting. Another one of the things I really admired about the movie is the wardrobe of the characters.
That was the era of time where women wore bustles and corsets under their big lengthy dresses, as well as fancy hats on their high volume hair. The men were always looking sharp as well. They wore silk vests under their long black coats with a hat to top off. There was a scene in the movie where Doc Holliday was getting a straight razor shave from the barber. The 1800’s was the era of the straight razor shave, and I thought that was very cool how they added that into the movie, (Giusti.) I believe that was an important detail because that was one of the things the 1800’s was known for. I loved all the props they used; from the saddlery and tack, to the guns and carriages. It really gave me that old western feeling and that is something that all old western movies try to get across. The setting was very accurate and interesting. The town of Tombstone was filled with saloons, saloons, and more saloons. Gambling was a big deal back in the day and in Tombstone. The movie did a really good job of recognizing that and incorporating it into the setting. Tombstone overall displayed an amazing film filled with outstanding
scenes! When watching Tombstone you get more than a taste of history, action, and overall great entertainment. The actors did a remarkable job at playing their characters, the setting was phenomenal, and it keeps you watching till the very end. The movie adds in a romance, and a sad farewell to a good friend. It incorporates everything a good movie needs, and it is my very favorite! There will not be another that will top off Tombstone, it set a standard that is impossible to reach.
In the article "Movies that Rose from the Grave" by Max Brooks, he delves deeper into the reasoning of where, why, and when zombie horror flicks
My analysis begins, as it will end, where most cowboy movies begin and end, with the landscape.Western heroes are essentially synedoches for that landscape, and are identifiable by three primary traits: first, they represent one side of an opposition between the supposed purity of the frontier and the degeneracy of the city, and so are separated even alienated from civilization; second, they insist on conducting themselves according to a personal code, to which they stubbornly cling despite all opposition or hardship to themselves or others; and third, they seek to shape their psyches and even their bodies in imitation of the leanness, sparseness, hardness, infinite calm and merciless majesty of the western landscape in which their narratives unfold.All of these three traits are present in the figures of Rob Roy and William Wallace--especially their insistence on conducting themselves according to a purely personal definition of honor--which would seem to suggest that the films built around them and their exploits could be read as transplanted westerns.However, the transplantation is the problem for, while the protagonists of these films want to be figures from a classic western, the landscape with which they are surrounded is so demonstrably not western that it forces their narratives into shapes which in fact resist and finally contradict key heroic tropes of the classic western.
The Stagecoach, a critically acclaimed film, which followed the adventures of a group of unlikely and unfortunate passengers escaping from the brutality of Geronimo’s Apache warriors, established the precedent of the classic Western movie, containing crucial Western archetypical elements such as Ringo the Kid that has not hardly changed today. Furthermore, Stagecoach espoused social issues of the time by including passengers of varied social status and standing and emphasizing on such interactions that cross the rigidly defined and impermeable social divides at the time. The iconic movie was produced during the transition between silent films and films with spoken dialogue, and the remnants of the former film style are conspicuous throughout the film. Although explicit and spoken plot was crucial for the storyline, non-verbal communication offered implicit cues to attentive
Beginning the mid 1920s, Hollywood’s ostensibly all-powerful film studios controlled the American film industry, creating a period of film history now recognized as “Classical Hollywood”. Distinguished by a practical, workmanlike, “invisible” method of filmmaking- whose purpose was to demand as little attention to the camera as possible, Classical Hollywood cinema supported undeviating storylines (with the occasional flashback being an exception), an observance of a the three act structure, frontality, and visibly identified goals for the “hero” to work toward and well-defined conflict/story resolution, most commonly illustrated with the employment of the “happy ending”. Studios understood precisely what an audience desired, and accommodated their wants and needs, resulting in films that were generally all the same, starring similar (sometimes the same) actors, crafted in a similar manner. It became the principal style throughout the western world against which all other styles were judged. While there have been some deviations and experiments with the format in the past 50 plus ye...
Somewhere out in the Old West wind kicks up dust off a lone road through a lawless town, a road once dominated by men with gun belts attached at the hip, boots upon their feet and spurs that clanged as they traversed the dusty road. The gunslinger hero, a man with a violent past and present, a man who eventually would succumb to the progress of the frontier, he is the embodiment of the values of freedom and the land the he defends with his gun. Inseparable is the iconography of the West in the imagination of Americans, the figure of the gunslinger is part of this iconography, his law was through the gun and his boots with spurs signaled his arrival, commanding order by way of violent intentions. The Western also had other iconic figures that populated the Old West, the lawman, in contrast to the gunslinger, had a different weapon to yield, the law. In the frontier, his belief in law and order as well as knowledge and education, brought civility to the untamed frontier. The Western was and still is the “essential American film genre, the cornerstone of American identity.” (Holtz p. 111) There is a strong link between America’s past and the Western film genre, documenting and reflecting the nations changes through conflict in the construction of an expanding nation. Taking the genres classical conventions, such as the gunslinger, and interpret them into the ideology of America. Thus The Western’s classical gunslinger, the personification of America’s violent past to protect the freedoms of a nation, the Modernist takes the familiar convention and buries him to signify that societies attitude has change towards the use of diplomacy, by way of outmoding the gunslinger in favor of the lawman, taming the frontier with civility.
A more modern outlook on the film recognizes the film's flaws but gives it, it’s credit as the last fully realized work of one of the most important directors in American cinema history. Ford understood that an audience's recollections of older, less complex Westerns would add a layer of expressiveness to the viewing experience. The black-and-white structure helps him achieve this. Ford’s decision to shoot the film in black and white in 1962 produced a dark, anachronistic look, while the unconcealed soundstage effects of the film’s opening scene reinforced Ford’s vision of a wilderness, interiored Western frontier. Just as Ford intended, many of the flashback scenes are masked in darkness, whereas the frame tale is immersed in light. This con...
As the emcee said at the beginning of the film, “I 'm told that it has everything, that is everything that a western should have” (Myton and Marks). The Terror of Tiny Town
The story is an Eastern take on the Hollywood western with a dash of satire,
The development of the Western genre originally had its beginnings in biographies of frontiersmen and novels written about the western frontier in the late 1800’s based on myth and Manifest Destiny. When the film industry decided to turn its lenses onto the cowboy in 1903 with The Great Train Robbery there was a plethora of literature on the subject both in non-fiction and fiction. The Western also found roots in the ‘Wild West’ stage productions and rodeos of the time. Within the early areas of American literature and stage productions the legend and fear of the west being a savage untamed wilderness was set in the minds of the American people. The productions and rodeos added action and frivolity to the Western film genre.
Western films are the major defining genre of the American film industry, a eulogy to the early days of the expansive American frontier. They are one of the oldest, most enduring and flexible genres and one of the most characteristically American genres in their mythic origins - they focus on the West - in North America. Western films have also been called the horse opera, the oater (quickly-made, short western films which became as common place as oats for horses), or the cowboy picture. The western film genre has portrayed much about America's past, glorifying the past-fading values and aspirations of the mythical by-gone age of the West. Over time, westerns have been re-defined, re-invented and expanded, dismissed, re-discovered, and spoofed. But, most western movies ideas derived from characteristics known to the Native Americans and Mexicans way before the American culture knew about it. What you probably know as a good old western American movie originated from a culture knows as vaqueros (cowboys for Spanish). They are many misrepresentations of cultures and races shown throughout movies from as early as 1920's with silent films. Although one could argue that silent film era was more politically correct then now a day films, the movie industry should not have the right of misrepresenting cultures of Mexicans, Indians and there life styles in films known as western films.
Thankfully, I had been able to keep myself spoiler free as it relates to “The Deer Hunter.” For a movie with this reputation and fame, I was quite proud of the fact that I hardly knew what it was about, how it ended or even how its famous Russian roulette scene climaxes. I was excited to finally see this movie, in small part because it was the last film I needed to see to have watched every best picture winner from the 1970s. But, to put it bluntly, “The Deer Hunter” disappointed me.
A typical Western would usually be set in the late 19th century in the mid-west of America in a remote town. The town is usually small, lonely and unwelcoming. Typically a western set looks like it is in the middle of a desert with sand, cacti and tumbleweed which gives a desert look, there are usually never any lakes or rivers around these features make the place look really hot and deserted. The buildings are generally timber board houses with swinging doors and outside the buildings are places to keep their horses, there is also always a General Store and a Saloon. Horses and carriages and cattle are used to give a western feel. The cowboys are typically dressed in western style clothing for example they wear simple shirts and jeans they may also wear ponchos, waist coats, hats, boots with spurs, guns and a belt to hold the gun and bullets, Hero's tend to wear lighter clothing and the villain’s tend to wear darker clothing.
Few Hollywood film makers have captured America’s Wild West history as depicted in the movies, Rio Bravo and El Dorado. Most Western movies had fairly simple but very similar plots, including personal conflicts, land rights, crimes and of course, failed romances that typically led to drinking more alcoholic beverages than could respectfully be consumed by any one person, as they attempted to drown their sorrows away. The 1958 Rio Bravo and 1967 El Dorado Western movies directed by Howard Hawks, and starring John Wayne have a similar theme and plot. They tell the story of a sheriff and three of his deputies, as they stand alone against adversity in the name of the law. Western movies like these two have forever left a memorable and lasting impressions in the memory of every viewer, with its gunfighters, action filled saloons and sardonic showdowns all in the name of masculinity, revenge and unlawful aggressive behavior. Featuring some of the most famous backdrops in the world ranging from the rustic Red Rock Mountains of Monument Valley in Utah, to the jagged snow capped Mountain tops of the Teton Range in Wyoming, gun-slinging cowboys out in search of mischief and most often at their own misfortune traveled far and wide, seeking one dangerous encounter after another, and unfortunately, ending in their own demise.
Revenge, good versus evil, and the hard-fought victory of the underdog are the compelling themes in the western adventure novel, True Grit by Charles Portis. This work has been dubbed as “one of the great American novels” (Newsweek) and even inspired two award-winning films with its captivating characters and heart-wrenching conflicts. Only a year after the famous novel hit the American household by storm, True Grit (1969) was produced to recognize and appreciate the fans of the Portis original. Moreover, True Grit (2010) appeals to a different audience, because it pays less homage to the novel as a result of it being released nearly four decades after the book. These contrasting traits are exhibited in their trailers which are specialized to attract different moviegoers.
Wyatt mentioned to his brother James’s grave that he will stay around until kids like him can be safe again. This desire fueled the movie and motivated Wyatt to become town marshal and get Tombstone back on track as a nice western town. This desire propels Wyatt into the hero role not only for his brother’s sake, but also for the whole town of Tombstone. Every classic western film has a strong male lead who takes charge and becomes the hero others can depend on. Wyatt taking on this role, springs My Darling Clementine into a perfect American western