Sheriff is definitely better than Gunfighter, even though it’s almost the same cast. 
Wasn’t James Garner in the Maverick series?
2 Likes
Yeah, the movie is what introduced me to the character. His whole conversation with his Native American pal is hilarious.
1 Like
To say nothing of the same director and cinematography but, perhaps most significantly, not the same writer.
James Garner was Maverick. However, it took more than a week to shoot an episode and that meant (given a 26-episode run for a season) running out of episodes mid-season, so they brought in Jack Kelly to play his brother. And poor Kelly always maintained that, “Garner was Maverick. I was Maverick’s brother.”
A lot of the episodes were updated and recycled for The Rockford Files.
2 Likes
I didn’t know that, but given the difference in how much I enjoyed Sheriff vs. Gunfighter, I can see that’s what made the difference.
1 Like
Support Your Local Sheriff was a lot of fun and The Cowboys, that brings out the memories. We saw that at the drive-in - a double feature with Chisum and while we liked Chisum, the Cowboys was it, that’s all we talked about on the drive home. How we loved the kids and loathed Bruce Dern, and how surpised and saddened we were by Wayne’s character dying… that doesn’t happen!
The Cowboys was a big hit with us, and it’s still one of my faves.
2 Likes
Yeah, Sheriff is cleverly written with a charming cast and Gunfighter…just has the charming cast. Though to be fair, the writer of Gunfighter was James Edward Grant of Hondo and McClintock fame—he just wasn’t a comedy guy. Sheriff’s writer was William Bowers who had a track record with My Man Godfrey and The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap, along with some steamy noir and the classic Gregory Peck western The Gunfighter.
3 Likes
I was never into Westerns until I became an adult.
I have a few on DVD. And these did inspire my webcomic Poison Ivy Gulch.
IMHO, the best Westerns are The Wild Bunch (1969) and Unforgiven (1992). I like them because they are essentially deconstructions of the classic Hollywood Western.
The Wild Bunch is a deconstruction as it is set in the 1910s, the end of the Old West era, and it shows plenty of blood; classic Hollywood Westerns avoided bloodshed and gore.
Unforgiven was a deconstruction of the Spaghetti Western and Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name character.
3 Likes
Who was portrayed by Graham Greene, AKA Admiral Bullbutter in Atlantic Rim.
3 Likes
My favorite Western is The Gunfighter with Gregory Peck.
Peck is an aging gunfighter, the “fastest gun in the West” who keeps getting challenged by young hotshots. He’s in town only to see his former lover one time before he dies.
2 Likes
The Wild Bunch (1969) personalities New Hollywood and the New Age Western. Wounds, carnage, savage cuts. William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, and Warren Oates bleed, scream, and die. All magnificently done and executed. Peckinpah peaks here and the movie reflects his entire vision fully and uninebriated. New values, old memories, and the people caught between are gloriously rendered and forever burned into mind. It strips down the Western and rebuilds it as a eulogy to its fundamental reality beneath the lore and the stories while still holding onto them. Not just a classic Western but one of the greatest films ever made.
Unforgiven (1992) IS Clint Eastwood’s masterpiece. A summation of his early career and what brought him stardom. The mystery man laid bare, humanized, and reborn when rubber meets the road. Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, based on a script by David Webb Peoples, Unforgiven breaks down the automatic pilot and veneer of the Western and reconstructs a meditation of its values, underbelly, and ties. What is it like living with a life that was a Western? Unforgiven wrestles with that question and breathlessly extrapolates the wear and tear of that sort of life. Not only the outlaws but the law as well. Acting, sets, music, ambiance, Unforgiven sets the bar high and never relents. A monument to perfection at every level.
3 Likes
It’s not a Western in the sense that you describe it, but “Power of the Dog,” currently on Netflix, is phenomenal. Benedict Cumberbatch is outstanding, as is Kirsten Dunst. The scenery and cinematography are out of this world.
3 Likes
2021 was a good year for the western, I loved “Power of the Dog” and “Old Henry”, and while I wasn’t as blown away by “The Harder They Fall”, it has its admirers.
I know 3 isn’t peak period, 1950s levels of releases, but for the modern age, where it can be a struggle just to find one really good western, or western adjacent picture, I was happy to have them.
2 Likes
Duck You, Sucker!
Hannie Caulder - The OG Kill Bill
3 Likes
Favorite TV Westerns: The Big Valley, Brisco, Maverick, Paradise (one from each decade except for the 70s), all of which are incorporated in my fanfic world.
Also, Kung Fu, from the 70s, which isn’t because I could never come up with a non-lame way to work it in.
Favorite movie Western - this is gonna be an outlier, but it’s Will Penny. I have friends who adore Westerns who hate it because they say it’s too realistic, which is actually the reason I love it. It just kinda meanders around, much like a real-life cowboy would (it’s also beautiful to look at and has Charlton Heston and Joan Hackett).
2 Likes
The Rifleman is the first TV show to feature a single parent. I like that they weren’t afraid to show the men doing ‘women’s work’ like laundry and dishes.
Because that stuff doesn’t get done by magic, and it didn’t make the characters less ‘manly’, whatever the heck that even means.
3 Likes
Two things:
How could I forget Brisco! What a fun show.
And two, yay, another fanfic writer!
2 Likes
The Magnificent Seven (1960). The American remake of Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai (1954). Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Horst Buchholz, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Eli Wallach. A hit then and now. A score for the ages, remarkably engrossing, The Magnificent Seven lands on all cylinders and for personality and showmanship is one magnificent western.
4 Likes
The Proposition is a western from Australia featuring Guy Pearce that I haven’t seen mentioned yet, apart from Jake’s list. It definitely is worth checking out.
2 Likes
Going to be starting on Have Gun Will Travel here soonish. Friend lent me the DVDs (hopefully it goes better than the foray into The Saint)
2 Likes