All Things: Westerns

Blackthorn (2011) Movie Review | BeyondHollywood.com

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“Blackthorn” is getting a limited theatrical run in the States on October 7, 2011, but is currently available for rental on VOD. It’s an excellent Western, with some nice, great chase sequences that owes (purposefully, would be my guess) more than a little to the George Roy Hill movie. The film’s signature sequence is, without a doubt, the methodical, deadly chase across the Bolivian Salt Flats. Though Blackthorn’s early visit to a bank ranks a close second, especially when you think that maybe, just maybe, ol Butch might pull out a sidearm and rob the place. He doesn’t, of course, but it’s great to think that he probably could — and get away with it, too.

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Originally Posted by adgy-san

Blackthorn (2011) Movie Review | BeyondHollywood.com

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I so need to see this!

If you've got an hour, this looks like an interesting read.

Euphoria and Liberating Laughter: The Cinema of Sergio Leone -- Projectorhead_Magazine

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Leone, like Kurosawa, was one of the first truly international filmmakers. I mean by this that he took the classic forms and genres of American cinema – the Western, the male buddy saga, the gangster movie – and he refashioned and reinvigorated them, often in cheeky, sardonic ways. And Leone’s revolution impacted on America’s own New Wave of the ‘60s: the Movie Brats such as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and Philip Kaufman who emulated Leone’s irreverence towards tradition and his willingness to experiment. This what critics including Bill Krohn in America and Noël Simsolo in France call the ‘boomerang effect’ of Leone’s films of the ‘60s – the way in which they took off from American cinema and then returned to it, in the process transforming it.1

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Cam Gigandet Lands Lead In TNT’s Western Pilot ‘Gateway’ – Deadline.com

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Actor Cam Gigandet (Burlesque) has landed one of the leads in the TNT Western drama pilot Gateway aka Tin Star. The action/adventure project from Bruce C. McKenna and Danny Cannon received a cast-contingent pilot order last month. Set in the Colorado town of the same name in the 1880s, Gateway tells the story of three brothers who step in to save their town when their sheriff father is murdered, pitting them against a corrupt cattle baron determined to make the town his own. Gigandet will play one of the brothers, Jake, on the Warner Horizon-produced project.

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Blackthorn Blu-ray

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Magnolia Pictures has revealed that it will release on Blu-ray Spanish director Mateo Gil's (writer, Open Your Eyes, Agora) Blackthorn (2011), starring Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, and Stephen Rea. Exact technical spec and region coding status for this release are unknown at the moment, but the preliminary release date set by the studio is December 20th.

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Review: ‘Blackthorn’ Catches Up With A Retirement-Ready Butch Cassidy > The Playlist

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But “Blackthorn” can’t live up to Butch Cassidy, and while the man himself will continue to live on years after his death, Gil’s film will peacefully but forgettably ride off into the sunset. [C]

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Unforgiven: 20th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray

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This 20th Anniversary Blu-ray Book Edition appears to be a repackaging of Warner's previous Unforgiven Blu-ray; it presents the film in its 2.39:1 original aspect ratio with a 5.1 Dolby Digital audio track and the following special features:

Commentary by Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel
All on Accounta Pullin' a Trigger featurette
Eastwood…A Star featurette
Eastwood & Co.: Making Unforgiven featurette
Eastwood on Eastwood career retrospective
Maverick TV series episode "Duel at Sundown" (1959)
Theatrical trailer

New to this release is a "54-Page Commemorative Blu-ray Book With Photos, Production Notes, and More."

Unforgiven: 20th Anniversary Edition streets on February 21st, 2012.

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Hmm. I already have that special edition DVD and if the only extra here is a booklet... I may not bother.

Akiva Goldsman Sets Up Western Drama About Doc Holliday AT HBO With Ron Howard Attached To Direct Pilot | Filmmakers, Film Industry, Film Festivals, Awards & Movie Reviews | indieWIRE

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Deadline reports that Goldsman has set up a western series at HBO centered around Doc Holliday, based on the novel "Doc" by Mary Doria Russell. The project will slightly tweak big screen versions of Holiday we've seen in the past, portraying the tubercular man as an ailing dentist who enters the gun slinging ways of the wild west as he becomes sicker. So, like a ten gallon hat version of "Breaking Bad" then? The story will also focus on the love triangle between Holliday, Kate Elder (his prostitute wife) and his best bud Wyatt Earp. Hot.

Adam Cooper and Bill Collage ("Accpeted") are penning the script, and Ron Howard is attached to direct the pilot for the project, which has brought together a bunch of family members. Ron's mom and dad, Rance Howard and Judy Howard are serving as co-producers, particularly as the former has a "fascination" with Holliday. Though initially conceived as a mini-series, HBO wants it as a brand new show. The network's last stab at a western was the late, great and sorely missed "Deadwood," so this will have some very big shoes to fill.

No word yet on when it will go, but with Ron Howard just gearing up to shoot "Rush," they will have to wait until that movie wraps up if they want him for the pilot episode. So we're looking at end of 2012 at the earliest for production to even start.

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Two John Wayne Films Exclusively at Walmart

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According to information from Walmart, the retail giant will exclusively offer two movies from the western genre produced by 20th Century Fox Entertainment: Raoul Walsh's The Big Trail (1930), starring John Wayne and Marguerite Churchill, and John Huston's The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958), starring John Wayne, Eiko Ando and Sam Jaffe.

Walmart's listings indicate that the two films will arrives as Combo Packs (Blu-ray/DVD). Both will be available for purchase on May 8th.

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I watched the Barbarian and the Geisha when I was kid. Haha!

It's like the original Last Samurai, well, except for the whole last samurai thing. :P