A Stetson, a Duster and a Henry Rifle

[poliphilo]

Judy says we should write an outlaw ballad together. I have a brief anxiety attack, then crank out the first verse and a chorus and email them to her. I grew up on westerns. It was Britain in the 1950s and I wanted to be out there riding the purple sage.

No actual western is ever quite as good as the western in my head. Those that come closest? Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, The Searchers, 3.10 to Yuma, The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Unforgiven.

Comments

[beentothemoon.livejournal.com]

I think that's charming. What about Hondo? The Magnificent Seven? Rio Grande? The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance? Also, why an outlaw song, rather than say, a train song?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Rio Grande is fine, but it didn't get under my skin the way the others did. Liberty Valance is a great film, but it's largely studio-bound and you don't get the landscapes. I might have listed Cheyenne Autumn, which is one of the most beautiful movies ever made, only the script is weak.

The Magnificent Seven is OK but I always think of it as a copy. And the original is better. Hondo I have to confess I haven't seen.

I do like train songs. City of New Orleans- that's a favourite of mine. But I think I know more about bad men than I know about trains. In my inner western landscape the train is whistling sorrowfully in the distance while in the foreground two guys amble slowly towards one another down a dusty street.....

[beentothemoon.livejournal.com]

Have you seen The Hired Hand? It's a beautiful epic western, directed by Peter Fonda...it's breathtaking.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I haven't. I'll watch out for it

[beentothemoon.livejournal.com]

I think it was released in 1971. The DVD reissue came out last year. I remember because Peter Fonda came to my film festival and looked down my top.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm intrigued.

Fonda is a good actor. Loved him in Ullee's Gold and The Limey.