Why aren't Westerns popular anymore?

I just finished watching the first season of DEADWOOD, My faith has been restored!!

Season two becomes even more gripping with a classic Western confrontation between Swearengen and Bullock.

I liked "Dr. Quinn, Medicine woman," though I admit that it got sappy at times. The Jane Seymore character was a bit weak, but overall it was great, and Sully was an excellent role model for kids.

Dang me, we've steered this off course into TV Westerns and the point was that "Deadwood" may inspire some more serious film Westerns. It seems "Blazing Saddles" may have been to blame for the timidity in producing new ones for several years after that film. How about a really good, or at least similar, remake of "The Oxbow Incident?"

I, too, lament the demise of the genre on the big screen. As Lightwizard has already said, I think Heaven's Gate, that deadeningly, unbelievably dull piece of wasted celluloid, was instrumental in killing the western as a viable vehicle. Open Range almost brought it back. But it was too little, too late.

My favorite western of all time is the immortal High Noon with an 18-year-old Grace Kelly playing the bride of 65-year-old Gary Cooper (ok, ok, I don't really know how old Cooper was when that film was made, but old). It is quintessentially perfect. The simple plot, played out in real time, you'll notice. The superb casting (with Lee vanCleef in his debut as the bad man and Lon Chaney Jr. as a washed-up arthritic former deputy). The Dmitiri Tiompkin score, with Tex Ritter singing the theme song that became a Billboard Top 40 hit on the radio. The subtle message at the end when Cooper takes off his badge and tosses it onto the ground. It is perfect. There's no other word for this film. Perfect.

Strangely enough, my second favorite is The Magnificent Seven with Yul Brynner in the starring role and Steve McQueen as his main sidekick. I believe it was McQueen's first big screen role. Up to that time he had been mainly known for playing the bounty hunter on Wanted -- Dead or Alive on TV. It's over the top hilarous in its own way, but, hell, gimme Eli Wallach as the quintessential Mexican bandit, outbedoying Alfonso Bedoya.

I have no favorite. Anything with a horse and a cowboy is watchable for me. Add in a couple of Indians and that is a bonus. .

I don't crave a remake of Ox-Bow Incident. The original suits me fine. Some of my fav westerns are
The Gunfighter
Ox-Bow Inc.
Good Bad and Ugly
Warlock
High Noon
Blazing Saddles
Jeremiah Johnson (close enough for me)
Man Called Horse
Jesse James and The Return of Frank James (two movies, but one a sort of continuation of the other)
Darling Clementine
The Plainsman


Ah - There are too many to list. . .

I remember seeing "High Noon" for the first time. I was an adult and caught it by chance on a Saturday afternoon. It was riveteing, altho I agree Coop was way too old for Grace Kelly.

My great uncle, who was very short as that side of the family was, worked for Henry Ford as a security guard around the time that Ford was building a large home for himself. "Worked for" is a bit of a misnomer, as Uncle Pete never actually met Ford until one evening, while watching over the site, two men approached. One was very tall. Pete Zielinski, my great uncle, demanded they show identification. It was Henry Ford and Gary Cooper. They had been at a party together and Ford wanted to show Cooper the house. Cooper removed Pete's hat and patted him on the head.

I wasn't as much advocating a remake of "The Oxbow Incident" as much as a Western along those lines -- something that underlines some social issue. They are certainly exploring the social issues and human condition in "Deadwood." They could have slipped into producing a Western soap opera but have kept the show on a much higher plane. What went wrong with "Open Range" that it didn't garner a very good boxoffice is debatable but it did eventually make money on DVD and cable.

Because unlike 1970s trash movies, they haven't found their Quentin Tarantino yet to revive them. Their time will come again.

Well, actually "Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2" could be called a contemporary Western. It had a lot of the same elements as the classic Westerns. At least the films payed some homage to Sam Peckenpah and I'd like to see Tarentino direct a full-on Western. Since there were Chinese in the old West building railroads, etc. -- he could include martial arts in a fun way. There are some great Chinese characters in "Deadwood."

That particular aspect of the old west was pretty thoroughly exploited by the TV series Kung Fu.

Interestingly, we haven't yet defined the term "Western" on this thread. For me, a western is a drama or melodrama set in the American west in the 19th or very early 20th century. By that definition, I do not consider movies like Treasure of Sierra Madre a "Western." It's set in Mexico and the time period is, I think, post WW I. I'd hedge a little on movies set in Mexico where the time period is correct (1860s -1900) and the main characters are Americans whom we could call "westerners." So, no, LW, for me the Kill Bill series doesn't qualify as a western in any sense.

In this day of pluralism in all the arts and since the definition of even film noir has broadened, the Tarentino films are in the spirit of the Western.

Yeah, I'll grant you that. But that's been true of a lot of mainstream action flicks. I recall one with Michael Douglas (and I can't remember the name of the film now to save my soul) where Douglas plays an LA cop sent to Tokyo on some drug-related mission and falls afoul of Japanese gangsters. The plot was absolutely classic Western, including the likeable young sidekick, the (Caucasian) saloon girl with a heart of gold, the horseback chase at the end (except on motorcycles here) etc. etc. etc. But, in my book, that still ain't a western, no matter what the plot gimmicks are. No more than Disney retelling the story of the Odyssey set in post-Civil War times makes a lame kiddy flick a Greek epic.

There were a lot more accoutrements of the Western in "Kill Bill" than in other action flicks and even then, Tarentino went well beyond the confines of the typical action movie. I think the revenge storyline, at least in the movies, was probably invented in a vintage Western. The showdown at the wedding was distinctly that of a Western including the locale. Anyway, I really mentioned this in reference to Tarentino actually producing and directing an authentic Western of the proper period and location. If "Deadwood" could be even more off-the-wall, it could be a Tarentino movie.

I hope Tarentino does a Western, His next film will be a WW2 film called INGLORIOUS BASTARDS. It's supposed to be like THE DIRTY DOZEN.
I just watched a French Western called BLUEBERRY,
I guess they retitled it RENEGADE on the U.S.DVD.
It wasn't bad.

What about the movies he did with Antonio Banderas and Selma Hayak? The name escapes me now but wouldn't you consider those to be Westerns of a sort? Johnny Depp was in the last one.

Robert Rodriguez directed "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," probably not really a Western (at least my Merry's definition). Tarentino is listed as "miscellaneous crew," not even a producer of that film.

He was a producer of "From Dusk Until Dawn" which could be taken as a vampire Western, also directed by Rodriguez except that it too takes place in Mexico.