Any Ranch That You Can See on Foot Just Isn't Worth Looking At
August 21 2008 – 10 comments
I recently had a drunken spree of watching old westerns, starting with the classic The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly. While “camping” last weekend, I watched it again with my 12-year-old nephew Aaron who initially scoffed at the obviously-overdubbed dialog, “THEIR MOUTHS ARE OFF!” but he slowly got into it. It’s so classic that even with long, drawn out, often silent scenes, it manages to capture the attention of a modern-day, Mountain Dew swizzling, Nintendo DS addled pre-teen. I was stunned.
The big budget spaghetti western made me yearn to get lost in more stiff old portrayals of The Old West. I started roaming around IMDB looking for high-rated westerns. The first that caught my eye was The Magnificent Seven, which introduced me to Yul Brynner, playing an oddly endearing cowboy android. It also shared a younger Eli Wallach, playing a similarly slimy-yet-likeable villain as Tuco and Charles Bronson looking like a beefed up Alfred E. Newman.
From there it was quickly downhill with the western meme. Somehow I ended up watching The Searchers, which features the Native American hatin’ John Wayne. Besides bearing a striking resemblance in stature, dress and speech to Willy Vlautin, I couldn’t find much to like. However, I was pleased to spot The Elderly and Senile Room Service Waiter from Twin Peaks, the one who brought Agent Cooper his warm milk after he got shot. Nearly fifty years prior to Twin Peaks, Hank Worden was sporting a very similar shtick.
You must watch The Big Country by William Wyler.
Amazing score and really a different kind of Western, a pacifist Western with an incredible cast.
Vanessa August 31 2008 17:33
woa! too weird. I forgot to mention that I also watched that and loved it. I even had screengrabs of Peck being bucked by Ol Lightning was it? was going to mention the appearance of another All American Man, Charlton Heston, but I got distracted by the Alfred E Neuman similarity. great flick! love Burl Ives’ character.
nate September 01 2008 1:11
in fact, iirc, the title of this entry is from The Big Country… here’s that pic of “gregory peck’:
nate September 01 2008 18:15
Nate!!! This has nothing to do with westerns, sorry. I just read BFF, which I found at the Forbidden Planet (comics shop in NYC) completely randomly. It was a fantastic book and I’m reading the other issues that didn’t make it on your other website. I LOVE how you portray yourself differently, so don’t torture yourself about “settling” to one image. That you can draw these gorgeously realistic landscapes and suddenly compact into an abstract doodle of yourself is so agile and delightful. Draw more! You have one more fan, in the dreadfully urban east coast. (I did laugh when you remarked Seattle made you feel anonymous.)
Esther September 03 2008 19:02
It’s a BIG country
Vanessa September 04 2008 1:35
thanks Esther! draw more? you got it! i’ll be posting some new stuff here soon…
nate September 05 2008 0:17
you must be a cool swingin LA dude now…writin’ about da movies and sh*t…!!!
when you coming to France to draw me purty pictures of my house?!
(wtf, sh*t is not allowed here? you sure this isn’t one of them i love jaysus sites?)
Kimberlee September 06 2008 17:23
what the fuck kind of shit isn’t allowed here? did i inadvertently trigger some fucking filter? because i sure as hell ain’t no bitch-ass jaysus site, daaaamn. (who’s been watching The Wire?)
(you’re right! weird. never knew. this fixed it:
COMMENTS_ALLOW_PROFANITIES = True # fuck that shit
ha!)
nate September 08 2008 3:21
Fuck ya!
Shawn September 17 2008 12:59
“once upon a time in the west” is totally bad ass. peckinpah don’t fuck around.
alex September 23 2008 9:51