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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 9, 2011 17:33:51 GMT -5
34. Once Upon A Time In Mexico (2003) Once Upon a Time in Mexico is a 2003 action film written, edited and directed by Robert Rodriguez. It is the final film in the "Mariachi Trilogy", which also includes El Mariachi and Desperado. Antonio Banderas reprises his role as El Mariachi. The film also stars Johnny Depp, Salma Hayek, Willem Dafoe, Enrique Iglesias, Mickey Rourke, Eva Mendes and Rubén Blades. The film received positive reviews but was criticized for reducing El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) to an almost secondary character in his own trilogy, and also for having a convoluted plot. In the special features of the film's DVD, Robert Rodriguez has explained that this was intended, as he wanted this to be the The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the trilogy. The film holds the box office record for being the most improved second sequel of all-time grossing 122% more than Desperado. This film was shot before Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over in order to avoid a potential Screen Actors Guild strike. It was the first film Rodriguez ever shot digitally in HD (instead of 35mm film). El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) is recruited by CIA agent Sheldon Sands (Johnny Depp) to kill General Emiliano Marquez (Gerardo Vigil), leader of a guerilla force who has been hired by Mexican drug lord Armando Barillo (Willem Dafoe) to assassinate the President of Mexico (Pedro Armendáriz Jr.) and overthrow the government. Many years ago, El Mariachi and his wife Carolina (Salma Hayek) confronted Marquez in a shootout and wounded the general; in retaliation, Marquez took the lives of Carolina and their daughter in an ambush. In addition to El Mariachi, Sands convinces former FBI agent Jorge Ramírez (Rubén Blades) to come out of retirement and kill Barillo, who had murdered his partner Archuleta in the past. Furthermore, AFN operative Ajedrez (Eva Mendes) is assigned by Sands to tail Barillo. While monitoring Barillo's activities, Ramírez meets Billy Chambers (Mickey Rourke), an American fugitive who has been living under the protection of Barillo. Ramirez convinces Chambers he will provide him protection in exchange for getting closer to Barillo by tagging Chambers' pet chihuahua with a hidden microphone. Meanwhile, Cucuy (Danny Trejo), who was originally hired by Sands to keep an eye on El Mariachi, tranquilizes El Mariachi and brings him to Barillo's mansion. Cucuy, however, is promptly killed by Chambers while El Mariachi escapes from captivity and calls his friends Lorenzo (Enrique Iglesias) and Fideo (Marco Leonardi) to assist him in his mission. While monitoring Barillo's activity outside a hospital, Ramírez notices armed men storming the building and follows suit. He discovers that a group of doctors have been gunned down and Barillo has bled to death as a result of a botched facial reconstruction, but realizes that the corpse on the operating table is a body double before he is knocked out and captured by the real Barillo and Ajedrez, who reveals herself to be Barillo's daughter. Sands realizes his mission has been compromised, but is too late, as he is captured by Barillo and Ajedrez - who drill out his eyes before sending him out. Despite his blindness, he manages to gun down a hitman tailing him with the aid of a chiclet boy. As the village celebrates Day of the Dead, Marquez and his army storm in and attack the presidential palace. The guerillas, however, are met with resistance from not only the Mexican army, but the villagers and the Mariachis. Marquez enters the presidential palace, only to once again confront El Mariachi - who shoots out his kneecaps before finishing him off with a headshot. Ramírez - who was released from captivity by Chambers, faces Barillo. After Barillo guns down Chambers, Ramirez and El Mariachi kill the drug lord. At the same time, Sands exacts his revenge on Ajedrez outside the presidential palace. Ultimately, Lorenzo and Fideo walk away with the loot that Barillo was using to pay Marquez, and escort the president to safety. Ramirez walks away, having accomplished his job. El Mariachi gives his part of the loot to his village before walking into the sunset while Sands begins his new life as a blind man. In a 2003 issue of Rolling Stone, Depp was named as one of its "People of the Year", and gave an interview in which he briefly discussed his role as Sands: "The idea behind him is there was this guy I used to know in Hollywood, in the business, who on the outside was very charming – soft-spoken and almost hypnotic in the rhythm he used to speak. He refused to call me Johnny – always called me John. You knew this guy was aiming to f*** you over, but somehow you stuck around because he was just so fascinating to watch." Depp also said in an Entertainment Weekly article that he "imagine[d] this guy wore really cheesy tourist shirts", that he had a "sideline obsession with Broadway", and that he favored strange, obvious disguises – all three qualities can be observed in the film. It was also revealed in the director's commentary on the DVD that Depp himself came up with the character's first and middle names. The score of Once Upon a Time in Mexico includes songs composed by director Robert Rodriguez and performed by a group of musicians gathered specifically for the soundtrack recording. Tracks performed by the group includes "Malagueña" with guitar by Brian Setzer and "Siente Mi Amor", with singing by Salma Hayek. Track 9, "Sands' Theme," is credited to "Tonto's Giant Nuts" but was in fact written by Johnny Depp (who invented the name 'Tonto's Giant Nuts' as a joke. It is not the name of his band, as commonly thought). On the DVD director commentary, Robert Rodriguez states that he requested that each of the main actors give him four or eight notes of a melody for their character, but Depp presented him with the entire track. Additional music includes Juno Reactor's "Pistolero," "Me Gustas Tú" by Manu Chao and "Cuka Rocka" by Rodriguez' own rock band, Chingon. 1."Malagueña" (Brian Setzer) – 4:22 2."Traeme Paz" (Patricia Vonne) – 2:56 3."Eye Patch" (Alex Ruiz) – 1:51 4."Yo Te Quiero" (Marcos Loya) – 3:48 5."Guitar Town" (Robert Rodriguez) – 2:04 6."Church Shootout" (Robert Rodriguez) – 1:38 7."Pistolero" (Juno Reactor) – 3:38 8."Me Gustas Tú" (Manu Chao) – 3:49 9."Sands (Theme)" (Tonto's Giant Nuts) – 3:24 10."Dias de Los Angeles" (Rick Del Castillo) – 5:08 11."The Man With No Eyes" (Robert Rodriguez) – 2:09 12."Mariachi vs. Marquez" (Robert Rodriguez) – 1:33 13."Flor del Mal" (Tito Larriva) – 3:13 14."Chicle Boy" (Robert Rodriguez) – 1:30 15."Coup de Etat" (Robert Rodriguez) – 3:02 16."El Mariachi" (Robert Rodriguez) – 1:22 17."Siente Mi Amor" (Salma Hayek) – 4:24 18."Cuka Rocka" (Chingon) – 1:44 Once Upon A Time in Mexico was released on September 12, 2003 in 3,282 theaters with an opening weekend gross of USD $23.4 million. It went on to make $56.4 million in North America and $41.8 in the rest of the world for a combined total of $98.2 million, well above its $29 million budget. The film received a generally positive reception with a 69% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 56 metascore on Metacritic. Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Like Leone's movie, the Rodriguez epic is more interested in the moment, in great shots, in surprises and ironic reversals and closeups of sweaty faces, than in a coherent story". A.O. Scott, in his review for the New York Times, wrote, "But in the end, the punched-up editing and vibrant color schemes start to grow tiresome, and Mr. Rodriguez, bored with his own gimmickry and completely out of ideas, responds by pushing the violence to needlessly grotesque extremes". In her review for USA Today, Claudia Puig wrote, "In Mexico, Rodriguez has fashioned a swaggering fantasy that pays homage to spaghetti Westerns such as Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Plenty of blood is shed, lots of powerful artillery is fired, and action sequences provide astounding car crashes and fiery explosions". Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B" rating and praised Johnny Depp's performance with its "winking grace notes of Brandoesque flakery ... is as minimal and laid-back as his Pirates of the Caribbean turn was deep-dish theatrical".
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 9, 2011 17:37:09 GMT -5
33. Last Man Standing (1996) Last Man Standing is a 1996 action film written and directed by Walter Hill, starring Bruce Willis, Christopher Walken, and Bruce Dern. It is a credited remake of the Akira Kurosawa film Yojimbo. The film is known primarily for its intense gunfights, featuring Bruce Willis's character dual-wielding two M1911 .45 caliber pistols, in the style reminiscent of Hong Kong Blood Opera. In Prohibition Era Texas, a mysterious character (later identifying himself as "John Smith") (Bruce Willis) drives into Jericho, near the Mexican border. The town is virtually deserted except for two feuding bootleg gangs – the Italians under Strozzi, and the Irish under Doyle – that have driven the other residents away, aside from the bartender Joe Monday (William Sanderson), an undertaker, and a corrupt sheriff (Bruce Dern), all of whom make their living by catering to Jericho's criminal elements. Smith immediately establishes a reputation by outdrawing and killing Doyle's top shooter, a brazen act that gets the attention of both gangs. Smith promptly hires himself out to Strozzi's gang for what Strozzi (Ned Eisenberg) predicts is an upcoming gang war. Seeing an opportunity to make some easy money while he is on the way to Mexico, he begins playing the two gangs off against each other. This includes seducing Strozzi's mistress, Lucy (Alexandra Powers) and slipping information to Doyle's gang through the Sheriff. The gang war re-starts when Strozzi suborns a corrupt Mexican police captain escorting a convoy of Doyle's trucks through Mexico to Doyle (David Patrick Kelly). The Mexican police murder Doyle's men and turn the trucks over to Strozzi. Smith then quits Strozzi's gang and hires himself to Doyle's, bringing valuable information with him. Doyle's right-hand man, Hickey (Christopher Walken), interrupts a meeting between the Mexican police captain and Strozzi's cousin Giorgio (Michael Imperioli). After killing the captain (along with a corrupt Border Patrol officer), Hickey takes Giorgio hostage and Doyle demands that Strozzi give up his entire operation in exchange for him. Strozzi forces a stalemate by kidnapping Felina (Karina Lombard), Doyle's mistress. Doyle agrees to exchange the two prisoners and the two gangs scatter. Smith is summoned by the Sheriff to meet with Captain Tom Pickett (Ken Jenkins) of the Texas Rangers, who is upset over the death of the Border Patrol officer. He warns that he can tolerate one gang in Jericho, but not two and if more than one remains in Jericho in ten days time, he will bring a squad of Rangers into Jericho and wipe out both gangs. Lucy comes to Smith and reveals that Strozzi, angered after the exchange, beat her and had Gerorgio cut her ear off when she revealed her affair with Smith. Smith gives her some money and puts her on a bus out of Jericho. The next day Smith relays a false rumor that Strozzi is bringing in more soldiers. Playing on Doyle's obsession with Felina, he makes Doyle afraid that Strozzi will try to kidnap her, and Doyle orders Smith to the safehouse where Felina is. Smith kills the men guarding Felina and sends her away with a car and a roll of money. The next day, Smith is waiting at the safehouse when Doyle arrives, and claims that he arrived too late, Strozzi's men had already killed the guards and abducted Felina. Doyle goes berserk and declares all-out war on Strozzi's gang. Smith's plan goes awry when Hickey puts together the truth. Doyle imprisons Smith and has him tortured, demanding to know where Felina is. Smith refuses to talk. Later that night, he escapes by killing two of Doyle's men, and escapes town with the aid of Joe Monday and the Sheriff. As they are driving out of town, they see Doyle's gang slaughtering Strozzi's at a roadhouse. Strozzi and Giorgio are the last two to die. Smith takes refuge at a remote church where Felina went to pray. Two days later, Sheriff Galt arrives and informs Smith that Joe was caught smuggling food and water to Smith and that Doyle will probably torture him to death. He then hands Smith his twin Colt .45s and informs him that that is all the help Smith can expect from him. Smith returns to town and storms Doyle's headquarters, gunning down the remainder of his men and rescuing Joe. Doyle and Hickey are absent, having gone down to Mexico in a desperate search for Felina. In the final scene, Doyle, Hickey and Sheriff Galt's corrupt deputy Bob, confront Smith at the burned-out remains of Strozzi's hideout. Doyle, still despondent over the loss of Felina, tells Smith they can be partners and begs him to reveal where to find her. Before he can get further, Joe shoots Doyle with an antique pistol, and Smith shoots Bob before he can retaliate. Hickey drops his submachine gun and says he doesn't want to die in Texas ("Chicago maybe") and starts to walk away (as seen in the earlier scene with the Border Patrol officer, this is just a ploy to invite the other man to shoot him in the back, allowing Hickey to turn and gun him down). With lightning speed he turns and quickdraws a pistol from his holster, but Smith is faster, and kills Hickey. Smith gets into his car and drives on to Mexico, his original destination. He reflects that he is as broke as he was when he first arrived, having given all the money he made off the two gangs to various women in order to get them out of town, including Felina and Lucy. However, he consoles himself that everyone in the two gangs is better off dead. The film did poorly at the box office, grossing only a total $18,127,448 by December 22, 1996, and received poor critical reviews. Common recurring complaints found in the negative reviews address the oppressive and depressing atmosphere of the film; the flat, almost monotonous personality of Willis' character between gunfights; and the film's Pyrrhic victory finale. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote: “Last Man Standing is such a desperately cheerless film, so dry and laconic and wrung out, that you wonder if the filmmakers ever thought that in any way it could be ... fun. It contains elements that are often found in entertainments — things like guns, gangs and spectacular displays of death — but here they crouch on the screen and growl at the audience. Even the movie's hero is bad company. ... The victory at the end is downbeat, and there is an indifference to it. This is such a sad, lonely movie." Last Man Standing was a remake of the Akira Kurosawa film Yojimbo (1961), which was also remade by Sergio Leone in A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and John C. Broderick in The Warrior and the Sorceress (1984).
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 9, 2011 17:43:04 GMT -5
32. The Man from Snowy River (1982) The Man from Snowy River is a 1982 Australian drama film based on the Banjo Paterson poem of the same name. The film had a cast including Tom Burlinson as "Jim Craig" (The Man), Kirk Douglas as twin brothers "Harrison," the owner of a large cattle station and "Spur," a prospector, Sigrid Thornton as Harrison's daughter Jessica, and Jack Thompson as "Clancy". Both Tom Burlinson and Sigrid Thornton later reprised their roles in the 1988 sequel, The Man from Snowy River II, which was released by Walt Disney Pictures. The Man from Snowy River is the story of the coming of age of a young man – Jim Craig. The story opens with Jim and his father Henry discussing their finances. They need money, and Jim convinces his father to capture a herd of wild horses called The Brumby Mob to sell them. The next morning, as they are at work, the Brumby Mob gallops through the ranch. This startles a mare (Bess), who bolts and joins the Mob. In the process, Henry is killed by a falling log. Jim is set to inherit the ranch, but a group of mountain men tell him that he must first earn the right to live in the mountains, like his father did. They tell him he must go down to the lowlands and work. Jim goes to see an old friend, Spur, who gives him a horse for the ride down to the lowlands. Jim gets a job on a ranch owned by Harrison. Harrison organizes a roundup of his cattle. Jim stays behind. While the others are gone, Harrison’s daughter Jessica asks Jim to help her break in a prize colt. Then the Brumby Mob appears again. Jim sees his mare Bess in the Mob and decides to give chase on the new colt to retrieve her. Jim returns without Bess. When Harrison returns from the roundup, he sends Jim to bring back 20 strays. Later he is furious to find that Jim took the valuable colt to chase after the Brumby Mob. He tells Jessica that when Jim gets back, he’s fired. Jessica, who has fallen in love with Jim, rides off to warn him. She is caught in a storm, thrown from her horse, and lands on a ledge where she is trapped. Jim finds Jessica’s horse and later rescues her from the ledge. She tells him that he’s going to be fired. Jim says that he’s going to finish the job anyway, and leaves Jessica with Spur while he goes out to find the strays. He finds them and takes them back to Harrison, who is very grateful, but he becomes angry when Jim tells him that he loves Jessica, and he orders him off the property. The prize colt is then let loose by some drunken ranch hands. Jim is blamed. Harrison offers a $100 reward to anyone who returns the colt. The colt has joined the Mob. Jim finds the Mob and singlehandedly brings the colt and the entire Mob back to Harrison’s ranch. Harrison offers him the reward but he refuses. He has cleared his name and proven his manhood. He rides back up to his home in the highlands, knowing that he has earned his right to live there. Tom Burlinson has confirmed that it was definitely he who rode the horse over the side of the mountain for the 'terrible descent' during the dangerous ride — commenting that he had been asked about this numerous times, and that he became known as "The Man from Snowy River" because of his ride. The Craigs' Hut building was a permanent fixture created for the film. Located in Clear Hills, east of Mount Stirling, Victoria, the popular 4WD and hiking landmark was destroyed on 11 December 2006 in bushfires. The hut has since been rebuilt. The film "was released to a fair degree of critical acclaim, but more importantly, moviegoers found it to be a likable and highly entertaining piece of filmmaking that made no effort to hide its Australian roots, despite the presence of American star Kirk Douglas in one of the principal roles. " The film was has a rating of 80% on film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. It won and was nominated for a few awards... * Won 1982 AFI Award for Best Original Music Score — (awarded to Bruce Rowland) * Won 1982 Montreal World Film Festival Award for Most Popular Film — (awarded to George T. Miller) * Nominated for 1982 AFI Award for Best Achievement in Sound * Nominated for 1983 Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film Australia Bruce Rowland composed the music for the film, a soundtrack that became one of the most critically acclaimed in the history of motion pictures. He also composed the music for the sequel. NBC Sports uses some of the exact music from the soundtrack for their coverage of The Players Championship. 2000 Summer Olympics — Bruce Rowland composed a special Olympics version of "The Man from Snowy River" Main Title for the Olympic Games, which were held in Sydney. The CD of the music for the Sydney Olympics includes the Bruce Rowland's special Olympic version of "The Man from Snowy River". The Man from Snowy River: Arena Spectacular — Bruce Rowland composed special arrangements of some of the film soundtrack music for the 2002 musical version of "The Man from Snowy River". The Man from Snowy River grossed $17,228,160 at the box office in Australia, which is equivalent to $50,132,946 in 2009 dollars.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 9, 2011 17:45:32 GMT -5
31. The Mountain Men (1980) The Mountain Men is a 1980 Adventure/Western film starring Charlton Heston and Brian Keith. Brian Keith stars as an argumentative, curmudgeonly mountain man by the name of Henry Frapp. His co-star, Charlton Heston, in the role of Bill Tyler, is Henry's good friend and fellow trapper. Together, they trap beaver, fought Indians, and become classicly inebriated at a mountain man rendezvous while trying to sell their "plews", or beaver skins, to a cutthroat French trader named Fontanel. Henry manages to survive a scalping by a ruthless Blackfoot warrior named Heavy Eagle, and is reunited with Bill Tyler later in the movie to engage in a final, glorious battle with a Blackfoot war party led by Heavy Eagle.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 9, 2011 18:03:46 GMT -5
Here is the list so far.
50. The Gunfighter (1950) 49. Quigley Down Under (1990) 48. The Valley of Gwangi (1969) 47. Bandolero! (1968) 46. How The West Was Won (1962) 45. Rooster Cogburn (1975) 44. Open Range (2003) 43. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949) 42. The Great Silence (1968) 41. Fort Apache (1948) 40. Chisum (1970) 39. High Noon (1952) 38. They Call Me Trinity (aka My Name Is Trinity) (1970) 37. The Magnificent Seven (1960) 36. Blood On The Moon (1948) 35. Duck, You Sucker (1971) 34. Once Upon A Time In Mexico (2003) 33. Last Man Standing (1996) 32. Man from Snowy River (1982) 31. The Mountain Men (1980)
Now for taglines to the next five films.
* Hell comes home * One man alone understood the savagery of the early American west from both sides. * Punishment comes one way or another * They're back in the saddle! * They've saved the best trip for last... But this time they may have gone too far.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 9, 2011 20:14:17 GMT -5
30. Back To The Future Part III (1990) Back to the Future Part III is a 1990 American science fiction comedy Western film. It is the third and final installment of the Back to the Future trilogy. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Mary Steenburgen, Thomas F. Wilson and Lea Thompson. The film takes place immediately after the events of Back to the Future Part II. Marty McFly must rescue Doc Brown, who is stranded in 1885, from being killed by Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. Filming took place in both California and Arizona, and the film was released in the United States on May 25, 1990. The film was a commercial success and achieved $244.53 million at the international box office, making it the 6th highest grossing film of 1990. Fan reaction to the film was more positive than to the first sequel, with many stating that this entry to the series reflected the original better than Part II. Critics also gave Part III better reviews than Part II, which had been met with mostly mixed to positive reactions. In 1955, Marty McFly discovers that his friend Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown is now trapped in the year 1885. Marty and Doc's 1955 self use the information in Doc¡¯s 1885 letter to retrieve and repair the damaged DeLorean. As they retrieve the car, Marty spots a tombstone with Doc's name, dated six days after the letter. Learning that Doc was killed by Biff Tannen's ancestor, Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, Marty decides to go back to 1885 to save Doc. Marty arrives on September 2, 1885, in the middle of a U.S. Cavalry pursuit of Natives. While evading the pursuit, the DeLorean's fuel line is torn, forcing Marty to hide the car in a cave and walk to Hill Valley. En route, Marty meets his Irish great-great-grandparents, Seamus and Maggie McFly. To disguise his identity, Marty adopts the name Clint Eastwood. In Hill Valley, Marty runs afoul of Buford and his gang, who initially mistake him for Seamus. Buford tries to hang Marty, but Doc saves him. Doc agrees to leave 1885 to prevent Tannen from killing him, but with the DeLorean out of gasoline and no more available, there is no way to power the car to 88 mph. Doc devises a scheme to use a locomotive to push the DeLorean up to speed. As Doc and Marty explore the rail spur they intend to use, they spot an out-of-control horse-drawn wagon. Doc saves the passenger, Clara Clayton. The two fall in love, finding many common interests, especially the works of Jules Verne. Buford tries to kill Doc at a town festival, but Marty intervenes. Buford then goads Marty into a showdown in two days' time. Consulting the photograph of Doc's tombstone, they note that Doc's name has disappeared, but the tombstone is otherwise unchanged. Doc tells Marty that the tombstone represents the events of the future, and warns Marty that he, not Doc, might be killed by Buford. The night before their departure, Doc confesses to Clara that he is from the future, but Clara believes it is merely an excuse to end their relationship and spurns him. Distraught, Doc returns to the town saloon to get drunk, but Marty rides to the saloon and convinces Doc to leave with him. However, Doc drinks a single shot of whiskey and passes out. Buford arrives and calls Marty, who realizes his reputation is unimportant and refuses to fight. Doc revives after being force-fed the bartender's special "Wake-Up Juice" and tries fleeing with Marty, but Buford's gang captures Doc, forcing Marty to fight. Marty uses a firebox door from a stove as a bullet-proof vest, and then hits Buford in the face with it. During the fistfight that follows, Buford destroys the tombstone (which disappears from the photograph) and is arrested. With Buford no longer a threat, Marty and Doc depart to hijack the locomotive. Clara is leaving town on the train when she overhears a salesman discussing a man he met in the saloon, despondent about his lost love. Realizing the man is Doc and that he loves her, Clara triggers the emergency brake and runs back to town. She discovers Doc's model of the time machine and rides after him. Clara boards the speeding locomotive while Doc is climbing towards the DeLorean. Doc encourages Clara to climb out to him, intending to bring her to 1985. As she climbs to Doc, the overheated locomotive boiler explodes. Clara falls off and is left hanging by her dress. Marty passes his hoverboard to Doc, who uses it to save Clara. They coast away from the train safely as the DeLorean disappears through time, while the locomotive roars over the edge of the incomplete bridge and is demolished. Marty arrives safely on October 27, 1985. He leaves the powerless DeLorean to be destroyed, on Doc's instructions, when a freight train strikes it head-on. Marty returns to his home, discovering that everything has returned to the improved timeline. Marty finds Jennifer sleeping on her front porch. Later, Marty uses the lessons he learned in 1885 to avoid being goaded into a street race with Needles, avoiding a potential automobile accident. Jennifer opens the fax message she kept from 2015 and finds that the message regarding Marty being fired has been erased. Marty takes Jennifer to the time machine wreckage. As they survey the remains, a steam-powered locomotive equipped with a flux capacitor appears, manned by Doc, Clara, and their children, Jules and Verne. Doc gives Marty the photo of the two of them by the clockworks at the 1885 festival. Jennifer inquires about the fax and asks what it means. Doc tells them it means that the future has not been written yet and that theirs is "whatever you make it, so make it a good one". After the Browns bid farewell to their friends, Doc¡¯s train converts into a hovertrain and roars off into an unknown time. Michael J. Fox was asked by Zemeckis, during filming for the original, about what time period he would like to see and responded saying he wanted to visit the old west and meet cowboys. Zemeckis and Gale were intrigued by the idea, but held it off until Part III. Filming actually began during production for Part II, but only one scene was filmed during that time. Filming was halted when Michael J. Fox's father died and when his son was born. Mary Steenburgen was cast in mind, while her children persuaded her to star in the film. Also, George Lucas paid a visit to the production crew on the set at Red Hills Ranch. Gale and Zemeckis have stated that Lucas is a fan of the trilogy. The western scenes were filmed on location in Monument Valley. Some of the location shooting for 1885 Hill Valley was done in Jamestown, California, and on a purpose-built set at the Red Hills Ranch, near Sonora, California. The train scenes were filmed on the Sierra Railway, a heritage line in California, using their locomotive No. 3 (repainted as Central Pacific #131 for the movie). The place where the train crashes into the DeLorean in 1985 was filmed on Ventura road, near Surfside Dr. in Port Hueneme, California 34¡ã8¡ä41.93¡åN 119¡ã11¡ä43.79¡åW / 34.1449806¡ãN 119.1954972¡ãW / 34.1449806; -119.1954972. The road used for the incident with the white Rolls Royce was Doris Avenue, with the corner of North Ventura Road, at Oxnard, California 34¡ã12¡ä30.25¡åN 119¡ã11¡ä58.46¡åW / 34.2084028¡ãN 119.1995722¡ãW / 34.2084028; -119.1995722. The movie grossed US$23 million in its first weekend of US release and $87.6 million altogether in US box office receipts ¨C $243 million worldwide. On December 17, 2002 Universal Pictures released Back to the Future Part III in a boxed set with the first two films on DVD and VHS which did extremely well.[citation needed] In the DVD widescreen edition there was a framing flaw that Universal has since corrected, available in sets manufactured after February 21, 2003. In 1990, the movie won a Saturn Award for Best Music for Alan Silvestri and a Best Supporting Actor award for Thomas F. Wilson. In 2003, it received AOL Movies DVD Premiere Award for Best Special Edition of the Year, an award based on consumer online voting. The film received a Thumbs Up from Gene Siskel and a very marginal Thumbs Down from Roger Ebert on Siskel & Ebert, the opposite of their opinions on Back to the Future Part II. Aside from this, the film received generally positive reviews during its release. Rotten Tomatoes earned Back to the Future Part III a "fresh" score of 73%. LJN released an NES game called Back to the Future Part II & III, a sequel to their game based on the first movie. An arcade Back to the Future Part III game was also released that would eventually be ported to several home video game systems, including the Sega Mega Drive. However, the games ended up being a critical flop due to their odd level design, and few references to the films. GameTrailers placed it at number eight in their "Top Ten Worst Movie Based Games."
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 9, 2011 20:21:42 GMT -5
29. True Grit (2010) True Grit is a 2010 American Western film written and directed by the Coen brothers. It is the second adaptation of Charles Portis' 1968 novel of the same name, which was previously adapted for film in 1969 starring John Wayne. The film stars Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross, and Jeff Bridges as U.S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn along with Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and Barry Pepper. Filming began in March 2010, and the film was officially released on December 22, 2010, in the US, after advance screenings earlier that month. The film opened the 61st Berlin International Film Festival on February 10, 2011. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Steinfeld), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing. The film is narrated by the adult Mattie Ross (Elizabeth Marvel), who explains that her father was murdered by one of his hired hands, Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), when she was 14. Chaney made off with her father's horse and his two California gold pieces. While collecting her father's body, the 14-year old Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld) inquires about hiring a Deputy U.S. Marshal to track down Chaney. The Sheriff gives three recommendations, but she chooses to hire Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) because he is described as having "true grit" which is what Mattie wants. He repeatedly rebuffs her attempts to talk with him. The next day, she attempts to hire Cogburn offering him $50 after reminding him of the government's payments. He doesn't believe she has it and refuses. Meanwhile, Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) arrives on the trail of Chaney. He has been pursuing him for several months for the murder of a state Senator in Texas. After meeting Mattie, he proposes that they should team up with Cogburn, since he knows the Choctaw terrain where Chaney is hiding, while LaBoeuf knows how the man is most likely to behave, but she refuses. After finally securing Cogburn's services for $100, Mattie is instructed to meet him the following morning to begin the search for Chaney since she insists on going. Instead of meeting Mattie, Cogburn leaves a note and a train ticket telling her to go home while he goes to apprehend Chaney. After she is refused passage on the river ferry that conveyed Cogburn and LaBoeuf, Mattie rides into the water and is pulled across by her swimming horse and Cogburn reluctantly allows her to come. The next day, she learns Cogburn and Laboeuf have agreed to split the Texas reward on Chaney and accuses him of fraud. After a dispute, Cogburn ends his and Laboeuf's deal and he leaves. Later, while in pursuit of the "Lucky" Ned Pepper gang with whom Chaney is supposedly with, they meet a doctor who instructs them to a cabin for shelter. Two outlaws, Quincey (Paul Rae) and Moon (Domhnall Gleeson) are staying there, one of whom Cogburn knows to be a friend of "Lucky" Ned Pepper. As he questions them, Moon is fatally stabbed by Quincey whom Cogburn kills. Before he dies, Moon explains that "Lucky" Ned Pepper and his gang were planning on returning to the shack later that night. Cogburn and Mattie lie in wait for the gang. LaBoeuf rides up to the shack ahead of the gang, but they arrive before he can be warned. Cogburn kills two members of the gang, as well as Pepper's horse, but accidentally wounds LaBoeuf. During the night and the next day, Cogburn drinks a great deal of whiskey. He and LaBoeuf argue again, and LaBoeuf departs once more after he and Mattie show respect for each others persona. The next morning, Mattie encounters Chaney at the river. She draws her father's pistol and shoots him when he tries to take her with him, but he survives. The pistol misfires as she tries to finish him off, and he drags her back to Pepper who uses her to make Cogburn leave. Being short a horse, Pepper leaves her with Chaney. As he respects Mattie, Pepper orders Chaney not to harm her and to take her to safety after his remount arrives. Once alone, Chaney disobeys Ned and tries to kill her. LaBoeuf appears and knocks Chaney out explaining that when he heard the shots, he rode back and he and Cogburn devised a plan. They watch as Cogburn takes on the remaining members of Ned's gang. After the gun battle, Ned is mortally wounded and the other members of his gang are either dead or fleeing. Cogburn's horse is dead also. Before Pepper can kill Cogburn, LaBoeuf shoots Ned through the heart and kills him from four hundred yards away, impressing Mattie with his skill as a marksman. Chaney comes to and attacks Laboeuf, and Mattie shoots Chaney in the chest and knocks him over cliff, killing him. The recoil however knocks her back into a pit. When she unwittingly disturbs a ball of rattlesnakes, she calls for help. Cogburn arrives, but she is bitten before he can get to her. Laboeuf has survived and Cogburn promises to send him help before leaving with Mattie. Cogburn rides day and night to get Mattie to a doctor, carrying her after he has to kill Mattie's exhausted horse. Twenty-five years later, Mattie – now 40 and with only one arm, the result of an amputation necessitated by gangrene from the snakebite – receives a note from Cogburn with a flyer enclosed inviting her to meet him at a traveling Wild West show with which he is performing when it stops in Memphis. When she arrives at the site, she learns that Cogburn died three days earlier. She has his body moved into her family farm plot, and the film ends with her standing over his grave and pondering how people talk about that, how she has never married, and how time catches up with everyone. She also states that she never heard from LaBoeuf again and that if he was still alive she would be pleased to. The project was rumored as far back as February 2008; however it was not confirmed until March 2009. Ahead of shooting, Ethan Coen said that the film would be a more faithful adaptation of the novel than the 1969 version. “ It's partly a question of point-of-view. The book is entirely in the voice of the 14-year-old girl. That sort of tips the feeling of it over a certain way. I think [the book is] much funnier than the movie was so I think, unfortunately, they lost a lot of humour in both the situations and in her voice. It also ends differently than the movie did. You see the main character – the little girl – 25 years later when she's an adult. Another way in which it's a little bit different from the movie – and maybe this is just because of the time the movie was made – is that it's a lot tougher and more violent than the movie reflects. Which is part of what's interesting about it.” Mattie Ross "is a pill," said Ethan Coen in a December 2010 interview, "but there is something deeply admirable about her in the book that we were drawn to," including the Presbyterian-Protestant ethic so strongly imbued in a 14-year-old girl. Joel Coen said that the brothers did not want to "mess around with what we thought was a very compelling story and character". The film's producer, Scott Rudin said that the Coens had taken a "formal, reverent approach" to the Western genre, with its emphasis on adventure and quest. "The patois of the characters, the love of language that permeates the whole film, makes it very much of a piece with their other films, but it is the least ironic in many regards". Open casting sessions were held in Texas in November 2009 for the role of Mattie Ross. The following month, Paramount Pictures announced a casting search for a 12- to 16-year-old girl, describing the character as a "simple, tough as nails young woman" whose "unusually steely nerves and straightforward manner are often surprising". Steinfeld, then age 13, was selected for the role from a pool of 15,000 applicants. “It was, as you can probably imagine, the source of a lot of anxiety,” Ethan Coen told The New York Times. "We were aware if the kid doesn't work, there's no movie". The film was shot in the Santa Fe, New Mexico area in March and April 2010, as well as in Granger and Austin, Texas. The first trailer was released in September; a second trailer premiered with The Social Network. True Grit is the first Coen brothers film to receive a PG-13 rating since 2003's Intolerable Cruelty for "some intense sequences of western violence including disturbing images." For the final segment of the film, a one-armed body double was needed for Elizabeth Marvel (who played the adult Mattie). After a nationwide call, the Coen brothers cast Ruth Morris – a 29-year-old social worker and student who was born without a left forearm. Morris has more screen time in the film than Marvel. In the holiday weekend following its December 22 North American debut, True Grit took in $25.6 million at the box office, twice its pre-release projections. By its second weekend ending January 2, the film had earned $87.1 million domestically, becoming the Coen brothers' highest grossing film, surpassing No Country for Old Men, which earned $74.3 million. True Grit was the only mainstream movie of the 2010 holiday season to exceed the revenue expectations of its producers. Based on that performance, the Los Angeles Times predicted that the film would likely become the second-highest grossing western of all time when inflation is discounted, exceeded only by Dances With Wolves. During its third weekend of release, True Grit reached the No. 1 spot at the box office, displacing Little Fockers, which had held the No. 1 spot for the two previous weeks. True Grit took in an additional $15 million in what is usually a slow month for movie attendance, reaching $110 million. Both the brothers and Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore attributed the film's success partly to its "soft" PG-13 rating, atypical for a Coen brothers film, which helped broaden audience appeal. Paramount anticipated that the film would be popular with the adults who often constitute the Coen brothers' core audience, as well as fans of the Western genre. But True Grit also drew extended families: parents, grandparents, and teenagers. Geographically, the film played strongest in Los Angeles and New York, but its top 20 markets also included Oklahoma City; Plano, Texas, and Olathe, Kansas. Paramount announced that the film will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 7, 2011. It will be released in a Blu-ray/DVD Combo pack as well as a standard DVD edition. The film received critical acclaim; Rotten Tomatoes reported that 96% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 235 reviews, with only 10 negative reviews and an average score of 8.3/10, with its consensus stating: "Girded by strong performances from Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, and lifted by some of the Coens' most finely tuned, unaffected work, True Grit is a worthy companion to the Charles Portis book." Metacritic gave the film an average score of 80/100 based on 40 reviews from mainstream critics, indicating "generally positive reviews". Total Film gave the film a five-star review (denoting 'outstanding'): "This isn’t so much a remake as a masterly re-creation. Not only does it have the drop on the 1969 version, it’s the first great movie of 2011". Roger Ebert awarded 3.5 stars out of 4, writing, "What strikes me is that I'm describing the story and the film as if it were simply, if admirably, a good Western. That's a surprise to me, because this is a film by the Coen Brothers, and this is the first straight genre exercise in their career. It's a loving one. Their craftsmanship is a wonder", and also remarking, "The cinematography by Roger Deakins reminds us of the glory that was, and can still be, the Western." Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, writing, "The Coens, not known for softening anything, have restored the original's bleak, elegiac conclusion and as writer-directors have come up with a version that shares events with the first film but is much closer in tone to the book... Clearly recognizing a kindred spirit in Portis, sharing his love for eccentric characters and odd language, they worked hard, and successfully, at serving the buoyant novel as well as being true to their own black comic brio." In his review for the Minneapolis Star Tribune Colin Covert wrote: "the Coens dial down the eccentricity and deliver their first classically made, audience-pleasing genre picture. The results are masterful." Rex Reed of The New York Observer criticized the film's pacing, referring to plot points as "mere distractions ... to divert attention from the fact that nothing is going on elsewhere". Reed considers Damon "hopelessly miscast" and finds Bridges' performance mumbly, lumbering, and self-indulgent. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops review called the film "exceptionally fine" and said " mid its archetypical characters, mythic atmosphere and amusingly idiosyncratic dialogue, writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen's captivating drama uses its heroine's sensitive perspective – as well as a fair number of biblical and religious references – to reflect seriously on the violent undertow of frontier life."
The film won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Young Performer (Hailee Steinfeld) and received ten additional nominations in the following categories: Best Film, Best Actor (Jeff Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Steinfeld), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, and Best Score. The ceremony took place on January 14, 2011.
It was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bridges) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Steinfeld). The ceremony took place on January 30, 2011.
It was nominated for eight British Academy Film Awards: Best Film, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Bridges), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Steinfeld), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design. Roger Deakins won the award for Best Cinematography.
It was nominated for ten Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor (Bridges), Best Supporting Actress (Steinfeld), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing. When told of all the nominations, the Coen brothers stated "Ten seems like an awful lot. We don't want to take anyone else's." The film did not win any Academy Awards.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 9, 2011 20:26:24 GMT -5
28. Pale Rider (1985) Pale Rider is a 1985 American western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood who also stars in the lead role. This movie has plot similarities to the classic Western Shane (1953), including a final scene that shares similarities to the famous ending of Shane. The film also bears similarities to Eastwood's previous Man with No Name character, and his 1973 western High Plains Drifter. The title is a reference to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, as the rider of a pale horse is Death. The film also featured Michael Moriarty, Carrie Snodgress, Christopher Penn, Richard Dysart, Sydney Penny, Richard Kiel, Doug McGrath and John Russell. Pale Rider is not the only Eastwood film to have clear religious overtones throughout, Two Mules for Sister Sara is another, though several of his other films such as High Plains Drifter also make heavy use of spiritual and supernatural ideas and imagery. The film opens near the fictional town of Lahood, California, in the 1880s (based on remarks in the film about outlawing hydraulic mining), where a group of struggling miners and their families are panning for gold. However, thugs sent by rival big-time miner Coy Lahood shoot up the camp. Megan Wheeler, a 14-year old girl there, is horrified when the thugs gun down her dog in cold blood. The thugs leave the camp torn up and nearly destroyed. Megan buries her dog out in the woods, and prays to God for help. After she prays, we see a stranger heading to the town on horseback. Megan's mother, Sarah, is keeping company with Hull Barret, the leader of the miners. Hull heads off into town to pick up supplies, but the same thugs start to beat him up. The stranger arrives and swiftly beats up all of the thugs single handedly with a mattock handle. Hull thanks the stranger and invites him to his house, and the stranger relucantly agrees. Sarah is skeptical of the stranger, but he dons a preacher's outfit and is shown to be unarmed, and everyone thus calls him the Preacher. The Preacher helps the miners pan for gold and peacefully keeps the thugs from returning to the camp. The Preacher eventually meets Coy LaHood himself and his son, Josh. LaHood tries to become friends with the Preacher by offering him a church, but the Preacher refuses. The Preacher asks if LaHood would be willing to buy the miners out and gets a final offer of $1,000 per claim. If the miners don't leave within 24 hours, LaHood will hire a special marshall named Stockburn to clear them out. The miners initially want to take the offer, and ask the Preacher for his advice. He offers little, but Hull reminds of them of why they came, and what they have sacrificed. The miners decide to stay and fight. The next morning, however, the Preacher deserts the miners, leaving them scared and alone without any help. Megan, who grows fond of the Preacher, also heads out looking for him, but Josh captures her and attempts to rape her. Before he can do anything serious, the Preacher arrives on horseback, armed with a Remington revolver, and shoots Josh in the hand. The Preacher takes Megan back to the camp. Stockburn arrives and he and his gang gun down one of the miners, Spider, when he attempted to take on Stockburn himself. Coy describes the Preacher to Stockburn, and Stockburn says that he recognizes him, but that the man he knows is dead. The Preacher teams up with Hull and they go to Coy's mining facility and blow it up with dynamite. The Preacher then heads alone into the town, where he easily guns down all of Coy's thugs. Stockburn sends his deputies after the Preacher, but he shoots all of them one by one throughout the town. The Preacher faces Stockburn alone in a classic western showdown; the Preacher draws first and empties his gun into Stockburn. The Preacher grabs his backup pistol and finishes off Stockburn with a shot to the head. Coy witnesses the shootout and aims a rifle at the Preacher, but Hull arrives and shoots with his own rifle and kills Coy. The Preacher struts outside of the barn, now mounted on a horse. He looks at Hull who is surveying the remains of the battle and mutters to him, "Long walk." Hull responds with a simple, "Yep." The Preacher smirks and rides off into the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Megan gets to the town, but the Preacher has already left. The film ends with Megan crying out to the Preacher from the town. The Preacher hears her from the mountains, but continues to ride on. Pale Rider was primarily filmed in the Boulder Mountains and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in central Idaho, just north of Sun Valley in late 1984. The opening credits scene featured the jagged Sawtooth Mountains south of Stanley. Train-station scenes were filmed in Tuolumne County, California, near Jamestown. Scenes of a more established Gold Rush town (in which Eastwood's character picks up his pistol at a Wells Fargo office) were filmed in the real Gold Rush town of Columbia, also in Tuolumne County, California. In an audio interview, Clint Eastwood revealed that his character Preacher "is an out-and-out ghost". But whereas High Plains Drifter resolves the supernatural story-line by means of a series of unfolding flash back narratives, Pale Rider does not include any such obvious clues to the nature and past of the 'Preacher'. One is left to draw one's own conclusions regarding the overall story line and its meaning. Pale Rider also uses religious and spiritual language. Most notably, the movie's title is a reference to the fourth and most sinister of God's avenging angels of the Apocalypse who rides a pale horse, as told in The Book of Revelation, chapter 6, verse 8: "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him." The reading of the biblical passage describing this character is neatly choreographed to correspond with the sudden appearance of the Preacher, who arrived as a result of a prayer from 14-year-old Megan (Sydney Penny), in which she quoted Psalm 23. The main opponent of the Preacher is called Stockburn, whose name refers to hell. Eastwood's comment after beating one of the villains is, "Well, the Lord certainly does work in mysterious ways." After the temptation to shift his ministry to the town, Preacher says, "You can't serve God and Mammon, Mammon being money." Eastwood himself has admitted that the film contains a great number of biblical parallels. According to Robert Jewett the film's dialogue parallels Paul's teaching on divine retribution (Romans 12:19-21). Notably, the implied relationship between the Preacher and the villainous cadre of seven parallels the familiar New Testament narrative of martyrdom and vindication. The Preacher is, by strong implication, the victim of an unjust slaying at the hands of corrupt government officials, making him a holy man unfairly executed by the state. His reappearance as an avenging angel has, therefore, overtones of resurrection, and his acts of vengeance mirror the promises of future retribution contained in both the gospels and the book of Revelation. In short, the plot of Pale Rider bears an uncanny structural resemblance to the story of Jesus Christ's crucifixion, resurrection, and future return as a figure of apocalyptic vengeance against the corrupt and powerful on behalf of the oppressed and murdered poor. Pale Rider was released in the United States in June 1985, and became the highest grossing western of the 1980s. The film received positive reviews, and currently holds a 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert praised the film, giving it four out of four stars. A few critics were not so impressed, such as Dennis Schwartz writing for Ozus World Movie Reviews, and graded the film C+. The movie was a success at the North American box office, grossing $41,410,568 against a $6,900,000 budget. The film was entered into the 1985 Cannes Film Festival.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 9, 2011 20:30:41 GMT -5
27. City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994) City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold is a 1994 comedy film directed by Paul Weiland. It is the sequel to City Slickers (1991) and stars Billy Crystal, Jack Palance, Jon Lovitz and Daniel Stern. Although a financial success, the film did not quite reach the popularity of the first, receiving a generally mixed response (a 20% Top Critic rating and a 46% RT Community rating on Rotten Tomatoes). It was nominated for the Razzie Award for Worst Remake or Sequel. It is the 40th birthday of Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal), and he is welcoming it. The extraordinary cattle-drive vacation he took has had a lasting effect which allows him a much more satisfying life. For instance, his career as a radio executive is going well, to the point that he has now been promoted to Station Manager, and he regularly jogs with Norman, the calf he helped deliver who has grown into an adult bull. As a present, Mitch's wife (Patricia Wettig) is going to have the kids sleep at their aunt's house so that she and Mitch can have sex alone. But prior to making love, Mitch finds an old map in the hat of his now-deceased friend, Curly (Jack Palance), and sees that it is a treasure map with a small corner missing. Research in the New York Public Library discloses a 1908 gold theft from the Western Pacific Railroad led by Lincoln Washburn, Curly's father (portrayed by an old newspaper photograph of Palance). Mitch, for his part, has been seeing Curly's face everywhere he goes, and is beginning to have doubts about Curly's death. Mitch, along with his best friend Phil (Daniel Stern) and his younger, The Godfather-obsessed brother Glen (Jon Lovitz), travel to Las Vegas and then set out on a journey to find the gold in the deserts and canyons of the Southwest. Accidents ensue, such as Glen setting fire to the map with a magnifying glass, and Phil sitting on a cactus with his bare bottom, mistakenly believing that he has been bitten by a rattlesnake. Along the way, Mitch, Phil and Glen encounter robbers who turn out to be the men (Bud and Matt) who sold them horses and food for the trip. They have come looking for the treasure map. Phil had stupidly bragged to them about Curly, Lincoln, the map and the stolen gold. Just before the city slickers can be killed, a Curly lookalike intervenes and fights the robbers off. Convinced that his nightmares of accidentally burying Curly alive were true, Mitch is ready for a grave of his own when "Curly" miraculously cuts him free. He then reveals himself to be Duke (Palance), the twin brother of Curly, similar in both demeanor in personality, except that Duke spent his life in the Merchant Marine and has very little knowledge of being a cowboy. Duke explains that the chef from the cattle drive, Cookie, told him that Mitch had Curly's clothes, and presumably the hat as well, explaining why he has been stalking Mitch back east. Duke wants the gold for himself, but Mitch persuades him that Curly would not be happy with this, and Duke relents. The trio-turned-foursome then carry on with the quest. However, a reckless act by Mitch causes a stampede, and everything is gone, including the map. Fortunately, Glen's amazing memory permits him to remember the rest of the way. And just as Mitch and Phil are about to turn back for home, they find the lost cave where the gold is supposed to be. As soon as they find it, the four are ambushed by two claim jumpers, apparently Bud and Matt, and they begin to fight. Glen is shot in the stomach. Phil angrily berates the shooter while Mitch mourns his brother. Duke unloads the gun, only to see that the bullets are really blanks with red paint pellets. Everyone is mystified. At that moment, Clay Stone (Noble Willingham), the man who organised the previous year's cattle drive, shows up. Stone reveals that he knew of Duke and had been attempting to contact him for a long time. The two "claim jumpers" are Stone's sons and not Bud and Matt (although their voices were similar). The treasure map is actually part of a new adventure tour for Stone's ranch. The buried treasure turns out to be gold-painted lead. Clay Stone and sons orchestrated the "robbery" to scare the city slickers. They shot one with red paint pellets to make it look real, but had never intended it to break out into a fight. Laughing his head off, Stone leaves the cave, leaving Mitch, Phil, Glen and Duke feeling lost. After a last dinner with Stone and a few old friends (such as Ira and Barry Shalowitz from the original cattle drive), Mitch, Phil and Glen return to Las Vegas. Duke, still staunchly believing the gold to be out there somewhere, stays behind. Duke makes a surprise visit to Mitch's hotel room, telling him that he has adopted Curly's philosophy and found out what his "one thing" is: honesty. Duke reveals that he was planning to cheat Mitch and friends out of the gold, although he later couldn't find it in his heart to do so. Duke then reveals that he had the missing corner of the map in his hat all along, just as Curly had in his. Mitch doesn't believe it until Duke slams a gold brick on the table. A skeptical Mitch tries to scratch the off the lead paint, but it won't come off, revealing that they are going to be rich after all. Bruno Kirby did not reprise his role as Ed Furillo from the first film, so the character of Glen was used to replace him. Interestingly, the film with which Glen is obsessed, The Godfather Part II, was one of Kirby's earliest films, and the initial relationship between Mitch and Glen is shown to parallel that of Fredo Corleone and Michael Corleone in said film.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 9, 2011 20:33:20 GMT -5
26. Ulzana's Raid (1972) Ulzana's Raid is a 1972 revisionist Western starring Burt Lancaster, Richard Jaeckel and Bruce Davison. The film, which was filmed on location in Arizona, was directed by Robert Aldrich based on a script by Alan Sharp. Set in 1880s Arizona, it portrays the brutal reaction by Chiricahua Apaches to maintain their culture in the face of continual European expansion of the American West. The bleak and nihilistic tone showing U.S. troops chasing an elusive but murderous enemy has been seem as allegorical to the United States participation in the Vietnam War. Following mistreatment by agency authorities, Ulzana breaks out of an Arizona Indian reservation with a war party. Soon news reaches the local military commander, who sends messengers to local homesteads. One is ambushed and killed. Another, escorting a woman and boy, is surrounded; to avoid capture he kills the woman and himself. The warriors play catch with his heart. Her husband, who stayed in the homestead, is captured and tortured to death. U.S. Army scout MacIntosh (Lancaster) is given the job of finding Ulzana for a troop of soldiers led by an inexperienced Lieutenant Garnett DeBuin (Davison). Joining them on the mission is a veteran sergeant (Jaeckel) and Apache scout Ke-Ni-Tay (Luke). Ke-Ni-Tay knows Ulzana, as their wives are sisters. The cavalry troop leave the fort and soon find evidence of the brutal activities of the Apache war party. The film then focuses on the soldiers' reality, facing a merciless enemy with far better local skills. We follow the lieutenant through his struggles with his Christian conscience and view of humanity. MacIntosh and Ke-Ni-Tay attempt to out-think and out-fight their enemies, while telling the Lieutenant what to do. Ulzana sends his unloaded horses, led by his son and another warrior, in a long loop to tire the pursuers' heavily loaded mounts. Ke-Ni-Tay notices that the trail is now of unladen horses, and Macintosh works out a plan which leads to the loss of the horses and the death of their two Apache escorts, as well as a cavalry trooper. The lieutenant prevents his men from mutilating the dead. The later tactical issues relate to the warband's need for horses and their attempts to obtain them. They attack a nearby farm, torturing the homesteaders. The cavalry find the man dead, hanging over a small fire; the woman has been raped, but left alive so that the lieutenant will send her home with an escort, splitting his force and allowing Ulzana to attack successfully. Ulzana's warriors launch a successful ambush on a detachment, obtaining horses and killing most of the soldiers, but lose to the skill and courage of Ke-Ni-Tay and of MacIntosh who is fatally wounded. The lieutenant with the majority of the troop arrives late, and sounding bugle calls which warn the remaining warriors of his arrival. At the climax, Ulzana is the sole survivor of his warband. Ke-Ni-Tay confronts him and shows him the Army bugle taken from the body of his son. Ulzana puts down his weapons and sings his death song before Ke-Ni-Tay kills him. The troopers suggest that Ulzana, or at least his head, should be taken back to the fort. The lieutenant orders him to be buried. MacIntosh knows he can't survive the journey back to the fort, so he opts to stay behind. The movie concludes with the young Lieutenant leading the survivors back to the fort. The film, which cost $1.2 million, was shot on location in the United States southeast of Tucson, Arizona at the Coronado National Forest and in Nogales, Arizona as well as the Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada. There are two cuts of the film because Burt Lancaster helped to produce the movie. One version was edited under the supervison of Aldrich, the other by Lancaster. There are many subtle differences between the two although the overall running times are similar and most of the changes involve alterations of shots or lines of dialog within scenes.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 9, 2011 20:43:04 GMT -5
Here is the list so far.
50. The Gunfighter (1950) 49. Quigley Down Under (1990) 48. The Valley of Gwangi (1969) 47. Bandolero! (1968) 46. How The West Was Won (1962) 45. Rooster Cogburn (1975) 44. Open Range (2003) 43. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949) 42. The Great Silence (1968) 41. Fort Apache (1948) 40. Chisum (1970) 39. High Noon (1952) 38. They Call Me Trinity (aka My Name Is Trinity) (1970) 37. The Magnificent Seven (1960) 36. Blood On The Moon (1948) 35. Duck, You Sucker (1971) 34. Once Upon A Time In Mexico (2003) 33. Last Man Standing (1996) 32. Man from Snowy River (1982) 31. The Mountain Men (1980) 30. Back To The Future Part III (1990) 29. True Grit (2010) 28. Pale Rider (1985) 27. City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994) 26. Ulzana's Raid (1972)
That is all for tonight. Tomorrow, we end this by announcing the Top 25.
But before I go, here are the taglines to the next five films.
* A regiment of forgotten men... a woman no man could forget! * ERROL FLYNN - OLIVIA DEHAVILLAND Wonderfully co-starred again in their biggest hit together * Roaring out of the blood-swept pages of history . . . comes the only authentic life story of the Southwest's last outlaw . . . and his colorful career! * The greatest cowboy ever to ride into the Wild West. From Poland. * The strangest trio ever to track a killer.
See you all tomorrow
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bob
Salacious Crumb
The "other" Bob. FOC COURSE!
started the Madness Wars, Proudly the #1 Nana Hater on FAN
Posts: 78,361
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Post by bob on May 9, 2011 21:01:51 GMT -5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly's Gold (27) 8 Back to the Future Part III (30) 9 Last Man Standing (33) 10 Once Upon a Time in Mexico (34)
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Post by DASH 243✅ on May 9, 2011 21:14:12 GMT -5
never would have thought of back to the future 3. good call
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Post by 'Foretold' Joker on May 10, 2011 8:09:59 GMT -5
Mountain Men? Is that really any good seems different.
My list so far is interesting.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Pale Rider 8. True Grit (2010) 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. The Great Silence 14. 15. Open Range
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 10, 2011 12:06:03 GMT -5
25. True Grit (1969) True Grit is a 1969 American western film directed by Henry Hathaway. It is the first adaption of Charles Portis' 1968 novel of the same name. John Wayne stars as U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn and won his only Academy Award for his performance in this film. Wayne reprised his role as Cogburn in the 1975 sequel Rooster Cogburn. After Frank Ross (John Pickard) is murdered in October 1880 by his hired hand, Tom Chaney (Jeff Corey), in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Ross' 14-year-old daughter Mattie (Kim Darby) travels to Fort Smith and hires the aging U.S. Marshal Reuben "Rooster" J. Cogburn (John Wayne). Mattie has heard that, despite his vices and missing eye, Cogburn has "true grit". She gives Rooster a down payment to track down Chaney, who has taken up with "Lucky" Ned Pepper (Robert Duvall), a gang leader whom Rooster once shot in a gunfight. The pair must head into Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Mattie buys a horse for this, after collecting money from a horse trader. They are joined by a young Texas Ranger, La Boeuf (Glen Campbell), who hopes to collect a $1,500 reward for capturing Chaney, much more than Mattie is offering Cogburn. The ranger says Chaney also killed a Texas Senator named Bibbs, and Bibbs' dog. Mattie dislikes the boastful La Boeuf and refuses his assistance, but the ranger joins forces with Cogburn, who agrees to split the reward with him. The two try to abandon Mattie, but they learn that she is determined to join their posse. After several days, the three plan to spend the night at a cabin which Cogburn had said would be empty. At the cabin, they discover Emmett Quincy (Jeremy Slate) and Moon (Dennis Hopper), two horse thieves waiting for Pepper. Moon's leg is badly injured and Cogburn uses the injury as leverage to get information about Pepper from them. To prevent Moon from telling too much, Quincy fatally stabs Moon with a knife, and Cogburn kills Quincy. Before Moon dies, he tells Cogburn that Pepper and his gang are due at the hideout that night; the posse lays a trap. The following morning, Pepper and his men arrive at the hideout. La Boeuf mistakenly fires and a shootout ensues, during which Cogburn and La Boeuf kill two of the gang, but Pepper and the rest escape. Cogburn, La Boeuf and Mattie make their way to McAlester's store, where the marshal arranges for the four dead men to be buried. The three continue their pursuit. After a few days, Mattie slips down a steep hill one morning on her way to bathe in a river and finds herself face-to-face with Chaney. She shoots and wounds him, calling out to her partners. Pepper and his gang capture her, and he forces Cogburn and La Boeuf to abandon the girl. Cogburn doubles back and attacks Pepper and his gang. La Boeuf finds Mattie and moves Chaney to an area he thinks is secure. La Boeuf and Mattie move to an outcropping and watch as a mounted Cogburn confronts Ned and his three gang members. Cogburn tells Pepper he has a choice of getting killed or surrendering and being hanged at Judge Isaac Parker's convenience. Pepper replies that is "bold talk for a one-eyed fat man." Cogburn shouts "Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!" just as he begins charging the four gunmen shooting a rifle in one hand, a pistol in the other and the horse's reins in his mouth. Rooster shoots down three of the gang and wounds Pepper, but Rooster is trapped under his fallen horse which has been shot by Ned. As Pepper prepares to shoot Rooster, La Boeuf kills Pepper from the outcropping located a great distance away. As La Boeuf and Mattie return to Pepper's camp, Chaney comes out from behind a tree and smashes a rock over La Boeuf's head, knocking him unconscious and fatally wounding him. Mattie shoots and wounds Chaney in the arm, but is driven back from the recoil, falls into a pit and breaks her arm. Cogburn arrives and fatally shoots Chaney, sending him into the pit. In the pit, Mattie is bitten by a rattlesnake, which Cogburn shoots dead as he descends into the pit on a rope. La Boeuf, thought to be dead, peers over the pit and helps them get out by pulling them out with a rope tied to his horse. After Mattie and Cogburn are safely out of the pit, La Boeuf falls off his horse and dies. In a hurry to get help for Mattie's snakebite, they have to leave La Boeuf's body. They both must ride Mattie’s horse, but the overloaded horse collapses and dies before they reach their destination. Undaunted, Cogburn gathers Mattie in his arms and carries her until they encounter some horsemen with a wagon. Cogburn steals the wagon and they ride it the rest of the way to McAlester's. There, an Indian doctor treats Mattie's snakebite and splints her broken arm. Days later, Mattie's attorney, J. Noble Daggett (John Fiedler) arrives. Throughout the plot, Mattie has frequently used his name as a legal threat on occasions when she fails to get her way. He pays Cogburn a $75 reward for Chaney's capture, plus an additional $200 for saving Mattie (at her request). Mattie is still ill from the snakebite and Cogburn offers to bet the attorney the $275 that Mattie will make it back to her home, but Daggett declines to bet against her. Weeks later, we find Mattie, arm in a sling, recovered and at home. She shows a visiting Cogburn her family burial plot on the land. Cogburn was there to receive all the reward money offered for Chaney in Texas, which was apparently more than the $75 he initially received. She promises that he can be buried next to her family after his death. Cogburn reluctantly accepts, hoping his burial will not be too soon. She offers him her father's pistol which he reluctantly accepts, stating that it misfired once. He leaves, jumping over a fence with his horse to disprove her claim that he was too old and fat. He heads off into the valley below as the film ends. Filming took place mainly in Ouray County, Colorado, in the vicinity of Ridgway (now the home of the True Grit Cafe), and the town of Ouray. (The script maintains the novel's references to place names in Arkansas and Oklahoma, in dramatic contrast to the Colorado topography.) The courtroom scenes were filmed at Ouray County Court house in Ouray. The scenes that take place at the "dugout" and along the creek where Pierce and Moon are killed, as well as the scene where Rooster carries Mattie on her horse Little Blackie after the snakebite, were filmed at Hot Creek on the east side of the Sierra Nevada near the town of Mammoth Lakes, California. Mt Morrison and Laurel Mountain form the backdrop above the creek. This location was also used in North to Alaska. Mia Farrow was originally cast as Mattie and was keen on the role. However, prior to filming she made a film in England with Robert Mitchum, who advised her not to work with director Henry Hathaway because he was "cantankerous". Farrow asked producer Hal B. Wallis to replace Hathaway with Roman Polanski, who had directed Farrow in "Rosemary's Baby," but Wallis refused. Farrow quit the role, which went to Kim Darby. Wayne called Marguerite Roberts' script “the best [he’d] ever read”. He particularly liked the scene with Darby where Rooster tells Mattie about his wife in Illinois, calling it the best scene he ever did. In the last scene, Mattie gives Rooster her father's gun. She comments that he's gotten a tall horse, as she expected he would. He notes that his new horse can jump a four-rail fence. Then she admonishes him, "You're too old and fat to be jumping horses". Rooster responds with a smile, saying, “Well, come see a fat old man sometime”, and jumps his new horse over a fence. Contrary to rumors that Wayne didn't do his stunts the fact that he did do them was verified by Kim Darby. Wayne fell in love with the horse, which would carry him through several more westerns, including his final movie, The Shootist. A chestnut Quarter horse gelding, Dollor ('Ole Dollor) had been Wayne's favorite horse for 10 years, through several westerns. The horse shown during the final scene of True Grit was Dollor, a two-year-old in 1969. Wayne had Dollor written into the script of The Shootist because of his love for the horse; it was a condition for him working on the project. Wayne would not let anyone else ride the horse, the lone exception being Robert Wagner, who rode the horse in a segment of the Hart to Hart television show, after Wayne's death. John Wayne won a Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Actor. Upon accepting his Oscar, Wayne said, "Wow! If I'd known that, I'd have put that patch on 35 years earlier". The title song, by composer Elmer Bernstein and lyricist Don Black, and sung by Glen Campbell who co-starred in the movie, received nominations for both the Academy Award for Best Song and the Golden Globe. Unlike the book, the movie doesn’t introduce Mattie as an old woman telling a story of her childhood, but instead begins and ends in late 1880, when Mattie is 14. In the book, Mattie remains the central character throughout; in the movie Rooster Cogburn gets an equal share of the limelight. The film also downplays the novel's biblical tone and adds a hint of romance between Mattie and La Boeuf. La Boeuf also does not die in the novel, but survives his head injury. Another significant difference from Portis' tale is that Mattie has her arm amputated as a result of the rattlesnake attack, in contrast to the final scene in the film where Kim Darby is seen with only a sling on her arm—indicating that she is recovering from the snake bites and intact physically. The novel's conclusion makes the reader aware that the story has been recounted by Mattie as an elderly, one-armed woman who never married. In the book, Tom Chaney was a young man; Mattie guessed his age to be around 25. Jeff Corey, who played Chaney in the movie, was 55 at the time. In the movie, La Boeuf claims to have a girl in Texas who would "look with favor" on his capture of Tom Chaney. In the book, La Boeuf made no mention of a girlfriend; his motive for capturing Chaney was purely financial. In the book, Rooster Cogburn had a mustache and did not wear an eye patch, though he had only one eye. In his fight with Ned Pepper, he wielded two Navy six-shooters. In the movie, Wayne carried a six-shooter in his left hand and his trademark large-loop rifle in the other. The character of Rooster was supposed to be around 40 in the novel; in the film, he was played by 61-year-old Wayne. Also, the film's Colorado location and mountain scenery are in sharp contrast to the script's references to place names in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Further, the film is set in autumn, while the book clearly sets the story in winter, with snow on the ground outside the dugout where Quincy and Moon awaited Pepper's gang. In the book, when Mattie falls into the snake pit she faces a ball of snakes and disturbs them in their winter quarters. In the film Mattie faces a single rattlesnake. Sequels and other film versionsA film sequel, Rooster Cogburn, was made in 1975, with Wayne reprising his role and Katharine Hepburn as an elderly spinster, Eula Goodnight, who teams up with him. The plot has been described as a rehash of the original True Grit with elements of the Bogart-Hepburn film The African Queen. A further made-for-television sequel entitled True Grit: A Further Adventure, appeared in 1978, starring Warren Oates and Lisa Pelikan, and featured the further adventures of Rooster Cogburn and Mattie Ross. In 2010, Joel and Ethan Coen directed another adaptation of the novel. Their adaptation focuses more on Mattie's point-of-view, as in the novel, and is more faithful to its Oklahoma setting. Hailee Steinfeld portrays Mattie Ross, Jeff Bridges portrays Rooster Cogburn, and the cast also includes Matt Damon as LeBeouf and Josh Brolin as Tom Chaney.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 10, 2011 12:08:53 GMT -5
24. The Frisco Kid (1979) The Frisco Kid is a 1979 movie directed by Robert Aldrich. The movie is a Western comedy featuring Gene Wilder as Avram Belinski, a Polish rabbi who is traveling to San Francisco, and Harrison Ford as a bank robber who befriends him. Rabbi Avram Belinski arrives in Philadelphia from Poland en route to San Francisco where he will be a congregation's new rabbi. He has with him a Torah scroll for the San Francisco synagogue. Avram, an innocent, trusting and inexperienced traveler, falls in with three con men, the brothers Matt and Darryl Diggs and their partner Mr. Jones, who trick him into helping pay for a wagon and supplies to go west, then leave him and most of his belongings scattered along a deserted road. Avram is determined to make it to San Francisco. He fends for himself on foot for a while, spends a little time with some Pennsylvania Dutch (whom he takes for Jews at first), and manages to find work on the railroad. While trying to spear fish in a stream (to no avail), he is befriended and fed by a stranger on horseback named Tommy Lillard (Ford). They travel together, make it through the snowy mountains, experience American Indian customs and hospitality, and learn a little about each other's culture. Unfortunately, it turns out Tommy is a bank robber by profession, not only problematic for Avram from a moral point of view, but problematic for Tommy when he robs a bank on a Friday, then finds that Avram (an orthodox Jew) does not ride on the Sabbath—even with a posse on his tail. They remain together somehow, meet and defeat the villains who originally robbed and beat Avram in Philadelphia, and arrive in San Francisco. Avram then must deal with the changes his journey has wrought in his faith and his purpose in life. According to Gene Wilder's autobiography, the Tommy role, played by Harrison Ford, was originally planned for John Wayne. Vincent Canby of The New York Times described The Frisco Kid as "harmless chaos": "People keep coming and going and doing ferociously cute things, but never anything that could appeal to anyone except a close relative or someone with a built-in weakness for anything ethnic whatsoever." He criticized the lack of plot development, saying that, while based on a clever idea, The Frisco Kid ultimately fails to deliver on its promise.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 10, 2011 12:14:45 GMT -5
23. Billy The Kid (1989) Billy the Kid, also known as Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid, is a 1989 American western film about famed gunman Billy the Kid. One of many depicting the events surrounding the outlaw during his participation in the Lincoln County War, this film, though little known, has routinely been described as the most historically accurate version to date. Written by Gore Vidal and directed by William A. Graham, Val Kilmer stars in the lead role of William Bonney aka Billy the Kid, with a supporting cast including Wilford Brimley, John O'Hurley, Duncan Regehr, and Ned Vaughn. The film was made for television, toward the beginning of Kilmer's career really taking off. While garnering little attention, the TV-movie was well received by fans of the western genre due to its comparative historical fidelity. Kilmer received praise for his portrayal and worked extensively to not only look as much like the actual Billy the Kid as possible, but also to capture his personality, as it is believed to have been, based upon actual historical accounts. This contributed to the film being widely acclaimed as one of the most historically accurate "Billy the Kid" films ever made. Vidal mentioned in his memoirs that he had written the original teleplay for The Left Handed Gun, starring Paul Newman as Billy the Kid, decades earlier and always felt the studio had butchered the material when his television play was used as the basis for a theatrical movie, so he wanted to return to the story for a more accurate rendition.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 10, 2011 12:18:11 GMT -5
22. A Thunder of Drums (1961) A Thunder of Drums is a 1961 Western directed by Joseph M. Newman, starring Richard Boone, George Hamilton and Luana Patten. Curtis McQuade (Hamilton), a rookie cavalry officer, is assigned to a remote, understaffed post where he attempts to adjust to this new life under the disgraced Captain Maddocks (Boone). The movie is notable for starring three well-known actors in relatively minor roles. Charles Bronson of Death Wish fame and rock musician Duane Eddy star as troopers, while Richard Chamberlain portrays Lieutenant Porter. Slim Pickens and Arthur O'Connell also had roles.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 10, 2011 12:24:51 GMT -5
21. They Died with Their Boots On (1941) They Died with Their Boots On is a 1941 western film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. Despite being rife with historical inaccuracies, the film was one of the top-grossing films of the year, being the last of eight Flynn–de Havilland collaborations. Like Flynn's earlier film Sea Hawk, this film was digitally colorized in the early 1990s and had the colorized version released on VHS tape in 1998. Same as the earlier colorized Sea Hawk film, the colorized version has NOT been released on DVD. Only the black and white version of this film has been released on DVD.[1] There are presently no plans to released the 1990s colorized version on DVD. The film follows the life of George Armstrong Custer (Errol Flynn) from attending West Point, wooing of Elizabeth Bacon (Olivia de Havilland) who becomes his loving wife, the American Civil War, and the Battle of Little Big Horn. Custer enters West Point and quickly establishes himself as a troublemaker, after showing up in an outfit he designed himself that made him appear as a visiting officer. After he is almost kicked out of West Point for the misunderstanding, he signs up as a cadet, and stacks up demerits for pranks, unruliness, and disregarding the rules. Although he does not graduate with the rest of his class, he is given an officer position with the Union Army when the Civil War breaks out, at the reluctance of most of his supervisors. They ultimately decide that his impetuousness will be valuable in an officer, and he is given his orders to report to Washington, D.C. Custer's relationship with Libby Bacon begins at West Point, when he is walking a punishment tour around the campus. On punishment, he is not allowed to talk, but he is approached by Libby who is looking for directions. As soon as his punishment is over, he runs after her, and tells her he will meet her at her front porch that evening. Because of his orders to travel to Washington, D.C., Custer misses his meeting with her. Once in Washington D.C., Custer befriends General Winfield Scott (Sydney Greenstreet) who aids him in being placed with the 2nd Cavalry. He becomes a war hero after disregarding his superiors' orders in a crucial battle and successfully defending a bridge for the infantry to cross. He is awarded a medal while recovering in hospital after a shot to the shoulder. Upon returning home to Monroe, Michigan, as a hero, Custer marries Libby and they set up a house together. However, Custer is bored with civilian life and has begun to drink. Libby visits Custer's friend General Scott and asks him to assign Custer to a regiment again. He agrees, and Custer is given orders to go to the Dakota Territory, where he will ultimately be involved in Custer's Last Stand. When Custer and Libby arrive in the Dakota Territory, Custer finds the soldiers he is supposed to lead are drunken, rowdy good-for-nothings. An old enemy from West Point, Ned Sharp, is running the bar in town, as well as the General Store which is providing firearms to the local Native Americans. Furious, Custer shuts down the bar and teaches his troops a song, Garry Owen, which brings them all together. He whips them into shape in time for an inspection by the General. However, his old enemy, Ned Sharp (Arthur Kennedy) gives the troops each a bottle of liquor right before they are supposed to report, and they embarrass Custer by riding passed the General drunk. Custer is relieved of his post and sent home. On the train home, Custer hears from Libby that Ned Sharp is trying to start a Gold Rush in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory, the Native Americans' sacred land. The Gold Rush would bring lots of business into Sharp's shipping line. Outraged, Custer takes the information to Congress, where he is laughed at. When news arrives that Native Americans and American troops are getting into battles over the gold miners, Custer returns to the Dakota Territory with Libby to help his battalion. On the day of Custer's last stand, Custer realizes that a group of infantry will march into a valley where thousands of Native Americans stand ready to fight them. Knowing the infantry won't have a chance, he says a tearful goodbye to Libby and leads his battalion into the battle to save the infantry. Arrows fly and horses trample across the valley, and all are killed, including Sharp, who had elected to ride with the regiment to, as Custer puts it, "Death or Glory. It depends on one's point of view", and who admits with his last breath that Custer may have been right about glory and money when he said that "At least you can take it [glory] with you". Custer himself is finally downed by a gunshot from Crazy Horse himself. In the film, the battle is blamed on unscrupulous corporations and politicians craving the land of Crazy Horse (Anthony Quinn) and his people. Custer is portrayed as a fun-loving, dashing figure who chooses honor and glory over money and corruption. Though his "Last Stand" is probably treated as more significant and dramatic than it may have actually been, Custer (Flynn) follows through on his promise to teach his men "to endure and die with their boots on." In the movie's version of Custer's story, a few corrupt white politicians goad the Western tribes into war, threatening the survival of all white settlers in the West. Custer and his men give their lives at Little Bighorn to delay the Indians and prevent this slaughter. A letter left behind by Custer absolves the Indians of all responsibility. The film, as a fictionalized account of Custer's life, deviates from the historical record in various ways: in its depiction of Custer's personal life, his record during the Civil War, and the Battle of Little Bighorn itself. * The commandant at West Point before the Civil War is claimed to be Colonel Philip Sheridan, who was a second lieutenant in the Oregon Territory until March 1861. He never served as superintendent of West Point. * During Custer's career at West Point from his entry in 1857 until he graduated last in the Class of 1861; Richard Delafield served as the superintendent of the Military Academy 1856-1861. Named by the War Department superintendent on January 23, 1861, P.G.T. Beauregard, later Confederate general. Beauregard resigned his commission from the United States Army, after Louisiana seceded from the Union on January 26, 1861. Delefield was named interim superintendent by Secretary of War Joseph Holt until Alexander Hamilton Bowman arrived at West Point becoming superintendent in early 1861. * Historically correct: The nephew of Robert E. Lee, First Lieutenant Fitzhugh Lee in 1861 was an assistant instructor of tactics at West Point. Virginia left the Union on April 17, 1861, that day Fitzhugh Lee resigned from the U.S. Army to return to his native state and fight for the Confederacy. * According to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, no US Senator in 1861 was named Smith. * Among the other historical inaccuracies is that Custer served as a messenger at the First Battle of Bull Run; he did not command troops. * Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott was commander of the United States Army when the Civil War started, he requested retirement on October 31, 1861. On November 1, 1861 Major General George B. McClellan was named General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States. President Lincoln July 23, 1862, replaced McClellan with Major General Henry Wager Halleck who was relieved by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant on March 12, 1864. The error of the film, General Winfield Scott served as commanding general of the Army throughout the Civil War. * After the First Battle of Bull Run, it is depicted in the film that Custer was decorated, but in reality he never received any medals (though he did receive brevet promotions for gallantry.) During this time, the only medal awarded by the government, or the Army, was the newly introduced "Medal of Honor", which George Custer never won. In the movie, the medal pinned on Custer by Sheridan is the Army Civil War Campaign Medal. However, the Army Civil War Campaign Medal was established by the War Department on January 21, 1907; forty-two years after the Civil War and thirty-one years after Custer's death. * Custer's brother Tom actually won 2 Medals of Honor during the Civil War. This fact is referred to in the movie "Son of the Morning Star" when Tom replies to his brother George, "I didn't have to be a General, I won all the medals." * The film shows Judge Samuel Bacon having a large number of African Americans employed in his household. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 ban slavery in what would be the Michigan Territory in 1805; Michigan entered the Union on January 26, 1837. The portrayal of Bacon having some black domestic help may not have been inaccurate at that time for a person of means, however his employing such a large number in Michigan was not likely. The great migration of blacks from the south to the northern cities such as Detroit, MI, had not yet occurred, and did not happen until around 1920, another 65 years after the war ended. To have such a large number of blacks in the north, concentrated in such a small area as Monroe, MI, would have been highly improbable at that time. From a sociological perspective, prior to the Civil war, the vast majority of free blacks lived along the east coast in cities such as Boston, MA, New Haven, CT, the State of New York, Philadelphia, PA and Providence, RI. If they did venture away from the east coast, then the most likely place to for them to settle would have been Ohio (a state with strong abolitionist cities, towns, organizations and colleges). * Although it is true that Libbie Bacon's father did not approve of Custer it was not because Custer insulted him in a bar. Bacon simply disapproved of Custer based on social status. He believed that Custer was not good enough for his daughter, but eventually came around after Custer was promoted to Brigadier General in 1863. * His promotion to Brigadier General was not accidental as depicted in the film, but a deliberate act. He was promoted by General Alfred Pleasonton (not Romulus Taipe) on June 28, 1863, three days before the battle of Gettysburg. * At the time of the battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, Major General Henry W. Halleck was the Commanding General of the United States Army. He would have been the individual in charge of the headquarters command scenes (if the strategy scenes are accurate to the period) and organizing the battle strategy depicted in the film along with General George Meade, not Lieutenant General Winfield Scott. Halleck would have been in Washington at the War Department and Meade in the field at Gettyburg. Although retired, it was Scott's overall war strategy called the Anaconda Plan, continued by President Abraham Lincoln and waged by General's U.S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Philip Sheridan that led to the Union's decisive victory. * After the war, Custer was mustered out in March 1866 and did have a period of military inactivity. However, any decision to restore him to active duty would not have been made by retired and ill General Winfield Scott, (Scott died at West Point, New York on May 29, 1866). Secretary of War Edwin McMasters Stanton and General U.S. Grant, Commanding General of the United States Army would issue the General Orders in July 1866 posting Lt. Col. Custer to the newly authorized 7th Cavalry. * In the film, Custer is shown leading a saber charge against an oncoming Indian war party, which leads to his unit being surrounded and him being the last man standing before finally being killed. In reality, the troopers had boxed their sabers and sent then to the rear before the battle and by some accounts Custer had been among the first to die. * Following the end of the Civil War, Custer is depicted as a drunkard in the film, while in reality, Custer neither drank nor smoked. After an 1862 drinking binge in which he humiliated himself, Custer vowed never to touch liquor again, and he never did. Furthermore, Flynn's hair is long at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, but Custer had cut his hair short prior to the battle. * The movie depicts Custer having a private meeting with Crazy Horse to discuss a peaceable solution to a land dispute. In reality, Crazy Horse detested whites and never conferred with them. * Custer is shown as being utterly faithful and devoted to his wife Libbie, but by some accounts, during his time on the plains he was alleged to have married an Indian woman and had children with her. However, some historians view this as inaccurate, due to the fact that Custer had contracted gonorrhea in a Cornwall-on-Hudson brothel while attending West Point and that he might have been rendered sterile, leading them to believe that the father was really his brother Thomas. * Another inaccuracy of this film is that the studio could not show how the Sioux and Cheyenne mutilated the bodies of the soldiers after the battle. The Motion Picture Production Code of Will Hays, would have not allowed for the graphic violence. The public were taught as children in school, the events of Custer's Last Stand. Custer's brother Tom, who died with him, had his face so badly mutilated he could only be identified by the tattoo on his arm. * In other regards, however, the film is more accurate - Custer was genuinely sympathetic towards the Indians plight, and opposed the Grant Administration's Indian policy. He spoke out against the abuses suffered by Indians on the reservations, which proved an embarrassment to the administration and, as depicted, was regarded by many of his superiors as a trouble-making glory seeker. He also said that if he were an Indian he'd fight the encroaching white expansion, which is repeated in the film. Although the rest of the film was shot in various locales throughout southern California, the film makers had hoped to capture this climactic sequence near the location of the actual Battle of Little Bighorn. Due to scheduling and budget constraints, however, the finale of the film was relegated to a rural area outside of Los Angeles. Crazy Horse, played by Anthony Quinn, is the only individualized Indian in the scene and represents the "red man" whose lifestyle is coming to an end. Quinn, who is of Tarahumara ancestry, is one of the few actors of American Indian descent in the film. Only 16 of the extras were Sioux Indians. The rest of the Native American army were Fillipino extras. Knowing the scene would be dangerous, Anthony Quinn ordered a hearse on the day of shooting as a joke.[citation needed] Two extras did die during the filming of the sequence. One untrained rider, George Murphy, died in a fall from his horse, reportedly while drunk. A second extra, Jack Budlong, fell off his horse and was fatally wounded by his prop sword. The score was composed by Max Steiner. He adapted George Armstrong Custer's favorite song, "Garryowen", into the score. Custer first heard the song from Irish soldiers. In the film, he hears it from an English soldier who claims its origin is Australian. This connection is apocryphal. Warner Brothers recycled some of the music from the film and it, or variations of it, can be heard in "Silver River" and "Rocky Mountain", both starring Errol Flynn, and "The Searchers" starring John Wayne.
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Post by Seth Drakin of Monster Crap on May 10, 2011 12:33:13 GMT -5
Here is the list so far.
50. The Gunfighter (1950) 49. Quigley Down Under (1990) 48. The Valley of Gwangi (1969) 47. Bandolero! (1968) 46. How The West Was Won (1962) 45. Rooster Cogburn (1975) 44. Open Range (2003) 43. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949) 42. The Great Silence (1968) 41. Fort Apache (1948) 40. Chisum (1970) 39. High Noon (1952) 38. They Call Me Trinity (aka My Name Is Trinity) (1970) 37. The Magnificent Seven (1960) 36. Blood On The Moon (1948) 35. Duck, You Sucker (1971) 34. Once Upon A Time In Mexico (2003) 33. Last Man Standing (1996) 32. Man from Snowy River (1982) 31. The Mountain Men (1980) 30. Back To The Future Part III (1990) 29. True Grit (2010) 28. Pale Rider (1985) 27. City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold (1994) 26. Ulzana's Raid (1972) 25. True Grit (1969) 24. The Frisco Kid (1979) 23. Billy The Kid (1989) 22. A Thunder of Drums (1961) 21. They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
Here are the taglines to the next five films.
* He's got to face a gunfight once more to live up to his legend once more. To win just one more time. * Nobody, but "Nobody," knows the trouble he's in! * She can shoot a gun almost as fast as BOB can run! * The movie that spawned a genre. * They're Down On Their Luck And Up To Their Necks In Senoritas, Margaritas, Banditos And Bullets!
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