Westerns
I am not really a big fan of Westerns - there are just too many of them - and they about the most well worn and referenced of films - Spielberg loves dropping parts of his fave Westerns into his films - just check out the drunk scene from ET (from the Searchers), George Lucas nicked a bit from the Searchers for the burning farm in Star Wars. Also, the basic Western story keeps coming back to haunt us - One false Move (set in modern day Los Angeles) is a modern version of the Searchers (obviously the Searchers is considered a bit of a benchmark).
Unforgiven
The best western ever made; FACT. Legend has it that Clint Eastwood passed on this script until he knew he was old enough for the role. It won Oscars galore and had just about the most complete cast ever put together for a Western; Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman and Richard Harris. Clint said it would be the last Western he would ever make, and judging by the amount of Westerns made since then, everyone else now knows that further Westerns are a waste of time. The best thing about this film is the number of myths it dispels; the skilful gunslinger (nearly all of the shooting with pistols is done at close range), the heartless killer (characters freeze at the moment of truth and feel guilt for their actions) and the happy ending as the hero rides off into the sunset (Eastwood kills everyone then rides off into a thunderstorm).
Basically - a reformed gunman and general bad guy is forced out of retirement after he falls on bad luck.
Best Bit - William Munny finds his old form and massacres everyone
Silverado
The Western had fallen by the wayside by the mid 1980's - nobody was making them anymore. However, Lawrence Kasdan got a massive cast together (Danny Glover, Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, Kevin Kline!) and made what many people call the "Yuppie Western". Kasdan was pretty much in good form - he had helped out with the writing of the Star Wars movies, had also pitched in with the script of Raiders of the Lost Ark. He used his story telling skill to put together a story that contains a lot of fairly unoriginal elements that turn up in just about every Western you can think of: The Crooked Sherrif, the card shark, ridiculous gunslinger skill, jumping on moving horses and all of that 1950's Western stuff.
Basically - a compilation of sub plots from just about every western ever made involving four friends
Best bit - Danny Glover's character demonstrates his rifle shooting skill for the first time, prompting the sherrif (John Cleese) to call it a day with that particular chase
Whatever awards this film failed to win, it wins the award for the most real life relatives in a film (don't ask me to name them for God's sake). This is the true story of the James and Younger Gang and their trail of destruction through the West - each member of the gang and his brother is played by an actor's real brother - Nicolas and Christopher Guest, Denis and Randy Quaid, David and Micheal Carridane and so on. The best thing about this film is the unending pace and the superb slow motion sequences.
Basically - James and Younger gangs return from the Civil War and get straight to work; robbing stages, doing over banks and all that stuff. Ourists would probably prefer the Brad Pitt 2007 version.
Best Bit - escaping from a bank job after the locals have been tipped off and are surrounding the now obviously doomed gang (serves them right for doing a job in Minnesota) - all done in glorious slow motion (even the sound is slowed down). If you want to know what being hit by a bullet sounds like then watch this bit - they don't make them like this anymore.
Dances with Wolves
Everybody predicted that this film would finish Kevin Costner . He put together an epic Western long after Heavens Gate had burned the fingers of the big studios and proved them all wrong (though he waited until Waterworld to prove them all right). This has the epic sweep of the old Westerns, but also paints the natives in a positive light (and is not exactly nice to the Cavalry).
Basically - John Dunbar, a young army officer, takes a frontier posting and befriends the yokels.
Best Bit - The Buffalo Hunt
Wyatt Earp
Nobody has a nice line to say about this film - apart from me. Some say that it is overblown, too long, too complicated - and its critics are less kind. This is a nice long Western (once again with a cast to die for - Gene Hackman, Costner, Bill Pullman, Michael Madsen etc) that tells the tale of the real life lawman, who had a bit of a kickoff at the OK Corral with some bad guys. It serves as a nice companion piece to Dances With Wolves, portraying a more realistic West - much like Unforgiven in dispelling the myths of the gunslinger who could shave a fly using a quickly drawn pistol.
Basically - the biopic of Wyatt Earp (as you might expect)
Best Bit - under fire at close range and out of ammo. Does he turn and run? Does he surrender? No he just calmly turns round and gets his shotgun out of his saddle and settles the argument in a pretty final way.
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