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western.jpg

Fill Your Hands, You Sumb*tch

By Brian Prisco | Miscellaneous | January 24, 2011 |

By Brian Prisco | Miscellaneous | January 24, 2011 |


As film critics, we often tear down without creating. We usually complain about how certain genres like horror and fantasy have gotten weaker. We complain and complain, but we never offer up solutions. So I’ve decided to run a column this week to cull suggestions of what you as a moderately rational filmgoing base are craving in your genre films. What would you like to see done on the big screen?

I love a good western. And I was mortally against the Coens doing a remake of True Grit. Then I saw it, and it was glorious. They don’t make many westerns anymore. But when they do, they’re usually pretty fucking amazing. Tombstone, The Quick and the Dead, Unforgiven, True Grit — and that’s just the modern ones. Hell, I’m watching Silverado as I type this.

The question is, do you think there’s room to do new stuff with the westerns? With the lax moral code, can we do better, gritty, more hardass westerns? The classics didn’t need people getting there heads blown off or their scalps scalped to be awesome. But then again, The Wild Bunch, so eat that.

Is there room to tell new stories in the Wild Wild West without it turning into The Wild Wild West? On that same regard, is there a way to do a sort of western that isn’t set in the 1800’s? Do you think there’s room for more projects like No Country for Old Men or even Last Man Standing? Do you think we could pull off an interesting neo-western?

I personally would like to see them be a little creative and push the boundaries on the western. Not everything has to be Cormac McCarthy, but the Coens have done a fine job keeping the faith alive. I’d like to see someone crack the code on this, but everyone seems to be doing a fine job dropping a gold nugget every three years or whatnot.

By the way, this was going to be a science fiction post, but I leave that to Steven Wilson. As I do not have a fucking clue on how to even crack that nut, since it goes all over the world. Then again, we’re about to see Cowboys & Aliens, so let’s hope.

High noon, hombre. Are you my huckleberry?