Stagecoach to Tombstone The Filmgoers' Guide to Great Westerns

by Hughes, Howard

• ISBN13: 9781845115715
• ISBN10: 1845115716
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-12-15
• Publisher: I B Tauris & Co Ltd

Summary

The true story of the American West on film, through its shooting stars and the directors who shot them'¦ Howard Hughes explores the Western, running from John Ford's 'Stagecoach' to the revisionary 'Tombstone'. Writing with panache and fresh insight, he explores 27 key films, and draws on production notes, cast and crew biographies, and the films' box-office success, to reveal their place in western history. He shows how through reinvention and resurrection, this genre continually postpones the big adios and avoids ending up in Boot Hill'¦permanently. Major films covered include the best from genre giants John Ford, Howard Hawks and John Wayne, plus classics 'High Noon', 'Shane', 'The Magnificent Seven' and 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'. 'Stagecoach to Tombstone' makes many more stops along the way, examining well-known blockbusters and lowly B-movie oaters alike. It examines comedy westerns, adventures 'south of the border', singing cowboys and the varied depiction of Native Americans on screen. Hughes also engagingly charts the genre's timely renovation by Sam Peckinpah ('Ride the High Country' and 'The Wild Bunch' ), Sergio Leone ('Once Upon a Time in the West') and Clint Eastwood ('The Outlaw Josey Wales' and 'Unforgiven'). Presented too are the best of western trivia, a filmography of essential films - and ten aficionados and critics, including Alex Cox, Christopher Frayling, Philip French and Ed Buscombe, give their verdict on the best in the west.

Author Biography

Howard Hughes is the author of Once Upon a Time in the Italian West, Crime Wave: The Filmgoers Guide to the great Crime Movies, both published by I.B.Tauris, as well as The Pocket Essential Guide to Spaghetti Westerns and The American Indian Wars.

Table of Contents

Preface: Colt Movies

Acknowledgements

Out of the West: An Introduction to Westerns

Ten Top Tens

'The Tumbril Awaits'

'Shakespeare in Tombstone' - My Darling Clementine (1946)

'Your Heart's Soft...Too Soft'

'Tomorrow's All I Need' - She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)

'What Will I Do If You Leave Me?' - High Noon (1952)

'You Can't Break The Mould'

'I Never Shake Hands With A Left-Handed Draw'

'We'll Fool Saint Peter Yet'

'I Came A Thousand Miles To Kill You' - The Man from Laramie (1955)

'That'll Be The Day' - The Searchers (1956)

'There's A Hundred More Tombstones' - Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957)

'I Bet That Rattler Died' - Forty Guns (1957)

'There's Some Things A Man Just Can't Ride Around'

'I'd Hate To Have To Live On The Difference'

'We Deal In Lead, Friend' - The Magnificent Seven (1960)

'I Seen The Other Side Of Your Face'

'All I Want Is To Enter My House Justified' - Ride the High Country (1962)

'Ain't You Got No Respect For Your Elders?' The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)

'The End Of The Line' - Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)

'The Fastest Finger In The West' - Support Your Local Sheriff (1969)

'This Time We Do It Right' - The Wild Bunch (1969)

'Who Are Those Guys?' - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

'I Got Poetry In Me'

'Here In This Land, Man Must Have Power'

'Whooped 'Em Again, Josey' - The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

'I've Always Been Lucky When It Comes To Killing Folks'

'I'm Your Huckleberry'

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