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TopicBoard 8 Ranks: Westerns! The Official Results Topic
StifledSilence
08/17/21 9:05:44 PM
#252:


Karo: When a bunch of young delinquent cowboys see their 'daddy' get murdered, they all become deputies to hunt the villains down. In the rich tradition of american law enforcement they repeatedly shoot up defenseless suspects cause they 'had it coming'.
Billy really carries the movie with his barely-hinged and unpredictable manner calling to mind a wild west Joker, and every scene with him was very entertaining.
The ending really strains the believability where like four people take on the entire fucking army or something in a gunfight (the real billy the kid had around fifty men with him in this incident).
Other than Billy no character really stands out other than having their actor be really familiar, it is an average cowboy movie overall.

Inviso: This is an interesting character study, because by all accounts, Billy the Kid is portrayed as crazy and self-destructive, yet by sheer virtue of the plot being told, he winds up in the hero role. Really though, the whole premise is intriguing. You have a band of orphans (?) who set out to avenge their foster father after hes killed at the hands of a rival gang leader (essentially). Though they try to do things the right way, initiallyBillys not exactly a by the book kind of guy. Billys violent streak screws over EVERYONE, yet his undaunting attitude and utter refusal to back down from any stance he holds, seems to inspire cultlike devotion as any misgivings fade away. Hell, one of his gang abandons his new wife to go on a revenge rampage with Billy. If thats not loyalty, I dont know what is. The only real problem is that its got a slow start, and some of the non-Billy/Charlie/Doc characters are underutilized. But thats not the biggest of deals, surely.

KBM: This movie was hilarious. Really made me wish that more westerns had been made in the '80s, because this combination of Old West gunplay, the Brat Pack, synth beats and electric guitar solos? I'd never seen anything quite like Young Guns before. From what I understand, too, this is a fairly historically accurate depiction of Billy the Kid as much so as the generous helping of '80s cheese allows for, anyway. Frankly, though, the historicity of the movie isn't the draw here. It's that rad intro where all the players are introduced by turning to the camera or taking their bandannas off as their names appear on the screen. It's the scene with the crazy/awesome peyote trip that, hilariously, everybody but Charlie Sheen goes on. It's that rockin' eighties soundtrack that chimes in during action scenes on occasion. And hell, that cast! While they're not all given the deepest material you've ever seen, it's always fun to see so many talented character actors doing what they do. Terence Stamp and Terry O'Quinn in particular were both pleasant surprises as was Emilio Estevez's performance, which was probably the best acting I've seen from him. (And I always love seeing Kiefer Sutherland in things.) I can see why this didn't fare so well with critics, but honestly, westerns are a style-over-substance genre anyway, so the shortcomings in its screenplay didn't bother me too much. I could have done with a little less racism, but at least in this case it seemed like an intentional narrative choice to have a couple characters be racist towards Chavez because this takes place in 1870s New Mexico, rather than just the screenwriters showing their asses. (You can definitely tell we've entered the post-Saddles Revisionist Western era on the list when you're watching chronologically.)

Poke: A lot of familiar stars pack into this film. I liked how they all played off each other and formed a brotherhood. And apparently, its quite true to historical accounts, which is always interesting.
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Bear Bro
The Empire of Silence
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