Irene's Legends of Western Cinema Week Tag Answers 2021

Hi there everyone! After being AWOL for a stupid amount of time, I come back just when I'm needed most... Legends of Western Cinema Week! This special, so-far-yearly event is just what I need to get the blogging juices flowing. Westerns are beautiful things, and Anna and I had an especially lovely experience with our favorite western, The Magnificent Seven, when we showed it to a bunch of our friends in Eastern Washington who had never seen it. They had a screen projector so it felt like we were in a movie theatre. Everybody loved it, the reactions were ideal, and the thundering applause at the end was ample proof that the film had been a hit. It made me so happy. This blog party in celebration of westerns and all that makes them beautiful is hosted by three ladies at three great blogs: Rachel at Hamlette's Soliloquy, Heidi at Along the Brandywine, and Olivia at Meanwhile, in Rivendell... I don't know why everybody has such great blog names, but they do. Just a quick note: The absence was actually not my fault! (uh huh, fer sure, yeah right). No, really! Anna and I returned from our trip to Eastern Washington (where there was no wifi). I was rearing to blog, so ready, had one day to answer a couple comments, and then our own internet connection absconded, leaving us high and dry! It was out for about ten days, but we should be good now. I'll do another post later this week, but for now, I'll just answer the extremely difficult tag answers, and I'll try to get Anna to do her own answers as well. 

1) Western movies or western TV shows?
... Both? I know I can't do both... I'm gonna do both for all of them... But honestly, it's both. Stand-alone westerns are of more quality, but I have such fond memories of binge-watching Lawman and the Rifleman, I'm just gonna go with both.

2) Funny westerns or dramatic westerns?
I like a mix of the two, but I would have to say I like it (usually) if they lean a bit more comedic. Big Jake (really not super comedic, but kind of so), Rio Bravo, and El Dorado all come to mind. Then again, The Magnificent Seven, Red River, The Tin Star, and The Searchers come to mind in the latter category... Dang it, I'm going with both again.

3) Westerns that focus on loners or westerns that focus on families?

I would have to say found-families. That conglomeration of different characters with different backgrounds who grow together and eventually form a family that's technically not related. I love the 'gang' feel, as Anna and I call it. Marshal Dan Troop, Johnny McKay, and Lilly Merrill have such a gang feel. Such togetherness, it's absolutely beautiful. I do enjoy epic loners though, but their full potential is only met when they meet a family and have to help them out, so yet again, I like the family theme.

4) Male-centric westerns or female-centric westerns?

I can't even think of a female-centric western... so male-centric lol. Well, I like it best when it has a bunch of different people, but it's still usually male-centered anyway. 

5) 1930s to 1960s westerns or 1970s to 2020s westerns?

1930s to 1960s, I would have to say. I haven't seen a lot of good 30s westerns, the 40s were hit and miss, but the 50s and 60s were just *chef's kiss*. The Golden Era, for sure. I have not seen many westerns from the 70s through the 2020s, but I like older movies in general, so it's not hard to pick. The 70's did have a surprising amount of good westerns, since all the other movies from that time period seem to be terrible most of the time. And of course Silverado was in the 80s, so that elevates that decade to generally undeserved movie heights.

6) Westerns that take place in America or westerns that take place internationally?

Ya know, a western anywhere is good. The Man from Snow River is the only out of country western I can think of, and it's really very good, so I'm open-minded, haha. I do love America more than anywhere else though, so will say American westerns are just a *tiny* bit better. (I almost forgot Hidalgo, which is in Arabia and is epic)

7) Family-friendly Westerns or edgier Westerns?

Family-friendly bruh. I am not edgy. No bueno. 
Like, it can be darker and have a kind of mature theme, but I don't want no hanky-panky or gratuitous violence at play. No-siree-bob!

8) Straightforward good guy or conflicted hero?

I love me a hero who knows good from bad and never flinches doing what's right, but I feel like it's easy to make those characters shallow and cardboard, so I don't mind a conflicted hero, as long as he pulls through in the end.

9) Historically accurate Westerns or Westerns that aren't afraid to take some creative liberties?

What a good question! I'll watch a western even if it's obviously not historically accurate in any way, but I prefer my movie makers to put some effort into authenticity. It adds just that extra teaspoon of hard work that makes a really solid film. For instance, can we just not have the obviously 1968 hairdo? Like, would it be that hard to wait until you were done filming to get the hard done up like a beehive or a perfectly symmetrical beach wave?

Nothing against dear old Audra, but her hair wasn't exactly 1880's

10) Bittersweet or happily-ever-after endings?

😭😭😭 I don't know!!! I love happy endings, but the end of The Searchers is the quintessence of bittersweet and it's the most beautiful thing ever! Same with The Magnificent Seven. I think I'll put bittersweet just above happily-ever-after, but the ending to Big Jake takes the place as my favorite western ending for some reason, and it's as happy as can be.

Just casually inserting a picture from Chisum just after I was talking about Big Jake.

And there you have it folks! Great questions, without a doubt. Have fun with the rest of this western-loving week, and remember: Don't squat with your spurs on (courtesy of Sam Elliot).


                                                                             ~Irene