Legends of Western Cinema Week | Kick-off + Tag
Yee, my friends, and dare I say it, haw: 2023's Legends of Western Cinema Week is here! Rachel and Heidi and I are tickled pink as always to be co-hosting, and we can't wait to see what you all contribute.
To start things off, we've concocted another tag full of fun Western-related prompts for you to answer. This year, we're giving you prompts based off of archetypal objects frequently found in Westerns and asking you to shout-out some favorite Western moments that fit those prompts.
2023 Tag Prompts
Stetson — a favorite hero moment (i.e. highlighting their character and/or making a pivotal decision etc)
Petticoat — a favorite heroine moment
Canteen — a favorite scene with a leader/mentor
Gloves — a favorite sidekick/friend scene
Canyon — a favorite western landscape
Pistol — a favorite fight scene
Saddle — a favorite horse / animal in a western
Sky — a favorite ambitious / crazy plan in a western
Rifle — a favorite scene with an antagonist
Chuckwagon — a favorite meal scene
Badge — a favorite scene with peace officers / sheriff
Lariat — a favorite cattle drive /roundup
Please feel free to fill out this tag in posts of your own, or in the comments sections of any of ours! For now, I'm going to share my own answers, and then I'll see you in the next post. 😉
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I wrote at (spoilery) length about some of my favorite Joseph moments in my review of Hostiles (2017).
Petticoat — a favorite heroine moment
Cornelia Locke riding into Kills on Water's camp and tossing Black-Eyed Mog's spectacles onto the ground while saying in that flat, no-nonsense voice, "I've come for Eli Whipp."
YES, YOU HAVE, BABY GIRL!!! Get that boy.
The English is so good about showing the twin sides of the rescuing-each-other coin. Eli and Cornelia essentially take turns saving each other from near-death experiences the whole time, and it's such a beautiful portrait of partnership.
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| like this moment (though it's not the one I mentioned) *sniffles* |
Canteen — a favorite scene with a leader/mentor
*SPOILERS?* Kidd coming back for Johanna in News of the World (2020)? Not sure that "mentor" is the absolute best term for Kidd's role in their relationship, but I suppose father figures ought to be mentors as well, so I'm going to count it. 😉
Gloves — a favorite sidekick/friend scene
"My Rifle, My Pony and Me" in Rio Bravo (1959). It's a small and somewhat random scene, but an excessively satisfying one. And it emphasizes the camaraderie between the little group, with Dude singing and Stumpy and Ryan playing along.
Canyon — a favorite Western landscape
You know what? I'm going to go with an unconventional answer and say Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002). The animation is beautiful, and it also provides a more color-saturated view of the Old West than we get in most live action Westerns.
Pistol — a favorite fight scene
The duel between Buck and Jim in The Big Country (1958). 👀
Saddle — a favorite horse / animal in a Western
Almost any of the menagerie in Rango (2011)! What a wild and fabulous movie, with equally wild and fabulous animal characters.
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| "Oh, that? That there's conjunctivitis. It's hereditary." |
Sky — a favorite ambitious / crazy plan in a Western
The heist in Cat Ballou (1965)! Honestly, planning to rob the train carrying the payroll for the town that ordered, aided, and abetted your father's murder is one of the more Valid™ revenge plots I've encountered.
Plus, it's funny.
"You all say you love me, and are beholden to me, and, and, 'Take it easy, Cat; we're gonna take care of you,' and the first time I ask you to do one little thing for me like rob one little train . . . !"
*SPOILERS* [Although, I have to say, I'm still not over my disappointment that Cat settled for the sex maniac with whom she had exactly zero (0) chemistry instead of ending up with Jackson, who was obviously twice the man what's-his-name would ever be. Even the uncle would have been an improvement on what's-his-name.] *END OF SPOILERS*
Rifle — a favorite scene with an antagonist
Either the dinner or the final duel between Quigley and Marston in Quigley Down Under.
Chuckwagon — a favorite meal scene
The communal meal leading into the mud fight in Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) is hysterical (like most of the movie). "I figure, the way prices are around here, I'm gonna go broke about 2:30 this afternoon."
"Okay, go ahead on." 😂
Badge — a favorite scene with peace officers /sheriff
"What happened to them?"
"They got married."
Which is to say, just about any of the sheriff's scenes in The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975). 😄
Lariat — a favorite cattle drive / roundup
Roundups comprise a solid thirty percent of Broken Trail (2006), so probably one of those. 😅 The Whale's Back is an especially exhilarating sequence, but it's also very satisfying to see the party finally reach its destination, so . . . don't know that I could pick one favorite.
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Lastly, don't forget to come back to this post throughout the week and add your posts to the widget below so that everyone can see them!
Are you joining the party?
Yay!! Enjoyed reading all your answers + that top b/w pic is just too cute. XD
ReplyDeleteThanks, friend! And eek, isn't it? I thought you'd get a kick out of that one -- I do, myself. ;)
DeleteACK "My Rifle, My Pony, and Me" is SUCH a good scene!!! It's like a microcosm of the whole movie in all its wonderful coziness-beset-by-danger-and-enlivened-by-camaraderie. *heart eyes*
ReplyDeleteAlso, Spirit definitely has some stellar scenery.
It is! Very cozy and poignant and all the good things.
DeleteAnd yes! Spirit is gorgeous. :D
That DELIGHTFUL quote is almost enough to convince me to watch "Cat Ballou" despite my known allergy to old Hollywood...
ReplyDeleteI love the concept of this tag :D Very inventive, very fun!
Isn't it magnificent? Jane Fonda is a hoot in this one. But yes, alas, might not be quite the thing for you. There's a very good chance that at least one of the guys might give you an embolism.
DeleteAnd thanks! Glad you like it. Are you going to fill it out this year?
I really like movies where the hero and heroine (or hero and sidekick) take turns saving each other. It's one of the things I love most about The Man from UNCLE and Conspiracy Theory, for two examples that spring immediately to mind.
ReplyDeleteI think Kidd absolutely counts as a mentor, and the thing you mention him doing made me know I was going to have to buy my own copy of the movie. Getting goosebumps just thinking about it.
I am working on my tag answers right now, and I am considering mentioning "My Rifle, My Pony, and Me," but in answer to a very different question. I've been working on my answers for DAYS and still am not done...
Buck and Jim's gunfight is just SO satisfying.
Haha! I just mentioned Rango in my top ten list today. Such a quirky little picture. And Cat Ballou is on there too. Yes, I agree that I REALLY do not like who Cat ends up with... but I content myself with the confident opinion that they will not stay together long, and she will get together with someone much better later. She's young and foolish still, that's all. (Does anyone else kinda wish Kid Shelleen was 20 years younger???)
I've been hankering to rewatch Quiggley Down Under lately. I rode its soundtrack into the ground for two years while writing MRAMR, but I think I have enough distance now to where I could watch it again without envisioning my characters doing stuff each time a new music cue comes on.
And the foodtime fight in Support Your Local Sheriff is priceless. From "That's what they call inflation -- sometimes it catches you between mouthfulls" to "Go ahead on now," it is perfect. Ridiculous and wacky and nonsensical and hilarious.
OH! And all of Apple Dumpling Gang is perfection. The end.
DeleteYes! I feel like we don't often get that balance in stories, so it's nice whenever it's present!
DeleteYESH. That thing saved the movie, for me. <3
"My Rifle, My Pony, and Me" works really well for the peace officers question, as well. It's like a subtle symbolic nod to the "peace" part of their occupation.
SO SATISFYINGGGGG. Like most of that movie. :D
That's a good point! Cat is quite young, so hopefully she comes to her senses later, because blech. [Okay but really! Like I mentioned in the post, I shipped her with Jackson, but there were Moments(TM) towards the end of the film where Kid tugged a little harder on my heartstrings than I expected he would!]
DO IT. I've also been wanting to rewatch it -- that one and The Big Country. And I already rewatched Support Your Local Sheriff!, so, got that one out of the way. ;)
SYLS and TADG are both comedic masterpieces, especially SYLS. So, SO good.