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Originally Posted by Spiwak
What Western could top it? Wild Bunch maybe or maybe even Once Upon a Time in the West. But they're close.
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I must confess straight away that I'm not a fan of Westerns as a genre. I find most of the stories to be oversimplified and sensationalized like the "penny dreadful" pulp novels that originally inspired them, but in fairness there has been a trend away from this style of Western in recent years.
If I watch a Western, I want to see
The West...the
American West. Not Southern Italy, not Spain, and most definitely not Montreal. For me watching a Western is all about the visuals, and the story is incidental. John Ford Westerns are awesome in this respect. I have no idea if Stanley Kubrick ever filmed a Western, but if not, he should have; His signature long shots incorporating lots of space and sparse background elements would show the American West to great effect.
In fact, the overall tightness of the shots was one of my biggest problems with "Brokeback Mountain". I was sitting dead-center in the theatre when I watched it, yet I often felt I was a little too close to the screen. It was almost as if that movie had been filmed for a television-sized screen, and was released theatrically as an afterthought. And yet it was nominated for an Academy Award for cinematography!
The benefit to this is that "Brokeback Mountain" should look great in DVD format when viewed at home.
But I digress. I've seen a fair number of Westerns, but I can't remember the names of most of them. John Wayne Westerns tend to be rather silly, but they often feature stunning visuals, so I've seen more of them than any others...usually with sound turned down. Ooh...pretty pictures!
Edit- I must admit I'm interested to see what OAV's response to this post will be. I figure he'll either rip me a new one, or agree with me...or maybe both. Either way, I suspect it'll be a post worth reading!
