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I'm not against remakes, but I think a new version needs to have something truly new about it. Why remake a Western if all you're doing is changing the cast?
I agree. The TBS remake of "High Noon" starring Tom Skerrit is a perfect example. I always thought a contemprary remake of this film in an urban setting could be great.
IMO westerns have been done to death, and were always rather formulaic (bad guys do bad things, good guys come in to win the big shoot-out scene and ride off with the babes). These days, you can have a shoot out in any major city or Mexican border town. Not pretty stuff, and it's on your local TV news daily.
Westerns were popular when people in the large eastern population centers along the east coast didn't have the money to travel and see the "west" the way we do now. The interstate highway system and jet travel made it easy to see the West. Once you see these vast, arid, wide open spaces out here, the romantic aspect of "far away places" goes away and the reality sinks in that it's just a HUGE hot dry place where it's hard to make a living and a long way to big cities and all they have to offer.
IMO it's also a generational thing. My father was born in 1905, when much of "the west" was still "the west." Dad died in 1986 and right to the end he was always a fan of the old west and liked reading western-oriented "pulp magazines" with names like "True West" or "Wild West" or "Old West" and a few Zane Grey stories as well. Dad was brought up when the west was hard to get to, like 3 days by train. The emerging Hollywood industry found it easy to set up and film one "oater" after another to please this wanderlust and fascination with an era that was fast disappearing.
These days, I like films about real people who've conquered modern issues and troubles; cattle rustling ain't what it used to be.
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Two words: "box office". Westerns ain't the big moneymakers they were before. Being that the general public today are conditioned towards recycled garbage from Hollywood, there isn't a big demand for Westerns. They are still being made, but in very small numbers.
IMO westerns have been done to death, and were always rather formulaic (bad guys do bad things, good guys come in to win the big shoot-out scene and ride off with the babes). These days, you can have a shoot out in any major city or Mexican border town. Not pretty stuff, and it's on your local TV news daily.
Westerns were popular when people in the large eastern population centers along the east coast didn't have the money to travel and see the "west" the way we do now. The interstate highway system and jet travel made it easy to see the West. Once you see these vast, arid, wide open spaces out here, the romantic aspect of "far away places" goes away and the reality sinks in that it's just a HUGE hot dry place where it's hard to make a living and a long way to big cities and all they have to offer.
IMO it's also a generational thing. My father was born in 1905, when much of "the west" was still "the west." Dad died in 1986 and right to the end he was always a fan of the old west and liked reading western-oriented "pulp magazines" with names like "True West" or "Wild West" or "Old West" and a few Zane Grey stories as well. Dad was brought up when the west was hard to get to, like 3 days by train. The emerging Hollywood industry found it easy to set up and film one "oater" after another to please this wanderlust and fascination with an era that was fast disappearing.
These days, I like films about real people who've conquered modern issues and troubles; cattle rustling ain't what it used to be.
Lots of other subjects have also been done to death too. I'd also say vampire movies are not too relevant to everyday life,but they are made.
It's possible that Westerns could become very popular again. Audiences, I think, are growing tired of the high-concept movies that are loaded with digital effects and action but are sometimes very short on relatable characters and have weak plots.
Good Westerns have always had good characters thrown into life-changing situations and gripping plots. Special effects don't have to cost millions to make them good, as the great American landscape is still there. And these days, as an Idahoan, I'm seeing a lot of yearning from folks who want a Little Cabin Home In The West again.
Westerns have always reflected the mood of their times. Our present is a lot like the early 50's, when there was a lot of civic tension and a lot of worrying over the future, and some of the best Western dramas were done in the 50's. I think re-makes of High Noon, The Oxbow Incident, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and others could find a new audience, and some could be done even better these days. The recent re-make of 3:10 To Yuma was better, I thought, than the original in all respects.
The times are also good for westerns that explore the turn of the 20th century right now. This period wasn't covered during the heyday of the genre very much, but there were many parts of the west that were still wild even after it had been settled. Movies like Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, The Wild Bunch and Legends of the Fall were all framed in this time period and were big hits.
Tom Hanks would be excellent in the Jimmy Stewart role in Liberty Valance. Hanks is a lot like Stewart. While Jimmy Stewart came back from World War II a changed man, and his first post-war roles showed him as tougher and less good natured than his roles before the war, time mellowed him, and by the end of his career he was much the same as when he was a young man. Neither Hanks nor Stewart could ever play a villain convincingly, but Hanks proved he could do serious drama in Saving Private Ryan, and those qualities he displayed would work very well in a Western.
Actors like Brad Pitt, Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, and some of the young guys all could do well. Pitt and Crowe are both good riders and look very natural in their westerns, and the western is a good way to keep from being typecast.
Another western worth remaking,The Ballad of Cable Hogue(1970). Starred Jason Robards,with supporting roles from Stella Stevens,RG Armstrong,who was in many,many westerns,Strother Martin,the consumate character actor,and Gene Evans,another great character actor.
I grew up on western tv series and movies. The 'indians' were always the savage baddies. The first film I saw that made me think differently was 'Soldier Blue' shortly followed by 'Little Big Man'.
Long before those two films was "Broken Arrow" (1950), which presented a more positive portrayal of the Apaches. James Stewart and Jeff Chandler starred, with a good supporting cast. Some historical inaccuracies and added Hollywood sub-plots, but based on a true story and considered a bit groundbreaking at the time.
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