Westerns

High Plains Drifter

Clint Eastwood's second film as a director (and his first Western) is a variation on the "man with no name" theme, starring Eastwood as the drifter known only as "the Stranger." He rides into the desert town of Lagos and is quickly attacked by three gunmen. Recovering with the aid of a local dwarf (a memorable role for Billy Curtis), the Stranger is hired by the intimidated townsfolk to fend off a band of violent ex-convicts. After teaching the citizens self-defense and instructing them to paint the entire town red and rename it "Hell," the Stranger vanishes. He reappears when the marauding criminals arrive, and delivers justice and teaches the townsfolk a harsh lesson about moral obligation. Is he a figure from their past or a kind of supernatural avenger? Combining humor with action, High Plains Drifter is both a serious and tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Westerns that made Eastwood a household name. --Jeff Shannon

The Quick and the Dead

Director Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead) tries gamely to recapture the exotic mysteries of spaghetti Westerns in this stylish but empty film, which stars Sharon Stone as a stranger who comes to the town of Redemption in time for an annual shooting contest. Her real motivations for being there are the stuff that might have found their way into a film by Sergio Leone--in fact, much of this film is a pastiche of Leone's greatest hits, including A Fistful of Dollars and Once upon a Time in America--but one can't quite believe Stone in the role. Gene Hackman gives a predictably solid performance as the town tyrant, and Leonardo DiCaprio is good as a lucky young gunslinger who gets to kiss the heroine. But not even the cast can help this failed project. Raimi brings a lot of razzle-dazzle to his camera work, but it doesn't make the film any more substantial. --Tom Keogh

A mysterious young woman shows up at a fight-to-the-finish gunslinger contest to seek revenge for her father's death years earlier.
Genre: Westerns
Rating: R
Release Date: 2-MAY-2006
Media Type: DVD

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Clint Eastwood portrays the invincible "Man With No Name" in a lethal pursuit of $200000 in Confederate money. Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach also star in this renowned western. Year: 1966 Director: Sergio Leone Starring: Clint Eastwood Lee Van Cleef Eli WallachSystem Requirements:Starring: Clint Eastwood Lee Van Cleef Aldo Guiffre and Mario Brega Director: Sergio Leone Produced by Alberto Grimaldi; written by Age Scarpelli Luciano Vincenz; running time of 161 minutes; Closed Captioned. Copyright: 1966 Metro Goldwyn Mayer 14 Minutes of footage never seen before in the U.S. Trivia and Production Notes Original Theatrical Trailer Dual Layer: the entire 161-minute feature on one side of the disc Widescreen Version: theatrical release format Enhanced for widescreen TVs Dolby Digital in English French and Spanish Subtitles in English French and Spanish Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: R UPC: 027616672926 Manufacturer No: 906729

Clint Eastwood (the Man with No Name) is good, Lee Van Cleef (Angel Eyes Sentenza) is bad, and Eli Wallach (Tuco Benedito Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez) is ugly in the final chapter of Sergio Leone's trilogy of spaghetti westerns (the first two were A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More). In this sweeping film, the characters form treacherous alliances in a ruthless quest for Confederate gold. Leone is sometimes underrated as a director, but the excellent resolution on this digital video disc should enhance appreciation of his considerable photographic talent and gorgeous widescreen compositions. Ennio Morricone's jokey score is justifiably famous.

For A Few Dollars More

A ringing instance of a sequel far outstripping its predecessor, Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More takes the lethal antihero from A Fistful of Dollars, gives him both a rival and an adversary worthy of sharing a gun-blazing corrida, and ratchets up the stylization to something approaching grandeur. This time the Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood) is a bounty hunter whose desert Southwest killing ground is suddenly crowded by the presence of an older, black-clad shootist (Lee Van Cleef). Individually and together, they terminate sundry grotesques while closing in on their biggest quarry, a memorably insane bandit called El Indio (Gian Maria Volonté is brilliant). There's just enough plot to imbue Van Cleef with genuine mystery, a dark avenging angel from a lost past whose pull would supply the emotional core of Leone's later masterworks Once upon a Time in the West and Once upon a Time in America. Leone's bravura widescreen compositions are breathtaking, and Ennio Morricone's music score--tinged with lunatic religiosity--is his first great one. --Richard T. Jameson

"The leading icon of a generation" (Roger Ebert) Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood continues his trademark role as the legendary "Man with No Name" in this second installment of the famous Sergio Leone trilogy. Scripted by Luciano Vincenzoni and featuring Ennio Morricones haunting musical score For A Few Dollars More is a modern classic -- one of the greatest westerns ever made. Eastwood is a keen-eyed quick-witted bounty hunter on the bloody trail of Indio the territorys most treacherous bandit. But his ruthless rival Colonel Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef High Noon) is determined to bring Indio in first... dead or alive! Failing to capture their prey -- or eliminate each other -- the two are left with only one option: team up or face certain death at the hands of Indio and his band of murderous outlaws.Starring: Clint Eastwood Lee Van Cleef Gian Maria Volante Marla Krup Luigi Pistilli Klaus KinskiDirector: Sergio LeoneProduced by Alberto Grimaldi; written by Luciano Vincenzo; DVD released on 07/28/1998; running time of 131 minutes; Closed Captioned. Copyright: 1965 MGMFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating:  UPC: 027616627124 Manufacturer No: 906271

A Fistful of Dollars

A Fistful of Dollars launched the spaghetti Western and catapulted Clint Eastwood to stardom. Based on Akira Kurosawa's 1961 samurai picture Yojimbo, it scored a resounding success (in Italy in 1964 and the U.S. in 1967), as did its sequels, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The advertising campaign promoted Eastwood's character--laconic, amoral, dangerous--as the Man with No Name (though in the film he's clearly referred to as Joe), and audiences loved the movie's refreshing new take on the Western genre. Gone are the pieties about making the streets safe for women and children. Instead it's every man for himself. Striking, too, was a new emphasis on violence, with stylized, almost balletic gunfights and baroque touches such as Eastwood's armored breastplate. The Dollars films had a marked influence on the Hollywood Western--for example, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch--but their most enduring legacy is Clint Eastwood himself. --Edward Buscombe

A mysterious gunman (Eastwood) has just arrived in San Miguel a grim dusty border town where two rival bands of smugglers are terrorizing the impoverished citizens. A master of the "quick-draw" the stranger soon receives offers of employment from each gang. But his loyalty cannot be bought; he accepts both jobs...and sets in motion a plan to destroy both groups of criminals pitting one against the other in a series of brilliantly orchestrated set-ups showdowns and deadly confrontations.System Requirements:Starring: Clint Eastwood Marianne Koch John Wels W. Lukschy S. Rupp and Joe Edger. Directed By: Sergio Leone Running Time: 110 Mins. Color This film is presented in both "Widescreen" and "Standard" formats. Copyright 1999 MGM Home Entertainment Inc.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: R UPC: 027616785824 Manufacturer No: 907858

From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money

B-movie mavens turned A-list genre fiends Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino teamed up in 1996 to take vampire gothic south of the border into spaghetti Western territory for the gory cult film From Dusk Till Dawn. The high-concept mix of southwestern criminals versus supernatural nasties proved too irresistible for either of the video-hound creators to allow it to remain dead (or undead, as the case may be), so they plotted and produced a pair of direct-to-video sequels. Tarantino takes a story credit on the first, a heist film coscripted and directed by Scott Speigel. A Mexican bank robbery helmed by drawling criminal Robert Patrick (Terminator 2) turns into a literal bloodbath when his crew are turned into hungry bloodsuckers. Speigel, a buddy of Sam Raimi, tops both Tarantino and Rodriguez for sheer cinematic acrobatics, putting his camera in the most absurd places (even from inside the mouth of a vampire chomping down on a victim) and driving the film with adrenaline-charged overkill, but despite some clever scenes and a hilarious Psycho spoof, it turns into another aggressively trashy latex-mask and rubber-bat gorefest as cops and robbers team up against the fanged gang. Bo Hopkins costars as the police detective dogging Patrick's trail. Bruce Campbell and Tiffani-Amber Thiessen make cameos in the jokey opening sequence and Speigel and fellow director Kevin Smith briefly appear as vampire bait. Bartender Danny Trejo is the only returning cast member. --Sean Axmaker

Get ready for nonstop action when a bank-robbing gang of misfits heads to Mexico with the blueprints for the perfect million-dollar heist! But when one of the key crooks wanders into the wrong bar ... and crosses the wrong vampire ... the thieving cohorts one by one develop a thirst for blood to match their hunger for money! Ultimately, the last fully human burglar (Robert Patrick -- THE FACULTY, STRIPTEASE, TERMINATOR 2) is forced to join with his arch rival, a Texas sheriff (Bo Hopkins -- PHANTOMS, THE NEWTON BOYS, U-TURN), in an action-packed, kill-or-be-killed battle to stop these evil creatures and save their own lives!

Near Dark

The word "vampire" is never mentioned in Near Dark, but that doesn't stop this 1987 cult favorite from being one of the best modern-era vampire films. It put then-unknown director Kathryn Bigelow on Hollywood's radar and gave choice roles to Aliens costars favored by Bigelow's ex-husband James Cameron: Lance Henriksen is the leader of a makeshift family of renegade bloodsuckers, nocturnally seeking victims in rural Oklahoma; his immortal gal pal is Aliens and Terminator 2 alumnus Jenette Goldstein; and Bill Paxton is the group's deadliest leather-clad ass kicker. Fellow traveler Jenny Wright lures Okie farm boy Adrian Pasdar into the group with a love bite, and he's soon turning toward vampirism with a combination of frightened revulsion and relentless desire. With Joshua Miller (River's Edge) as the youngest vampire, Near Dark is Bigelow's masterpiece of low-budget ingenuity--a truck-stop thriller that begins well, gets better and better (aided by a fine Tangerine Dream score), and goes out in a blaze of glory. --Jeff Shannon

Rancho Deluxe

A quirky and sneakily funny delight from the mid-'70s, this oddball comedy stars Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterston as a pair of modern cattle rustlers who have targeted a local rancher--and then steal his herd one cow at a time. The rancher (Clifton James) can't figure out who's stealing his cows, so he hires an elderly detective (Slim Pickens) to solve the mystery. Directed by Frank Perry from a deliciously dry script by Thomas McGuane, the film offers a startlingly varied cast that includes Elizabeth Ashley, Harry Dean Stanton, and Richard Bright, with an engaging soundtrack by Jimmy Buffett (who also shows up in the film). Watch it just to find out who Bob Dog is. --Marshall Fine

Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterston star as an oddball team of modern-day cattle rustlers in this quirky, inventive portrait of the no longer wild West (Newsweek). If you're ready for a little not-so-innocent frontier fun, for 'some desire under the elms...some smoldering glances at the OK Corral, then head straight for Rancho Deluxe. Montana's Big Sky country is the setting for this whacked-out western that literally litters the landscape with the crazed descendants of those hardy pioneers whose covered wagons have been replaced by ubiquitous pickup trucks (LA Herald-Examiner). Among these deviated denizens are Slim Pickens as a crafty old stock detective, Harry DeanStanton and Richard Bright as a pair of clumsy cowhands and Clifton James and Elizabeth Ashley as abored couple from Schenectady who bought their ranch with the profits from a chain of beauty parlors.

Near Dark

The word "vampire" is never mentioned in Near Dark, but that doesn't stop this 1987 cult favorite from being one of the best modern-era vampire films. It put then-unknown director Kathryn Bigelow on Hollywood's radar and gave choice roles to Aliens costars favored by Bigelow's ex-husband James Cameron: Lance Henriksen is the leader of a makeshift family of renegade bloodsuckers, nocturnally seeking victims in rural Oklahoma; his immortal gal pal is Aliens and Terminator 2 alumnus Jenette Goldstein; and Bill Paxton is the group's deadliest leather-clad ass kicker. Fellow traveler Jenny Wright lures Okie farm boy Adrian Pasdar into the group with a love bite, and he's soon turning toward vampirism with a combination of frightened revulsion and relentless desire. With Joshua Miller (River's Edge) as the youngest vampire, Near Dark is Bigelow's masterpiece of low-budget ingenuity--a truck-stop thriller that begins well, gets better and better (aided by a fine Tangerine Dream score), and goes out in a blaze of glory. --Jeff Shannon

From Dusk Till Dawn

From a match made in heaven comes a movie spawned in hell! Young hotshot director Robert Rodriquez (El Mariachi, Desperado) teamed up with Pulp Fiction auteur Quentin Tarantino (offering his services as writer and co-star) to make this outrageous, no-holds-barred hybrid of high-octane crime and gruesome horror. QT plays Richard Gecko, a borderline psychopath who breaks his career-criminal brother, Seth (George Clooney), out of prison, after which they rob a bank and leave a trail of dead and wounded in their bloody wake. Then they hijack a mobile home driven by a former Baptist minister (Harvey Keitel) who quit the church after his wife's death and hit the road with his two children (played by Juliette Lewis and Ernest Liu). Heading to Mexico with their hostages, the infamous Gecko brothers arrive at the Titty Twister bar to rendezvous for a money drop, but they don't realize that they've just entered the nocturnal lair of a bloodthirsty gang of vampires! With not-so-subtle aplomb, Rodriguez and Tarantino shift into high gear with a nonstop parade of gore, gunfire, and pointy-fanged mayhem featuring Salma Hayek as a snake-charming dancer whose bite is much worse than her bark. If you're a fan of Tarantino's lyrical dialogue and pop-cultural wit, you'll have fun with the road-movie half of this supernatural horror-comedy, but if your taste runs more to exploding heads and eyeballs, sloppy entrails and morphing monsters, the second half provides a connoisseur's feast of gross-out excess. Bon appétit! --Jeff Shannon