The best Jesse James movie is 2000’s Ride with the Devil, which isn’t about Jesse James. That’s okay because the best George Custer movie is Fort...
The Reel, not Real, Jesse James in Film
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Western Movies
On Location!
Harry Goulding sure didn’t come across as a Hollywood Western hero. But he was. Harry got there by a meandering route, though. In the 1920s, he and...
The Reel, not Real, Jesse James in Film
The best Jesse James movie is 2000’s Ride with the Devil, which isn’t about Jesse James. That’s okay because the best George Custer movie is Fort...
On Location!
Harry Goulding sure didn’t come across as a Hollywood Western hero. But he was. Harry got there by a meandering route, though. In the 1920s, he and...
The Train Man
The producers of the movie Wild, Wild West were looking for some trains. Not just any trains. One had to look like a post-Civil War locomotive...
The Train Man
The producers of the movie Wild, Wild West were looking for some trains. Not just any trains. One had to look like a post-Civil War locomotive...
Books to Film
The Great Train Robbery (1903) started it all. Not only was it the first narrative film ever made, but it was a Western and one based on an 1896...
The Cup-Spinning Scene: How Did They Do It?
The cup-spinning scene in 1993’s Tombstone is still a favorite among Western movie aficionados. When Johnny Ringo shows up at the gaming tables, a...
The Western Godfather
It didn't surprise me that Kurt Russell was willing to go off topic during our interview last April. After all, it was the end of the day and he was...
Larry McMurtry’s Creations
“The West,” Larry McMurtry wrote in his 1968 essay “Southwestern Literature,” “has produced many good books but perhaps, as yet, no great books.”...
“What Fresh Hell is This?”
Those who imagine the Western to be a fundamentally American art form like jazz or comic books would do well to take a closer look at our cousins...
An Untraditional, Quirky Western
Throw in one eclectic filmmaker (Tom Shell), a director who helped give Twin Peaks its creepy edge (Tim Hunter) and an Edgar Award-winning mystery...