The American West at the close of the 19th century was a land of contradiction. Progress-minded business men, pioneers intent on building a home,...
Shattered Dreams and Broken Trails
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Western Movies
PBS Cowboys Up with Texas Ranch House
When freelance producer Luis Barreto presented his idea for a hands-on history PBS series to Craig Carter, the cowboy-wrangler told Barreto he was...
The Searchers at 50
The Searchers is a surprisingly complex film, even by today’s standards. A film widely considered to be the greatest Western ever made turns 50 this...
Starring the Cowboys of America
Deming, New Mexico, recently rounded up its cowboys to celebrate the rediscovery of a classic feature-length color documentary, The Cowboy, produced...
Stark Visions of Frontier History
Last year marked the first time since Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves (1990) that a Western was at the center of a broad and often contentious...
Zorro Makes its Mark
For a guy who never existed, Zorro has had quite a year. April saw the publication of Zorro, the first serious fictional treatment of America’s...
Walking the Line – Johnny Cash Biopic
When watching a movie, sometimes it’s easy to forget that those are real people behind the roles. They bring to their characters their own...
Keepin’ Our Love Alive and Kickin’
A box of Quaker Oats was the first product endorsement by the King of the Cowboys, and ever since 1943, he has lent his name and smiling face to cap...
Pistolero Pasta
A bit of mystery surrounds the once popular genre of films, indelicately called Spaghetti Westerns during their heyday. For many years, a trilogy of...
Spielberg’s Western Saga
Already TNT is promoting its summer miniseries Into the West as a historically accurate saga that will tell both sides of the American frontier. Of...
Bad to the Bone
Deadwood’s real Ellis Alfred “Al” Swearengen was every bit as evil and ill-tempered as HBO Deadwood’s reel Al Swearengen, who is played by Ian...
“The Devil Always Gets the Best Lines”
There’s something comforting about being on Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch, up in Newhall, California. Passing through the gate and onto the lot, there’s...