Movie Moxie Podcast 20: True Grit & Westerns as a Genre

On this weeks episode and last of 2010 Shannon the Movie Moxie takes a look at the latest from the Coen Brothers with the release of True Grit, as well as westerns as a film genre and looks back a bit at 2010 as a whole.

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0:00 – 1:45 – Introduction
1:45 – 5:15 - News
5:15 – 15:45 – True Grit Review
15:45 – 17:25 – Listener Feedback
17:25 –52:30 – Westerns as a Genre
52:30 – 54:00 – DVD releases – And Soon the Darkness
54:00 – 1:03:30 – Looking back at 2010
1:03:30 – 1:04:59 – Outro

Show Notes

• 2010 Cast Awards put together by James McNally of Toronto Screen Shots
• Year End Wrap Up - Women Writers Speak over at Women & Hollywood
• True Grit review
• I mention Kevin and the Tuning In To SciFi Podcast
• I mention Blake of Bitchin' Film Reviews
• I mention Univarn of A Life in Equinox
• I mention Kurt from Row Three & Twitch
  
• And Soon the Darkness (2010) Review
• Dec 28, 2010 DVD releases

2010 Lists & Challenges Mentioned

• 2010 New Faces and Ones to Watch List
• 2010 Reading Wrap Up Post and 2010 Book to Film Challenge
• 2010 Owned/Unseen Challenge
• Sword & Sandals Marathon
• Wolfathon
• I mention my current 101 in 1001 to see list (and my original, completed list as well)

Upcoming Lists

• Favourite/Best of List (this week)
• Favourite Movie Memories (this week)
• 2011 Book to Film Play-Along Challenge (next week - get your recommendations in if you have any!)

Westerns as a Genre Show Notes

• Westerns as defined by Wikipedia "The Western is a genre of art that may be found in film, television, radio, literature, painting and other visual arts. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 but most are set between the end of the American Civil War (1865) and the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. There are also a number of films about Western-type characters in contemporary settings, such as Junior Bonner set in the 1970s and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada in the 21st century. Westerns often portray how primitive and obsolete ways of life confronted modern technological or social changes. This may be depicted by showing conflict between natives and settlers or U.S. Cavalry or between cattle ranchers and farmers ("sodbusters"), or by showing ranchers being threatened by the onset of the Industrial Revolution. American Westerns of the 1940s and 1950s emphasize the values of honor and sacrifice.[citation needed] Westerns from the 1960s and 1970s often have a more pessimistic view, glorifying a rebellious anti-hero and highlighting the cynicism, brutality and inequality of the American West. Despite being tightly associated with a specific time and place in American history, these themes have allowed Westerns to be produced and enjoyed across the world."

• 2010 Westerns: True Grit (2010), The Good, the Bad, the Weird, Gunless, Jonah Hex, also The Warrior’s Way (no Toronto release)
• Recent Westerns: Appaloosa, 3:10 to Yuma (2007), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Sukiyaki Western Django, The Proposition, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and with Brokeback Mountain
• Not really westerns, but close in terms of feel: No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood
• Space Westerns: Outland, Serenity
• Shannon's Faves: The Good the Bad and The Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 3:10 to Yuma (1957) and Shane
• See my 2007 Westerns Exploration
• High Noon on Wikipedia for contextualization
• See All Westerns Reviewed Here
• The one that got away - I forgot to mention The Wild Bunch (probably because it ticked me off so I turned it off!). I also forgot Oklahoma! the musical western - great film!
  

Recommended Westerns from Twitter Folk & Facebook Friends:

• Unforgiven, The Outlaw Josey Wales, High Plains Drifter, Pale Rider, The Searchers, Silverado, The Good, The Bad The Ugly, Shane, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, Fistful of Dollars, Stagecoach, High Noon, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Shootist, Tombstone, The Quick and the Dead, Lonestar, The Proposition, Blazing Saddles, Fievel Goes West, My Name is Nobody and The Great Silence

IMDB Top 50 Westerns (as of Dec 28, 2010)
1. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
2. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
3. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
4. True Grit (2010)
5. The Wind (1928)
6. Unforgiven (1992)
7. For a Few Dollars More (1965)
8. The Gold Rush (1925)
9. High Noon (1952)
10. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
11. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943)
12. The Wild Bunch (1969)
13. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
14. Rio Bravo (1959)
15. The Searchers (1956)
16. The Emigrants (1971)
17. Per un pugno di dollari (1964)
18. Dances with Wolves (1990)
19. Hud (1963)
20. Stagecoach (1939)
21. Red River (1948)
22. My Darling Clementine (1946)
23. The New Land (1972)
24. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)
25. Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
26. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
27. The Gunfighter (1950)
28. Destry Rides Again (1939)
29. The Great Silence (1968)
30. The Magnificent Seven (1960)
31. The Big Country (1958)
32. Winchester '73 (1950)
33. Shane (1953)
34. Way Out West (1937)
35. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
36. Dead Man (1995)
37. Blazing Saddles (1974)
38. The Mark of Zorro (1940)
39. 3:10 to Yuma (1957)
40. Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
41. Giant (1956)
42. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
43. Little Big Man (1970)
44. Johnny Guitar (1954)
45. Giù la testa (1971)
46. The Shootist (1976)
47. Fort Apache (1948)
48. Tombstone (1993)
49. The Westerner (1940)
50. El Dorado (1966)