Successfully Dating recommends western genre DVD movies that will
help you build a wild west movie library. Our western movie
suggestions will help you find the classics and the notable
movies that you should have, so you can be prepared to pull out an
entertaining movie to watch, at any time, that your dates and
friends will actually want to watch.
Open Range - Released almost exactly 11 years after Clint
Eastwood's Unforgiven, Kevin Costner's Open Range proved yet again
that the Western is the classic American genre. Costner's first
film since 1997 returns the actor/director of Dances With Wolves
to the open prairies of America--in this case the free-range
frontier of 1882--where legal "free-grazing" cattle drives were
falling prey to empire-building land-owners. In the wake of
territorial murder, free-grazing cowboys Boss (Robert Duvall) and
Charley (Costner) seek vengeful justice against the ruthless
rancher (Michael Gambon) who threatens their law-abiding survival.
A feisty ally (the late Michael Jeter, in his next-to-final film
role) and a doctor's sister (Annette Bening) offer support during
climactic shootouts, masterfully staged with the shock and
suddenness of real-life gunfire.
The Alamo - Dispensing with the grandiose myth-making of
previous films on this subject (including John Wayne's gung-ho
1960 version), this well-written film breathes new, credibly
dimensional life into the stodgy legends of Davy Crockett (Billy
Bob Thornton), Jim Bowie (Jason Patric), and Lt. Col. William
Travis (Patrick Wilson), who fought with 185 Anglo-"Texican"
settlers (some historians claim their numbers were closer to 250)
during the bloody 13-day siege by 5,000 Mexican soldiers at the
titular San Antonio mission-turned-fortress in 1836. While Gen.
Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid) anguishes over military strategy and
reluctantly withholds much-needed support, the Alamo defenders
face the unbeatable multitudes commanded by Mexican Gen. Santa
Anna (Emilio Echevarria), and the screenplay (on which John Sayles
was an early contributor, when Ron Howard was slated to direct)
allows the central heroes to reveal a richer, more substantial
humanity beneath their mythic reputations.
Rio Bravo - Basically, it comes down to Sheriff John T.
Chance (Wayne), his sobering-up alcoholic friend Dude (Dean
Martin), the hotshot new kid Colorado (Ricky Nelson), and
deputy-sidekick Stumpy (Walter Brennan), sittin' around in the
town jail, drinkin' black cofee, shootin' the breeze, and
occasionally, singin' a song. Hawks--who, like his pal Ernest
Hemingway, lived by the code of "grace under pressure"--said he
made Rio Bravo as a rebuke to High Noon, in which sheriff Gary
Cooper begged for townspeople to help him. So, Hawks made Wayne's
Sheriff Chance a consummate professional--he may be getting old
and fat, but he knows how to do his job, and he doesn't want
amateurs getting mixed up in his business; they could get hurt.
One deputy (Dean Martin) is a drunk, one (Walter Brennan) is a
cripple and another (Ricky Nelson) is an eager, tinhorn kid. But
Sheriff John Wayne knows he can count on 'em when the bullets fly.
A landmark salute to heroism, directed by Howard Hawks.
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