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Reviews - a trio of Westerns...
Dec. 4th, 2018 10:00 amDays Without End - Sebastian Barry
Book club book that I finally made time to finish and it was well worth it. As usual I got it from the library. I don't feel the need to own it but I'd grab it secondhand or in a fancy edition, and I will definitely read more by the author. I think the book club conclusion was that it could be read on many levels, each to his own. I read it as an alt-Western. It was everything that pulls me towards Westerns - the aching and unknown beauty of the land vs the darkness it takes to own it. The descriptions of the landscape around them are beautiful. Then you get a taste of the pure grimness of it all on the frontiers and in the wars. But it's all held together with the beauty of humanity. Very good, can recommend.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs - Coen Brothers
Netflix film. Netflix had in fact kept telling me to watch it but I hadn't grokked that it was a Coen Brothers film. It's a series of short stories based on Frontier Americana and veers from the sublime to the ridiculous. I wasn't taken by the first vignette with the sing gunman, except it ended dark so I carried on. And the rest of the stories are worth the watch as they really are quite deep and thought provoking. Plus a dash of Coen Brothers weird.
Dead Man - Jim Jarmusch
Sold this to a loved one as an anti-Western with Johnny Depp. Which seemed to do the trick. It's my go-to movie in times of woe, so I've probably already reviewed it. But anyway, a Western with Willaim Blake and a Neil Young soundtrack. And a lot of excellent cinematography. And it's always very gratifying when people like your film choices.
Book club book that I finally made time to finish and it was well worth it. As usual I got it from the library. I don't feel the need to own it but I'd grab it secondhand or in a fancy edition, and I will definitely read more by the author. I think the book club conclusion was that it could be read on many levels, each to his own. I read it as an alt-Western. It was everything that pulls me towards Westerns - the aching and unknown beauty of the land vs the darkness it takes to own it. The descriptions of the landscape around them are beautiful. Then you get a taste of the pure grimness of it all on the frontiers and in the wars. But it's all held together with the beauty of humanity. Very good, can recommend.
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs - Coen Brothers
Netflix film. Netflix had in fact kept telling me to watch it but I hadn't grokked that it was a Coen Brothers film. It's a series of short stories based on Frontier Americana and veers from the sublime to the ridiculous. I wasn't taken by the first vignette with the sing gunman, except it ended dark so I carried on. And the rest of the stories are worth the watch as they really are quite deep and thought provoking. Plus a dash of Coen Brothers weird.
Dead Man - Jim Jarmusch
Sold this to a loved one as an anti-Western with Johnny Depp. Which seemed to do the trick. It's my go-to movie in times of woe, so I've probably already reviewed it. But anyway, a Western with Willaim Blake and a Neil Young soundtrack. And a lot of excellent cinematography. And it's always very gratifying when people like your film choices.
