Old Westerns

Kris and I have been watching old westerns in the evenings on our computer. Walmart had some DVD's that had 20 westerns for ninety nine cents. For this price most are really old or really bad. Two or three will be okay and one will be pretty good. We pop popcorn and sit infront of the small screen and thoroughly enjoy ourselves despite poor acting, poor picture quality and dialogue that is stilted and predictable.

The westerns fall into three types: Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and John Wayne films from the 1930's, made for TV pilot shows from the early 60's(shows bad enough they didn't make it as a series), and spagetti westerns. For you young'ns thet don't know what a spagetti western is, these were westerns made in Italy. Clint Eastwood made these noir type westerns famous with "Fist Full of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More", and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. You don't get these for 99 cents. You get lesser known and lesser quality movies instead.

I like the old movies the best. Back in the fifties these were on TV on Saturday afternoons. Roy and Gene had great horses and always sang. Both had leading ladies that were never actually kissed but you could tell they were "sweet on 'em". Every movie followed the same pattern and you knew who the good guys were by the color of their hats. There were lots of fights but no-one ever got hurt seriously. Everyone looked up to Gene and Roy (despite their tendency to burst into song) and I couldn't wait for Saturday afternoon. Great character actors like Gabby Hayes, Chill Wills, Andy Devine provided comic relief from the serious predicaments Gene and Roy found themselves in every week. You got to know these people and the movies were comfortable and made you feel good.

The spagetti westerns screwed all this up and maybe screwed up movies forever. In the spagetti western, the worst bad guy was the hero. Shoot first and shoot a lot of people innocent or guilty but shoot a lot of them-- especially kids and women. Instead of singing cowboys, the music was erie and added to the surrealistic mood of the movie. Everyone in the movie was sinister and the most sinister was your hero.

Road Warrior with Mel Gibson, Water World with Kevin Costner and the Dirty Harry series were just continuations of this same dark theme. It permeates a lot of todays movies and I don't think they are as entertaining. It seems like they want to stomp out any goodness you had in you when you started watching.

I fancy myself to be more like Gene and Roy(except for the singing). I have a white hat, a girl I'm sweet on and a good horse. Aw Shucks.