Re: RARA-AVIS: Great Scott!/ HB-Noir Westerns

From: Etienne Borgers ( freeweb@rocketmail.com)
Date: 11 Mar 2000


I think we already previously discussed here the influence of Noir/HB on Western films.

I'm a firm believer about these links, as most of the time the best Western films were Noir tinted. Also as a "coincidence" often same directors (than for crime Noir), same writers for scripts, same actors
(but this is a long shot,as all depended of Hollywood star system and B production of these days).

If intersested by the subject I liste what I consider the best Westerns of the HB/Noir genre in my website, chapter dedicated to film Noir >>>Noir Neighboors.

Of course there were corny westerns, but also corny crime films, corny comedies... just name them. Strange enough most of best of Westerns are filiated to Noir or HB by atitude, script and even filming.

With less examples, some of very good War films could also be linked .

And remember modern SF films wherein you find also a lot of links (intensively discussed before in RA)

But it's true that Westerns deliver more good examples of the Noir/ HB influence, in top films.

E.Borgers http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384 Hard-Boiled Mysteries

--- Kevin Burton Smith < kvnsmith@colba.net> wrote:

>
> You guys missed the qualifying word--"oater." I
> shouldn't have
> mentioned names. After all, I admit, Scott and the
> Duke made some
> really great films (I love THE SEARCHERS for
> example). But they also
> made a bunch of really corny, overly-simplistic
> cowboy quickies that
> were truly black-and-white, even if some of them
> were in colour. You
> know, oaters. In fact, their careers were based on
> them. (Unless, of
> course, that term now encompasses any and all
> westerns--I just always
> assumed it meant B-flick westerns)...
>
> Far be it from me to snicker at westerns, by the
> way. I still keep my
> cap guns ready, in case them varmints attack. You
> never know....
>
> But, so as to not wander too far off topic, can
> anyone think of some
> of the best hardboiled or noirish westerns. I don't
> just mean violent.
>
> Off the top of my head, I can think of a few:
>
> Hombre
> The Searchers
> The Ox-Bow Incident
> The Unforgiven
> The Wild Bunch
> Maybe some of the early Spaghetti westerns...
> and there was a Walter Hill flick a while back,
> about, I think, the
> James Gang? I can picture the poster, with a bunch
> of them facing the
> camera, in their long coats, on horseback, but I
> can't see the title.
> And Shane, which is a great story, even though the
> film looks like
> the old west had as many drycleaners as cowboys.
>
> I'm sure there are others...

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