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Friday, July 28, 2023

My Answers to the LOWCW 2023 Tag


It has taken me days to fill this out.  So many good moments to choose from!  I'm so glad we decided to say "a favorite" for these so I didn't have to feel pressure to figure out my one absolute top favorite for any of these, as I would probably never have finished it otherwise.

In other words, get yourself a fresh cup of coffee and a biscuit from the chuckwagon and settle back for a series of pretty thorough answers to these tag questions.

The LOWCW 2023 Tag

Stetson -- a favorite hero moment (i.e. highlighting their character and/or making a pivotal decision, etc) 

There's a moment in The Lone Ranger (2013) at the beginning of the finale when John Reid (Armie Hammer) appears above the crowd on his white horse, which rears up, and the first time I saw that, it was like he slotted into this silhouette in my head that's the shape of A Heroic Man.  It's really hard to describe, but it was like this moment of recognition for me and victory for him, and... I love that moment, because it's when John Reid finally OWNS being The Lone Ranger, and he never looks back from then on.



Petticoat -- a favorite heroine moment (ditto)

There's a tiny moment in The Rare Breed (1966) where Hilary Price (Juliet Mills), her mother Martha (Maureen O'Hara), and cowpuncher Sam Burnett (James Stewart) are transporting the prize Hereford bull Vindicator to Texas.  Vindicator is tied behind the wagon that Martha and Hilary usually ride in on the trip, but on this sunny afternoon, Hilary isn't in the wagon, she is riding on Vindicator's back.  She raised him from a calf and loves him dearly, and she's really struggling to accept that he's been sold and is on his way to his new home, where she will have to leave him.  Most of that struggle is not conveyed to us in words, but in how Hilary behaves toward him, and that's most poignant in the moment when she's riding on his back and lies down on his back and closes her eyes.  The love and trust conveyed in that simple moment get to me every time I watch the movie.



Canteen -- a favorite scene with a leader/mentor 

In my favorite movie, The Man from Snowy River (1982), young Jim Craig (Tom Burlinson) has been accused of stealing a valuable horse from his employer, Mr. Harrison (Kirk Douglas).  Jim loses his job and heads home to the mountains.  There, he encounters a friend of his dad's, the crack rider Clancy (Jack Thompson).  Clancy tells Jim that Mr. Harrison is getting together a lot of riders to recover that valuable horse from the herd of wild horses it has joined.  Jim wants nothing to do with it because he's angry over being falsely accused of theft and fired, but Clancy tells him he should join the search because he's a grown man now, not a sulky kid, basically.  Jim is unconvinced.  Finally, Clancy asks him, "What's the first thing you do when a horse bucks you off?"  Jim says, "You don't let him beat you, you get straight back on."  Clancy nods and says, "Well?"  Jim might not like it, but he knows what he has to do.


That bit of advice, to stand up and try again and not let one fall defeat you is something that has been a real help to me all my life.  My own dad has actually quoted it to me, most memorably the first time I put on a pair of roller skates after breaking my arm while roller skating when I was 12.


Gloves -- a favorite sidekick/friend scene 

This is a scene that hurts and hurts, but it's so agonizingly good that I love it anyway.  In Hour of the Gun (1967), Wyatt Earp (James Garner) has just gunned down a man involved in the murder of Wyatt's brother.  Doc Holliday (Jason Robards) has been sitting silently on his horse watching things go down, but once Wyatt's business is finished, Doc can't be quiet anymore.  He tells Wyatt he's not carrying warrants for arrest, he's carrying hunting licenses.  Doc says Wyatt has no intention of bringing any of these people in alive, he's not working for the law anymore, he's turned vigilante and is carrying out his own little vengeful killing spree.


Wyatt is enraged.  It's the truth, but he can't bear to admit it to himself.  He absolutely refuses to admit anything that Doc is saying is true, and ends up belting his friend across the face.


Doc drops to his knees, the blow having started a horrible coughing fit, as he's slowly dying of tuberculosis.  He coughs and coughs and coughs, and Wyatt instantly switches from rage to compassion and remorse.  It's a gorgeous scene where Doc has the guts to tell his friend the truth, and Wyatt refuses to listen, but then his friendship for Doc overrules his anger.


Canyon -- a favorite western landscape 

I can't decide between Monument Valley and the Grand Tetons.  They both pop up in plenty of westerns, and they are both always completely, achingly gorgeous.

Monument Canyon in The Lone Ranger (2013)

The Tetons in Shane (1953)


Pistol -- a favorite fight scene 

The showdown at the end of A Fistful of Dollars (1964) is everything I want a gunfight to be.  The stakes are as high as possible, with the freedom and peace of a whole town riding on the outcome.  The bad guys are evil, and multitudinous, stacked against one lone hero who won't stay knocked down.  Add in a glorious trumpet theme by Ennio Morricone and you can't lose!



Saddle -- a favorite horse / animal in a western 

He may not be my absolute favorite, but Denny, the horse that Jim Craig rides to glory in The Man from Snowy River, is amazing.  I definitely owe my love of buckskin horses to Denny, and I owe my love of all horses to that film.



Sky -- a favorite ambitious / crazy plan in a western 

The War Wagon (1967) is all about a plan to rob an un-rob-able armored stagecoach filled with gold.  It's a heist film disguised as a western, and it might be part of why I love heist films, now that I think about it.  Taw Jackson (John Wayne) was wrongly convicted of a crime and just got out of prison after serving time for it (oh, and that is another favorite trope of mine!).  He decides to get his revenge on the man who framed him (Bruce Cabot) by gathering a group of oddly talented ne'er-do-wells (Kirk Douglas, Howard Keel, Keenan Wynn, and Robert Walker Jr. -- and no, I am not making that cast up) to help him carry out a very elaborate and detailed plan to rob his nemesis's armored gold-shipment coach.  That's the whole plot of the movie.  And it's a fun, fun ride.



Rifle -- a favorite scene with an antagonist 

Basically any scene from The Magnificent Seven (1960) with the bandit leader Calvera (Eli Wallach) in it, to be honest.  He steals every scene, even out from under the likes of Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner.  If I had to pick one favorite, it would be one from close to the beginning where he is justifying his thieving to some townsfolk, because he is totally convinced he makes absolute sense.  He's not stealing from these villagers because he hates them or he's filled with malice or he wants to take over the world, he's stealing from them to feed the men who follow him, and he's not mean and nasty about it, and that makes him one of the few villains I actually like a little bit.



Chuckwagon -- a favorite meal scene 

In Shane (1953), after Shane (Alan Ladd) uses nothing but his quietly menacing presence to scare their enemies away from their homestead, Joe (Van Heflin) and Marian (Jean Arthur) invite him to eat a meal with them.  While they eat, you get the sense that it has been a long time since Shane shared a meal with a family instead of eating at a boarding house or in some beanery.  He thanks Marian and tells her that this was "an elegant meal, ma'am."  His soft and graceful chivalry in that one line communicates to the audience -- and to Joe and Marian -- that there is a lot of depth to this gunfighter.  That he is more than just another tough guy. 



Badge -- a favorite scene with peace officers / sheriff 

There's a moment in Rio Bravo (1959) that has nothing to do, exactly, with keeping the peace or upholding the law, but it's such a sweet and lovely scene that I have to share it here.  The sheriff (John Wayne), his deputy (Dean Martin), the man who sweeps out the jail (Walter Brennan), and a young gunman (Ricky Nelson) are all holed up in the town jail, guarding one prisoner until the judge can come and try his case.  That prisoner's rich and powerful brother is doing everything he can to get the lawmen to release him, but they are standing firm and refusing.  In the middle of a very tense movie that is going to ratchet up the tension even more before it's through, we get a soft and quiet interlude where Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson sing a couple of songs one evening because you cannot have Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson in a movie together without getting them to sing something.  And because the audience needs a little breather between tense and exciting plot points just as much as the characters do.



Lariat -- a favorite cattle drive /roundup

The climax of Chisum (1970) involves a herd of cattle being driven straight through the main street of a town, with cattle going inside the buildings and smashing stuff up and altogether causing a great deal of mayhem.  It's chaotically glorious in a strange way, and I look forward to it every time I watch the movie.  Not quite a cattle drive or roundup in the usual sense, but very memorable!  I may have drawn inspiration from it for the ending of The Man on the Buckskin Horse, actually.



Hey, look at that!  You made it to the end of this very long post!  Hope your coffee held out.

Don't forget that today is the last day to enter my giveaway!  

16 comments:

  1. I'm with you: If we'd phrased the question as "your favorite [x]" instead of "a favorite [x]," I'd have had a devil of a time answering.

    The War Wagon is such a hoot. I'm trying to decide which Western I want to watch tonight, and I may have to add that one to the candidate pool. :-P

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    1. Olivia, you sound like me last night. I spent like ten minutes staring at my western movie shelves, trying to settle on just what to watch. Finally went with Fort Dobbs, which I watched for the first time a couple months ago and loooooooooooved. Probably going to review it this weekend.

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  2. Yep, that scene with Doc and Wyatt is so painful, but sooo good too.

    Calvera is hilarious! But also menacing when he wants to be.

    Such fun answers.

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    1. Eva, I had a hard time deciding whether to highlight that scene from Hour of the Gun or the one down in Mexico when Doc tells Wyatt not to turn his back on the law completely. Both some glorious.

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  3. I'm so glad you included the favorite meal scene of "Shane". I guess I've watched it so many times I know it by heart (and it keeps warming my heart). Practically all the central topics of the movie are anticipated in that meal scene – Shane's feeling of peace sitting at a table with a family, Shane's and Marian's mutual attraction, Shane's wish to help Joe Starrett, the unfathomable shadows of Shane's probably not so peaceful past when he instinctively reaches for his six shooter gun and his embarrassed expression when he realizes it was just the calf gambolling again, little Joey's admiration... It's a gem of a scene.

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    1. Andrea, you're so right! That meal scene is pivotal.

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  4. I STILL have not created my own blog so please allow me to jot down my tag answers here in the comment section...
    STETSON Shane sacrificing everything he had hoped for to save Joe Starrett's life – shows selflessness, courage (and I tear up every time I watch it)
    PETTICOAT Courageous Olivia de Havilland being supportive to movie and real life father and son Alan and David Ladd in "The Proud Rebel"
    CANTEEN Like some other poster said, every scene between Perkins and Fonda in "Tin Star"
    GLOVES friend scene: Sorry, "Tin Star" again - Morg teaching Owens how to shoot plus tons of other important stuff
    CANYON Sorry, "Shane" again – the Grand Tetons. High up on my bucket list. Would so love to travel to Wyoming...
    PISTOL Sorry, no guns involved and sorry, Shane again: The Barroom Brawl at Grafton's (can't help it, that movie has it all – even the director cheering and shouting (mild) insults during the fight...)
    SADDLE Sorry, dumb movie, but the horse in "Shang-High Noon" steals every scene
    SKY Crazy plan? (Not so) bad guy Glenn Ford actually jumping into the passing train together with Van Heflin in "3:10 to Yuma"
    RIFLE Yes, I know, I shouldn't... but "Shane" again, Shane and Wilson sizing each other up, silently, while Ryker talks to Starrett. Sends shivers of apprehension down your spine.
    CHUCKWAGON Sorry, but the meal scene in "Shane" is absolutely marvelous (Rachel, you have it spot-on)
    BADGE The final shootout in Tin Star (Owens' newfound confidence is impressive) – and yes, I HAVE watched other westerns, lots of them, but I did this very quickly and those were the scenes that came to my mind instantly...
    LARIAT Cattle drive – actually sheep. Back to "Proud Rebel" again: David "Chandler's" (Ladd's) dog Lance is a real pro with sheep. (He doesn't show his skill to just anybody, though.)
    So, there you are – the whole Blogathon was fun, thank you so much!



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    1. Andrea, Shane's final speech to Marian before he leaves is such good character stuff, isn't it? And the sad, weary way he faces down Wilson.

      Olivia de Havilland is so luminous in a quiet way in Proud Rebel, isn't she?

      Tin Star is such a gem! I listened to the soundtrack for like a year while writing One Bad Apple and still am not tired of it.

      I have seen bits of Shanghai Noon, and it looks really fun! I very much enjoy Owen Wilson's comedy, so I should see it.

      Glad you had fun this week!

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    2. Rachel, that final scene between Shane and Marian is wonderful, wonderful stuff. And Alan Ladd conveys sadness and regret in a beautifully understated manner... Olivia de Havilland is gorgeous in The Proud Rebel (an underrated western, I think).
      Tin Star is just one terrific movie, Fonda and Perkins have such great chemistry together. About Shanghai Noon – perhaps I was a bit harsh, Owen Wilson and fish-out-of-water Jackie Chan (learning fast, though) work well together and there are some really funny scenes (and great martial art, of course). Thanks again for co-hosting the "Legends" week! (I guess you still have my address (bookmark set – yay! Thanks for that, too).)

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    3. Andrea, basically every scene in Shane is impossibly good, right?

      I do still have your address, so I sent off your bookmarks a couple days ago!

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  5. I know, so glad we did "one of", took me days to finish too. xD.

    Love your picks for 1 & 3.

    Hour of the Gun looks so good.

    Yay for Monument Valley and the Tetons. <333

    (This is embarrassing, but HOW did I not realize Eli Wallach plays the bad guy in Mag7??? He just looks so different to me from in The Good the Bad and The Ugly.)

    The War Wagon and Chisum are both on my TBW list.

    Loved your answers!

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    1. Heidi, yeah, we were very nice to ourselves, weren't we? ;-)

      Oh my goodness, you NEED to see Hour of the Gun. It is spectacularly good, but in a very serious and intense way.

      Eli Wallach is such a varied actor! And he definitely looks... more authoritative in Mag7, maybe? He wasn't Latino at all, he was Jewish (and from NYC), but he sure played a lot of Mexican bandits -- Mag7, GBU, How the West Was Won... it tripped me out to see him play a normal dude in a suit when I first saw How to Steal a Million!

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  6. Thank you for hosting this even though I was unable to participate. I watched a silent western from 1925 the night before last, Tumbleweeds, with William S. Hart. I watched it out of curiosity, more than anything else, and was surprised to discover it quite moving in places. It was also interesting to see how early many of the western tropes showed up in the movies - but of course we can surmise they came from books - amusingly, there was even a couple of scenes with singing cowboys, lyrics handily provide, in case you wanted to sing along!

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    1. VT, glad you could drop by even if this week was too busy for you to post!

      I have never seen a William S. Hart movie, and now I feel kind of ashamed of myself. I think the only silent western I have seen all of is The Great Train Robbery. Eek! Must rectify that. How funny that they provided lyrics so you could sing with the singing cowboys! That's awesome.

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  7. So fun to read your answers! I almost chose the end gunfight from For a Few Dollars More for my answer to favorite fight, because I love that showdown with the musical watches playing so much. When I read the prompts to my mom, she picked War Wagon for that one too! :-D

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    1. Thanks, DKoren! I do love that final gunfight in For a Few Dollars More too -- so many clever touches in that one.

      High five to your mom for agreeing on War Wagon being a favorite crazy plan in a western!

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