My LOWCW Tag 2024 Answers

The LOWCW Tag 2024 

This year, our tag asks bloggers to share a western that you think matches a specific vibe or aesthetic.  It's kind of a fun challenge, and I had a great time figuring these out!

Cozy: Shane (1953)

Yes, Shane is a movie about a gunfighter (Alan Ladd) who ends up in an iconic showdown with a creepy villain (Jack Palance).  But it's also about a lonely man being basically adopted by a farming family (Van Heflin, Jean Arthur, Brandon De Wilde).  It has some of the coziest scenes of any western, with family meals, community dances, and more.

Gritty: Hour of the Gun (1967)

This is not your usual Classic Hollywood portrayal of Wyatt Earp as a larger-than-life hero who never makes mistakes or does anything questionable.  James Garner turns in a rattlesnake-like performance as Earp, all deadly venom and menace.  His Wyatt Earp makes Doc Holliday (Jason Robards) look cuddly by comparison.

Serious: 3:10 to Yuma (1957)

Nobody in 3:10 to Yuma (1957) is having a good day.  Rancher Dan Evans (Van Heflin) needs money to buy water rights to keep his cattle alive.  Outlaw Ben Wade (Glenn Ford) has just been captured and is on his way to the state prison in Yuma, AZ.  Everyone else in the film is locked in a life-or-death struggle trying to either get him on that train to Yuma, or keep him off it.  It's a tense, taut, delicious battle-of-the-wills wrapped in beautiful cinematography, with mesmerizing performances from its stars at the center of everything.

Comedic: Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)

A drifter (James Garner) passes through a gold-mining boomtown on his way to Australia and winds up becoming the new sheriff, with a town drunk for a deputy (Jack Elam), and the mayor's daughter (Joan Hackett) for a love interest.  It's a loving spoof of westerns, made by people who wrote, directed, and acted in many of them.

Romantic: Angel and the Badman (1947)

Wounded wanted man Quirt Evans (John Wayne) is taken in by a Quaker family and nursed back to health.  Their daughter Penelope (Gail Russell) falls for Quirt, and the question becomes whether he can change his ways to be worthy of her, or whether she's going to get her heart broken.

Lively: The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975)

A card sharp (Bill Bixby) tries to care for three orphans who inherited a gold mine and keep them out of trouble.  A stagecoach driver (Susan Clark), two inept outlaws (Don Knotts and Tim Conway), and the sheriff (Henry "Harry" Morgan) take turns helping or hindering him, as the case may be.

Unpredictable: Fort Dobbs (1958)

A man on the run (Clint Walker) tries to take a ranch wife (Virginia Mayo) and her son (Richard Eyer) to safety at Fort Dobbs, through land filled with angry Comanche war parties.  It's a tense, twisting narrative with a lot of unexpected zigs and zags to the story.

Hopeful: Gunfight in Abilene (1967)

By the end of the movie, you get the sense that Civil War Veteran Cal Wayne (Bobby Darin) and his sweetheart Amy (Emily Banks) have a real chance of living happily ever after now that they've put the past (and some enemies) to rest.

Joyful: Calamity Jane (1953)

This story about Calamity Jane (Doris Day) and Wild Bill Hickok (Howard Keel) has zero historical accuracy, but that doesn't matter at all because it's such a high-energy bundle of fun!  Jane makes friends, loses friends, makes enemies, defeats enemies, falls into and out of and into love, and sings a whole barrel of jolly songs along the way.

Adventurous: Across the Great Divide (1976)

Two orphans (Heather Rattray and Mark Edward Hall) insist on crossing the Rocky Mountains to reach the land they're to inherit in Oregon.  They have a series of exciting adventures and escapes along the way, and are alternately helped and hindered by a drifting gambler (Robert Logan).

There we have it!  Another LOWCW tag in the bag.  Spot any favorites here?  Find any new titles you'd like to watch sometime?

Don't forget to enter my western movie giveaway before the end of the week!  If you want to do this tag yourself, you can find a clean copy of the prompts in my kick-off post.