Time for the promised game! All you have to do is unscramble the following names of fifteen actors famous for starring in westerns. Some starred on the big screen, some on the small screen, and some rode across both. Some are from Hollywood's Golden Era and some are more modern. Put your answers in a comment, and I'll post the answers and everyone's scores on Saturday. I'm putting comments on moderation until then so no one can cheat.
1
Nengl Dorf
2
Ragy Opcore
3
Honj Naywe
4
Smaje Wartset
5
Laan Dald
6
Vetes Quecmen
7
Vinek Cronets
8
Panholdr Tocts
9
Lictn Dowestao
10
Ande Tinram
11
Goryreg Kecp
12
Samej Snares
13
Ory Gorers
14
Khucc Snornoc
15
Majes Ranger
This game is part of the Legends of Western Cinema Week event hosted by myself, Heidi at Along the Brandywine, and Olivia at Meanwhile, in Rivendell.... Click here for my kickoff post, which includes a roster of all participating posts and the tag you can fill out. And don't forget to enter allllllll the giveaways! Here are links to mine, to Olivia's, and to Heidi's.
The very first post I ever did in my Ten Favorites series was a list of westerns. But that was 'way back in 2013, and my list has changed since then. I've seen a lot of westerns in the past six years, plus I fell for Alan Ladd, and um... yeah... a lot has changed. So I'm updating my list! As of July, 2019, these are my ten favorite western movies. Like always, the titles are linked to my full reviews of them where applicable.
1. The Man from Snowy River (1982) A young man from the mountains (Tom Burlinson) must clear his name after he's accused of freeing his employer's most valuable horse in retaliation for being told he can't court the boss's daughter (Sigrid Thornton). It's about Australia, not the American West, but oh well. My favorite movie of all time.
2. The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) Four brothers (including John Wayne and Dean Martin) reunite at their mother's funeral and work together to find out how their parents lost their ranch. My favorite John Wayne movie.
3. The Magnificent Seven (1960) Poor Mexican villagers hire seven gunfighters to defend them from the bandit who's been oppressing them for years. Steve McQueen, Yul Brenner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn... oh man, what a cast. I consider this the finest western ever made.
4. The Lone Ranger (2013) Lawyer John Reid (Armie Hammer) teams up with the renegade Tonto (Johnny Depp) to find out why Reid's brother and five other Texas Rangers were murdered. This is kind of a fantasy-western hybrid, more of a tall tale than a realistic story, just fyi.
5. Rio Bravo (1959) A sheriff (John Wayne), a recovering alcoholic (Dean Martin), an old man (Walter Brennan), and a young gunslinger (Ricky Nelson) fend off a host of bad guys bent on springing a murderer from jail.
6. Slow West (2015) A bounty hunter (Michael Fassbender) joins a young dreamer (Kodi Smit-McPhee) on a quest to find a lovely girl with a price on her head. Like The Lone Ranger, this has a unique vibe that feels more like a legend than a real-life story.
7. Gunfight in Abilene (1967) A Civil War veteran (Bobby Darin) agrees to resume his job as sheriff out of guilt for accidentally killing the brother of the man (Leslie Nielson) who runs Abilene and is all set to marry the veteran's old flame (Emily Banks). My favorite Bobby Darin movie.
8. Branded (1950) A shady loner (Alan Ladd) poses as a rich rancher's missing son to gain a hefty inheritance, only to discover himself falling in love with the family he's intent on swindling. My favorite Alan Ladd movie.
9. Silverado (1985) Four outcasts (Scott Glenn, Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, and Kevin Costner) set out to rid Silverado of the evildoers who sent one of them to prison unjustly, stole another's horse, and debauched another's sister.
10. Shane (1953) A lonesome gunfighter (Alan Ladd) befriends a farmer (Van Heflin) and his family (Jean Arthur and Brandon de Wilde) and realizes he must sacrifice his newfound peace and comfort to keep them safe. The book by Jack Schaefer is also amazing.
I had so much fun updating this, I might start going back through my other "Ten Favorites" lists and seeing if other lists have changed as significantly as this has.
This has been one of my contributions to the Legends of Western Cinema Week event that Olivia, Heidi, and I are hosting this week! Click here for the list of other people's posts and to participate yourself.
Y'all probably know that I love hosting giveaways. It just so happens that both Olivia and Heidi also love hosting them, so we are EACH hosting a giveaway for Legends of Western Cinema Week! Heidi's is here, and Olivia's is here.
As for my giveaway, here are the prizes!
I will choose SEVEN winners, one for each prize. Here's a little more info about the prizes, with some close-up photos of a few items.
1. The Magnificent Seven (1960) on DVD. I consider this the finest western film ever made.
2. A "Cowboys and Indians" candle from True Texas Scents. Here's a closer look at it:
3. A cowboy boot keychain.
4. A gunfighter-themed necklace. I made this myself. Here's a closer look at the charms on it:
5. Hondo (1953), a western movie starring my favorite actor, John Wayne.
6. Two cute packs of stickers, one all feathers and one cowboy gear. Closer look:
7. Three bookmarks themed around the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. One features Wyatt Earp and info about him, one is about the location of the gunfight, and one is about Doc Holliday. Here's a closer look:
This giveaway is open WORLDWIDE! It runs through the end of Friday, July 26, 2019. I will choose the winners on Saturday, July 27, and post them here, as well as notify the winners via the email addresses you provide to the giveaway widgets when you enter.
Please make sure you use an email address you check often. If I don't hear back from you by Saturday, August 3, I will disqualify you and pick a different winner for what was to have been your prize.
The widget will ask you to leave a comment with your choices of prizes. I do not guarantee that, if you win, you will receive one of the prizes you chose. I try to match people up with things they want the best I can, but sometimes I just can't do it. If there's anything you do not want, PLEASE SAY SO in your comment as well.
Don't forget to check out the blog tag and visit all the nifty entries people will be contributing all week. I'll have a top ten list for you tomorrow, a game on Tuesday, and another post or two coming later in the week, including at least one western movie review.
EDIT: Elizabeth Grace Foley is also hosting a giveaway for this event, so be sure to check that out here!
It's officially Legends of Western Cinema Week, the blogging shindig hosted by Heidi of Along the Brandywine, Olivia of Meanwhile, in Rivendell... and myself. We're so glad you're joining us to celebrate western stories of the big and small screen!
As promised, we have a tag that you are welcome to copy to your own blog or website and fill out there. Please remember to link to one of our kick-off posts so your readers can find the party.
~Legends of Western Cinema Week Tag~
1) Do you tolerate, like, or love westerns?
2) What do you enjoy about them and, more broadly, the west itself (e.g. the history, accompanying paraphernalia, etc)?
3) What's the first western you can remember watching?
4) Who are your favorite western stars, the ones whose presence in a western will make you pick it up off the shelf?
5) What's your favorite performance by an actress in a western?
6) What is your "go-to" western, the one you'll typically reach for?
7) Do your family/friends share your interest in westerns, or are you a lone ranger (pun completely intended)?
8) Pick one western to live inside for a week, and explain why you chose it.
9) What are some of your favorite lines from western movies? Are there any you quote regularly?
ALL participating blog posts should get added to this widget, which should (crossing my fingers here) make them all show up on all three host blogs! So if you write a movie review, fill out the tag, or create any other posts for Legends of Western Cinema Week, add each one separately to this widget:
I can't wait to see what all of you come up with for this event! People have signed up to do some pretty amazing posts, I have to say. I myself will be contributing a game, a top ten list, and at least one movie review over the course of the week. Also, Heidi, Olivia, and I are each hosting a giveaway! So you have lots of chances to win cool western-movie-related prizes. More about that in my next post.
Today is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The first time a person stepped onto the surface of a heavenly body other than Earth. An event that, like most things dealing with astronauts and space travel, makes me kind of want to cry.
I can't even watch a video of a NASA launch without getting a lump in my throat, and I'm not sure why. I think it has to do with the people in the shuttle or space ship or whatever is getting launched, and how hard they've worked to get there. How brave they are, the giant risks they're taking, and how brave their families on the ground are being. How many people have worked so long and so precisely to make space travel possible.
Just the idea that we can leave our own atmosphere and travel beyond our planet sort of gathers up all my love of exploration and those who explore, people living inside tiny and confined spaces, and people doing seemingly impossible things. As a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut, at least until I found out how good they all had to be at math. Even after seeing Apollo 13 (1995) and all the things that can go wrong in a space mission, I still had that desire, though I was 15 by then and coming to terms with the fact that I would not be an astronaut, nor would I get to go to astronaut camp.
So today, I'm remembering and honoring all the brave and daring and intelligent men and women who made that first moon landing happen. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins and alllllllll the people on the ground who carried them up to the moon with their collective hopes, dreams, ideas, and knowledge. I hope you're remembering them too.
Michael Fassbender is absolutely the best part of this movie. The directions they go with his character Erik/Magneto delighted me in ways I wasn't expecting. His character arc has been the real joy of the three "young X-men" movies. (I don't count Days of Future Past in that because it's got both the young and mature versions of the characters.)
The rest of the movie? Was okay.
I mean, I liked that they had Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) confront his habit of meddling with people's minds and realize that he's become convinced of his own infallibility. I liked that Hank/Beast (Nicholas Hoult) got some very juicy interior conflict, plus a nice chunk of screen time.
And I liked the ending a lot more than I expected. I can't tell if this is supposed to be the capstone on the series, but I kind of hope it is, because it ended in a really good place and I liked it. I've read that now that Disney bought Fox, this is the last film from Fox with these characters, and I think that would make me happy. Start over fresh in a few years, add them to the MCU, whatever.
Things I disliked? I still don't dig Sophie Turner. And I didn't like how it kind of copied/mirrored parts of Captain Marvel. And there was an effect they used that looked an awful lot like the way people crumbled when "snapped" in the MCU. Like, seriously? Couldn't come up with a fresh image, like exploding into little stars or something? And the villains... were flat.
I didn't love this, but it was ultimately satisfying, and I know I will enjoy watching this again on DVD. If you love the series, or are a Fassbender fan, this is worth seeing in the theater. Especially since it looks like it's the last time we'll see these versions of these characters.
But the absence of Wolverine was keenly felt. By me, anyway.
People, Hugh Jackman is my favorite living actor. My #3 favorite actor of all time. He's very dear to my heart for the roles he chooses, the way he behaves in real life, just his laid-back intensity and evident kindness. And on Monday, I spent two hours in the same room with him. And like a million other people, but hey. We breathed the same air. His words left his mouth and entered my ears without passing through a screen. He made me laugh and cry in real-time.
And he sang my favorite song.
MY FAVORITE SONG OF ALL TIME.
Which is not a song from any movie or any musical he was in. A song I have never connected in any way with him in my mind. A song I had no even vague thought of, "Maybe he'll sing that tonight" because there was no reason he would. No way that would ever happen.
He sang "Mack the Knife." And he sang it the way Bobby Darin sings it. Like, the whole setting, it was so very much Bobby's swingy, sassy, big-band version. He even snapped his fingers. He even did the "Look out, ol' Mackheath is back!" line at the end that is 100% pure Bobby Darin.
I cried. And bounced. And reveled.
That was Bobby Darin's signature song. Hugh Jackman not only knows that song, he clearly knows Bobby Darin's version, and he chose to sing it that way in his concert.
Yup, I'm tearing up all over again.
Someone with a better camera than I am has kindly recorded him singing it and posted it to YouTube, so I can relive my memories of it a little bit, and share with you:
So, um, yeah. Magical evening. Especially because I was there with MY BEST FRIEND!!!
She flew all the way out here to see this show with me, and we had the best time possible.
We had nice seats, not quite centered, but being aslant a little like this let us see eeeeeverything, which was awesome.
I didn't take a ton of photos, which is kind of rare for me, but I knew my phone's camera was too crummy to get any really good pictures, so I chose to just enjoy the moments as they came and not worry too much about trying to capture them. But I did grab one fairly good shot of him singing "Luck be a Lady," which is from my absolute favorite musical, Guys and Dolls.
Hard to tell in that pic, but he's wearing this snappy black fedora and really selling the song :-)
So, as well as I can remember, these are the songs he sang:
"The Greatest Show" (from The Greatest Showman)
"Come Alive" (from The Greatest Showman)
"Gaston" (from Beauty and the Beast)
"When Somebody Loves You"
"Soliloquy" (from Carousel)
"A Million Dreams" (from The Greatest Showman)
"What Have I Done" (from Les Miserables)
"One Day More" (from Les Miserables)
"I Go to Rio" (from Boy from Oz)
"I Honestly Love You" (from Boy from Oz)
"Don't Cry Out Loud" (from Boy from Oz)
"Quiet, Please, There's a Lady Onstage" (from Boy from Oz)
"Tenterfield Saddler" (from Boy from Oz)
"I Got Rhythm"
"Singin' in the Rain"
"Sing, Sing, Sing"
"Luck be a Lady" (from Guys and Dolls)
"Mack the Knife"
"This is Me" (from The Greatest Showman)
"From Now On" (from The Greatest Showman)
"Once Before I Go" (from Boy from Oz)
I'm not solid on the order of all of those, other than the first three and last two. Also, someone else sang "I Dreamed a Dream," which is my favorite song from Les Mis, so that was pretty amazing. And there was a segment with didgeridoos and Aboriginal tribal leaders singing some native Australian such, which was very interesting. But aside from those two, Hugh sang All The Songs. So much singing. So much dancing. Even a little acting thrown in on songs like "Soliloquy" and "What Have I Done," and he reprised his Peter Allen persona from when he was in Boy from Oz on Broadway years ago.
I came away with this solid bit of knowledge: Hugh Jackman LOVES to entertain. Clearly having the time of his life on that stage, holding nothing back, just full-throttle fun times.
So, um, those are my memories and my pictures and yeah, it was an incredible experience and I'm so glad Cowboy said to me, "You have to go. We will make this happen." Thank you, thank you, dear, kind man.
