For a long time, I thought that I didn’t like westerns. Whatever the reason, this genre just didn’t seem to speak to me personally.
However, in 2018 I decided to do a blog series called “Better Late than Never,” where I started catching up on some classic movies I’d never gotten around to seeing. And one of those was the famous Clint Eastwood western “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.”
To my surprise, I was completely blown away by how amazing this movie was. I was riveted to the screen, and even after it ended, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It made me realize that maybe I’d simply been watching the wrong type of westerns for me.
I loved how “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” both celebrated and deconstructed the western genre, telling the story through a more modern lens than I was expecting. I enjoyed it so much that it made me want to sit down and watch more westerns that had a similar style.
So, I’m starting up the Better Late than Never blog series again, but this time it’s all about westerns! I haven’t nailed down a concrete schedule yet; the movies I’ll watch for this series will probably be determined based on what I can get from my local library and/or what’s available via streaming. I’ll try to get through as many of these movies as I can in January and February, before spring movie season starts getting busy.
Here are the films I’m considering, based on recommendations I’ve heard:
- Tombstone (I actually just watched this one yesterday, so I’m planning on it being my first review in this series)
- Unforgiven
- Young Guns
- Silverado
- Godless (Netflix series)
- The Searchers
- Once Upon a Time in the West
- The Quick and the Dead
- True Grit (2010 version – I have this one already from the library too)
I’m excited to dive a little deeper into a genre that I overlooked for far too long!