Westerns - Page 67

Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Brand: TCFHE Model: 024543075424 Color: Color

A Texas Ranger and a fugitive gambler stop white renegades running guns and liquor. Directed by Michael Curtiz.

Manufacturer: Sterling Ent Brand: Pacific International Enterprises/Sterling

""Windwalker" was voted the #1 Anthropological Film of all time." A splendid adventure for family viewing, Windwalker has the distinction of being named the #1 anthropological film of all time in an early 1990s poll of the American Anthropological Association. It's not particularly distinguished in terms of its filmmaking, but this authentic Native American tale is told with exciting vitality and careful attention to details of culture, language, costuming, and age-old traditions. The title character (convincingly played by British actor Trevor Howard) is an aged and dying Cheyenne warrior who, as a young husband and father (played by James Remar in flashbacks), watched helplessly as his wife was killed and one twin son kidnapped by Crow invaders. On his deathbed, he is spiritually revived to solve the mystery of his missing son, and in doing so sets his "windwalker" path to a peaceful afterlife. Featuring an abundance of natural beauty in the mountains of Utah and utilizing sparse, subtitled dialogue spoken in authentic Cheyenne and Crow languages, the film may be too intense for very young viewers (with scenes of PG-rated violence involving enemy warriors, wolves and a bear), but it's essential viewing for anyone interested in Native American cultural history. Independently distributed in 1980 by the Christian family-film company Pacific International Enterprises (whose wholesome founder, Arthur R. Dubs, is profiled in a vintage promo reel included on this DVD), Windwalker was a decade ahead of Dances with Wolves in bringing real, vibrant Indian folklore to a mainstream audience, earning a respectable $18 million at the box office. --Jeff Shannon

Manufacturer: Turner Home Ent Brand: TURNER HM ENTERTAINM

Purgatory (DVD)A lost band of outlaws wanders into a peaceful little town. At first, they mistake the quiet inhabitants of Refuge for easy marks. Then they recognize Doc Holliday, Billy The Kid and Wild Bill Hickok and realize this town is really purgatory, the deciding ground between heaven and hell. Which makes them ... dead.]]> Purgatory is a down-and-dirty Western with a twist The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling would have loved. A band of 19th-century desperadoes, led by the monstrous Blackjack Britton (Eric Roberts), takes a wrong turn while fleeing a posse and rides into an otherworldly, off-the-map town called Refuge. Sedate, almost repressed, and guarded by an unarmed sheriff (Sam Shepard), Refuge is a weird haven of hospitality with no jail, a literate shopkeeper (J.D. Souther), an erudite dandy of a doctor (Randy Quaid), a restless deputy (Donnie Wahlberg), and a beautiful young woman (Amelia Heinle) with no apparent family. In short order, Blackjack figures Refuge is his for the plundering. But the youngest of his gang, the innocent Sonny (Brad Rowe), slowly realizes the town's residents are, in fact, dead legends of the American West--Wild Bill Hickok (Shepard), Doc Holliday (Quaid), Jesse James (Souther), among others--spending a violence-free interim before being taken to Heaven (or Hell if they fail). A purely fun if slightly hokey piece of fanciful adventure, Purgatory's colorful cast plays the whole thing straight and gives this made-for-cable film (directed by Uli Edel of Last Exit to Brooklyn) some exciting, six-gun grit and emotional authenticity. --Tom Keogh

Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD) Brand: Sony

A rancher, a rustler, and a regulator face off in Arthur Penn's eccentric western. As a cover for their horse thievery, a gang of Montana rustlers, led by the laid-back Tom Logan (Jack Nicholson), buys a small farm adjacent to the ranch of their latest target/nemesis, Braxton (John McLiam). When the gang leaves Tom on the farm and heads to Canada for another score, Tom takes a shine both to farming and Braxton's rebellious, strong-willed daughter, Jane (Kathleen Lloyd). The slightly loco Braxton, however, hires the psychopathic regulator Lee Clayton (Marlon Brando) to root out the rustlers. With a series of unorthodox methods (and costumes), Clayton hunts down Logan and his gang one by one, even after Braxton fires him, but Logan isn't about to let Clayton (or Braxton) make him obsolete.

Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Brand: SONY HOME PICTURES ENT. Model: 2289019 Color: color

1994 Oscar(r) Winner: Best Cinematography. Based on the novella by Jim Harrison, this sweeping romantic epic is about the Ludlow brothers--two men (Brad Pitt, Aidan Quinn) in love with the same woman (Julia Ormond). Also starring Anthony Hopkins. Directed by Edward Zwick (The Siege). Screenplay by Susan Shilliday and Bill Wittliff.

Manufacturer: Paramount Brand: Paramount Model: 4970878

The tale of Gil Favor, the trail boss, as he drives cattle across the old west. Along the way they meet up with adventure and drama.

Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Brand: Sony Color: color

Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin headline the top-notch, rip-roaring Western action/adventure, THE PROFESSIONALS. Four soldiers of fortune are hired by a wealthy Texan oil baron (Ralph Bellamy) to rescue his kidnapped wife (Claudia Cardinale), who's been spirited acress the Mexican Border by a band ofmercenaries led by Jesus Raza (Jack Palance). The four rugged professionals, each regarded as a specialist in his selected field - an expert marksman and tracker (Woody Strode), the explosives master(Lancaster), horse handler (Robert Ryan) and one skilled in tactics and weaponry (Marvin) - make their way across the treacherous landscape to retrieve the beautiful kidnappee, but discover all is not what it seems in the explosive climax. Excellent performances from an all-star cast, Maurice Jarre's haunting musical score and surprising plot twists make THE PROFESSIONALS a true classic. THE PROFESSIONALS garnered three Academy Award(r) nominations; two for Richard Brooks (Best Direction and BestA Before The Wild Bunch, there was The Professionals, Richard Brooks's marvelous ode to friendship, loyalty, and disillusionment. It may not have the stylistic bravado or fatalistic doom of the legendary Sam Peckinpah film, but Brooks's storytelling is simple and steady and just as insightful. The difference is Brooks is a lot more optimistic. Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster are buddies who have drifted into oblivion after fighting together in the Mexican Revolution. Marvin, the principled loyalist and munitions expert, lost his wife and his heart. Lancaster, the dynamite expert and unprincipled adventurer, keeps losing his pants. They team up with wrangler Robert Ryan and archer Woody Strode to rescue the beguiling Claudia Cardinale, who has been kidnapped by their old revolutionary buddie Jack Palance. So it's back into bloody Mexico they go on a "mission of mercy" for railroad tycoon Ralph Bellamy, who's paying handsomely for the return of his wife. But nothing is what it seems in this exciting, existential adventure, which was bea...

Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Brand: Warner Bros Model: 4928012 Color: color

Blazing Saddles (BD)]]> Mel Brooks scored his first commercial hit with this raucous Western spoof starring the late Cleavon Little as the newly hired (and conspicuously black) sheriff of Rock Ridge. Sheriff Bart teams up with deputy Jim (Gene Wilder) to foil the railroad-building scheme of the nefarious Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). The simple plot is just an excuse for a steady stream of gags, many of them unabashedly tasteless, that Brooks and his wacky cast pull off with side-splitting success. The humor is so juvenile and crude that you just have to surrender to it; highlights abound, from the lunkheaded Alex Karras as the ox-riding Mongo to Madeline Kahn's uproarious send-up of Marlene Dietrich as saloon songstress Lili Von Shtupp. Adding to the comedic excess is the infamous campfire scene involving a bunch of hungry cowboys, heaping servings of baked beans and, well, you get the idea. --Jeff Shannon