What Did You Watch Today?

[King Ellis]

For Westerns: Back to the Future 3.

[stokeriño]

Am currently about an hour into Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) [sky Movies On Demand].

I always knew Westerns were like this, but fuck am I not used to the achingly slow pace that EVERYTHING happens at. >_<

[Hewey]

I've got plenty saved to watch but could always do with more if you've got some ideas.

What do you have? I'll be happy to give you a few more

At some point I want to watch the Dollars trilogy, but at the moment Sky Movies has only the second one available on demand. Like, what the hell?

It's probably because For a Few Dollars More is the lamest of the three (in my opinion, especially with how wonderfully it ends with Good, Bad and Ugly, which is the sort of prequel, either way). Either way, it's still really worth a watch, and it doesn't matter, they're only a trilogy in the sense that Eastwood doesn't have a name in all three and Sergio Leone is the director. In every other way, they're basically standalone movies.

I always preferred For A Few Dollars more over the first one, but that's just me, but all three are really great movies.

[fourstarfizzle]

Finally watched Shut Up And Play The Hits last night, a great documentary on the final 48 hours of LCD Soundsystem's final show at MSG. If only all bands could end on their own terms.

[Kaney]

Yeah, FAFDM is better than the first. Lee Van Cleef is so awesome.

[livid]

The Magnificent Seven Ride, The Lone Ranger (2013), Avenging Angel, The Cowboys, Tombstone, Once Upon a Time In The West, The Bravados, Blaxing Saddles, McCabe and Mrs Miller, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, El Dorado, The Comancheroz, North To Alaska, Hondo and The Gunfighter are what I have at the moment. Adding the Dollars trilogy when it comes up on Sky Movies.

I'd recommend this one first, it's just plain fantastic! I actually haven't seen a bunch of those, of the ones you've listed, I've seen Once Upon a Time, Liberty Vance, El Dorado, the Gunfighter, Blazing Saddles and The Cowboys.

I'd recommend:

High Plains Drifter and The Pale Rider - They're kind of like the Dollars trilogy, in that Eastwood is nameless in both, he's the Stranger in Drifter and the Preacher in Pale Rider, and they both also give Eastwood's character a sort of reverie.

Once Upon a Time... a Revolution - The sequel to Once Upon a Time in the West, James Coburn is amazing in it. Like the Dollars trilogy, though, they're standalone movies.

3:10 to Yuma - I haven't seen the original, but the remake with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe is really fucking good. It's one of those amazing brutal westerns. Kind of overlooked among the recent Westerns.

Winchester '73 - One of Jimmy Stewart's most overlooked westerns. It's all about this prized Winchester '73 rifle because they only made like 100 or something, and how everyone, including Indians, want it.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - I don't think I need to give any reason for this, right? It's like a must-watch if you're into westerns. Robert Redford and Paul Newman are just fucking splendid as a tandem here, I think their chemistry here is better than in the Sting. Plus, Katharine Ross

Unforgiven - Ditto. It's Eastwood's greatest movie. I have a feeling you've seen it, though

Dances with Wolves - I watched this only recently, and was surprised how good it was! Kevin Costner is this soldier who gets stranded alone at a post in the middle of the desert in America, and he starts befriending a tribe of Native Americans, eventually falling in love and being the saviour of them. It's typical white man saves Indians stuff, but it's really good. I've never been a bigger fan of Costner before this.

True Grit - The recent one with Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon and Hailie Steinfield is really good, watch that if you haven't. Then watch the one with John Wayne, because it's even better.

No Country for Old Men - Pretty sure you've seen this too, but it's one of the best movies ever. Watch it again

The Proposition - This is some crazy stuff. It's set in Australia, and has Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone and Danny Huston being absolutely lovely.

Maverick - I think this is my favourite comedy western. It's so silly and not very, very good, but a ton of fun, even if Mel Gibson turned out to be a pleb.

The Magnificent Seven - The American version of Seven Samurai. Really fun, tons of cool stuff.

Nobody - Johnny Depp's best performance, and some really wild stuff here too.

That's what I can think of from glancing about my movies folder. Sorry, it's not much.

It's long and the pace is slow but add The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford to this list as well.

Also, Fury was really good. The plot is pretty predictable but Ayer hit all the right emotional beats and the action is intense.

Edited October 20, 2014 by livid

[Benjamin]

I left out the Assasination of Jesse James and Django because I assume everyone has watched those.

Then again everyone surely has watched the Bridges True Grit, I think.

EDIT: Oh, and for extra fun watch The Good, the Bad and the Weird and also The Warrior's Way. Just leave all sensibility behind and enjoy.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Benkid

[livid]

Most people probably haven't seen Assassination of Jesse James, actually. It did terrible at the box office, etc.. Appreciation for it has grown since it was released and that's created more word of mouth knowledge but there's still a lot of people that haven't seen it yet.

[MalaCloudy Black]

That's the one with Casey Affleck, right?

[Benjamin]

Yeah. Speaking of Casey Affleck, Ain't Them Bodily Saints was decent, too. Not great, but not terrible.

[stokeriño]

So I'm making a second attempt to watch The Godfather (1972) [DVD] all the way through. The problem is that I find it very difficult to keep track of what's going on (or even distinguish half of the characters from one another)...

I mean, I'm always terrible for faces, but this film seems to be a particular struggle.

[Benji]

I've never made it through it for similar reasons.

[Benjamin]

Really? Who can't you distinguish from each other?

[stokeriño]

Basically almost everyone who isn't Don Corleone.

For example, there will be a bunch of five guys talking in a scene. Typically I will get a grip on who two of the five guys are, but often this will be no more specific than whether they're a Corleone or Some Other Person. If a character is addressed directly by his name (e.g. Sonny), I will be able to keep tabs on him for that scene, but will not easily recognise him five minutes later, unless his name is spoken again (otherwise I have to do what I do a lot with people I've only met in passing IRL - "guess" who they are and spend the rest of the conversation hoping I'm not wrong ).

It's a problem I don't suffer so often in movies as IRL, but I think the fact that this film there are a lot of guys thrown at me at once, in similarly nice suits and speaking with similar inflections. And more to the point, even the unimportant guys in a scene are all wearing the same nice suits and speaking with similar inflections. I end up trying to keep track of everybody and succeeding with no one.

At the moment I'm solving this by reading a line ahead in the film's wiki synopsis so I know what characters are in each scene as they come.

[Kaney]

The Godfather is an excellent film thats worth sitting through the long runtime. Its maybe cos I read the book first I dont find it hard to follow but I guess it is a little dense. Its well worth persevering with though. People give it shit cos its popular but its with good reason I think.

[TKz]

I'll put it out there - Godfather really hasn't aged that well. I kind of think the genre has been done a lot better since then.

[Monkey D. Lars]

I'll put it out there - Godfather really hasn't aged that well. I kind of think the genre has been done a lot better since then.

[King Ellis]

#TKzHatesEverything

Say that you have trouble getting into The Godfather because you can't tell people apart and no one bats an eyelid. Say the same about The Wire though...

[stokeriño]

Truth be told, I work off hair, clothes and voice to identify most people until I can get some extended exposure to them.

[livid]

I'll put it out there - Godfather really hasn't aged that well. I kind of think the genre has been done a lot better since then.

I mean, it's not that ridiculous when both Goodfellas and Casino exist.

Like, I liked The Godfather but feel like I watched them too late to live up to the hype. Very good movies but ultimately they don't resonate with me that much. And I love the crime/gangster genre.