The Western as we know it is 100 years old - the film that gave birth to the genre was Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery in 1903. A one-reel, 10 minute long film which established all the essential elements we expect today - good vs. bad, a robbery or wrong-doing, a chase or pursuit and a final showdown. The film ended with the (first) close-up of a gunman firing directly into the camera - and audience! (This shot was copied by Martin Scorsese at the end of Goodfellas (1990) when Joe Pesci turns and fires at the audience).
Standard ingredients in the genre include horses, trains (and train robberies), stagecoaches, shoot-outs, outlaws and sheriffs, cattle drives and cattle rustling, posses and pursuit, breathtaking settings and of course, gunfights.
Specfic settings include lonely isolated forts (Escape From Fort Bravo), the isolated homestead, (in John Ford’s The Searchers, the viewer gets a real sense of how vulnerable the settlers were), the saloon and jail (Rio Bravo), the small-town main street (High Noon), or small frontier towns that are forming at the edges of civilisation (The Wild Bunch).
Westerns are one of the most enduring and flexible genres in cinema which have over time, been re-invented, dismissed, re-discovered, and spoofed - turned into comedies (Blazing Saddles, City Slickers, Cat Ballou), musical Westerns (Paint Your Wagon), or even melodramatic Westerns with women taking the traditional mens roles (Joan Crawford in Johnny Guitar and Barbra Stanwyck in Forty Guns).
The Western Genre is as old as cinema
itself, and TCM pays tribute to the significance of the Western in an original
documentary feature TCM: 100 Years of the Western. Exploring the
breadth of the genre and the many aspects of the mythological west in film,
TCM celebrates the stars and directors who immortalised the West on the
big screen.
MONDAY 13 October
13:00 Tribute To A Bad Man (1956, col
Dir: Robert Wise, stars: James Cagney)
14:50 Cimarron (1960, col Dir: Anthony
Mann, stars: Glenn Ford, Anne Baxter)
17:35 Vengeance Valley (1951, col Dir:
Richard Thorpe, stars: Burt Lancaster)
19:00 Ride the High Country (1962,
col Dir: Sam Peckinpah, stars: Joel McCrea)
21:00 TCM Western Documentary- 100
Years of the Western (Full Play), 60mins
22:00 The Wild Bunch (1969, col Dir:
Sam Peckinpah, stars: William Holden, Ernest
Borgnine
TUESDAY 14 October
13:00 Ride Em Cowboy (1932, BW Dir:
Fred Allen, stars: John Wayne, Ruth Hall)
14:05 Billy the Kid (1941, col Dir:
David Miller, stars: Robert Taylor, Gene Lockhart)
15:50 Escape From Fort Bravo (1953,
col Dir: John Sturges, stars: William Holden)
17:40 Across The Wide Missouri (1951,
col Dir: William Wellman, stars: Clark Gable)
19:00 3 Godfathers (1948, col Dir:
John Ford, stars: John Wayne)
21:00 TCM Western Documentary- 100
Years of the Western - Origins
21:15 Cheyenne Autumn (1964, col Dir:
John Ford, stars: James Stewart, Richard Widmark)
WEDNESDAY 15 October
13:00 Silver River (1948, BW Dir: Raoul
Walsh, stars: Errol Flynn)
15:05 Westward the Women (1951, BW
Dir: William Wellman, stars: Robert Taylor)
13:00 Gun Glory (1957, col Dir: Roy
Rowland, stars: Stewart Granger)
19:00 Dodge City (1939, col Dir: Michael
Curtiz, stars: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland)
21:00 TCM Western Documentary- 100
Years of the Western - Rediscovered
21:15 Blazing Saddles (1974, col Dir:
Mel Brooks, stars: Gene Wilder)
THURSDAY 16 October
13:00 Lone Star (1952, BW Dir: Vincent
Sherman, stars: Clark Gable, Ava Gardner)
14:50 They Died With Their Boots On
(1941, BW Dir: Raoul Walsh, stars: Errol Flynn,
Olivia de Havilland)
17:25 The Law and Jake Wade (1958,
col Dir: John Sturges, stars: Robert Taylor, Richard Widmark)
19:00 Honky Tonk (1941, BW, Dir: Jack
Conway, stars: Clark Gable, Lana Turner)
21:00 TCM Western Documentary- 100
Years of the Western - Stars
21:15 The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976,
col Dir: Clint Eastwood, stars: Clint Eastwood,
Sondra Locke)
FRIDAY 17 October
13:00 Stand Up and Fight (1939, BW
Dir: W.S. Van Dyke, stars: Robert Taylor)
14:55 Northwest Passage (1940, col,
Dir: King Vidor, stars: Spencer Tracy)
17:15 Many Rivers To Cross (1955, col,
Dir: Roy Rowland, stars: Robert Taylor, Eleanor
Parker)
19:00 San Antonio (1945, col Dir: David
Butler, stars: Errol Flynn)
21:00 TCM Western Documentary- 100
Years of the Western - Directors
21:15 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
(1973, col Dir: Sam Peckinpah, stars: James Coburn, Kris Kritofferson)
SATURDAY 18 October - THE STARS THAT
MADE THE WEST
13:00 3 Godfathers (1948, col Dir:
John Ford, stars: John Wayne)
14:50 How the West Was Won (1962, col
Dir: John Ford etc, stars: Henry Fonda, James Stewart, John Wayne, etc)
17:25 The Naked Spur (1953, col Dir:
Anthony Mann, stars: James Stewart)
19:00 Welcome To Hard Times (1967,
col Dir: Burt Kennedy, stars: Henry Fonda)
21:00 Pale Rider (1985, col, Dir: Clint
Eastwood, stars: Clint Eastwood)
SUNDAY 19 October - THE DIRECTORS THAT
SHOT THE WEST
13:00 Colorado Territory (1949, BW
Dir: Raoul Walsh, stars: Joel McCrea)
14:45 Rio Bravo (1959, col Dir: Howard
Hawks, stars: John Wayne)
17:20 Ride the High Country (1962,
col Dir: Sam Peckinpah, stars: Joel McCrea)
19:00 The Searchers (1956, col Dir:
John Ford, stars: John Wayne)
21:00 TCM Western Documentary- 100
Years of the Western (Full Play, 60mins)
22:00 Unforgiven
(1992, col Dir: Clint Eastwood, stars: Clint Eastwood)
TCM (Turner Classic Movies) draws from an extensive library of movies ranging from the 1920s to 1990s presenting them in a contemporary style that reinterprets their place in history and their relevance to people's lives today. TCM brings the silver screen to life by offering viewers exclusive in-depth celebrity interviews, monthly star tributes, special events and original screen tests. Along with hosted seasons with contemporary moviemakers and experts, TCM gives this definitive classic movie channel a style of its own. It is available via cable and satellite throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East in five regional versions in nine languages: English, Danish, Dutch, French, Greek, Hebrew, Polish, Spanish and Swedish.
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Horizons Adrian Gargett looks at Western movies
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