Simon Wincer is a hard-working director, his efforts can be hit or miss, but I loved his work on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, Lonesome Dove, and D.A.R.Y.L. Starting with Quigley Down Under, he’s worked with Tom Selleck a number of times, but this was their first feature film…
Tag: western
Galactica 1980 (1980) – Space Croppers, and The Return of Starbuck
The penultimate episode of the short-lived series, Galactica 1980, is Space Croppers, and it is the last time we see Troy (Kent McCord), Dillon (Barry Van Dyke) and Jamie (Robyn Douglass) in the series. Written by Robert McCullough, this episode debuted on 27 March, 1980, and once again lets the series lean into a little…
TIFF ’23: The Dead Don’t Hurt
Viggo Mortensen wrote and directed this Western drama that is filled with recognizable Western tropes but Moternsen neither completely rejects them nor subverts them, he simply uses them to fill out his story about an immigrant couple that finds themselves living and loving on the edge of a corrupt Nevada town in the 1860s. The…
Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991) – Simon Wincer
I saw Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man the summer it opened in ’91, while I was working in Toronto. Something about it just clicked for me. I like the sense of history to the characters and the world they live in. Set five years down the road in 1996, the world is going to…
Bone Tomahawk (2015) – S. Craig Zahler
Kurt Russell saddles up for another western, and though the basic premise of the story may sound familiar, where that narrative takes you may be a little too gruesome for some viewers, but it’s a helluva ride. Russell is Hunt, the sheriff of Bright Hope, and he and a couple of locals are about to…
Cowboys & Aliens (2011) – Jon Favreau
Jon Favreau coming off of Iron Man, produced by Ron Howard, Steven Spielberg, a story by the showrunners for The Expanse, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, Star Trek producers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Damon Lindelof and starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Paul Dano, Sam Rockwell, Clancy Brown, Adam Beach and Keith Carradine…
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The High Country (2023) – John Jackson Miller
Simon & Schuster Canada launch their Star Trek: Strange New Worlds book series this week with The High Country by John Jackson Miller. I feel like Miller was inspired by the early-release poster which featured someone mounted on a horse, giving it a western feel, even set against a strange new two-mooned world with alien…
Young Guns (1988) – Christopher Cain
A fun cast gives a bit of a young update on a classic western tale as Emilio Estevez climbs into the saddle as Billy the Kid in Christopher Cain’s Young Guns. Featuring a high-profile cast that included Lou Diamond Phillips, Kiefer Sutherland, Dermot Mulroney, Terence Stamp, Jack Palance and Terry O’Quinn. John Tunstall (Stamp) has…
The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1979) – Vincent McEveety
Tim Conway and Don Knotts return as the hapless comedic pair Amos and Theodore in the sequel to the 1975 Disney family/comedy/western The Apple Dumpling Gang. This time around the pair, and the script are unfettered by everything that went before it, though the characters from the previous film are mentioned. This time, Amos and…
The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975) – Norman Tokar
Like most people my age, I grew up with the Carol Burnett show and delighted in the antics of the comedic genius that was Tim Conway, so when he and Don Knotts found themselves in a family/comedy/western film for Disney alongside Bill Bixby, and familiar names and faces like Susan Clark, Harry Morgan, Slim Pickens,…
