Why did Westerns become so unpopular?

I couldn't get through the movie hostiles . I was disappointed in that film.

 

310 to Yuma I can never understand at the end when russel Crowe kills his own gang members

 

Outlaw josie wales to me seemed a cut above his other westerns.

 

I read the book about the making of Heaven's gate . a studio previewing of the film the main complaint was they could not understand the dialogue. Buried in the mix or something . The movie was way too long . I watched Deerhunter a couple of years ago . It seemed like a 5 hour film.

 

An awesome film an all time favorite .
I just read every page in this thread. I must be the only one who liked the 1967 paul Newman movie Hombre.
I don't recall seeing the man who shot Liberty Valence in this thread

 

I think Hombre's a great film. As for 3:10 to Yuma, I prefer the original.

 

There are a lot of good films after Dances, some popular (if not always good) and some not:
JFK, A Perfect World, Robin Hood, Open Range, Wyatt Earp, 13 Days, Molly's Game, Hidden Figures, The Company Men. Your mileage may vary.

 

Well, of course you used a spoiler there.
I thought it was pretty simple. He had come to identify with Dan, and was not happy what they did.

 

"This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

 

I liked "Hostiles". I thought it was very well done.

 

"Good" and "money-making" are widely divergent. I can tell you Kevin was very happy with Open Range, and he fought hard to keep the 45 seconds that turned the film into an "R" instead of "PG-13."

 

I had the sense the 'revisionist' phase of westerns in the 60's and 70's were sometimes attempts to sort of discredit the entire genre, especially the sometimes simplistic 'good guys vs bad guys' dynamic. Ironically, often the more elegiac the movie, the better it was. Even if great films like Peckinpah's "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" and Altman's 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller' didn't exactly rejuvenate westerns, they showed the genre had a lot of life left. Even lesser known but interesting films like Peter Fonda's "The Hired Hand' and Michael Winner's "Lawman" creatively spun the stereotypes into absorbing stories. People forget that even John Wayne made some incremental accomodations to updating the genre, allowing himself to be killed in "The Cowboys", and taking the western into the modern life, somewhat successfully in John Sturges' "McQ".

 

Here's a really good recent western btw. Bill Pullman should have received at least an Oscar nod.

 

Agreed.

 

Me too. I bought the Blu-Ray recently and watched it the other night. I was impressed with the attention to detail that was given to the time period. I heard complaints about the movie being too slow but I liked the pace of the film. There was story to be told and it wasn't rushed. Great cast and beautiful scenery for a backdrop.

 

I liked it as well just wish there was more a c t i o n.

 

I tried watching The Hateful Eight again two nights ago. I enjoyed it in the cinema but I could not get into at all at home -too much uninteresting dialog and just plain boring. The only action for the first half of the movie is a woman getting hit again and again. If the dialog and story were entertaining I could look past the glacial pace of the movie.

 

No probs with the dialogue all the characters were of a hateful nature.

 

Yeah, but "all hateful" does not equate to all entertaining for me. A great looking movie, but ultimately a snooze-fest.

 

Just saw an interview in which Scorsese describes his own 'Casino' as a Western. Interesting when you think about how that Film describes the end of a certain American era.

 

I thought it was brilliant myself.

 

I know you are not alone in this assessment, but for me the overly talky back stories, the unbelievable situation they find themselves in, the gratuitous beatings of Jennifer are only offset by the amazing cinematography. The acting is also entertaining. Goggins is always fun to watch and I thought the whole cast did a good job with the crappy script.

 

I was more concerned with the 100 year old Martin guitar getting trashed. Hey! It's only a movie.