Western Splurge

I watched two John Wayne films in a row today, all in the name of research, of course. Like before I started my chess novel, I watched a few underdog films. Anyway, Fort Apache, the first Western I watched, is astounding, full of strong character development and with a great battle at the end. Henry Fonda is brilliant, and the minor characters are all well-drawn enough to make them believable and sympathetic.

The second film, El Dorado, co-starring Robert Mitchum and a young James Caan, is more generic, but still enjoyable. The two leads, John Wayne and Robert Mitchum’s characters, had weaknesses that put their ultimate victor in doubt, but the story felt like it was treading water. All the same, the scene where we first meet James Caan’s character should be familiar to all fans of David Gemmell’s Waylander. It was quite a thrill, hearing “Mississippi’s” back-story. I knew David Gemmell was a fan of Westerns - Jon Shannow aside, Waylander is similar to any of Clint Eastwood’s cowboys - but I wonder now if the idea for Waylander’s backstory quest somehow lodged into his subconscious after many hours spent watching similar style Westerns. After all, he once wrote that Legend was his attempt to put right the story of The Alamo.

I think this summer, I’ll watch a few more Westerns. The plot might be familiar at times, but that’s because there’s a pureness to the storytelling that’s hard to beat. Greedy landowner/cattle rustler/bandit picks on a little guy. In rides the tortured/weakened gunslinger to help out. That said, Fort Apache was something different. In a class of it’s own, really.

Anyway, this summer holdiday, if just a little of the magic of Howard Hawks or John Ford can rub off on me, like alot of it did on David Gemmell, I’ll be happy.

Tags: Westerns

This entry was posted on Monday, August 2nd, 2010 at 7:41 pm and is filed under Short Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.