h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Now why didn't I think of that?

ook!






TRANSLATOR: beats me, Axi!

Axi,

Regarding westerns, I just finished watching a How The West Was Won, an alleged epic, which in this case I think means really, really long (2 hours 25 minutes). It took me three days to get through it. Several awards, a huge number of stars, many of whom were actually actors (as opposed to pretty boys/matinee idols), and an obviously large budget. Apparently three directors worked on this film, but I wonder if the first two didn't stomp off muttering something unprintable.

The story shows a blatant disregard for history, although I think we all accept that Westerns take place in the Western Dimension, a Time-Space distortion not necessarily touched by historical facts. The film features an intrusive voice-over narration by Spencer Tracy, who was a great and very natural actor, and should have been cast in the film, and the narration cut. Many of the performances were stiff and unnatural, the old-fashioned stylized form of acting, and it just doesn't hold up. There were technical difficulties with the distracting 3-strip Cinerama. Most of the dialog was terrible, although there were some good scenes with Jimmy Stewart and I rather liked this line from Karl Malden:

"O Lord, without consulting with Thee, we have sent thy way some souls whose evil ways passeth all understanding. We ask Thee humbly to receive them...whether you want them or not! Amen."

It has a brilliant theme, credit composer Alfred Newman.

The really jarring part is the way they treated their horses. I just can't stand it when for the sake of a stunt, they use trip wires on horse. It's sick and wrong, it's animal abuse, and I know that this all happened a long time ago, but it still makes me angry.

Since I don't really know Westerns Happy, I've been trying to think of good feedback for this, and I'm afraid that's why I haven't replied to this before.

I agree wholeheartedly about what you said about the horses though. I don't know much about horses, but I should think it is possible to train them to fall in a manner that looks convincing but doesn't hurt the horse. Maybe it was a cost issue. Perhaps the crew did it to cut costs and maximise their profit margins. I mean, who cares about the safety of a few animals when they can make money. Seriously, that kind of thinking makes me sick (Let's face it, if the acting was as bad as you say, they obviously didn't want to waste money on people who could actuallly perform . So this picture was probably about the cash.)

With a nod to getting back on-topic , I dunno about spaghetti westerns but how 'bout fried rice westerns? Would ya believe Jackie Chan as a cowboy?

It's true, I tell you! Though, for the life of me, I can't recall the name of the movie but I HAVE seen it and quite recently.