GENRE APPRECIATION: THE WESTERN

 

The western online latest news

Over to the editor of Western Online

NEW CONTENT AT THE WESTERN ONLINE

We have published several new short stories recently. Two great stories, both by K.S. Riggin, Saloon Sally, will grab your attention with the first line, and Devil John, is also a very good story.

Also, since we haven't received any Western Art submissions, our Art Director, Mike Pizzolato, was kind enough to supply us with some of his own Western Art.

THE ROUNDUP

We are pleased to announce that we have started an editorial column at The Western Online, called The Roundup. Mike and I will be alternately writing a column on different Western related issues.

The first issue of The Roundup is a column by Matthew Pizzolato titled, A Tribute to Louis L'Amour.

ANNOUNCEMENT

The Western Online has nominated " Till Death Do Us Part " by Kenneth Mark Hoover for this year's storySouth Million Writers Award.
Congratulations to Mr. Hoover and thanks for contributing such a great story to our site.

WILD WEST MONDAY GUEST BLOGGER - Bill Crider

Our first guest blogger is Mr. Bill Crider and he shares his thoughts here on Rio Bravo (one of The Archive's favourite oaters) and Brian Garfield's Western Films: A Complete Guide.

Please check out the links below the post leading to Bill's own books and his wonderful Blog. And thanks to Bill for taking part in The Archive's month long series of western posts, leading upto Wild West Monday the third.

OK- I hand you over to Mr. Bill Crider:

In his otherwise excellent book entitled WESTERN FILMS: A COMPLETE GUIDE, Brian Garfield has this to say about one of my favorite westerns, RIO BRAVO: "I remain mystified by the way Howard Hawks's apologists hold this juvenile and predictable movie up as an example of auteuriste genius." He also says, "It's overrated, overripe, and overlong." And, "Nelson is wooden. Brennan overplays." There's more, but that will give you the idea.

I've been reading Brian Garfield's novels for years. I've enjoyed his crime novels as much as his westerns, though I think WILD TIMES is his masterpiece and a fine novel no matter what your reading tastes. But I don't agree with his opinion about RIO BRAVO. Well, not entirely. I'm willing to agree that it's 'not "an example of auteuriste genius," whatever that means. However, I think it's a wonderfully entertaining movie, especially for guys.

Let me just repeat my often-quoted (by me and James Reasoner) opinion that RIO BRAVO has something for a guy of any age to identify with. When I first saw the movie as a teenager, I identified with Ricky Nelson (who's not wooden, just cool). As I got older, I identified with Dean Martin, the self-pitying loser who finds himself. Later on, I thought I was more like John Wayne, getting along in years, maybe, but still appealing to hot babes like Angie Dickinson. Now, I identify with Walter Brennan.

RIO BRAVO is one of those movies I can watch any time at all, even though I know it pretty much by heart now. Call it childish if you will (and Garfield does), it still thrills and entertains me as much as it ever did even though I'm in the Brennan years. (A sad fact is that when he made the movie, Brennan was younger than I am now. By several years. Well, maybe that's not sad to you, but it's sad to me.)

Garfield doesn't like the near-remake, RIO LOBO, either. He says it's "virtually an amateur movie." I don't think it's in the same league with RIO BRAVO, and it would have been better with Ricky Nelson.

All that being said, if you like western films and you don't have a copy of Garfield's book, you really should get one. It makes for great reading whether you agree with him or not.


ABOUT BILL

Bill Crider writes mysteries. Check him out HERE
His most well known series is the Sheriff Dan Rhodes books - The Sheriff Dan Rhodes series features the adventures of a sheriff in a s mall Texas county where there are no serial killers, where a naked man hiding in a dumpster is big news, and wh ere the sheriff still has time to investigate the theft of a set of false teeth. The first book in this series won an Anthony Award for "best first mystery novel" in 1986. The latest book in the series is Red, White, and Blue Murder.

Bill also publishes the widely read blog on popular culture HERE

Bill also writes Blog Bytes which is my favourite non-fiction bit of The Ellery Queen Magazine

I was thrilled to see The Tainted Archive mentioned in the current issue.



Pictured - Back Row: Bill and Judy Crider, Marion Reasoner. Front Row: James Reasoner, Doug Grad. WWA convention, Jackson Hole, 1993.

Wild West Monday The Third

June 1st is the date and this time it's going to be bigger than ever as western fans worldwide take up the good fight to promote our humble little genre. And so once again, with the tenacity of SPAM The Archive urges you to go HERE

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