Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?
by Ricky Hargrove

What happened to the Western movies that shone in the past? Have John Wayne and Clint Eastwood's genre really died? Nowadays, you really don’t see too many Westerns. The interest has died down considerably. There aren't any actors who have dedicated their careers into perfecting the type of movies that were once the prime rulers in showbiz.

The past 15 years pretty much only gave us Unforgiven as the sole Western of the decade. Maverick and Tombstone were two others that somewhat did the trick, but there still really wasn't enough to satisfy anyone's thirst for Westerns. Looking 20 years back, you'll get Young Guns and Dances with Wolves. Though you can't take away from the latter of those two, Young Guns left something to be desired. Wyatt Earp wasn't anything special in my opinion, and I have yet to see Kevin Costner's third Western, Open Range. I was a fan of The Quick and the Dead as a kid, as it was a "fun" movie, but American Outlaws was a pretty horrendous piece of work.

This year, however, the release of 3:10 to Yuma by Lionsgate and its subsequent success - its rake-in being over $50 million - brings up the question of whether or not other studios will try to cash in on this achievement. Lionsgate has never really been a chief studio, but they is the people who brought us Saw. As we know, the release of that movie was the first the mainstream public saw of that type of horror movie, and copycats have been tried many times since then. So far, New Line Cinemas seem to be trying to jump on with its release of Appaloosa starring Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris, and Renée Zellweger. Other than that, I wasn't able to find another Western from any of the major studios.

The other Western that I was able to see, which was just as good as 3:10 to Yuma was The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Both were very worth seeing, and both were carried by two actors that worked spectacularly well together. Russell Crowe and Christian Bale's chemistry in 3:10 to Yuma worked so well that I would have to argue it was better than the original pair of Glen Ford and Van Heflin. Assassination also had the good pairing of Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, but in this one, Affleck absolutely shines. His character is such a perfect one, filled with regret and apprehension mixed with ambition and purpose. Together, both movies show that there are many stories to tell using the Western backdrop, and it should not be a genre that is forgotten.