Go West, Young Gender-Neutral Pronoun
The Northwest Film Forum presents a pair of great Westerns as part of its 69 Films program this weekend. Saturday and Sunday at 6:00 p.m., John Wayne takes the screen in one of hist most iconic roles as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, a classic of the genre, featuring one of the greatest shootout scenes ever put to celluloid. If you were looking to check out an archetypal Western, you couldn't hope to do better than this film, starring Wayne in one of his finest performances as the ornery but straight-shooting US Marshall, the embodiment of the cowboy every kid was pretending to be while playing cowboys and indians. He's joined by Glenn Campbell in an underrated performance as his by-the-book foil.
Later in the evening on both nights, you can get a load of Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West. Where True Grit paints a portrait of the American West as pictured by Hollywood, Once Upon a Time holds closer to the the rugged, often unpleasant spirit of that place and time. Leone's masterful camerawork and ability to capture shots that are at once sweeping and gritty is in full force here, and accompanied as always by a score from the inimitable Ennio Morricone, Once Upon A Time In The West is one of those films we just can't say enough good things about.
It's to NWFF's credit that in bringing a pair of Westerns, they brought a pair that aren't necessarily for fans of the genre. Certainly, we'll be happy to see them, but we've seen them before. They're classics. But the real value of these is for anyone who has ever wondered why people like Westerns. Movies like these are why.
