Month: September 2016

Brand new, in theaters right now, we’re doing the big Western release of 2016, Antoine Fuqua’s remake of The Magnificent Seven! The is remake brings the podcast to the movie theaters, and even flirts with relevance for a moment, as we discuss in detail something one rarely gets to look at when discussing Westerns, a brand new film. We’re slightly of two minds on this, but for the most part I’d say we agree it’s a big, silly Adventure yarn, full of winning, if surface level, performances. Topics of conversation include Peter Sarsgaard’s career playing creeps, the relevance of cool in the modern age, weaponized jars of bees, whether or not Denzel Washington has ever rode a horse before, the mortality rate of messing with the Magnificent Seven in off hours, magic gatling guns, and oddly enough, anthropomorphized badgers, which in turn leads to me explaining the Furry community to my father. It’s a lot of laughing, but I think we get into why this new Magnificent Seven is both no great shakes and a fun time at the movies anyway.

Beyond that, we talk about sequels to the original film, The Return of the Seven and The Guns of the Magnificent Seven, both of which are not especially good (and Guns replaces Yul Brynner with George Kennedy, which is just undeniably a downgrade). It’s a veritable Magnificent Seven-Palooza! Next week, we’ll be taking another furtive stab as “timely” by visiting the original Westworld, as the new HBO show starts airing. You can reach us as westernswithdad@gmail.com, and hey, why not leave a positive review on iTunes? It costs you nothing!

The Magnificent Seven was directed by Antoine Fuqua and stars Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Peter Sarsgaard, Hailey Bennett and Vincent D’Onofrio. It’s out in theater right now, and if you’re the type to listen to this podcast, it’s probably a solid choice to watch as some point!

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This episode focuses on a film (barely) released earlier this year, Gavin O’Connor’s Jane Got a Gun. Imagined as a star vehicle for Natalie Portman, this attempt at a Western from a feminine perspective had a long and tortured route to the big screen, going through various cast changes and a director who abandoned the film on the first day of production. The strain in evident in the finished film, and I believe this is the most negative we’ve been inclined to get on a movie, which is kind of doesn’t sit well, I have to admit. That said, it’s not a bad watch, and if you’re a fan of the surprising number of name stars (and of course, the Western genre, as we are), it’s still a totally watchable attempt at a modern western exercise. Topics of conversation include Natalie Portman’s screen presence, the maudlin and embarrassing reliance on flashback, how to represent heavy trauma on screen, the status of today’s westerns as passion projects, and a bit about the Star Wars prequels of course.

Going unmentioned, because we’re quite frankly not the most professionally minded podcasters out there, are the various ways you can contact us and help the show. We are reachable by email at westernswithdad@gmail.com, and we would love it if you would like to write us a review on iTunes, or even just give us a star rating there. Please overrate us, if you don’t mind!

We’ve got some good requests coming up, so get ready for those, but next week, we’ll be talking about 2016’s major Western release, Antoine Fuqua’s remake of The Magnificent Seven. That’ll be two weeks from now, and I’ll also be trying to watch the three sequels made to the original Yul Brynner picture. We’ll see how that goes! At the end of the episode, we discuss other stuff we’ve been watching, specifically John Carpenter’s They Live, a SciFi social satire from the 80s starring ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper, and a bit about Seattle sports. That might be something we talk about from time to time, now that we’re in the Fall. Sorry!

Jane Got a Gun star Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, and Ewan McGregor, and was directed by Gavin O’Connor.

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