Films/DVD Asylum

Any Western fans? If you're not aware of Budd Boetticher films, you should immediately

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correct that: he had an unusual style for that genre. He also was extremely highly thought of by the elite directors of France, rising to the top 5 auteur, in the estimation of a group of French critics that included Truffaut, Roehmer, and Godard.
In many of his films, Randolph Scott was the lead; many point to his usual laconic portrayal as the model for Clint Eastwood's character in the Leone films; Clint comments of one of the Boetticher DVDs, so that observation probably is correct: Clint is a great admirer of those films, in general.
"Comanche Station:" a woman, captured by the Comanche's, is ransomed by a man who seeks to return her to her husband; soon, however, he is confronted by three men who are after the $5000 reward the husband is offering. Because the group is in hostile Indian territory--- and there are bands of active warriors all around them, an uneasy truce is forced upon them.
This Western features the most realistic depiction of Native-American warriors I've seen; they're intelligent, brave, yet fierce--- and they look the part (most Hollywood westerns, of course, featured Italian-or-Spanish Americans). Boetticher shot this film on location, and the cinematography is spectacular.
"Buchanan Rides Alone" is a very different film from Scott/Boetticher. Whereas the first film sets men against the vastness of the American West, "Buchanan" is claustrophobic, placing him into a tiny town owned by one family. The plot, also, is completely different, complex and convoluted. In this film, it is the turn of the Mexicans to be seen in a realistic manner.
Boetticher excels in putting men into dangerous situations in which their individual ethics are challenged.
Not the greatest westerns, but far above the stuff you'll see today for what passes as "entertainment." And, if you have that kind of bent, you can analyze what's being quietly said about the American male, early Western society. Surprisingly, these films have aged a lot better than their more touted contemporaries. Boetticher was not interested in promoting fantasies.

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