Review: “The Taking”

John Ford. John Wayne. Cowboys and six-shooters, Native Americans and horses and epic battles to survive not only squabbles with other humans, but the unforgiving landscape they’ve settled in, one made of both towering beauty and abject terror. These elements, and dilemmas physical, moral, and spiritual, have come to define the western film genre. Just […]

Review: “The Beguiled” (2017)

4 out of 5 stars. It’s amazing what different writers and directors can bring to—or take away from—the same story. Case in point, “The Beguiled,” a 1971 film directed by Don Siegel, based on a novel of the same name. That movie, set during the American Civil War, starred Clint Eastwood as John, an injured […]

Review: “The Magnificent Seven” (2016)

3 out of 5 stars. There is little that’s magnificent about director Antoine Fuqua’s remake of the classic 1960 John Sturges western “The Magnificent Seven” (which was in turn a remake of the 1954 Akira Kurosawa masterpiece “Seven Samuari”). In fact, there’s little about it that fits into the western genre, despite it having all […]

Review: “Hell or High Water”

It may involves high speed car chases instead of horse races, but with “Hell or High Water,” director David Mackenzie — with the help of an excellent script by Taylor Sheridan — has crafted one of the best westerns in years, and one of the best films of this year.