Jo Van Fleet Archives - All-True Outlaw

Project: 100 Westerns: Part Six: Organ Trail; Dead Men Ride; The Fighting Westerner; The Magnificent Seven

Posted on May, 2025 by JS

Ciao cowpokes,

We’re six deep into Project: 100 Westerns! If you’re just joining us, I’m gonna watch 100 Westerns and provide a mini review on each.

This edition features a couple of newer entries, as well a super old one, and a fourth that’s slotted right betwixt those two eras.

#20. Organ Trail (2023)

Playing off of Xillennial nostalgia, The Organ Trail harkens back to the age when schools had computer labs with rows of bulky monitors and noisy printers. Many of us in a certain age bracket remember the popularity and fun of the classic PC game, The Oregon Trail, where the player would take on the task of navigating the famous passage in a digital world, including shooting pixelated game, forging rivers, buying digital goods and avoiding dysentery. This movie lures in a certain age bracket on title alone.

Set in 1870s Montana, Organ Trail is presented as a “horror” but probably slots better into “thriller”, despite the promotional vibe of the poster, tagline and trailer. There is sufficient violence, and does have some slasher movie vibes, especially toward the end, but frankly, the plot swerves and vibrates so much that its more defined by its unsteady nature than the antagonistic elements.

The movie relies heavily on sudden developments and shocking turns, so I am hesitant to get too much into the specific details. I will give kudos for the ambition in the writing, it certainly honors the brutal nature depicted in many Westerns and punches it up to 11. This volatility helps define the tone, but also is detriment when it comes to a cohesive story arc. The shifting concentration and drastic plot maneuvers are like a sugar high – they entertain for a moment and then you crash as you reorient to the new situation/characters/danger.

I’ve said before: We’re in a bit of a hidden renaissance of Westerns, with a trove of D-list actors starring in low-budget affairs that are relegated to streaming services like Tubi and Plex. Many are not good, about the quality of a Lifetime movie, and Organ Trail sort of slots into that feel, but overall it’s got a fairly good production quality and actor pool.

What mars the effort are some absolutely unbelievable sequences that break immersion. Despite the inherent historical elements of Westerns, I do not expect them to adhere to reality at all times, but some of the things that happen in the movie will take you out of it. In one scene, a villain fires his gun straight into the air as a warning, only for the bullets (all of ‘em) to zoom down and strike his body with extreme force. There is some debate about the fatal velocity of bullets shot into the sky, but the depiction of this scene is insane. In the next segment, the protagonist jumps into a frozen river and comes out mostly unscathed several minutes later. In a moment during the final act, one antagonist draws his guns within a foot of another baddie, only for them to be wrestled away and used against him. These little moments of poor choreography and wonky physics salt away most of the good will the movie generates.

All in all, it’s a fine snowy Western, has a few good performances and does just enough to keep the audience engaged until the very end. I’m not sure I liked it, but you could do a lot worse in the age of the Streaming Western.

#21 Dead Men Ride (1971)

“We are all at fault, we old ones even more.”

This Italian-Spanish Western wastes no time setting up its main character and central premise: escaped prisoner Roy (Fabio Testi) stumbles across a small mining community and decides to ride into town to confront their exploiter, a wealthy man by the name of Redfield (Eduardo Fajardo). As the plot unwinds, we gain context on what drives Roy to take up this hero’s task, and there are some surprising layers to this at-times brutal film.

All in all, this is a straightforward and competent movie. t’s not super ambitious, but possesses enough action and swerve to propel the viewer through the hour-and-a-half minute runtime. A lot of the tension in the movie relies on the actors’ long stares and a solid soundtrack, but that works in the realm of spaghetti. In typical European fashion, the drama of the whole thing is enhanced through intense standoffs and baroque masculinity – Roy is the typical gunslinger type, short on words but extremely capable with a gun or blade, and his bent toward justice frames the rest of the character’s motivations. The ridiculously good looking Testi helps shift the film along, and the side actors do their job as well.

If you’re looking for something that apes the Sergio Leone style, this is it.

#22. The Fighting Westerner (1935)

When this movie, based on an unfinished Zane Grey book, originally released in 1935 it was titled Rocky Mountain Mystery, which is more appropriate for the atmosphere it evokes. The 1930s were the heyday of the hardboiled detective story, and The Fighting Westerner (retitled upon rerelease in the ‘50s) is a murder mystery set in the rural mountainland. Randolph Scott, who would go on to be one of the stalwarts of the Western genre, plays Larry Sutton, a mining engineer tasked to replace his disgraced brother-in-law at a radium mine. Upon arrival, he meets a host of furtive characters, from the mine-owner’s children, to the housekeeper and a Chinese servant, and all become suspects in the string of murders at the estate.

The movie straddles the Western genre line in interesting ways. Larry has a Southern drawl, and looks the part, but doesn’t immediately come across as an avenger of justice. The actual law, Deputy Tex Murdock (Chic Sale) is the hillbilly side character type, almost played for laughs but not quite. The setting is obliquely modern, there are cars and telephones, but apparently rustic as well. There’s a cloaked killer roaming the household, and a big reveal in the final act, just like some of the more spooky PI tales of the era. It’s a fascinating mashup of genres before that was really even a thing, and I’m here for it.

Given the movie was produced 90 years ago, it doesn’t completely hold up to the modern eye. Some of the acting is rough, and there’s naturally some dated stances toward certain groups and concepts. Still, it builds the tension well, including through the pounding of mining equipment that portends an ominous ending for anyone on the wrong side of it.

#23. The Magnificent Seven (2016)

A remake of a remake, that’s what this is, and it ain’t too bad.

Westerns are tricky endeavors nowadays. Ask Kevin Costner. While there’s an appetite for the genre, its popularity is a whisper of what it once was. You need serious star power to get asses in seats for these movies, which is why all those stream darlings titled “Guns and Whiskey” and starring a niche country music star and a bunch of dayplayers are so low budget.

The Magnificent Seven 2.0 boasts a very strong cast, headlined by Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt and further supported by Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio and Peter Sarsgaard, among others. The original, and it’s inspiration, Seven Samurai, basically popularized the “dream team” format, where a hyper capable guy recruits other super skilled individuals for a seemingly insurmountable task. The 2016 version hits those beats very well, giving us a diverse and fun group that make the movie worth watching. Aside from a few key differences, the plot of “badass dudes protect a small town from a megalomaniac” is intact and executed well. There’s nothing really mind-blowing about this script, its steeped in homage and convention. When you consider that the Nic Pizzolatto, creator of True Detective, co-wrote it, that’s sort of amazing.

Where the movie sings is in visual quality. It’s just well-made, from shot quality to stunts, set detail and editing. Director Antoine Fuqua delivers a strong product, balancing the talented cast against a wagon-full of action. There’s an interesting swirl of Golden Age heroism, the sensationalization of the Euro Western and modern day action movie methodology, and he mixes it well.

I doubt this movie would blow the hat off of any standard Western fan, and it’s not better than the original, but 2016’s The Magnificent Seven is easily one of the better genre offerings of the last decade.

I’m going to be honest, watching (old) movies for the purposes of review is tougher than it looks. I spent nearly a decade as a critic for comic, TV and movies, but most of the films I wrote about were things I saw in a theater, so I was forced to sit and watch. Having the power of pause is dangerous thing!

Please return June 2nd, 2025 for the newest All-True Outlaw comic drop. I’m proud of all my babies, but this next one is particularly special.

Westward!

~Jamil

Project: 100 Westerns: Part Five: Chino; The Westerner; Wagons East!; The King and Four Queens

Posted on April, 2025 by JS

Ayy All-Truers,

Welcome to the fifth go-around of Project: 100 Westerns, in which I will watch 100 Westerns and provide thoughts on them. By now, if you’re doing any type of quick math, you can see I’m woefully short of hitting the one year goal. Whoopsie, that’s life! 😎

On to the next four movies:

#16. Chino (1973)

“What a man says and what a man does doesn’t always end up being the same thing.”

In this Charles Bronson-led film, a horse tamer living in solitude has his life upended when a young man named Jamie (Vincent Van Patten), and later, a woman named Catherine (Jill Ireland), intrude on his daily dealings, eventually forcing him into situations that rattle his uncomplicated existence.

Aside from a couple of awesome fights with above-average choreography (Bronson could move, man), and the obligatory shootout at the end, this is one sleepy, listless movie. Based on the novel The Valdez Horses (also the title presented at the start of the English version of this film) by Lee Hoffman, the events that take place center on the everyday happenings of a man and his lonely horse breeding operation. The plot opens with Jamie wandering in and squeaking his way into a job as ranch hand, and the viewer (this one, at least) understands the story to be that of an uneasy alliance between a hardened man and bright-eyed boy. The two acclimate with each other quickly, Chino delivering the hard lessons and Jamie teaching the elder man how to enjoy life again.

This dynamic carries the movie part of the way, but is mostly forgotten once Catherine enters the picture. The sister of the nefarious town boss, Maral, she adheres to Chino despite his gruff demeanor and seemingly apathetic posture. It’s pretty typical Western stuff from there, but there’s a certain chemistry that doesn’t quite manifest despite the script, actors and soundtrack trying to make it work. It seems that the romance element may have been punched up a little because of Bronson and Ireland’s real life vows.

The one-two punch of Jamie and Catherine feel like they were thrown by different people at different times of the day. Their presence in the story represent similar themes to the title character but since the two don’t really interact, nor have similar plot concerns, they work against each other, ultimately.

Eventually, Maral’s ire reaches an action point and he threatens Chino to stay away from his sister, then to eventually leave town, or else. Being a man of hard principles and honor, Chino initially balks at this idea, his ardent independence not allowing him to be bullied, but once he sees the violence on the horizon, and his inability to deter it, he, surprisingly, decides to free his horses, shoo Jamie away and burn his cabin to ash. It’s a bit of a reversal of what we’d expect from the genre, but slots right into the “revisionist” era. The West is not a place of justice and hard virtue, but rather chaos and compromise. Chino flees while still drawing breath and preserves the lives of the two people who matter most to him. It’s a bold ending, but sad and more than a little muddled.

All in all, the movie is OK. No idea how it’s rated PG with the flashes of horse cock, and a rape-y sort of first hook-up between Chino and Catherine, but it’s got an appeal in the somber, relaxed mood it gives off. I just wish the focus was a little tighter, there’s something the film is trying to say but voices it in a hoarse (hah) whisper.

#17. The Westerner (1940)

“By Gobs!”

Within the first ten minutes of this movie, Walter Brennan will have you clenching your jaw and shaking your head.

Playing the infamous “Judge” Roy Bean, the self-appointed “law” of small-town Texas, Brennan presents the audience with an immediately unlikable, yet inexplicably endearing, antagonist. Bean is a nasty guy, causing damage under the guise of righteousness and shared values, yet he hits the notes of common man charisma you’d expect from the endearing hick-ish sidekick. Before we even meet the main character, Bean is already sentencing a man to hang for mere acts of survival and self-preservation. His power and sway are apparent, and it makes for an insurmountable problem from the jump.

When Cole Harden (possibly the most Western name ever?) is dragged into Vinegaroon for alleged horse theft, Bean is quick with his gun-gavel and sentences the stranger to death under the guise of peacekeeping and moral tenacity. He cares not for evidence or doubt, but rather works to maintain a contrived status quo. Most notably, he’s cheered every step of the way by a village of cronies and goons.

He of the Type Strong and Silent, Gary Cooper, plays Cole with a directness that bounces off of Brennan really well. He’s the standard drifter type – nothing holding him down to any place or purpose, but his sense of justice peeks out every once in a while. Understanding that he’s down to his last verbal bullets, Cole coerces Bean into a friendship over the shared admiration of (real-life) starlet Lillie Langtry, which unfolds a whole other set of plot dramatics.

One thing I find interesting about films of yesteryear is the sort of disjointed talent and production levels in any given picture. Like, you can feel Hollywood learning and evolving as it goes along. Specific to this film, Walter Brennan is so good that the acting abilities of others, or lack thereof, become glaring. Cooper is fine, he always sort of plays it straight, retreating into an everyman style that obviously worked for him over a long career, but some of the day player types are perpetrators of over or underacting. It doesn’t detract from the film too much, however.

A few other things work against the movie, as a whole. The depiction of Roy Bean is fun but does not align too ardently to the real life man. I certainly think a pastiche would have been an adequate replacement. While the plot has some good turns (i.e. the push/pull of the relationship between the two leads) the central conflict of homesteaders vs cattlemen is a big whatever. The final scene too, which sort of lionizes the villain in a way that’s unearned, feels off kilter and driven by a misplaced nostalgia of the West and its imperfect ways.

Still, I’m sort of surprised this movie isn’t talked about a little more with other classics of the era. In my view, Brennan’s Oscar-winning performance makes it an essential part of the early-Western catalogue.

#18. Wagons East! (1994)

Last month, I watched Almost Heroes, the Chris Farley-driven explorer comedy set during the 1800s. When I browsing Prime for that movie, Wagons East! was suggested right along with it, and I softly marveled at the similarities between the two. Beyond the similar setting, both starred comedic giants in their final acting role, featured foppish co-leads, and are generally considered failures, both financially and critically.

That said, this movie has a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. I know that review aggregators isn’t gospel, but jeez, its a deal better than Almost Heroes.

Richard Lewis stars as Phil, a former war doc who, with others, are flat exhausted by the West and the turmoil it brings. He, along with other characters played by (the Doctor) Robert Picardo and (Dr. Cox) John C. McGinley, decide to take the unconventional route of going against the flow of traffic and returning to civilization. The move is presented as ironic, which it is in the context of Western films, but you have to think that sort of thing happened all the time.

The group hires the drunken and disheveled James Harlow (John Candy) to lead them back to Saint Louis. That’s sort of contrived impetus for the plot, I’m not saying the roads are clearly marked but you’d think going back to civilization wouldn’t require a whole ass guide. Predictably, Harlow, much like Bartholomew Hunt from Almost Heroes, is far from a competent leader and hijinks ensue.

The movie suffers from a lot of the same ills of it’s cousin-movie. The jokes are often too stupid to solicit more than a chuckle and it deals too heavily in tropes and typecasts to be considered daring. Still, it works way better than its counterpart, actually attempting to deliver on character arcs and even giving us a capable antagonist or two to impede the protagonists from time to time.

I didn’t hate Wagons East!, it’s got a good cast and is earnest in it’s attempt to entertain, but given that Candy died in the throes of production there’s a wisp of melancholy in the cinematic ether. Fire this one up if you’re bored and looking for some that mid-90s vibe, but be warned of the tinge of sadness is may produce between the quips and arrows.

#19. The King and Four Queens (1956)

I love the way “thirst” manifests itself in older movies.

This film could be alternately titled “Down Bad Ranch” with its plotline of a charming older man sauntering into a remote homestead with four man-deprived widows all vying for his attention. Clark Gable is Dan Kehoe, a wandering con man who discovers via town gossip that a huge sum of gold is buried somewhere on the McDade property. Apparently, the four McDade brothers secured the treasure from a robbery, but rumor and conjecture claims three were killed in the resulting skirmish with the law, with one escaping and now MIA.

As an unknown McDade sibling is possibly still alive, the four wives of the brothers (played by Eleanor Parker, Jean Willes, Barbara Nichols & Sara Shane) are sort of in a Schrödinger’s Widow situation — any of them could still be married and thus are obligated to wait around until the missing brother returns. Thus, the harsh and protective Ma McDade (Jo Van Fleet) is immediately skeptical of Kehoe when he wanders onto the estate, and keeps a steady eye on his movements throughout the film.

The King and Four Queens does that typical Golden Age Western thing where the roguish lead is presented as a dashing black knight, rather than the antihero-with-a-redemption-sidecar type. Even though we’re told Kehoe is a bit of a thief and swindler, nothing negative comes about from that lifestyle, and Gable plays him like an imperfectly perfect gentleman. This lack of consequence prevents actual drama from happening in the film, and the thin plot reflects that. A huge portion of this movie is cute banter and some physicality between Kehoe and each of the sisters, but ultimately a lot of that positioning and intrigue goes nowhere.

There’s a sense something is missing from this film, and according to IMDb, scenes with the missing McDade brother were cut from the final version. The viewer feels that omission, the script alludes to that dangling mystery more than a few times yet decides to resolve it with an alternate turn during the final moments. An additional antagonist would have pushed the tension greatly but instead this venture sort of meanders and ends abruptly.

What we get is in the end is a lighthearted movie that feels like a minor missed opportunity. The performances are adequate and it’s shot well enough, however the lesson I take from this one is that it’s pretty hard to make a great movie, even if many of the components work on their own.

Four more movies down! I’m enjoying myself and learning a good bit about the Western genre and the movie-making machine.

Check back on May 5th, 2025 as we premiere another All-True comic, a must-see for fans of the steed.