The Western has fallen out of favor with Hollywood. Once the dominant genre of American cinema, it has been replaced by expensive spectacles. Not that spectacles are bad, but there is something to be said about what can be done in the world of the cowboy that is different than anything else.
When we do get a Western with an adequate budget or star power or both then tend to be filled with terrible people with terrible lives doing terrible things to each other with the delineation between good and evil or right and wrong being little more than who the people behind the project feel should come out on top.
But the Western is capable of so much. You can have comedy like Blazing Saddles or science fiction like Cowboys & Aliens. You can even have a message hidden in the story like The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. You can even have it set in the present like The Last Stand-an underrated Ahnuld movie in my opinion. In short, the Western is not bound just to the 1800s and shootouts but can encompass a great many things.
And in that spirit presented here are three Western shorts from YouTube. Enjoy!
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Beantown USA
- Directed by Luca Schild
- January 22, 2023
A showdown over a can of beans. That’s it.
Looking on Facebook at The Rejectables’ page, Beantown USA is an Australian offering (meaning it might actually be ‘AUS’ and not ‘USA’) but the humor behind the basis for the plot escapes me. There is a strong focus on beans which could be something very Australian in this context. This group (or whatever) looks like they do weird stuff and appeal to a very niche element of the public.
I am not exactly sure what I experienced here. It’s supposed to be a comedy. I kept waiting for a joke of some sort, but none really came. It was all about the strange premise involving a can of beans and then it segued into an unbelievably long standoff that lasted to the present day before concluding with both sides buying their own beans in a grocery store. I was beginning to think this was a creative product commercial until the credits rolled.
The Rejectables mistook weird premise for a joke. This is certainly the beginnings of a comedic film but not an actual comedic film. This is something you show to those perhaps into experimental comedy to be overanalyzed but never actually laughed at.
It is certainly well produced and well directed but quality in those two departments does not equal a quality project. You need a good script and, in the case of comedy, good jokes. This doesn’t have either. Or maybe it is just too connected to very niche experiences that despite a complete lack of dialogue is inaccessible to those without those experiences.
Beantown USA is a weird idea that mistakes weird for humor. It is just the beginning of something funny but not actually funny. You can skip this one.
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Passengers
- Written and Directed by Zachary Huskins
- May 8, 2020
In Tennessee a group of strangers are traveling on a train.
Passengers is not a rooting tooting bit of Western action but rather a short that touches on bravery and who we actually are. Our main character of the would be outlaw must decide what kind of man he is by the end. A passenger that is a bit of a coward must find out if he truly is just that. These are people forced to take a look at themselves and their lives.
This is a well done short of very professional quality. This looks as good as just about anything you might find on the big or small screen. It also demonstrated that good drama in a Western is not achieved by having everybody irredeemably terribly. The Western can touch on human questions without the characters being giant piles of excrement.
There was something that left me a little puzzled though and that those behind Passengers should have been better explained. I get the opener and in hindsight it connects to the end but how that outlaw was still free is confusing. He may not have actually killed anybody, but he did attempt a robbery. And given that there was one dead body you would think the local law would be interested.
That aside Passengers is a good dramatic Western that focuses on deeper things. With a good story and overall quality, it is worth watching.
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The Gunfighter
- Directed by Eric Kissack
- October 28, 2016
A mysterious gunfighter enters a saloon for a drink, but an omniscient voice has other plans.
I went into The Gunfighter expecting a dramatic Western given the title alone. I didn’t read anything in the comments section or any information that was included in this presentation on YouTube. I figured Nick Offerman’s voice over would simply be filling in any narrative gaps in order to set up the situation. His involvement though should have been a BIG clue.
This is far from dramatic but rather quite humorous. The humor starts simply enough and just evolves into pure stupidity with the jokes getting juvenile and ridiculous. It’s a rather witty idea executed perfectly. The jokes come steady and are given just enough time to breathe before moving onto the next one.
The voice and other sounds that characters in the film would not normally be aware of BE AWARE OF is not a particularly original idea but rarely used to the extent it is here. In The Gunfighter the voice is as much of a character as anyone else and counts as the villain of the story by toying with all parties.
His (Its?) goal is just to get everyone to kill each other. He begins to reveal the deepest and darkest secrets ranging from a tough outlaw with a love of dolls to a rancher that loves his sheep a bit too much.
The high quality of this production helps to really sell and elevate the humor used. It is the juxtaposition of jokes and quality appearance that makes it so much funnier. But as dumb as the humor is, it is also smart. Like Mel Brooks at his best, it knows the right level of stupidity to use with setup and punchline. I would love for the team here to take a crack at something longer than this. I think it would be fantastic.
The Gunfighter is a great piece of Western comedy short film work that I highly recommend to everyone looking for a good laugh. You most certainly should check it out. You will not be disappointed.
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I hope you have found something you might like here in these offerings. We have drama and humor with some films working better than others. Ultimately each was a creative effort that used the genre in non-stereotypical ways.
Warren Watched A Movie 