What a great TV night!

December 12, 2001 6:01 PM

What a great TV night! The Wild Bunch on Encore followed by The Searchers on AMC. I have a sixer of Guiness and a sixer of PBR in the fridge, so before tonight is out, I'm sure I'll have an urge to put on a cowboy hat, mount up and shoot me some varmints. All kidding aside, some nights the TV gods just seem to smiling down on me.
posted by jonmc (44 comments total)

Thanks for sharing.

Who likes pancakes? I love pancakes.
posted by jpoulos at 6:10 PM on December 12, 2001

I prefer waffles. Especially with chicken. At Rosco's.
posted by phalkin at 6:18 PM on December 12, 2001

I think it's unfair to derail a thread just because it.... did you say Roscoe's? I LOVE Roscoe's. My friend is thinking of doing a holiday get together there this year.
posted by eyeballkid at 6:22 PM on December 12, 2001

"I'll hold 'em 'til Hell freezes over, or you say so."
posted by yerfatma at 6:27 PM on December 12, 2001

Folks, Folks, these are two fantastic movies...the post is just my way of urging folks to watch.

BTW, I love pancackes too,.
posted by jonmc at 6:32 PM on December 12, 2001

A week ago I would have been confused, but I just saw the Wild Bunch so this post makes a whole lot of sense. Just don't alternate between the Guinness and the PBR, run through one first.
posted by modofo at 6:36 PM on December 12, 2001

posted by y2karl at 6:40 PM on December 12, 2001

modofo- c'mon variety is the spice of life...Guiness for the sophisticate in me, PBR to nourish my inner redneck.
posted by jonmc at 6:41 PM on December 12, 2001

"Hey Pilgrim. That's no way to treat a pancake."
posted by MAYORBOB at 6:44 PM on December 12, 2001

Never seen the Wild Bunch, unfortunately, but The Searchers is one of the greats. I'll be watching The West Wing and eating Pudge Bros. pizza, so I won't be able to increase my knowledge of westerns tonight.

My other favorite John Ford/John Wayne movie is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. And now that I'm thinking of good cowboy movies.. Winchester '73 and The Gunfighter. A thinly veiled Cain and Abel riff, and the inspiration for a Dylan song, respectively.
posted by Hildago at 6:44 PM on December 12, 2001

She said, "Even the swap meets around here are getting pretty corrupt."
posted by y2karl at 6:50 PM on December 12, 2001

Oh if there's an original thought out there, I could use it right now.
posted by y2karl at 6:51 PM on December 12, 2001

And it snagged him Gregory Peck hisself to do the honors when they gave his skanky ass the props at the Kennedy Center tribute.
posted by y2karl at 6:54 PM on December 12, 2001

aaaiiieeeee!! where did my cute bunny picture go? it was there in the preview. hrmpf.


posted by suprfli at 6:55 PM on December 12, 2001

His Bobness, that is..
posted by y2karl at 6:55 PM on December 12, 2001

Folks, Folks, these are two fantastic movies...the post is just my way of urging folks to watch.

So why not take five minutes to find a better link? Say, this essay on the The Searchers by Jonathan Letham or this brief page about The Wild Bunch's Warren Oates?
posted by snarkout at 7:03 PM on December 12, 2001

Recipes from Peckinpah Mountain, including Buttermilk Corn Casserole and Braised Buffalo Hump. Now will someone bring me the Mexican Beef Pancakes of Alfredo Garcia.
posted by liam at 7:04 PM on December 12, 2001

Karl, my favorite line was always, "the only thing we knew for sure about Henry Porter was that his name wasn't Henry Porter"

I also suspect that The Gunfighter inspired a certain Far Side cartoon, but apparently Gary Larson has taken them all off the web, so I can't be sure. It was the one with the veteran ping pong player talking to the young player, and he says something like, "sure you beat me, but now every young punk with a paddle is gonna come gunning for you. Welcome to hell, kid."
posted by Hildago at 7:06 PM on December 12, 2001

::taps forehead::

Mose knows...

You forgot to mention that The Searchers inspired Buddy Holly's That'll Be The Day.
posted by y2karl at 7:11 PM on December 12, 2001

ahh one sixer down...

"me and the boy's got some work to do...it ain't like the old days but it'll do."

damn varmints better watch out.
posted by jonmc at 7:27 PM on December 12, 2001

Another thing to note is that the western novel The Searchers, in which Ethan's name is Amos, is even bleaker than the movie--Amos dies in the penultimate battle and Martin Pawley doesn't get the girl--and was by Alan LeMay, who also wrote the equally bleak The Unforgiven.
posted by y2karl at 7:36 PM on December 12, 2001

posted by gluechunk at 8:01 PM on December 12, 2001

nice work, gluechunk
posted by jpoulos at 8:08 PM on December 12, 2001

You know, you can find film images at bad ass movie images.
posted by Jeremy at 8:16 PM on December 12, 2001

posted by y2karl at 8:24 PM on December 12, 2001

but not The Searchers...
posted by y2karl at 8:26 PM on December 12, 2001

it's the background work I'm most impressed with, gluechunk
posted by y2karl at 8:28 PM on December 12, 2001

Jonmc, you should get one of these, it'll change your life!
posted by Doug at 8:30 PM on December 12, 2001

I was gonna comment that the 'rescuing captive girl' plot framework of the Searchers was appropriated by George Lucas for some movie he made in the late 70's, but:

I'm sure I'll have an urge to put on a cowboy hat, mount up and shoot me some varmints.

damn varmints better watch out.

It looks like I better skedaddle.
posted by varmint at 8:40 PM on December 12, 2001

is that john wayne and...tom cruise?????
posted by rebeccablood at 8:55 PM on December 12, 2001

the 'rescuing captive girl' plot framework of the Searchers

As well as several others--I'm trying to think of the one with George C. Scott in it about a ruanway teen prostitute...

Tom Cruise looks like Natalie Wood? Now that I think about it...
posted by y2karl at 8:58 PM on December 12, 2001

Has anyone noticed that you never see Natalie Wood and Tom Cruise in the same room at the same time. Spooky.
posted by eyeballkid at 8:59 PM on December 12, 2001

Over Thanksgiving weekend, after enjoying quite a few delicious Black And Tans, we ran out of Guiness and Bass. So instead we used Red Stripe and PBR and dubbed the new concoction a "Jamaican Redneck." And it sucked really bad.
posted by spilon at 9:02 PM on December 12, 2001

I also suspect that The Gunfighter inspired a certain Far Side cartoon

For some reason, this reminds me of an old Callahan cartoon along similar lines. Two gunfighters, one looking a little bit scared, face each other down in the dusty street of an Old West town. From the wooden sidewalk, a woman cries, "Don't be a fool, Billy!" Billy, of course, is the one with no arms.
posted by diddlegnome at 9:05 PM on December 12, 2001

As well as several others--I'm trying to think of the one with George C. Scott in it about a ruanway teen prostitute...

That's Hardcore, an explicit remake directed by Paul Schrader, who wrote Taxi Driver.
posted by snarkout at 9:18 PM on December 12, 2001

varmint - thanks for a hilarious response...that sent PBR right out my nostrils.
PS-the TV gods are still smiling upon me-tomorrow night 8pm EST-Harold and Maude, the greatest romantic comedy ever made.
Thanks for an intertsting and fun thread, y'all..now i'll hit the dusty trail.

yipee-i-yay...
posted by jonmc at 9:41 PM on December 12, 2001

posted by y2karl at 10:01 PM on December 12, 2001

Harold & Maude!
John Wayne -> Alan LeMay -> Clint Eastwood -> Ruth Gordon. Where does Warren Oates fit in?
posted by G_Ask at 10:41 PM on December 12, 2001

How about Hank Worden, for that matter?
posted by y2karl at 10:54 PM on December 12, 2001

I still get a surprising number of people who ask me about my review of the Wild Bunch re-release. I send them pancakes.

P.S. I'm not responsible for the animated GIF -- I posted to Usenet ... I didn't think it was worth the international copyright lawsuit.
posted by dhartung at 2:22 AM on December 13, 2001

Bravo!

A great thread !

Love those pancakes !
posted by Frasermoo at 4:00 AM on December 13, 2001

Where's the .jpg of The Duke saving Pancake Rabbit?
posted by perorate at 8:14 AM on December 13, 2001

Well thanks ALOT y2Karl, I'm reading that book right now!
posted by glenwood at 9:27 AM on December 13, 2001

Yipes! Sorry!
posted by y2karl at 10:11 AM on December 14, 2001