DVD Review: TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Western Adventures (The Wild Bunch / McCabe & Mrs. Miller / Jeremiah Johnson / The Train Robbers): William Holden, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, John Wayne: Movies & TV

May12

DVD Review: TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Western Adventures (The Wild Bunch / McCabe & Mrs. Miller / Jeremiah Johnson / The Train Robbers): William Holden, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, John Wayne: Movies & TV

Posted by admin | on 12 May, 10:01 PM

Product Description
JEREMIAH JOHNSON Soured by civilization, a would-be mountain man braves his first wilderness winter, battling hostile elements and going eyeball to eyeball with a grizzly. Robert Redford and director Sydney Pollack teamed for the second of their six films together on this box-office hit shot entirely in Utah. THE TRAIN ROBBERS Civil War veterans John Wayne, Rod Taylor and Ben Johnson team up with a train robbers widow to recover a cool half-million in hidden gold. The widow (Ann-Margret), the kind who “sticks out in all the right places,” wants to clear her husbands name. But the dead mans ex-partners just want the gold and will kill to get it. THE WILD BUNCH Director Sam Peckinpahs powerful tale of hangdog desperados bound by a code of honor rates as one of the all-time greatest Westerns. Watch William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan and more great stars saddle up for the roles of a lifetime. McCABE & MRS. MILLER Presbyterian Church is a small mining town in the turn-of-the-century Pacific Northwest and a perfect place where a gambler (Warren Beatty) and a bordello madam (Julie Christie) can do business. Robert Altmans dazzlingly original wilderness saga stands the mythology of the Old West on its ear to become “a modern classic” (Pauline Kael).

Some of the better modern westerns under the control of WHV,

By calvinnme “Texan refugee” (Fredericksburg, Va) -
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)

These are not the best westerns in the Warner Home Video stable, but they are interesting films nonetheless.

“The Wild Bunch” (1969) has Sam Peckinpah directing a stellar cast in one of his best westerns. Some of the supporting cast could have been better developed, but in the end it is a fine example of the genre in acting, story, and action. This film is available in a special 2 disc edition, The Wild Bunch - The Original Director’s Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition).

“McCabe and Mrs. Miller” (1971) is an anti-establishment film typical of the late Vietnam war period that just happens to be set in the old west. There are no heroes to be found, and the outlook is quite cynical. The previous print of this film was released in 2002 and I find the colors to be a bit washed out. Let’s hope this is a fresh transfer of this unusual western.

“Jeremiah Johnson” (1972) stars Robert Redford in what is the true story of a mountain man who turns to revenge after his wife and unborn child are killed by Indians. It is more than that, though, as Johnson struggles with survival against the elements prior to all of this tragedy. The latest print of this film was put on DVD in 1997, so the old print is quite VHS-like, for lack of a better term. Let’s hope a better transfer of this film is in this set too.

“The Train Robbers” (1973) is the only film with John Wayne in it, and it is not one of his best, mainly because the so-called bad guys are just not up to the level you expect of any nemesis of The Duke. You expect John Wayne to have worthy opponents and these guys just don’t fit the bill. Wayne does have good chemistry with the other players though and he has some good lines as he escorts a widow to a gold mine her husband left for her. The single DVD of this film was made in 2005 or 2007 and looks quite good, so there is really no need for improvement there.
Search TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Western Adventures (The Wild Bunch / McCabe & Mrs. Miller / Jeremiah Johnson / The Train Robbers): William Holden, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, John Wayne: Movies & TV from AmAzon

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