The American Spectator

The Spectacle Blog

Phil, I sense a generation gap. How can "Unforgiven" be considered a western if it's represents the beginning of Clint Eastwood's guilt trip over his earlier violent roles? In any case, for my money the best cowboy movie ever is "The Magnificent Seven" (1962), which when I saw it, at age 12, represented everything I could ever expect from a genre whose hokiness was not yet obvious to me. Brynner, McQueen, Bronson, Buchholtz, Coburn and even Robert Vaughn -- if I remember right only the first two survive -- in a real test of manhood, heroism, altruism, and decency. After that, it's all been downhill.