I’ve never read A Time To Kill but it just sounds enough like the movie that I could comment, but I’ll wait for you to watch the movie.

I’ll be watching it next (wrapping up Wet Hot American Summer right now) but I’m not very hopeful that it’ll be better than the book. I’ve seen large parts it, but not the whole thing from beginning to end.

Winchester ‘73 - Rube. J/k, I’m dissapointed that you didn’t like this, I was hoping it was one you’d enjoy. Oh well. I find there to be very little wrong with it, and think it’s one of the most entertaining westerns. I’d like to call out John McIntire and Dan Duryea for great supporting performances.

True, they were pretty memorable. I spotted Tony Curtis too, having forgotten how old he was. And, uh, Rock Hudson as an Injun.

Also, I like Stepin’ Fetchit in the movies he made with John Ford, but he’s excruciating there (although his part isn’t that big).

That’s interesting–I thought everything Fetchit did was regarded as totally embarrassing by pretty much everybody–I didn’t think there was some movement like with Song Of The South to “rehabilitate” his image and make it seem like he wasn’t really that embarrassing. I didn’t know he was in John Ford movies.

Winchester ‘73 is probably more influential on the genre than anything that came after it. The movies that would compete for the title, like ’60s Leone and Peckinpah, 1) were also influenced by it and 2) came along when the genre was in decline. In 1950 Hollywood was making more westerns than they make movies now. Broken Arrow, that came out the same year and >also starred Jimmy Stewart, was also very important and shaped the way that Indians were portrayed for the rest of the classic Hollywood era.

I’ll try to keep this in mind. I wasn’t really sure what to think of as being the most influential Western, if that was the case I’d have probably picked Stagecoach.

Winchester ‘73 is also the movie that redefined Stewart’s screen persona. Anthony Mann saw his breakdown at the climax of It’s A Wonderful Life and recognized something in Stewart that hadn’t been tapped elsewhere.

I thought Stewart did okay. I guess I didn’t stop to think that him doing a voice in that An American Tail sequel would have been any sort of a reference to the Westerns he was in!

-In the intro text, the “An Indian would sell his soul to own one” and final sentence always seemed like a sour, out of place note.

Well today’s MAGA crowd would probably claim that Indians don’t have souls, unless they did the right thing and converted to Church of Christ.

WTF is with that weird shot of the deer? That’s “Citizen Kane rubber octopus” territory right there.

Not sure what that shot is, don’t ‘member it.

Thoughts on this critical commentary?

“Gay Peace”: psssht. Yeah, “neutering” men by taking away their phallic-symbol guns is the same thing as turning them “homosexual.” Because gay men don’t have penises, they fuck each other up the ass with their bloody stumps. Check your privilege, Mr. Critic!

Bob Dylan, Dylan: I’m sure I’ve heard it at some point, but I had to relisten to it to comment. It’s boring and the arrangements are sometimes awful. People probably hated it because they payed money for it expecting a new Dylan album. Coming to it now when I can just stream it and know what I’m getting into, it’s just boringly bad. Even the songs I know and like >are bad here. If you like Ira Hayes, have you heard this version?

I haven’t heard that version before but it wasn’t too bad.

If you haven’t watched Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers, he’s a character in that movie.

I’ve missed so many Clint films (both as actor and director). Missed that one too. I thought Letters From Iwo Jima was the more respected of the two films he put out in 2006.

Dylan drawing: well it’s better than “self portrait.”

You seriously need to WATCH Jimi Plays Monterey (edit: I mean, you don’t need to see it if you don’t want to, but if you’re listening to the album for historical reasons and not watching the video then you’re really missing alot). As an audio recording, your review is fair, but you’re really missing it if you don’t see it. It has a Criterion release and is streaming on the Criterion channel and HBO Max. I don’t mean the Monterey Pop movie that just has Wild Thing, the entire performance is out there. For the later historic performances, >you don’t need to see the entire shows, but you should watch Jimi Plays Monterey and then at least see some later clips to see how he’d changed as a performer. His early performances didn’t add much to the song that already had studio performances, but there was a showmanship there that he later lost interest in.

I probably should watch this, yes. Okay put it on the list.