Criterion is having a 24-hour flash sale on all in-stock discs, which means you can get their Ranown Westerns box set, normally $150, for $75.
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Criterion is having a 24-hour flash sale on all in-stock discs, which means you can get their Ranown Westerns box set, normally $150, for $75.
These are low-budget Westerns made in the late 1950s, but despite that they are shockingly modern and morally ambiguous. You will be amazed at how much they feel like they were written yesterday.
If you've never seen them and you need something new to watch, take a chance on them. You can thank me later.
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by
"Stunning individually, the Ranown Cycle, taken as a whole, tells the story of the American West as a capricious and unforgiving place that threatens at any moment to swallow up the people trying to settle it. Just as the unforgiving landscape was reflected in the lines of Scott’s face, so too is the deep melancholia of an era coming to an end; an overriding sense of loneliness and isolation for men whose skills were celebrated in the taming of the wild, but not welcome in the civilization made possible by their violence and practical, some would say slippery, morality."
The Ranown Westerns Join the Criterion Collection | TV/Streaming | Roger Ebert
A feature on the new box set of Budd Boetticher Westerns from Criterion.
Roger Ebert (www.rogerebert.com)
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Jason Lefkowitzreplied to Jason Lefkowitz last edited by
Here's Martin Scorsese talking about one of the Ranown westerns, 1959's RIDE LONESOME. He mentions using it as a reference for the actors in his film THE DEPARTED (2006).
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@jalefkowit Thank you. I think my dad has two of these but has never seen the Blu-Rays. I'll look forward to watching them with him when I see him next at Christmas.
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@VoiceofDuum For a long time, the only home video releases of these movies were in cruddy "25 Westerns In One Box!" DVD sets. So even if your dad has seen some of them, it might be eye-opening to watch them again with the Criterion Blu-Ray treatment
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@jalefkowit Even worse: I recorded off cable and made my own DVDs for him, with covers made from posters and notes cobbled from IMDB/Wikipedia based on stuff he liked to know
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@VoiceofDuum Oh hey! That's a labor of love! I imagine that means more to him than lines of resolution
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@jalefkowit
fast shipping too