Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman and Jeff Bridges are among the stars who will loom large during the three-night series.
After showcasing a passel of classics for their Western Icons with Ethan Wayne series last May, the folks at the HDNET Movies cable channel want you to celebrate Labor Day weekend with another heaping helping of Wild West action. So they’ve shifted gears slightly to program Modern Westerns, a three-day cavalcade of films dating from 1978 to 2010.
Jack Nicholson, Sam Elliott, Robert Duvall, Jeff Bridges, Tom Selleck, Liam Neeson, Gene Hackman, Pierce Brosnan and Wes Studi are among the notables who’ll be on view throughout this straight-shooting lineup.
Saturday Sept. 1
AMERICAN OUTLAWS (2001) — Jesse James (Colin Farrell) and Cole Younger (Scott Caan) lead their gang on a post-Civil War crime wave while Allen Pinkerton (former 007 Timothy Dalton) doggedly pursues them. (6 pm ET/5 pm CT)
GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND (1993) — C&I reader favorite Wes Studi plays the title role in director Walter Hill’s sympathetic study of the Apache warrior. Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall and Matt Damon co-star. (7:35 pm ET/6:35 pm CT)
TRUE GRIT (2010) — Jeff Bridges (pictured above) swaggers into the role that helped John Wayne win an Oscar — ornery one-eyed lawman Rooster Cogburn — in the hit remake co-directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. (9:35 pm ET/8:35 pm CT)
WILD BILL (1995) — Jeff Bridges rides again — this time as the legendary Wild Bill Hickok — in director Walter Hill’s darkly revisionist take on the Wild West icon. (11:30 pm ET/10:30 pm CT)
Sunday Sept. 2
GOIN’ SOUTH (1978) — Jack Nicolson directed and stars in a comic western about an outlaw who avoids hanging by marrying a spunky spinster (Mary Steenburgen). Look for co-star John Belushi (yes, that John Belushi) in his movie debut (6 pm ET/5 pm CT)
BROKEN TRAIL (2006) — Robert Duvall and Thomas Haden Church received well-deserved Emmy Awards for their performances in director Walter Hill’s acclaimed miniseries as cowboys who rescue five Chinese women from slave traders while driving 500 horses from Oregon to Wyoming. (7:50 pm ET/6:50 pm CT)
THE LONG RIDERS (1980) – Another western drama from director Walter Hill, this one about the exploits of legendary brothers bound in banditry: Jesse (James Keach) and Frank James (Stacy Keach); Cole (David Carradine), Jim (Keith Carradine) and Bob Younger (Robert Carradine); and Ed (Dennis Quaid) and Clell Miller (Randy Quaid). (10:55 pm ET/10:55 pm CT)
Monday Sept. 3
TRUE GRIT (2010) — Repeat of the Coen Brothers’ remake with Jeff Bridges. (6 pm ET/5 pm CT)
THE SHADOW RIDERS (1982) — Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott share the screen in an adaptation of a Louis L’Amour novel, directed by Andrew V. McLaglen (McLintock!), about brothers who fought on separate sides of the Civil War, but reunite to save kidnapped members of their family. (7:55 pm ET/6:55 pm CT)
SERAPHIM FALLS (2006) — A vengeful former Confederate officer (Liam Neeson) hunts for the Union Army veteran (Pierce Bronson) responsible for the deaths of his wife and children. Ed Lauter, Wes Studi, and Anjelica Huston co-star. (9:35 pm ET/8:35 pm CT)
POSSE (1993) — Melvin Van Peebles is director and star of this period drama about former Buffalo Soldiers who head westward to a black frontier settlement while pursued by their racist white ex-commander (Billy Zane). Not to be confused with the 1975 western of the same title starring Kirk Douglas and Bruce Dern. (11:30 pm ET/10:30 pm CT)
