Classic Westerns, spooky stories, and a new historical drama are among this week’s highlights.
With so many options available now on cable, streaming platforms, digital networks, and broadcast television, you might spend more time searching for something to watch than actually watching anything. So we’re offering a weekly guide to some programming of special interest to C&I readers. Here are a few highlights for Oct. 30 to Nov. 5. Happy viewing.
Pick of the Week: Lawmen: Bass Reeves on Paramount+
David Oyelowo (Selma, A Most Violent Year) rides tall and shoots straight in this limited-run series co-produced by Taylor Sheridan about the legendary slave-turned-lawman often identified as the real-life inspiration for the fictional Lone Ranger. The first two episodes grippingly dramatize Bass Reeves’ evolution from servitude to fortitude as he escapes from a capricious master during the Civil War, hones his survival skills in Indian Territory, returns home to raise a family during the Reconstruction Era — and proves his worth as a posse man to grizzled Deputy U.S. Marshal Deputy U.S. Marshal Sherrill Lynn (Dennis Quaid), who makes Reeves an offer he can’t refuse. Donald Sutherland won’t show up until next week as Judge Isaac Parker, the jurist who gives Reeves a badge and a “Most Wanted” list, but trust us: He’s well worth waiting for.
Available starting Nov. 5 on Paramount+.
Streaming
A few days ago, we suggested 13 weird Westerns suitable for Halloween viewing. Here are five more additions to that list.
Brimstone (2016): Guy Pearce of Memento, L.A. Confidential and Ravenous is ferociously effective as the intimidating antagonist in director Martin Koolhoven’s violent Western thriller. He’s perfectly cast as a character known only as Reverend, a fanatical clergyman who, for reasons only gradually explained, is dead-set on making life a living hell for Liz (Dakota Fanning), a mute young frontierswoman who serves as a midwife for the locals in her Old West town. (Available on multiple platforms)
The Burrowers (2008): Call it a cross between Tremors and The Searchers, and you won’t be far off the mark. In the 1879 Dakota Territories, a search party sets out to track down the varmints who attacked an isolated family farm, slaughtered the menfolk, and ran off with the women and children. A sadistic cavalry officer (Doug Hutchinson) assumes Indians are responsible. Wrong! The real culprits are slug-like subterranean creatures that burrow to the surface only for feeding — and breeding. (Available on multiple platforms)
Curse of the Undead (1959): During a hiatus in the filming of Rawhide, the popular TV series in which he played trail boss Gil Favor, actor Eric Fleming saddled up for a very different kind of Western. He plays preacher Dan Young, a dedicated clergyman who’s deeply concerned when young women in his small town start dying because of an inexplicable “disease.” Eventually, Young wises up to the fact that the root of the problem is not medical, but supernatural: Drake Robey (Michael Pate), a newly arrived stranger in town, is a vampire who has returned to the scene of a long-ago crime. (Available on Amazon Prime)
Mohawk (2018): Filmmaker Ted Geoghegan (Brooklyn 45) impressed critics and thrilled audiences with this blood-soaked and action-packed drama set against the backdrop of The War of 1812. Two Native Americans — a woman (Kaniehtiio Horn) and man (Justin Rain) — and a sympathetic Brit (Eamon Farren) are relentlessly hunted through the woods by soldiers after one of them sets fire to an American encampment. Things take a supernatural turn when one of the vengeful pursuers learns that it’s never enough to merely wound your prey. (Available on multiple platforms)
The Wind (2018): Director Emma Tammi — whose horror-thriller Five Nights at Freddy’s currently is the No. 1 box-office hit in the U.S. — made her feature filmmaking debut with this genre-mixing frontier ghost story. It’s a spooky and suspenseful thriller set on an isolated stretch of prairie where a lonely pioneer wife (Caitlin Gerard of TV’s The Last Ship and American Crime) finds herself haunted by real or imaged demons during her husband’s frequent absences. (Available on multiple platforms)
Movies
The Warrior’s Way (2010): Think of it as a kung-fu Western action-adventure fairy tale that suggests a fever-dream collaboration of Sergio Leone and Federico Fellini. Writer-director Sngmoo Lee’s visually inspired multi-genre mashup recounts the amazing exploits of Yang (Korean superstar Jang Dong-gun), a master swordsman who becomes the sworn enemy of his fellow warriors when he refuses to kill a baby girl — the only surviving member of a rival clan. Hotly pursued by an army of ninja assassins, Yang escapes with the infant and makes his way across the ocean to Lode, a remote Wild West town where, not unlike Clint Eastwood’s titular fugitive in The Outlaw Josey Wales, he gradually ingratiates himself to the community of outcasts and outsiders. But then, of course, the ninjas show up.
Nov. 1 at 11:15 pm on Encore Westerns
Crossfire Trail (2001): Reunited with Quigley Down Under director Simon Wincer, Tom Selleck stars in this adaptation of a Louis L’Amour novel as a gruff but noble drifter who makes good on his promise to a dying man that he’ll look after the luckless fellow’s widow (Virginia Madsen) and Wyoming ranch. Selleck is as effortlessly authoritative as always, but the big surprise here is seeing Mark Harmon (NCIS) cast against type as a two-faced, back-shooting land-grabber.
Nov. 5 at 8 pm ET on Grit.
The Professionals (1966): A personal favorite of C&I reader favorite Anson Mount, writer-director Richard Brooks’ hardy action-adventure has Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, and Woody Strode well cast as uniquely talented mercenaries hired to retrieve the kidnapped wife (Claudia Cardinale) of a wealthy rancher (Ralph Bellamy). Not long into the quest, however, they realize that maybe the wife wasn’t really kidnapped at all, but simply prefers the company of her abductor: Notorious bandit leader Jesus Raza (Jack Palance).
Nov. 3 at 9 pm ET on INSP.
Series
The Twilight Zone: During the 1959-64 run of his groundbreaking anthology series, writer-producer-host Rod Serling occasionally got his cowboy on with fantastical Western-themed episodes. Here is a guide to seven of the best, featuring such notables as Cliff Robertson, Dan Duryea, and Gary Merrill. (Available on multiple platforms)
Switching Channels: get
Each week, we showcase a different free-to-watch digital channel available through streaming and/or cable. This week: get (Great Entertainment Television), formerly branded as getTV, which offers multiple airings of Walker, Texas Ranger reruns every day. The weekend lineup currently includes both short-lived and long-running TV Westerns such as Nichols (a cult-favorite starring James Garner), Bret Maverick (Garner in an 18-episode Maverick reboot), The Gene Autry Show, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters (an early showcase for actor Kurt Russell), The Lazarus Man (starring Robert Urich) and Hondo (a 1967 series inspired by the classic John Wayne film with Ralph Taeger in the role originally played by The Duke. For up-to-date schedules and access information, check out the get website.
