48 Fun Facts About Western Movie

Which 1903 film, made for the Edison company, is usually cited as the beginning of the Western genre?

The Great Train Robbery, directed by Edwin S. Porter for Edison in 1903, set the crime-pursuit-retribution pattern; outlaw Justus Barnes famously fires straight into the camera.

Which 1939 John Ford film made John Wayne a mainstream star after a decade of headlining B-Westerns?

Stagecoach was the one; producer Walter Wanger wanted Gary Cooper and Marlene Dietrich instead, and Ford refused to replace Wayne.

Which landscape in the American Southwest did John Ford make his signature Western backdrop from 1939 onward?

Monument Valley, on the Arizona-Utah border, was Ford's backdrop from Stagecoach (1939) to Cheyenne Autumn (1964), even when the story was set in Texas.

What is John Wayne's escaped-convict character called in Ford's 1939 breakthrough film?

The Ringo Kid, played by Wayne in Stagecoach, has broken out of prison to avenge his father and brother, murdered by the Plummer gang.

What was John Wayne's real name?

Marion Robert Morrison was born in Winterset, Iowa, in 1907; Glendale firemen nicknamed him 'Little Duke' after his Airedale terrier, Duke.

For which role did John Wayne win his only Best Actor Oscar?

Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, Henry Hathaway's 1969 film, won it; Jeff Bridges played Cogburn again in the 2010 Coen brothers remake.

What was John Wayne's final film, in which he played an ageing gunfighter dying of cancer?

The Shootist (1976) was Wayne's last film; he died of stomach cancer in June 1979, two months after his final public appearance at the Oscars.

Which 1952 Western starring Gary Cooper unfolds in real time as a marshal waits for a gang to arrive?

High Noon, directed by Fred Zinnemann, runs almost in real time and won four Oscars including Best Actor for Cooper; Grace Kelly played his Quaker bride.

Why did John Wayne turn down the lead in Fred Zinnemann's 1952 marshal-alone Western?

Wayne saw High Noon as an anti-blacklist allegory and called it 'un-American'; its writer Carl Foreman had been blacklisted after refusing to name names to HUAC.

Which singer had a country hit with 'Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling', from a 1952 Western?

Tex Ritter sang Dimitri Tiomkin's Oscar-winning theme on the High Noon soundtrack and charted with it; Frankie Laine's cover was the bigger pop hit.

Which 1956 John Ford film was named the greatest American Western by the AFI in 2008?

The Searchers (1956) tops the AFI's 2008 Western list; Wayne's Ethan Edwards spends years hunting a niece abducted by Comanches.

Who plays the abducted niece Debbie in Ford's 1956 masterpiece?

Natalie Wood plays the teenage Debbie Edwards; her younger sister Lana Wood plays Debbie as a child earlier in the film.

John Sturges's 1960 gunfighters-defend-a-village film is a remake of which Japanese classic?

Seven Samurai (1954) had itself been released in the United States under the title The Magnificent Seven.

Which actor plays Chris Adams, leader of The Magnificent Seven?

Yul Brynner plays Chris Adams, the black-clad leader who recruits the seven; Eli Wallach plays the bandit chief Calvera.

Which actor played the coffin-dragging gunman Django in the 1966 spaghetti Western?

Franco Nero played Django, who drags a coffin hiding a machine gun through a muddy border town; the 1966 film spawned dozens of unofficial sequels.

Where were most spaghetti Westerns shot?

Most were made at Rome's Cinecittà studios and on locations in Italy and Spain; the Tabernas Desert in Almería doubled for the American Southwest repeatedly.

Which three films make up Sergio Leone's famous trilogy with Clint Eastwood?

A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) star Eastwood's poncho-wearing Man with No Name.

Who plays 'the Bad' and 'the Ugly' alongside Clint Eastwood's 'Good'?

Wallach's Tuco calls Eastwood 'Blondie'; Van Cleef is Angel Eyes.

Who composed the score for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?

Ennio Morricone, Leone's regular composer, wrote the score; its coyote-howl main theme is among the most recognisable pieces of film music.

Where is the gold buried in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?

Sad Hill Cemetery, the circular graveyard of the final three-way duel, was purpose-built near Santo Domingo de Silos in Burgos, Spain, and later restored by fans.

Which usually heroic actor played the villain Frank in Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West?

Henry Fonda, cast against type, plays the blue-eyed killer Frank, introduced murdering a family; Charles Bronson is the harmonica-playing avenger.

Which two filmmakers helped Leone devise the story of Once Upon a Time in the West?

Dario Argento and Bernardo Bertolucci, both still little known, worked out the story with Leone by studying classic Westerns; Sergio Donati later rewrote the script.

Who wrote the original screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?

William Goldman won the Original Screenplay Oscar for it after years researching the outlaws; he later wrote All the President's Men and The Princess Bride.

Where do Butch, Sundance and Etta flee to escape the posse?

They flee to Bolivia, where the real Butch and Sundance are believed to have died in a 1908 shootout at San Vicente.

Which Burt Bacharach and Hal David song plays over the bicycle scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)?

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head won the Oscar even though Time magazine hated the 'anachronistic' scat-singing soundtrack.

Who directed Blazing Saddles, and who plays Sheriff Bart?

Mel Brooks directed and Cleavon Little plays Sheriff Bart; co-writer Richard Pryor was Brooks's first choice for Bart, but the studio would not back him.

What is the name of the town the railroad must pass through in Blazing Saddles?

Rock Ridge is the town; attorney general Hedley Lamarr schemes to drive its residents out so the railroad can be rerouted through it.

Which bandleader cameos in the desert with his orchestra in Blazing Saddles?

Count Basie and his orchestra appear in the desert playing 'April in Paris' as Bart rides toward Rock Ridge.

Which set of four Westerns all won the Academy Award for Best Picture?

Cimarron (1931), Dances With Wolves (1990), Unforgiven (1992) and the neo-Western No Country for Old Men (2007) each won Best Picture; Stagecoach, High Noon, Shane, The Searchers and True Grit did not.

Dances With Wolves was the feature directing debut of which star?

Kevin Costner directed and starred; Dances With Wolves won seven Oscars from twelve nominations, including Best Director for him.

Which Native American language is spoken through much of Dances With Wolves?

Lakota is spoken by the Sioux characters; Doris Leader Charge of Sinte Gleska University translated the dialogue and coached the cast.

To whom did Clint Eastwood dedicate Unforgiven?

The closing credits read 'Dedicated to Sergio and Don', honouring Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, the directors who shaped Eastwood's career.

Who plays the sadistic sheriff 'Little Bill' Daggett in Unforgiven?

Gene Hackman won Best Supporting Actor for Little Bill; the film also took Best Picture, Best Director and Best Film Editing.

What is the name of the Wyoming town in Unforgiven?

Big Whiskey is the town; William Munny rides there for a bounty the prostitutes put up after one of them is slashed by a cowboy.

Who plays Doc Holliday in Tombstone (1993), in a performance widely singled out for praise?

Val Kilmer's wry, consumptive Doc Holliday ('I'm your huckleberry') drew the film's best notices; Kurt Russell plays Wyatt Earp.

Who narrates Tombstone (1993)?

Heston has a supporting role; Mitchum's voice opens and closes the film.

Tarantino's 2012 Western takes its title from a 1966 spaghetti Western by which director?

Tarantino was writing a book on Corbucci when he started the script; the original Django, Franco Nero, cameos.

Which two Oscars did Tarantino's 2012 Western win?

Christoph Waltz won Best Supporting Actor as Dr King Schultz and Tarantino won Best Original Screenplay, his second after Pulp Fiction.

Which other 1939 films, alongside Ford's Wayne breakthrough, revived the Western from 'pulp' status?

Dodge City (Errol Flynn), Jesse James (Tyrone Power) and Destry Rides Again (James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich) all arrived in 1939, the year the A-Western returned.

Which Sam Raimi Western stars Sharon Stone as a gunslinger called the Lady?

The Quick and the Dead (1995) pits Sharon Stone's Lady against Gene Hackman's Herod in a quick-draw tournament; Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio co-star.

Which 1925 film about the Oklahoma land rush was William S. Hart's last?

Tumbleweeds (1925), set during the Cherokee Strip land rush, was William S. Hart's final film; he reissued it in 1939 with a spoken prologue.

Which actor from The Great Train Robbery became the screen's first cowboy star as 'Broncho Billy'?

Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, born Max Aronson, played several parts in The Great Train Robbery and from 1908 starred in well over a hundred Broncho Billy shorts.

Who directed The Big Trail (1930), the widescreen epic that gave a 23-year-old John Wayne his first lead?

Raoul Walsh directed it in the 70mm Grandeur process; it flopped partly because Depression-era cinemas could not afford widescreen projection.

Following 'spaghetti Western' for Italy, Westerns made in Australia were jokingly labelled with which food?

Meat pie Westerns joined ramen Westerns for Asian films and masala Westerns for Indian ones in the same food-tagging habit.

Eastern Bloc takes on the Western, often set during the Russian Civil War, went by what nickname?

Red Westerns or Osterns were the Soviet and East German answer; despite the Cold War, the American Western strongly influenced Eastern Bloc filmmakers.

Which Kurosawa film, inspired by Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, was remade by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars?

Yojimbo shows the influence ran both ways: Kurosawa was a fan of American Westerns, especially the films of John Ford.

Which 1953 George Stevens Western ends with a boy calling after the departing gunfighter?

Shane (1953) ends with young Joey Starrett crying 'Shane! Come back!' as Alan Ladd's wounded gunfighter rides away; Jack Palance plays the hired killer Wilson.

Which 1902 novel by Owen Wister is considered the first critically recognised Western, predating Zane Grey?

The Virginian set the template; Zane Grey followed in the early 1900s and Louis L'Amour became the genre's best-known mid-century novelist.