What a wild week it was, watching Westward the Women. I watched it. The next day I turned on the commentary and watched it again and then the day after that, I went back and watched it again. I've never seen anything quite like this before. Why didn't I know about such a landmark Western, where women are the center of the story and the action?
I can understand that reaction. While I knew the director was capable of a film of this quality, I was still surprised by how modern the story felt. This seems like a script that would be financed post-Captain Marvel, not 65 years earlier. It's just waiting to be discovered and celebrated. Someone get in touch with Alicia Malone.
There are limitations, both in scene structure choices and women stereotyping, but Boy Howdy did this thing capture my attention!
So simply put. When something comes along like this it always leads to the opposite reaction, where the moment it sets a foot wrong you think, "this isn't as good as I was led to believe." The film isn't perfect, but some of it is and the rest goes between Okay and Really Excellent. Probably a couple of moments I wish were better, but I don't remember them.
Thank you, 1SO for the heads up on this one!
I know many people don't venture over here except for Shocktober, but this is one of those films that should be a group discovery, from Antares to Bondo.