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TCM Spotlight: Revisionist Westerns: ‘Monte Hellman’ & ‘1970s Double Feature’
TCM, Beginning at 7 p.m.
Turner Classic Movies saddles up for another evening of films in the revisionist Western subgenre. The lineup is divided into two themes. First are three films directed by Monte Hellman, a protege of low-budget exploitation cinema legend Roger Corman. The first two of these — Ride in the Whirlwind (pictured) and The
Shooting, both from 1966 — star Jack Nich
olson in early roles and are regarded as being within the “acid Western” subgenre of revisionist Western movies produced in the late 1960s/early ’70s. Both films were co-produced by Nicholson, who also wrote the screenplay for Ride in the Whirlwind. The third Hellman feature comes from
1978: China 9, Liberty 37, an Italian-Spanish production starring revisionist Western staple Warren Oates and Sam Peckinpah, a master director in that genre, in a small acting appearance. Following the Hellman triple feature comes a double feature of revisionist Western classics from the 1970s, starting with The Missouri Breaks (1976). The Arthur Penn-directed production stars Nicholson and another legend, Marlon Brando, with supporting performances from Randy Quaid and Harry Dean Stanton.
The ’70s double feature, and the evening of revisionist Westerns as a whole, then concludes with Comes a Horseman (1978), set in the American West of the 1940s, directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Jane Fonda, James Caan, Jason Robards and Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Richard Farnsworth.