Straight shooting
Author Don Bullis tells it like is in reviews of the best, worst Western movies, TV shows
You may think the title of Don Bullis’ book “No Manure on Main Street” is meant to be funny. Sure, it’s humorous, but he makes a point. It refers to Bullis’ annoyance with the historical inaccuracies and technical errors in some Western movies.
“I’m sitting and watching a Western movie and it occurs to me that a dozen horses are hitched up to hitching racks. It doesn’t make any sense that there’s no manure,” Bullis said in a phone interview.
For emphasis, the cover has a photo of a manure-free Old West main street on a Santa Fe movie set. The book’s subtitle is “An Historian’s Diary of Western Movies.” Why a diary? “A diary in the sense that I kept track of the movies as I went along,” Bullis said. “As I watched and rewatched them, I’d make notes as I would in a daily diary. I kept a diary for probably the last four or five years.”
The book is a collection of opinion pieces, or expanded reviews, of more than 230 Western movies Bullis has seen going back to the 1940s. His commentaries are in a chatty, lively style. It’s almost as if Bullis is talking face-to-face to the reader.
That’s a quality you won’t find in the analysis film critics deliver.
Bullis is a cinephile, not a cineaste. “I really like Western movies. There are some really great ones out there,” the longtime Rio Rancho resident said.
Bullis isn’t shy with his praise. “This is a really good movie …” or “This is a great film …” he writes. His opening applause is often followed by supporting evidence. Maybe it’s the strength of the cast or the power of the acting in a particular scene. These are a few of Bullis’ favorite westerns:
■ “The Wild Bunch” (1969) directed by Sam Peckinpah. “… is, without a doubt, the best Western movie ever made, and for several reasons, including the quality of the cast.” Among the actors are William Holden, Ernest Borgnine and Robert Ryan.
■ “3:10 to Yuma,” (1957.) Bullis thinks it is one of the best movies of the 1950s.
■ “The Rounders” (1965) is, in Bullis’ opinion, “a really good, entertaining film that deserves much more attention than it ever received.” Glenn Ford and Henry Fonda are in leading roles. It was based on the novel by the late Albuquerque writer Max Evans.
■ “Lonely Are the Brave” (1962) stars Kirk Douglas as a cowboy rebelling against life in the 20th century. Also in the cast are Walter Matthau, George Kennedy and Carroll O’Connor. The film was shot in and around Albuquerque.
Bullis gave it his top rating — four Silver Conchos. The film is based on Edward Abbey’s novel “The Brave Cowboy.”
Then there are Westerns he says that “… are some real clunkers. They kind of detract from the good ones.”
Here are several of the films he gives thumbs down to:
■ “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” (1957). For Bullis, the movie ranks among the worst when it comes to films about the famed Tombstone, Arizona, gunfight in October 1881.
“The story is so wide of the mark it’s impossible to relate it to actual events,” he writes. Its leads, Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, give mediocre performances.
■ “Painted Woman” (2017). Bullis writes that if you like revenge movies see this one. “Other than that, one really need not bother,” he writes. Bullis’ rating? One Horse Apple.
■ “Posse” (1975). “This movie is like a sevensecond rodeo bull ride; it doesn’t quite qualify for the money. Watch it if there is nothing else on television, or no good book on hand,” Bullis writes.
Nearly all of the films Bullis reviews are from the sound era. An exception is the silent film “A Pueblo Legend.” Shot at Isleta Pueblo in 1912, it stars Mary Pickford and was directed by D.W. Griffith.
“It’s not about much of anything,” Bullis ho-hums in the interview. “The story line is kind of vague. It’s a mishmash. The movie was a little showcase for Mary Pickford.”
He addresses each movie in four categories — commentary, rating, history and trivia.
Though nearly all of the reviews are of movies, Bullis corrals several popular Western-themed radio and TV shows, such as “Bonanza” and “Gunsmoke.” He admits a few movies (e.g. “Cimarron” and “Blazing Saddles”) “fell through the cracks” and didn’t make it in the book.
Bullis is a longtime member of Western Writers of America and the New Mexico Historical Society. Off and on for many years, Bullis wrote a monthly feature story, and more recently, a monthly column, for the Rio Rancho Observer, mostly about Sandoval County history.
Ollie Reed Jr., a Journal staff writer, wrote the book’s introduction.