Movies 4 You: Timeless Westerns Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Movies 4 You: Timeless Westerns Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 12, 2013

The sixties and seventies were a time of transition for one of the hoariest genres in film, the western. What had once been a reliable box office attraction through the early fifties at least had found its mojo with audiences seriously depleted by the glut of small screen oaters which invaded television from the mid-fifties on, as well as perhaps just a natural attrition of interest caused by so many westerns having been released for so long, and by the time the early sixties rolled around, huge hit westerns were actually the exception rather than the norm. For every How the West Was Won (which was actually marketed as much as an “event” movie as it was an actual western), there were scores of other films, some with major stars and directors attached, which just fell by the wayside. Things seemed to be looking up when 1969 produced two unlikely western hits that couldn’t have been more different, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Wild Bunch. But audiences can be fickle aggregations, and while a number of fascinating westerns were made in the wake of these two hallmarks, few actually ended up connecting with audiences in any overwhelming way. The four films collected on this perhaps odd seeming two Blu-ray set from Timeless Media Group (an imprint of Shout! Factory) all fall into that less than stellar category, even if each of them has at least some redeeming characteristics (and sometimes much more than that). All of these films failed to ignite at the box office, and in fact probably were seen in such venues as drive-ins and then on various television broadcasts through the years. While they appear to be a fairly disparate bunch, spanning the years from 1964’s Rio Conchos to 1979’s Butch & Sundance: The Early Years, there are at least a couple of linking elements here, including three scores by the inestimable Jerry Goldsmith and two appearances by Jim Brown (including his screen debut). The four together provide a rather interesting look both at what went right and wrong with the western during this transitional era.

For detailed comments on each of the films in this set, please click on the following review links:

Take a Hard Ride Blu-ray review

Rio Conchos Blu-ray review

Butch & Sundance: The Early Days Blu-ray review

The Last Hard Men Blu-ray review

Movies 4 You: Timeless Westerns Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Please click on the above links for assessments of each film's video quality.

Movies 4 You: Timeless Westerns Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Please click on the above links for assessments of each film's audio quality.

Movies 4 You: Timeless Westerns Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Please click on the above links for assessments of each film's supplements.

Movies 4 You: Timeless Westerns Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Chances are the rather odd assortment of films in this four-fer (I would like to trademark that new word, if possible) won't appeal in equal measure to everyone, even fans of the western genre. But the good news here is, despite the quite low price, this isn't a knock off job. The transfers here are unexpectedly good, there are some actual supplementary features, and the whole package delivers some great entertainment at a good value. Recommended.