Call this offbeat incarnation of the genre a Shaolin Western. David Carradine starred
as Kwai Chang Caine, an orphan born of an American father and a
Chinese mother and raised as a Shaolin monk trained in the
martial arts. In the series, he wanders the American Southwest in
search of the white half-brother he never knew, pursued by Chinese
assassins and American bounty hunters, and constantly victimized by
brutal racists. His philosophical aphorisms fall on deaf
ears, and the pacifist is forced into an inevitable ass-whupping.
Carradine's martial-arts prowess improved noticeably over the
series, while his placid performance made the show's defining irony
work even in the face of clumsy fight choreography. The exotic mix
of genres, the evocative photography and the running commentary on
intolerance made this quintessentially '70s twist on the Western an
instant cult hit.
Louis L'Amour personally introduced this adaptation of two of his
novels ("The Daybreakers" and "Sackett"), and the gentle rhythm of
his easy voice set the unhurried tone and pace of the telefilm. The
loping, rambling, tough-minded tale of the Sackett brothers and
their meandering journey across the Midwest (town and territory
names flash on screen like chapter markers along the way) set the
standard for the modern TV Western and established its two great
stars. Sam Elliott's gravelly
drawl and flashing eyes made him the great wandering survivor of the
Old West, and Tom Selleck displayed a
jovial temperament that hardened into steely intensity at the snap
of a spur. Director Robert Totten transformed
the landscape into a character in its own right. The success
inspired the pseudo-sequel, "The Shadow Riders," and launched a
renaissance of understated Western features made for
TV.
Larry McMurtry developed his epic tale of aging cowboys who rouse
themselves for one last great adventure -- a 2,500-mile cattle
drive from Texas to Montana (with a herd stolen from a gang of
Mexican cattle rustlers) -- as a big-screen last hurrah for
John Wayne, James Stewart and Henry Fonda before
finally transforming it into a sprawling Pulitzer Prize-winning
novel. The magnificent mini-series brought it full circle and proved
to be the ideal format, preserving the grandly epic feel and visual
sweep while capturing an engrossing intimacy. Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones saddled
up with easy authority to take the reins of this posse of dynamic
characters driving through the gorgeous landscape of the American
Southwest. Winner of seven Emmy Awards, "Lonesome Dove" was the TV
event of the year and spawned a cottage industry of sequels and
other incarnations of McMurtry's Old West.
David Milch reinvented the Western for HBO with his defiantly
deglamorized and unpredictable take on the frontier drama, set in
the muddy, grubby, lawless gold-rush boom town of Deadwood. It's a
magnificent backdrop to watch the ideals of justice and integrity
battle the forces of greed and corruption to lay claim to the
American Dream. Timothy Olyphant brings a
fierceness to former lawman turned hardware-store proprietor Seth
Bullock, roused to take up the badge again when he makes an
emotional investment in the town, while the money-grubbing,
foul-mouthed Al Swearengen (a truly mesmerizing Ian McShane) embodies the
values of expediency and underhandedness with an almost admirable
practicality. The rarefied language is an irresistible mix of
high-toned diction and exquisite gutter vulgarities, often in the
same sentence (it's the Old West like you've never heard it before),
and the imagery suggests hope and promise in the squalor, like a
desert flower struggling to bloom in the wasteland. Sheer
brilliance.
Honorable Mentions 10 more TV Western
landmarks worth remembering:
"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" (1955-1961):
Hugh O'Brian is the
legendary marshal in the pioneering adult TV Western structured
around the timeline of the real Wyatt Earp, from Wichita to Dodge
City to Tombstone. "Cheyenne"
(1955-1963): Clint Walker drifts
through the Old West as an adventurer with a strong sense of justice
and a penchant for action. "Have Gun - Will
Travel" (1957-1963): Richard Boone is Paladin,
the suave, ruggedly charming and classically educated gunfighter who
hires out his gun ... but only in a just cause.
"Wanted: Dead or
Alive" (1958-1961): Steve McQueen rides the
range with a smile and a sawed-off shotgun as bounty hunter Josh
Randall, a gunman with a heart and a
code. "Rawhide" (1959-1966): Clint Eastwood became a
star playing trailhand Rowdy Yates on the eight-season cattle-drive
adventure. "Bonanza" (1959-1973): Lorne Green is the widowed
patriarch of a ranching clan (Michael Landon, Dan Blocker and Pernell Roberts) in the
second-longest-running Western series. "The Wild, Wild
West" (1965-1970): James Bond goes West in this sagebrush
espionage adventure starring Robert Conrad and Ross Martin as agents on
President Grant's secret service. "Centennial"
(mini-series, 1978): The sprawling adaptation of James Michener's
novel is the story of how the American West was won in the microcosm
of a fictional Colorado town over 200 years. "Conagher"
(TV movie, 1991): Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross star in
this lovely and laconic character piece set on Louis L'Amour's
beautiful and brutal frontier. "The Adventures of Brisco County
Jr." (1993-1994): Bruce Campbell is a
bounty hunter battling villains out of Jules Verne in this
short-lived cult Western with a tongue-in-cheek
sensibility.
Sean Axmaker is a film critic for the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer and a DVD columnist for the Internet Movie
Database. His writing has also appeared on Greencine.com and
in Amazing Stories, Asian Cult Cinema and "The Scarecrow Video
Movie Guide."
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