Search - The Great American Western, Vol. 1: Randolph Scott on DVD

Warning! Movies defaced with logo

R. McKenzie | London ON Canada | 03/13/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"If you are contemplating buying this DVD, you should be aware that the manufacturer has superimposed its "Platinum Disc Corporation" logo in the bottom right corner of the screen throughout the movies. All of the movies on this disc are available from other manufacturers who are more respectful of the films. Check the listings here at Amazon.com for the "no logo" versions from Roan and other suppliers. (Please note I would have given this disc zero stars but that option is not available.)"

For All Western Lovers

Samuel Thursday | 08/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This collection is well worth the money. Randolph Scott at his best. Very well directed and acted. Well above the average western and very entertaining."

Four Good Westerns

Acute Observer | Jersey Shore USA | 07/28/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Great American Western, Volume 1

This DVD is part of a series of Western movies that were very popular from around 1910 to the early 1960s. Westerns were replaced by other action movies and novels. Popular tastes were changed by technology, horses became scarce after the 1940s. The modern westerns of Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and others were set in present times with automobiles, radios, and telephones. Private detectives and government agents supplanted the lone rider who corrected crimes. Police departments replaced the Sheriff's posses composed of ordinary citizens. The Gun Prohibition pushed by Big Corporations avoided showing ordinary people keeping and bearing arms, or the use of lawful violence for self-protection. Movies still follow the rules of the morality plays where evil is punished and the good are rewarded. Except when they aren't.

These four films feature Randolph Scott (and others) in dramas set in the 1860s ("Rage at Dawn"), the 1870s ("Abilene Town"), the 1880s ("To The Last Man"), and the 1930s (The Fighting Westerner"). There are no singing cowboys; they replaced the authentic cowboys of earlier westerns ("Hoot" Gibson, Tom Mix, Tim McCoy, and others). Few actors today have ridden horses since their teens (like John Wayne). Westerns are more obsolete than dial telephones or tube radios. But there are still some who prefer the old movies over the trendy new. These four movies are all worth viewing as entertainment, and as examples of former popular entertainment before the 1960s.

If you think the few and rare modern westerns suffer from having a modern outlook, get some of the collections like "Western Classics" or "Western Legends" in the "50 Movie Pack" Collections. You may also like the "Mystery Classics" or "Crime Classics" as well, if you are old enough to remember TV programs in the 1950s and 1960s (most people today were born after 1970).
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