The Film Shelf

Many of these items are available from Amazon. You can go directly to their ordering system, which shows pricing and availability and includes both professional and reader's reviews, by clicking on the image of the video cover or the film icon alongside each review.

Reviewed works, listed alphabetically:
Duck You Sucker
Fistful of Dollars
Frank and Jesse
Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The
Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, The
Long Riders, The
Outlaw Josey Wales, The

Duck You Sucker, a Sergio Leone film, 1972
Review by Henry Fardan
Sometimes seen as A Fistful of Dynamite, starring James Coburn.
A great must-see film, full of humorous violence (trust Rico; that's how it is), and splendid Leone cinematography.
Buy it here.



Fistful of Dollars, a Monte Hellman film, 1967
Review by Henry Fardan
The original 'Man With No Name' movie, starring Clint Eastwood.
Buy it here.





Frank and Jesse, a Robert Boris film, 1995, TriMark
Review by Henry Fardan
Made for television, but worth watching.
It presents the bad boys from Missouri using contemporary 'victim' theology.
Buy it here.




The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, a Sergio Leone film, 1967 (originally Buono, il brutto, il cattivo)
Review by Henry Fardan
Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach.
No more perfect type-casting in movie history. While it purports to be about the Civil War, it's really a Western in disguise. "A bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery." Don't miss it when Wallach says "if you're going to talk, talk, if you're going to shoot, shoot..." Buy it here.

The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid
Review by Henry Fardan
While The Long Riders is probably more brotherly, Cliff Robertson as Cole Younger is still one of the best. It's more about what happened as a result of the Civil War, but it shows what a bunch of Southern boys can do if they put their mind to it.
Buy it here.


The Long Riders, a Walter Hill film, 1980, United Artists
Review by Henry Fardan
The Carradines as the Younger brothers. The Keaches as the James brothers. The Quaids as the Miller brothers. The Guests as the Ford brothers. The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid all over again.
It don't get any better than this.
Buy it here.

The Outlaw Josey Wales, a Clint Eastwood film, 1976
Review by Henry Fardan
A Missouri farmer joins a Confederate guerilla unit and winds up on the run from the Union soldiers who murdered his family. Another Western masquerading as a Civil War film.