Comedian Rich Hall goes west to find out what killed off that most quintessentially American of all film genres, the western. Through films such as The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, Little Big Man, The Wild Bunch and Unforgiven, Rich charts the rise and fall of America's obsession with its own creation myth - the Wild West. He explores how the image of the cowboy as a moral, straight-talking heroic figure was created by Hollywood but appropriated by Washington, as one president after another sought to associate themselves with this potent symbol of strength and valour.
Himself
01 Jan 2000
This documentary traces the history of the B-Western from it's silent movie origins to its demise in the early 1950s. The film contains a large number of scenes from early silents and seldom seen films, as well as old photographs of the stars and one-sheet advertisements for lost films.
22 Sep 2001
The life and work of one of the great masters of Italian cinema, Sergio Leone (1929-89); a rich and fascinating portrait through unpublished testimonies of collaborators, actors, directors and critics who reconstruct every aspect of his creative activity.
03 Feb 2019
Over a 50-year career and more than a hundred movies, filmmaker John Ford (1894-1973) forged the legend of the Far West. By giving a face to the underprivileged, from humble cowboys to persecuted minorities, he revealed like no one else the great social divisions that existed and still exist in the United States. More than four decades after his death, what remains of his legacy and humanistic values in the memory of those who love his work?
18 Nov 2003
First part of a three-part documentary series on the making of Once Upon a Time in the West, Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone's masterpiece, released in 1968. (Followed by The Wages of Sin.)
18 Nov 2003
Second part of a three-part documentary series on the making of Once Upon a Time in the West, Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone's masterpiece, released in 1968. (Preceded by An Opera of Violence; followed by Something to Do With Death.)
18 Nov 2003
Third part of a three-part documentary series on the making of Once Upon a Time in the West, Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone's masterpiece, released in 1968. (Preceded by The Wages of Sin.)
25 Jul 2004
An account of the life and work of American film director Sam Peckinpah (1925-84), a tortured artist whose genius and inner demons changed the Western genre forever.
24 Jul 2019
Los Angeles, 1969. TV star Rick Dalton, a struggling actor specializing in westerns, and stuntman Cliff Booth, his best friend, try to survive in a constantly changing movie industry. Dalton is the neighbor of the young and promising actress and model Sharon Tate, who has just married the prestigious Polish director Roman Polanski…
09 Oct 1974
Pierre is a clumsy, overly serious math teacher at an all-girls high school. His life is thrown into chaos after encountering a beautiful British actress and the paparazzi that follow her around.
12 Jun 1981
Joe and Benny are two cowboys on tour in the Wild West as a singing duo, usually without a penny in their pockets to spare. Joe is a talented rodeo-rider, which fascinates the little girl Susanne and gives her the wish to have him as a father. Her mother Maria, however, is to marry the evil, rich farmer Dave. Susanne wants to stop the wedding, so she sneaks aboard Joe and Benny's wagon to persuade them to intervene. Dave brands them as kidnappers, forcing them to flee as outlaws to one of the families tyrannized by Dave. Together, they strike back at Dave, at which point Maria sees that he's the wrong man for her.
08 Oct 1975
Lewis Tater writes Wild West dime novels and dreams of actually becoming a cowboy. When he goes west to find his dream he finds himself in possession of the loot box of two crooks who tried to rob him.
22 Jun 2015
Mac is at the threshold of losing everything while directing his feature film.
25 Apr 1954
Cruze arrives in town and when he stands up to the three Moran brothers, he gets appointed Marshal. First the brothers kill a rancher while framing another man. But when the jailer is murdered, Cruze gets evidence the Morans did it. He tries to raise a posse to chase them down but the townsmen refuse to go. So he rides off by himself to face the three of them.
16 Sep 2023
A letter, received by the Finnish National Radio’s phone-in program, hopes that in this era of #metoo and many other well-meaning campaigns, attention will be drawn to an unpleasant phenomenon, the use of the name Urpo as a synonym for idiot. In this warm-hearted and humorous documentary, four men called Urpo gather to reflect on the meaning and impact of their name on their lives. Is the use of Urpo still decent in 2023?
03 Oct 2006
A documentary of the German national soccer team’s 2006 World Cup experience that changed the face of modern Germany.
09 Jul 2004
Riding Giants is story about big wave surfers who have become heroes and legends in their sport. Directed by the skateboard guru Stacy Peralta.
12 Sep 2005
The American comedian/actor delivers a story about the alternative Hip Hop scene. A small town Ohio mans moves to Brooklyn, New York, to throw an unprecedented block party.
15 Jul 2015
The story behind the rise and fall of New York's 42nd Street. The cinemas, the films, the people, the crime and the rebirth of the block as "New 42nd Street" - this is the document of the world's most notorious movie strip.
05 Jul 2005
This documentary pays tribute to the contributions and importance of the title watering hole in the creation of the psychedelic dancehalls that littered the West during the late '60s and helped launch such super groups as The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and The Quicksilver Messenger Service. Music by Big Brother and the Holding Company, and the Charlatans is also featured. The Red Dog Saloon had its genesis in 1964 when a group of free-thinking, LSD-enhanced Northern California students and young folks had a party and began thinking about starting up a saloon that would evoke the old West. They decided to build their saloon in Virginia City, Nevada, a once prosperous town that was by then nearly empty. The ambience of the saloon blended Old West sensibilities with modern psychedelia, go-go girls and plenty of illegal drugs. The film is comprised of interviews with surviving founders, actual archival footage, and even a performance of some of the musicians who appeared there.
28 Apr 2012
Tells the true story of one woman's quest to help two elephant landmine survivors-Motala and Baby Mosha-walk on their own four legs.