You and me....12:00.... at the Bike Rack

“Love Your Fate, which is in fact your life.” 
― Friedrich Nietzsche

Im not exactly a fan of westerns, never was. I just don't care i guess. I struggle to connect with characters, locations and motivations in westerns. It's very foreign to me, in fact more foreign than a sci-fi epic taking place on a distant planet, or a fantasy land of trolls and wizards, or even an alternate reality within dimensions beyond our own. These places and settings ARE  quite different form our own reality. A "civilization" far removed from what we call the real life. Citizens in these places play by a foreign set of rules and claim victory, or defeat,  with a foreign sense of pride, or shame , respectively,.. BUT, in some way... its always familiar.  Our heroes in these stories are heroes for a reason. KILL, KILL, KILL! the monster for the horrible things it's done to the "innocents". Are the innocent REALLY innocent? Or do we just sympathize with them, because they are the standard "Good" guys. The heroes. US.. PEOPLE.....HEROES... or sometimes common men functioning at a level  higher than the status quo. A "virtuistic" attempt to thwart do-badders, no matter what the cost. DESTROY the MONSTER. At first the "monsters" motivation for killing, maiming  hurting, taking, scaring, tearing, ripping, loathing etc.....  are unknown to us. We have no connection and no sympathy for the "monster". Why should we?? We've all grown to hate and fear the "monster". However, more often than not.... (especially in current story telling arcs and scripts) ...by the end of our journey we usually have an explanation of motivation behind the "monsters" heinous actions. We UNDERSTAND the emotion, or lack of emotion, that guides the "monsters" to act the way they have acted. We may not AGREE with it, but we UNDERSTAND it.

Here lies my issues with westerns.

I don't UNDERSTAND why the bad guys are bad. And to be quite honest, i don't UNDERSTAND why the good guys are good. Gunfights and showdowns and Quick Draw McGraw type actions at High Noon are a myth. The setting is real, the locations are real, hell.. even sometimes the MEN are real.. but the actions.. aren't. Hollywood made westerns what they are, or at least what I'VE come to know them as. Its a format where you KNOW who the BAD guys are and KNOW who the GOOD guys are and that's ALL you need to know. For some, that's enough. For MOST, that's enough and i am sure at some point during some movie it's even been enough for me... BUT not this time. It's the one thing i think of when watching a western and unfortunately it more often distracts me from the story then intrigues me. I just don't CARE what peoples motivations are because 9 times out of 10 we don't get to find out.

Im being harsh on westerns and feel bad about it. This episode just was a bore to me and didnt feel like delving into why without explaing my reasons for it. That would be the "Western" way out...... Bastard Westerns.

Rating-- 2 out of 5 *'s.