RIDING WILD & FREE: Featuring six free classic westerns over four days, the Bosque Film Society hosts the 4th Annual Wild Western Weekend Free Film Festival March 12-15 at The Cliftex Theatre in Clifton
By SIMONE WICHERS-VOSS
Bosque Film Society Founding Board Member & Treasurer
With all the family gatherings during the holiday season behind us, what better way to spend a weekend than in a darkened locale, a big bag of popcorn in your lap, a big soda in the cup holder and watching a classic western on the big screen?
With its Fourth Annual Wild Western Weekend Free Film Festival, the Bosque Film Society will offer an opportunity to do exactly that;, and you can do it all weekend long. After being postponed due to the extreme winter event experienced across Texas in January, the weekend event has been rescheduled to feature six free classic westerns March 12-15 at The Cliftex Theatre in Clifton. Thanks to the generous donations by BFS’s sponsors, admission will be free to the public. Seating will be limited to 150 moviegoers on a first-come, first-served basis.
“Born from the pioneer spirit and raised on the cowboy way on the cattle trails, the western lifestyle is strong in Bosque County, and a good western always resonates with the county’s residents,” BFS founder and board president Brett Voss said. “Classic westerns always pop-up during discussions with our members, and the Wild Western Weekend is a great way for us to showcase the many excellent movies about the American West.
“Making the event free to the public, hopefully introduces new visitors to the Cliftex Theatre and to the Bosque Film Society.”
The festival opens on Thurs., March 12 at 7 p.m. with the indomitable duo John Wayne and James Stewart in the The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) by director John Ford at the peak of his craft. It is considered one of the finest Westerns ever filmed. Ford preferred shooting black and white over color saying “black and white is real photography.”
Near the turn of the 20th century, U.S. Senator Ransom “Ranse” Stoddard and his wife Hallie arrive in Shinbone, a frontier town in an unnamed Western state, to attend the funeral of Tom Doniphon. When asked by the local newspaper reporter why a senator would attend the funeral of a poor rancher, Stoddard answers with a story that flashes back 25 years.
George Stevens’ Shane (1953) with Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur and Van Heflin will be Friday’s matinee at 4 p.m. In a classic good-versus-evil story, courage, loyalty, honor and friendship prevails when an ex-gunfighter defends homesteaders in 1889 Wyoming. It is considered one of the iconic Westerns, with beautiful cinematography and a touching storyline.
It is followed by Mel Brooks’ R-rated 1974 satirical western comedy Blazing Saddles with Gene Wilder, Cleavon Little and Slim Pickens at 7 p.m. According to the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the movie is a “gleefully vulgar spoof of Westerns that marks a high point in Mel Brooks’ storied career.”
In order to ruin a western town and steal their land, a corrupt politician appoints a black sheriff, who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary. The Bosque Film Society issues a disclaimer regarding the crude, racist, sexist jokes throughout the movie.
Los Angeles Times critic Charles Champlin sums the movie up well, calling the film “irreverent, outrageous, improbable, often as blithely tasteless as a stag night at the Friar’s Club and almost continuously funny.”
The Sat., March 14 matinee at 4 p.m. features another John Wayne/John Ford collaboration, the 1949 classic She Wore A Yellow Ribbon. Shot under difficult conditions in Monument Valley, the movie was awarded Best Cinematography and received an award for the Best Written Western by the Second Writers Guild of America.
It is considered one of the most visually stunning and emotionally resonant films of John Wayne’s legendary career – a timeless tribute to duty, dignity, and the enduring spirit of the American West.
On the eve of retirement, Captain Nathan Brittles takes out a last patrol to stop an impending massive Indian attack. Encumbered by women who must be evacuated from Fort Starke, Brittles finds his mission imperiled. The final scene is an inspiring speech by the narrator about the anonymous, hard-working and courageous cavalry soldiers of the United States of America.
The Saturday evening show at 7 p.m. features Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe and Russell Means in Michael Mann’s 1992 epic historical drama and passionate romance story The Last of the Mohicans.
Against the panorama of frontier wilderness of the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains, three Mohican trappers agree to protect the daughters of a British Colonel in the midst of the ravages of French and Indian War. The movie was R-rated for moderate violence, gore and frightening, intense scenes.
The Wild Western Weekend rounds off with a Sunday matinee March 15 at 4 p.m. with the 1994 melodrama Legends of the Fall starring Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, Aiden Quinn and Julia Ormond.
In the early 1900s, three brothers and their father live in the remote and ruggedly beautiful wilderness of Montana. Betrayal, history, love, nature, and war all take their toll on an unconventional, but close-knit family. Tragedy hits when one of the brothers is killed in World War I. The surviving brothers finish their tours of duty, only to both fall for their deceased brother’s gorgeous fiancée. Their intense rivalry begins to destroy the family.
Established in October 2020, the Bosque Film Society is a non-profit organization focused on promoting film appreciation, education and production in Bosque County, Texas while serving as the “Friends of The Cliftex Theatre,” the longest continuously-operating movie theater in Texas, showing movies on the big screen since 1916.