Hellbent for Letterbox

Part 2 of Deadwood December!  In this episode Mike and Pax discuss the second season of the HBO show Deadwood.  

Welcome to Deadwood December!  This month we are leading up to the 75th episode of the show! In this episode Mike and Pax discuss the first season of the HBO series Deadwood from 2004.

On this episode of Hellbent we are again joined by Shawn Robare to discuss Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, widely considered to be a classic in the genre.  Only some of us agree with that.

Michael and Pax are joined by Shawn Robare ( Cult Film Club ) to ruminate on Richard Brooks' end-of-the-West saga starring Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, Woody Strode, Robert Ryan, Claudia Cardinale, and Jack Palance.

On this episode of Hellbent, Michael and Pax discuss the 1974 East meets West spaghetti western, The Stranger and the Gunfighter, produced by the Shaw Brothers and starring Lee Van Cleef and Lo Leih.

Michael and Pax watch Liam Neeson hunt Pierce Brosnan in David Von Ancken's thriller (and probably parable) co-starring Michael Wincott and featuring cameos by Anjelica Huston, Wes Studi, Jimmi Simpson, and Xander Berkeley. Also: a podcast recommendation,  Wild West  magazine, a couple of silent Jesse James films with James' real-life son playing the legendary outlaw, and this excellent primer on...

Michael and Pax are once again joined by Evan Hanson, this time to discuss the 1974 Mel Brooks western parody, Blazing Saddles.

Guest Evan Hanson returns to help Michael and Pax survey Seth MacFarlane's Western comedy.

On this episode Michael and Pax discuss the first collaboration between director Anthony Mann and Jimmy Stewart, Winchester '73 from 1950.

In this Texas-sized episode, Michael and Pax cover the classic mini-series starring Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, and a supporting cast as epic as the story itself. Also: Pax reads Larry McMurtry's Buffalo Girls while Michael does something Westerny for Fathers Day and reads a Mickey Mouse Weird West comic.

On this episode of Hellbent, Michael and Pax discuss the one movie Marlon Brando directed as well as starred in, the 1961 western, One Eyed Jacks.  Also starring Karl Malden and Ben Johnson.

Michael and Pax jaw about George Miller's (not  that  George Miller, though) Australian Western. One remembered loving it; the other remembered hating it. Have they changed their minds? Do they agree? What happened to Cookie's leg? A couple of those questions actually get answered. Also: DC Comics discussion as Pax reads the early adventures of Bat Lash and Michael checks out the beginning of the...

On this episode of Hellbent Michael and Pax are once again joined by their wives, this time to discuss Bad Girls from 1994 starring Madeline Stowe, Andy McDowell, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Drew Barrymore.

Michael and Pax welcome their wives, Stephanie Holley and Diane May to weigh in on the women-focused Western, Five Bold Women starring Irish McCalla and Jeff Morrow. Pax also shares a couple of Western comics he's been reading: the first volume of Stern from Europe comics and the first couple of issues in Dynamite's Man With No Name series. Meanwhile, Michael's been watching the contemporary Weste...

On this episode of Hellbent Michael and Pax return to the Budd Boetticher-Randolph Scott oeuvre to talk about their very first collaboration in 1956, 7 Men from Now.  Also stars Gail Russell and Lee Marvin. 

Michael and Pax visit Michael Curtiz'  Dodge City  with Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Bruce Cabot. But before that they also talk briefly about a couple of '70s Robert Redford movies ( The Sting  and  The Hot Rock ) and Vincent D'Onofrio's new Billy the Kid movie,  The Kid  starring Dane DeHaan, Ethan Hawke, and Chris Pratt.

On this episode Mike and Pax discuss The Train Robbers from 1973 starring John Wayne, Ann Margaret and Ricardo Montalban.

Michael and Pax talk about the Indonesian Western Buffalo Boys by director Mike Wiluan. Also, Pax reads more Hex (guest-starring Batman!?) and Michael watches Charles Bronson as Wild Bill Hickok in The White Buffalo .

In this episode Michael and Pax discuss the 1969 western classic, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid starring Robert Redford, Paul Newman, and Katharine Ross.

Michael and Pax come back to shoot the breeze about George Stevens' classic Shane , starring Alan Ladd, Van Heflin, and Jean Arthur. Is Marian in love with Shane? Is Joey the most annoying character in cinema? What's up with that ending? And how does Batman fit into all this? There's also Pony Express mail and short discussions of the Wrong Reel podcast's Billy the Kid episode and a couple of film...

On this episode Michael and Pax discuss Robert Redford in the 1972 classic, Jeremiah Johnson, written by John Milius and directed by Syndney Pollack.

This Kevin Costner/Robert Duvall classic is easily the most requested movie that listeners have asked us to cover, so Michael and Pax finally hit the  Open Range . Also: Pony Express brings talk of a Western  Christmas Carol , the real-life history behind  The Night Riders , and the 2003 TV show  Peacemakers . And Pax and Michael share some cool, Western comics:  El Mestizo and Bat Lash .

On this episode of Hellbent Mike and Pax discuss the 1972 Paul Newman western The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, written by John Milius.

Michael and Pax explore the Three Mesquiteers. They talk about the history of the long-running series, then take a look at Riders of the Whistling Skull , in which Robert Livingstone, Ray Corrigan, and Max Terhune help a woman find her missing father and some lost treasure. Then in The Night Riders , Livingstone is replaced by John Wayne who leads the trio as masked vigilantes fighting an evil lan...

To celebrate the 50th episode of  Hellbent for Letterbox , Pax and Michael set aside the Pony Express and Whatchoo Been Westernin' to focus exclusively on the two  Young Guns  movies starring Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, and a couple of posses' worth of other '80s Brat Packers.  Michael and Pax are both crazy about  Young Guns , but have different opinions about the seq...