Customer Reviews

Cinema Southwest

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Movie lovers and afficionados of the western genre films...this book is for you. Author, John Murray packs each page with photos and movie stills of films that were shot in the American southwest. Along with recognizable movie scenes from classics and contemporary films are tidbits and information on the filmmakers, the actors and the locations. Cinema Southwest is a joy to read and you will pick this book up again and again.

The author John A. Murray really wrote a work of love on movies and their southwest location (California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas). From such diverse films such as High Plains Drifter; Leaving Las Vegas; Sergeant Rutledge; Thelma & Louise; Jerimah Johnson; Easy Rider; and Tender Mercies. If you travel through parts of the Southwest (including the mystical ones) then your journey's will be a bit more enjoyable having been to the spot where Clark Cable, Montgomery Clift and Marylin Monroe created the Misfits! My trips have been more interesting! Cheers!

Do you want to know where Stagecoach or Giant were shot? Or, vice versa, what movies have been shot in Old Paria or Moab? The information is all here, complete with directions on how to get to the various top Western movie sites and what to look for.

The very helpful appendix includes information on Westerns that have won Oscars, city and state film commissions, best locations to visit, and fictional sources for selected Westerns.

So saddle up the horse, or your car or other vehicle, and get ready to see some outdoor, larger than life movie studios.

I hope nobody wasted any time trying to match up the Gunga Din picture on page 74 to the sand dunes of the lower Colorado River. It was filmed mostly in Lone Pine, California. That scene of British gatling gunners was filmed just off Whitney Portal Road.