Product Details

• Actors: Jeff Bridges, Andy Griffith, Donald Pleasence, Blythe Danner, Alan Arkin
• Directors: Howard Zieff
• Writers: Rob Thompson
• Producers: Tony Bill
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM/UA Home Video
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301969499
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #152,788 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Movies about the movies are a particularly rich vein, especially in comedies. No one understands just how ridiculous Hollywood is like the people who work there. This film is an affectionate behind-the-scenes story about a bumpkin (Jeff Bridges) who moves to Hollywood in the 1930s with visions of a career penning the kind of Westerns he loves to watch, especially the ones starring his favorite Western star (Andy Griffith). Instead, through a series of mishaps, he becomes an actor himself--and a pretty bad one at that--starring in B Westerns (and becoming a rival to Griffith, who turns out to be a particularly nasty piece of work, in a bit of casting against type). Alan Arkin and Blythe Danner join in the fun in this good-natured and amusing spoof. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Genuinely sweet, genuinely funny, and urbane cowpokes too, January 20, 2002

By 

Ellen (Overland Park, KS USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hearts of the West [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This film is full of scoundrels and opportunists and still manages to make life seem delicious. Long before Gwenyth Paltrow was famous her mother, Blythe Danner, was known by aficionados as someone that picked superb material. She's here as The Girl, savvy but still sweet enough to fall for the truly endearing and monumentally naive Jeff Bridges. Alan Arkin does a sublime high strung director of 1920s cowboy movies, and you won't believe what Andy Griffith can do. See it and feel great not in a sappy way: a truly grown up delight.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wall of the Rio Cafe, January 26, 2006

By 

sandalista - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hearts of the West [VHS] (VHS Tape)

What a pleasant surprise! Caught this little gem by lucky accident.

It's a sweet, simple story that gets almost everything right. Every character -- especially the old-timer who sidles over to the next stool at the Rio, or the old-timer who watches in mute alarm as Tater acts out a whip-Lash Larue scene -- is right-on right & memorable.

More important, every hat is right & memorable. Every Stetson here is a tip-of-the-hat tribute to Tim McCoy, William S. Hart, Bill Boyd, Hoot ... all those great guys from the days of yesteryear who never, not even once, snuggled in together for a two-dog night in a one-pup tent.

(Question: Does it seem likely that the one-building town of Titan, Nevada, would have had electricity in 1933, before REA? Don't think so. Question: Is the wall of the Rio Cafe in this 1975 film an homage to 1972's Godfather?)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a very interesting film, June 26, 2010

By 

Mark bennett "Mark" (portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hearts of the West [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a nice simple melodrama about an young aspiring writer whose love of the west comes into conflict with the mythology of the west. He ends up in California making movies. The casting is excellect across the board. Andy Griffith shows the level of acting he was capable of. Its a smart and sentimental film that can poke fun at the mythology of the west without attacking it. It really deserves to be on DVD.