Ride Lonesome - (Reel West) by Kirk Ellis (Paperback)

About the Book

"Loners. Drifters. Men bent on vengeance. Laconic in manner, economical in gesture, slow to anger but deadly when provoked. Begun unofficially in 1956 with Seven Men From Now, made under the auspices of John Wayne's Batjac Productions, director Budd Boettinger and actor Randolph Scott's "Ranown Cycle"would eventually encompass six films, of which Ride Lonesome is both the best, and representative of the whole cycle. Visually and aesthetically, Ride Lonesome more than justifies New York Times critic Richard T. Jameson's assessment of the entire Ranown cycle as "the most remarkable convergence of artistic achievement in the history of low-budget moviemaking (rivaled only by Val Lewton's 1940s horror films for RKO)." Shot in a mere seventeen days for under a half-million dollars, Ride Lonesome is a masterpiece of cinematic minimalism, at once epic and austere. Running a tight 73 minutes, Boetticher turns traditional Western tropes into rituals of re-enactment and revenge"--

Book Synopsis

Ride Lonesome, the fifth film in the Ranown cycle, is both the best and most representative of the whole series, which has been called the most remarkable convergence of artistic achievement in the history of low-budget moviemaking. Director Bud Boetticher captures the alienation and loneliness of an America faced with the Cold War and the daily threat of nuclear annihilation. Shot in seventeen days for under a half-million dollars, Ride Lonesome is a masterpiece of cinematic minimalism.

Veteran screenwriter Kirk Ellis brilliantly unpacks the themes, narrative, visual language, and editing in this seminal film. In Ride Lonesome Ellis not only shows how this one film embodies a turning point for the Western, but he also explores the unique vision and contributions of director Boetticher and his writing partner Burt Kennedy.

Review Quotes

Ride Lonesome offers fresh insight into the careers of screenwriter/director Burt Kennedy and legendary film auteur Budd Boetticher, as well as a blow-by-blow account of the making of Ride Lonesome, one of the great American films. It is essential reading for anyone interested in Western movies.--W. K. Stratton, author of The Wild Bunch: Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary Film

About the Author

Kirk Ellis is the multiple Emmy-winning screenwriter of HBO's John Adams, the Apple TV+ limited series Franklin, and other works of historical drama, including Anne Frank: The Whole Story and Into the West. He is the author, most recently, of Ride Lonesome, one of the inaugural volumes in UNM Press's Reel West series.