Well, having just moved to a new home, it’s always nice to receive a housewarming gift. That’s precisely what I got when fellow blogger le0pard13 over at It Rains…You Get Wet presented me with my new site’s first award. Recognition from other bloggers, as anyone who indulges in this pastime will tell you, is most welcome. And since this guy has offered lots of support and encouragement over the years, I want to say a big thank you. Of course, these things come with conditions, and this one is especially tough as it demands some self-analysis – something I’m not sure I’m so good at. The conditions are as follows:
- Tell everyone something that no one else knows about.
- Link to one of my posts that I personally think best fits the following categories:
- Most Beautiful Piece
- Most Helpful Piece
- Most Popular Piece
- Most Controversial Piece
- Most Surprisingly Successful Piece
- Most Underrated Piece
- Most Pride-worthy Piece
- Pass this award on to seven other bloggers.
1. Okay, one of my earliest ambitions was to be an actor. There. I said it. I don’t know if this has influenced my lifelong love for movies or vice versa, but there’s probably some connection on some level. I did some amateur stuff when I was very young, and was told I had promise, but my teens came along and somehow it all got pushed off to the side. Maybe that was all for the best – I work in education now, and that pretty much involves putting on a one man show throughout the working day anyway!
2. Now for the tough part!
i. My Most Beautiful Piece – Jeez! I don’t know, I’m going to say The Big Country just because I feel I covered every aspect of the movie I set out to, and as well as I think I could.
ii. My Most Helpful Piece – Ok, this is maybe a bit of a cheat but I’m going to say The Last Hard Men. I wrote this way back when my blog was in its infancy and I had yet to find my feet. It’s short and far from the best thing I’ve written, but it drew some attention to my blog and was helpful to me as it gave me some much-needed confidence.
iii. My Most Popular Piece – Easy, Tombstone. For one reason or another, it drew more hits than any post.
iv. My Most Controversial Piece – I don’t think I’ve written anything that’s especially controversial. However, I’m going to nominate Odd Man Out, the logic being that anything deals with the Northern Ireland conflict is probably controversial in someone’s eyes somewhere.
v. My Most Surprisingly Successful Piece – The Law and Jake Wade. I didn’t expect much but this post drew more comment than any other.
vi. My Most Underrated Piece – The Long Memory.
vii. My Most Pride-worthy Piece – Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. A difficult film to do justice to, but I gave it my best shot.
3. And my seven nominations are:
So, that’s my lot. The only thing that remains is to wish everyone a happy and healthy year in 2012.
Riding the High Country 
wow, Colin, many many thanks for including me! my very first such award & so much appreciated. stay tuned for a formal response/ blog post in the next day or so!
all the best
🙂
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You’re welcome Kristina. My pleasure.
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This is my MUST visit blog daily as it offers exciting, informative and analytical views of those
golden oldies, particularly westerns. Keep up the good work and a Happy New Year!
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After posting my earlier comment, I gave some thought to The Law And Jake Wade. In my opinion,
I would rate it the top three of all westerns directed by John Sturges.
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Firstly Chris, thank you for the very kind words and the compliments. And I also think The Law and Jake Wade is a quality picture that is right up there with the best of Sturges’ work.
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Great post Colin and thanks very much for including me in your roundup (sic) – I’d be lying if I didn’t say I’ve been really looking forward to reading your next post – just getting ready for an Audie Murphy double bill with my Dad (NO NAME ON THE BULLET is the first and the other will be Don Siegel’s THE DUEL AT SILVER CREEK, which we’ll be watching in Italian!).
Happy new year mate.
Sergio
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And a Happy New Year to you and yours too Sergio. Nice double bill BTW.
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Glad to nominate you and your blog. Your work certainly deserves praise, Colin. I’ve read all of those posts you’ve listed and I think you’ve done a splendid job of categorizing them for this meme. I agree with all of your selections, especially your The Big Country and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid pieces. Thank you.
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It’s not the first time you’ve championed my blog Michael, and I’m very appreciative of that. As I said above, it’s a fine feeling to earn the recognition of one’s peers – and that counts double when you have a great respect for their judgement.
Again thanks, and have a great New Year.
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Couple things.
1. Thanks for the nomination. Coming from you, I take it as quite a compliment.
2. You’re right — your Big Country post was excellent. This was a picture I’d pretty much written off years ago. Your post was instrumental in getting me to watch it again, and it blew me away. Your Pat Garrett one was excellent, too. And I really dug your recent thoughts on No Name On The Bullet.
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Don’t mention it. Quite apart from the always interesting content you provide, your place has come to serve as a great stimulant for discussion of western movies – a kind of private forum in a way.
Thanks too for the compliments. I’ve found that one of the things that offers the most reward and encouragement from running a blog is the fact that, every once in a while, some piece will lead a reader to either go back to a movie or view it for the first time. It’s heartening to know that others may come to reassess pictures partly as a result of something you write; that kind of thing really makes the whole business worthwhile.
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Congratulations on the award, glad to see that your hard work has been recognized.
I was really impressed by your review of Big Country, an underrated film, but you did an excellent job of explaining why it deserves more attention.
Take care
Andrew
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That’s very kind Andrew – thanks.
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