Episode 50: Young Guns (1988) and Young Guns II (1990)

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 sequel. It's a great discussion, so make yourself comfortable and settle in for this double-size celebration.

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)

Pax and Michael talk about Pax's second-favorite Western of all time; a movie that Michael has never seen before. But there's also time for quick reviews of 1953's The Lawless Breed and Daniel A Edwards' book, Billy the Kid: An Autobiography.

Jonah Hex (2010)

Michael and Pax raise the corpse of the DC Comics box office flop to figure out if it's as bad as its reputation and maybe even how to fix it. Jonah Hex stars Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, and John Malkovich and was written (in part) by the notorious Neveldine and Taylor.

Pax also talks about the 1985 Jonah Hex comics reboot, Hex, and Michael wanders away from comics completely to review 1952's Bend of the River, starry Jimmy Stewart, Julie Adams, and Rock Hudson.

All this and Pony Express!

A Man Called Sledge (1970)

Pax and Michael discuss Vic Morrow's spaghetti western starring James Garner, Dennis Weaver, and Claude Akins.

Also, Michael talks about the Zellner Bros' 2018 Western, Damsel, and Pax reviews the first couple of volumes of the graphic novel series Bouncer by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Francois Boucq.

Geronimo: An American Legend (1993)

Michael and Pax talk about Walter Hill's misleadingly titled film starring Matt Damon, Jason Patric, Wes Studi, Robert Duvall, and Gene Hackman.

Also: quick reviews of Rick Geary's The True Death of Billy the Kid and the 1920 silent film, The Daughter of Dawn.

¡Three Amigos! (1986)

There's a lot of laughing and quoting in this episode when Pax and Michael talk about the 1986 Western comedy starring Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short.

Also: quick reviews of Gone Are the Days (2018), The Ballad of Lefty Brown (2017), and the comic book The Undertaker, Volume 3: “The Ogre of Camp Sutter” by Ralph Myer and Xavier Dorison.

The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981)

Michael and Pax talk at length about the financial and critical disaster that was William Fraker's Legend of the Lone Ranger, starring Klinton Spilsbury, Michael Horse, and Christopher Lloyd. But along the way, they cover other iterations of the masked rider's adventures, including the original radio dramas, the 1938 serial, the Clayton Moore TV show, and a couple of cartoons.

Also in this episode: Pony Express mail featuring two lists of Must See Westerns as compiled by comics writer Chuck Dixon:

"Must See" Westerns

A More Advanced List of Western Movies