How the West Was Won (1962)

Michael and Pax finally watch the epic classic from directors Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall; starring Carroll Baker, Debbie Reynolds, Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, and George Peppard. And with cameos by everyone else alive at the time.

Does it live up to its reputation? Will the fellas finally be able to tell it apart from Once Upon a Time in the West? Only one way to find out.

Also: Pony Express mail and quick reviews of The Way West (1967) and The War Wagon (1967).

Sabata (1969)

In this episode Pax and Michael delve back into the world of spaghetti westerns with the Lee Van Cleef vehicle, Sabata, about a supernaturally accurate gun for hire and the crazy cast of characters he meets on the job.

Also discussed: Gregory Peck in The Bravados, Matt Wagner and Francesco Francavilla's Zorro, and Robert Conrad and Ross Martin in The Wild Wild West.

100 Rifles (1969)

Michael and Pax deal with the shock of realizing that Tom Gries' 100 Rifles is not the light-hearted heist movie they expected from the cast of Jim Brown, Raquel Welch, and Burt Reynolds. But before they get to that, there's some discussion of the TV show Rawhide, the comic book Brimstone, and the 1965 film Cat Ballou. Closing music for this episode by Daniel Pemberton from his score to The Man from UNCLE (2015).

Wyatt Earp (1994)

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Pax and Michael are once again joined by Chris Schweizer to talk about Lawrence Kasdan's 1994 historical biopic, Wyatt Earp, starring Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, and a literal cast of thousands. We talk a bit about the history of the movie, we talk about Costner during the mid '90s, and we also compare this movie a lot with Tombstone. It's a good, juicy discussion.

And in "Whatchoo Been Westernin'," there's a lot of Zorro talk, but also a Manifest Destiny update and Chris introduces us to Yancy Derringer.



A lot of our discussion with Chris happened outside of the shows we recorded, so we also have a mini, "Hitchin' Post" episode where we talk about a bunch of different Western movies and books.

Tombstone (1993)

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After a brief in memoriam for Bill Paxton, Michael and Pax are joined by historical-adventure comics writer/artist Chris Schweizer (The Crogan Adventures) for the first part of an OK Corral double-feature. Chris brings his extensive knowledge of the turbulent making of Tombstone as well as the original script. What works, what doesn't, and how did the movie get that way? We talk about it all in this extra meaty discussion.

And in "Whatchoo Been Westernin'?" we cover Jeff Guinn's book The Last Gunfight, the recent Western episode of Timeless, and a couple of not-so-recent episodes of Tales of Wells Fargo.

Silverado (1985)

In this episode of Hellbent, Pax and Michael discuss the 1985 ensemble western Silverado starring Scott Glenn, Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Kevin Costner, Brian Dennehy, and Jeff Goldblum. Also: 1935's Annie Oakley movie and some Western films to look forward to in 2017.

Destry Rides Again (1939)

Michael and Pax dig into the first '30s Western on the podcast, George Marshall's Destry Rides Again starring Marlene Dietrich and Jimmy Stewart. And in "Whatcha Been Westerning," Michael recommends The Duel (2016) starring Woody Harrelson and Liam Hemsworth.

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