James D. Best

Even the film poster celebrates the F-word (Spoiler alert: if you're a Deadwood fan, you won’t like what follows.) I watched ...

Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly This weekend I saw Sisters Brothers . I write westerns, so I’m critical of Hollywood ventures i...

Blade Runner 1982 versus Blade Runner 2049 IMDB users rate Blade Runner 2049 at 8.2 out of 10. Pretty heady rating for IMDB...

Sam Elliott is one of my favorite actors. Although he has done outstanding work in Western films, I first became a fan after watching t...

Us Old Guys Don't Like Change I rented Man of Steel last night. When I saw it in the theater, I was disappointed. Actually, more t...

Kimberly Turner published a piece on Lit Reactor titled, “ 7 Horrifying Ailments Named After Literary Characters .” I believe she missed a ...

Robert Duvall is one of my favorite Western actors. (Others on my list include John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Tom Selleck, Gene Hackman, Sam...

Western writers are like other fiction writers in that they have super powers. They can bend time, compress space, and sweep away boring pe...

Matt Haig posted an article titled “12 Years as a Writer” . It’s a lessons-learned piece. I especially like #11, which reads: “We like ...

Shane is one of my favorite Western films. The Jack Schaefer book is also one of my favorite Western novels. There are great films and...

I object when computer generated imagery overwhelm the story. Actually, I've objected when CGI is substituted for storytelling. About.c...

I'm in New York City visiting my son and his family. Okay, my son is really on a business trip and I'm filling in for him at a fathe...

Good books can make good movies. This is especially true if the script is true to the book. This doesn't mean a movie should doggedly f...

Elmore Leonard wrote great opening lines ... first sentences that immediately drew the reader into the story. Elmore Leonard The St...

Bender General Store and Inn In the early 1870s, the Bloody Benders were a family of serial killers on the Kansas prairie. The four m...

Those of you who follow this blog probably know my wife and I are moving from Arizona to Nebraska....

Steve Dancy has had a rocky romantic life in the first three novels. His mother pushed him to marry a young lady who would enhance the fa...

Edison's Black Maria, West Orange New Jersey Edison’s first movie studio was in West Orange, New Jersey. It was nicknamed the Black...

I’m not a purist. My own westerns are about miners instead of cowboys, my plots delve into the politics of the frontier, and my protagoni...

 Reading Cowboy Statue, Azle, Texas American Cowboy  magazine has listed the top 10 Western Books , plus a few also-rans from the s...