The Western Film Program at GOMA

Overview

When it comes to movie genres at their best when viewed on the big screen, few can challenge the western. The wide-open vistas, the golden colours, the frenetic gunfights, the galloping horses and rolling wagons — they've all help define the concept of true cinematic majesty.

Everyone at the Gallery of Modern Art's Australian Cinémathèque clearly feels the same way, as their latest program proves. For two months, they're opening their doors to a ride through the exploits of cowboys, lawmen, wanderers and villains.

Everything from classics such The Searchers and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, iconic efforts The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and El Topo, plus more recent fare like Mystery Road and Django Unchained fits the bill, as well as the twists on the genre seen in Seven Samurai and Mad Max 2 too. As always, the lineup also features music and movie presentations, including live sound effects in a unique performance event session of Buster Keaton's Go West. Now that's something to saddle up for and canter towards.

Image: Production still from Django Unchained, 2012 / Director: Quentin Tarantino / Image courtesy: Sony Pictures.