The Cowboy Iliad

The Cowboy Iliad
Author: Walter Hill
Publisher: Marmont Lane Books
Total Pages: 52
Release: 2019-02-14
Genre:
ISBN: 9780999852767

A 50 page Companion Booklet To The Spoken Word Album. Writer/Director Walter Hill, well-known for his westerns (The Long Riders, Geronimo, Wild Bill, Deadwood, Broken Trail), tells the story of a shootout that occurred in Newton, Kansas in 1871 and its legendary aftermath of violence and controversy. "The Cowboy Iliad reaches back to the spoken tradition of storytelling - designed to have no simple resolution, but a mix of history, nostalgia and speculation. And, of course, we wanted to honor the tradition of the Western... In other words, Bobby Woods and I had a couple of shooters and made a record." - Walter Hill As heard on The Cowboy Iliad Spoken Word Album. Hill makes his recording debut at the age of 77, and, for the first time, his writing is presented using his own voice. Hill began his film career as screenwriter, notably working with filmmakers Sam Peckinpah (The Getaway) and John Huston (The MacKintosh Man). He made his own directorial debut in 1975 with Hard Times starring Charles Bronson and James Coburn. In the years following he directed many films, including The Driver, The Warriors, Southern Comfort, 48 HRS., Streets Of Fire, Red Heat, Johnny Handsome, Last Man Standing, Bullet To The Head, and most recently The Assignment. Hill also served as a co-writer and co-producer on the first three Alien films. Recently, Hill has written three graphic novels published in Paris by Rue de Sèvres; Balles Perdues, Corps et Âme, and Le Specimen. The Cowboy Iliad is written by Walter Hill. The album is produced by Bobby Woods with music performed by Les Deux Love Orchestra.The album is released by Heart Times Coffee Cup Studios and available on Amazon, Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, and everywhere records are streamed and sold.

Cowboy Classics

Cowboy Classics
Author: Day Kirsten Day
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2016-05-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 147440247X

In the American psyche, the "e;Wild West"e; is a mythic-historical place where our nation's values and ideologies were formed. In this violent and uncertain world, the cowboy is the ultimate hero, fighting the bad guys, forging notions of manhood, and delineating what constitutes honor as he works to build civilization out of wilderness. Tales from this mythical place are best known from that most American of media: film. In the Greco-Roman societies that form the foundation of Western civilization, similar narratives were presented in what for them was the most characteristic, and indeed most filmic, genre: epic. Like Western film, the epics of Homer and Virgil focus on the mythic-historical past and its warriors who worked to establish the ideological framework of their respective civilizations. Through a close reading of films like High Noon and Shane, this book examines the surprising connections between these seemingly disparate yet closely related genres, shedding light on both in the process.

The Iliad

The Iliad
Author: Homer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2011-10-11
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1451627629

TOLSTOY CALLED THE ILIAD A miracle; Goethe said that it always thrust him into a state of astonishment. Homer’s story is thrilling, and his Greek is perhaps the most beautiful poetry ever sung or written. But until now, even the best English translations haven’t been able to re-create the energy and simplicity, the speed, grace, and pulsing rhythm of the original. In Stephen Mitchell’s Iliad, the epic story resounds again across 2,700 years, as if the lifeblood of its heroes Achilles and Patroclus, Hector and Priam flows in every word. And we are there with them, amid the horror and ecstasy of war, carried along by a poetry that lifts even the most devastating human events into the realm of the beautiful. Mitchell’s Iliad is the first translation based on the work of the preeminent Homeric scholar Martin L. West, whose edition of the original Greek identifies many passages that were added after the Iliad was first written down, to the detriment of the music and the story. Omitting these hundreds of interpolated lines restores a dramatically sharper, leaner text. In addition, Mitchell’s illuminating introduction opens the epic still further to our understanding and appreciation. Now, thanks to Stephen Mitchell’s scholarship and the power of his language, the Iliad’s ancient story comes to moving, vivid new life.

The Houstiliad

The Houstiliad
Author: Michael Lieberman
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2015-12-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1680030566

In this savage yet beautiful book length poem Michael Lieberman captures the rage of men in modern society. He reimagines the characters of Homer's Iliad, recasts them, and sets them in conflict in today's Houston. Unflinching is its descriptions of violence, The Houstiliad implicitly contrasts the rage of Homer's Achilles which was specific and focused with the free-floating rage of contemporary men. Though unsparing in its descriptions, Lieberman's portrait is leavened by lovely lyric passages, reflection, and humor. For those who care about the complicated role of men in modern society this book is revelatory without promising an easy path to redemption or honor. Achilles' wrath is where our tale begins then spools out venom and men's mortal sins. It's tempered true yet riffs on Homer's style, suffused with guile, grit, and mordant wile. * * * Men savage men in violent travails though in the end it's humor that prevails.

The Creation of the Cowboy Hero

The Creation of the Cowboy Hero
Author: Jeremy Agnew
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2014-11-19
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1476618143

As business interests have commercialized the American West and publishers and studios have created compelling imagery, the expectations of readers and moviegoers have influenced perceptions of the cowboy as a hero. This book describes the evolution of the cowboy hero as a mythic persona created by dime novels, television and Hollywood. Much of our concept of the cowboy comes to us from movies and the book's main focus is his changing image in cinema. The development of the hero image and the fictional West is traced from early novels and films to the present, along with shifting audience expectations and economic pressures.

Reading Homer

Reading Homer
Author: Kostas Myrsiades
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2009
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0838642195

These nine new essays on Homer's epics deal not only with major Homeric themes of time (honor), kleos (fame), geras (rewards), the psychology of Homeric warriors, and the re-evaluation of type scenes, but also with Homer's influence on contemporary film. Following the introduction and an essay which sets the historical background for the epics, four essays are devoted to fresh analysis of key passages and themes while another four turn to a discussion of the film Troy and Homer's influence on two other genres of American cinema.

The Good, the Bad and the Ancient

The Good, the Bad and the Ancient
Author: Sue Matheson
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2022-10-31
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1476667640

Although Americans are no longer compelled to learn Greek and Latin, classical ideals remain embedded in American law and politics, philosophy, oratory, history and especially popular culture. In the Western genre, many film and television directors (such as John Ford, Raoul Walsh, Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah) have drawn inspiration from antiquity, and the classical values and influences in their work have shaped our conceptions of the West for years. This thought-provoking, first-of-its-kind collection of essays celebrates, affirms and critiques the West's relationship with the classical world. Explored are films like Cheyenne Autumn, The Wild Bunch, The Track of the Cat, Trooper Hook, The Furies, Heaven's Gate, and Slow West, as well as serials like Gunsmoke and Lonesome Dove.

The Godfather

The Godfather
Author: Mario Puzo
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2005
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780451217400

A portrait of a Mafia family focuses on the life and times of patriarch Don Vito Corleone, a Sicilian-American godfather, and his sons.