The Main Library’s annual Summer Film Series is back, this time riding tall in the saddle. This year’s program is Once Upon a Time in the West: Great Hollywood* Westerns (* and one Italian), offering 11 oaters over the course of nine Sundays. The program kicks off with Howard Hawks’ 1959 masterpiece Rio Bravo, which earns my vote as the best Western ever made (edging out Sergio Leone’s 1968 Once Upon a Time in the West, also included in this series). John Wayne (in peak form) stars as Sheriff John T. Chance, who’s forced to take on a gang of seasoned gunmen with only scant support — namely, a staggering drunk (Dean Martin), a cocksure hotshot (Ricky Nelson) and a crusty old man (Walter Brennan). For a list of all titles in the series, see Movie Missives in this issue’s Flicks section. Free. 2 p.m. Wachovia Playhouse, ImaginOn, 300 E. 7th St. 704-973-2780.
This article appears in Jun 4-10, 2008.
