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Support Your Local Sheriff!

Support Your Local Sheriff!

Comedy · Western · 1969

In the old west, a man becomes a Sheriff just for the pay, figuring he can decamp if things get tough.

Movie details

Support Your Local Sheriff!

“Bad men... Bad ladies... Bad horses...”

1969 Comedy · Western 1h 32m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.9 / 10

Community rating

In the old west, a man becomes a Sheriff just for the pay, figuring he can decamp if things get tough.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Support Your Local Sheriff!?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Boss Nigger

Boss Nigger

Western · 1975

Two black bounty hunters ride into a small town out West in pursuit of an outlaw. They discover that the town has no sheriff, and soon take over that position, much against the will of the mostly white townsfolk.

Open Range

Open Range

Western · 2003

A former gunslinger is forced to take up arms again when he and his cattle crew are threatened by a corrupt lawman.

Quigley Down Under

Quigley Down Under

Western · 1990

American Matt Quigley answers Australian land baron Elliott Marston's ad for a sharpshooter to kill the dingoes on his property. But when Quigley finds out that Marston's real target is the aborigines, Quigley hits the road. Now, even American expatriate Crazy Cora can't keep Quigley safe in his cat-and-mouse game with the homicidal Marston.

Warlock

Warlock

Western · 1959

A band of murderous cowboys has imposed a reign of terror on the town of Warlock. With the sheriff humiliatingly run out of town, the residents hire the services of Clay Blaisedell as de facto town marshal. He arrives along with his friend, Tom Morgan, and sets about restoring law and order on his own terms whilst also overseeing the establishment of a gambling house and saloon.

Chato's Land

Chato's Land

Western · 1972

In 1870s New Mexico, a half-breed kills a bigoted sheriff in self-defense but the posse that eventually hunts him finds itself in dangerous territory.

Lonely are the Brave

Lonely are the Brave

Western · 1962

A fiercely independent cowboy arranges to have himself locked up in jail in order to then escape with an old friend who has been sentenced to the penitentiary.

Hour of the Gun

Hour of the Gun

Western · 1967

Marshal Wyatt Earp kills a couple of men of the Clanton-gang in a fight. In revenge Clanton's thugs kill the marshal's brother. Thus, Wyatt Earp starts to chase the killers together with his friend Doc Holliday.

Rio Conchos

Rio Conchos

Western · 1964

Two Army officers, an alcoholic ex-Confederate soldier and a womanizing Mexican travel to Mexico on a secret mission to prevent a megalomaniacal ex-Confederate colonel from selling a cache of stolen rifles to a band of murderous Apaches.

Decision at Sundown

Decision at Sundown

Western · 1957

A man and his partner arrive at a small Western town to kill its most powerful man because the former blames him for his wife's death.

Death of a Gunfighter

Death of a Gunfighter

Western · 1969

In the turn-of-the century Texas town of Cottonwood Springs, marshal Frank Patch is an old-style lawman in a town determined to become modern. When he kills drunken Luke Mills in self-defense, the town leaders decide it's time for a change. That ask for Patch's resignation, but he refuses on the basis that the town, on hiring him, had promised him the job for as long as he wanted it. Afraid for the town's future and even more afraid of the fact that Marshal Patch knows all the town's dark secrets, the city fathers decide that old-style violence is the only way to rid themselves of the unwanted lawman.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Burt Kennedy

Written by

William Bowers

James Garner

James Garner

Jason McCullough

Joan Hackett

Joan Hackett

Prudy Perkins

Walter Brennan

Walter Brennan

Pa Danby

Harry Morgan

Harry Morgan

Olly Perkins

Jack Elam

Jack Elam

Jake

Henry Jones

Henry Jones

Henry Jackson

Bruce Dern

Bruce Dern

Joe Danby

Court is in session

Put Support Your Local Sheriff! on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Auteur Devotee

“Form is the argument.”

Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Technique in search of a pulse.”

Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.