Western Value
The remarkable thing is the execs aren't paying attention to the marquee value of a western in southern states, especially one that looks "traditional" (none of that Brokeback "nonsense"), and especially a movie with Jesse James at the center of it. No matter what stereotypes one ascribes to their citizenry, the southern states will go see something if it's good and feels familiar. It doesn't have to be full of right-wing sentiment and John Wayne machismo and bravura, as long as there's that homegrown struggle against the big bad world caving in on the West. The rebellious outlaw story is one that people who stay away from the cinema will go see.
There just aren't many H&G (horses & guns) flicks out there anymore, and it's a damn shame. The West is dead in contemporary America, but that doesn't mean there are no stories left to tell. Well, what about Unforgiven? Hell, Open Range surprised a lot of people with how well it did. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada could have released wider than it did. That is, if the studios had put some faith in the audience being there.
At SXSW 2003, AICN's Harry Knowles moderated "A Conversation With" Peter Fonda discussing his career, the state of movies, and a particular western. One of my favorite parts of that year's festival was the screening Fonda's little-seen directorial debut, The Hired Hand from the recently-restored print.
DP Vilmos Zsigmond (Vil Ziggy, as Fonda affectionately referred to him) shot the movie with Fonda around the same time as (not sure if just before or after) Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller and just before Deliverance, and I daresay this movie has prettier pictures than the other two.
The movie was art at a time when the studio wanted "Captain America" to make anything but a western. They let him make it, but castrated it by severely cutting its number of screens upon opening and promptly buried it after a two week run.
The logic? No one wants to watch Westerns anymore...especially when they're long and not full of action sequences. Only thirty years later did people audiences have a chance to see it, and then, only in a limited re-release and festival tour, followed by a DVD that got severely under-marketed just as DVD was exploding. The barebones edition sold at Wal-Mart for under $10, but nobody knew it was there.
People still want to see westerns, the studios just don't think they do. The audience never left, the studios just don't believe they're still around.