A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

As a cowardly farmer begins to fall for the mysterious new woman in town, he must put his newly found courage to the test when her husband, a notorious gun-slinger, announces his arrival.

Director:

Seth MacFarlane

Writers:

Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin

Stars:

Seth MacFarlane, Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson

6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Seth MacFarlane	...	Albert
Charlize Theron	...	Anna
Amanda Seyfried	...	Louise
Liam Neeson	...	Clinch
Giovanni Ribisi	...	Edward
Neil Patrick Harris	...	Foy
Sarah Silverman	...	Ruth
Christopher Hagen	...	George Stark
Wes Studi	...	Cochise
Matt Clark	...	Old Prospector
Evan Jones	...	Lewis
Aaron McPherson	...	Ben
Rex Linn	...	Sheriff / Narrator
Brett Rickaby	...	Charlie Blanche
Alex Borstein	...	Millie

Storyline

Set in 1882 in the American west, Albert is a lowly farmer with a nice girlfriend. But when she leaves him for the more successful and handsome owner of a moustachery store, Albert returns to his lonely daily life of trying to avoid death. Then the mysterious Anna rides into town and captures Albert's interest and heart, but with her deadly husband in town, Albert is going to have to become the western gun-slinging hero he never was. It won't be easy because there are a million ways to die in the west.

---

Plot Keywords:

western spoof | 1880s | abraham lincoln impersonator | loud sex | poison | 

---

Taglines:

From the guy who brought you Ted

---

Genres:

Comedy | Western

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong crude and sexual content, language throughout, some violence and drug material

Did You Know?

Trivia

The shot of Clinch leaving the front door of Albert's house to search for him outside is an homage of the iconic open door scene in the beginning and end scenes of The Searchers (1956).

---

Goofs

Anna knocks out Clinch and then rides off to Albert's house with Plugger by her side. However when she gets to Albert's house, Plugger isn't there. He's also missing when she runs to Edward and Ruth's place to hide from Clnich. He reappears during the final gunfight between Albert and Clinch.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: Some people are born into the wrong time and place. This was the American frontier in 1882, a hard land for hard folk. Food was scarce, disease was rampant, and life was a daily struggle for survival. Hell, this was Miss America in 1880.
[picture of a leathery middle-aged woman]
Narrator: Holy shit. To build a home and a life in this harsh, unforgiving country required that a man be bold, fearless, and tough as iron. The men who were courageous and resilient were the men who prospered. But ...
[...]

---

Crazy Credits

There is a post-credits sequence involving the gunman at the fair from the final scene.

---

Connections

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Badass Charlize Theron Moments (2017)

---

Soundtracks

If You've Only Got a Moustache
Written by Stephen Foster
Performed by Amick Byram
Additional Lyrics by Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild

User Reviews

A few genuine laughs, if you can wade through all the toilet humor.

After finding tremendous success with animated sitcoms Family Guy and American Dad, Seth MacFarlane ventured into the realm of live-action comedy with 2012's smash hit Ted, which featured Mark Wahlberg as a slacker whose best friend is a sex-and-drugs-obsessed teddy bear. While MacFarlane provided the voice and motion capture for the titular stuffed animal, he never actually appeared in the film, but takes center stage in his sophomore effort, A Million Ways to Die in the West.

Set in Arizona in 1882, the film stars MacFarlane as Albert Stark, a mild-mannered sheep farmer living a mundane existence in the rough and tumble town of Old Stump. Stark has just lost his girlfriend (Amanda Seyfried) to a wealthy local businessman (Neil Patrick Harris), and spends his days drinking away his sorrows with his best (and seemingly only) friend Edward (Giovanni Ribisi) and his prostitute fiancée, Ruth (Sarah Silverman).

Meanwhile, notorious outlaw Clinch Leatherwood (Liam Neeson) has dispatched his wife to Old Stump to await his arrival while he and the rest of the gang pull off another stagecoach robbery. After a chance encounter during a bar fight, Anna (Charlize Theron) takes an immediate liking to Stark, and agrees to help him win back the heart of his lost love, but omitting her true identity could have grave consequences when Clinch discovers who she's spending her days with.

While the plot sounds like it could have come from any number of Western films, everything that occurs on screen is through the filter of MacFarlane's unique sense of humor. Simultaneously poking fun at genre tropes while also paying homage to the classics, A Million Ways to Die in the West offers plenty to laugh at, including a hilarious song and dance number about men's facial hair, and an absurd variety of comedic death sequences.

Unfortunately, these moments are overshadowed by the fact that most of the film's humor is derived from the sort of R-rated content that MacFarlane can't get away with on television. There are only so many jokes about semen, diarrhea, and homosexuality that an audience can absorb before these topics stops being funny, but the film continues well past that mark, with Silverman coming across as particularly grating. After years of the exact same schtick, haven't people grown tired of hearing her talk about her vagina?

MacFarlane has proved time and again that he can write intelligent, thought-provoking comedy, but much like his previous film, he seems far too willing to cast that aside in favor of dick jokes and lame attempts to be offensive and shocking, just for the sake of being offensive and shocking. A Million Ways to Die in the West isn't a bad film - indeed, I think it's a vast improvement over Ted - but it's still not the MacFarlane film that I had hoped for. He's better than this, and hopefully we'll see that in his next flick.

-- Brent Hankins, www.nerdrep.com

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Facebook [Netherlands]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Navajo Mandarin

Release Date:

30 May 2014 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Million Ways to Die in the West

Filming Locations:

Monument Valley, Utah, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$40,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$16,797,385, 1 June 2014

Gross USA:

$43,139,300

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$87,189,756

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bluegrass Films, Fuzzy Door Productions, Media Rights Capital (MRC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min 136 min (Unrated)

Sound Mix:

SDDS Datasat Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (ACES)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1