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 new-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.

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Plot Keywords:

snake poison | marijuana cookie | low self esteem | shooting range | sperm on face | 

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Taglines:

Bring protection

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance | Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Facebook [Netherlands]

Country:

USA

Language:

English Navajo Mandarin

Release Date:

30 May 2014 (USA)

Also Known As:

Pueblo chico, pistola grande

Filming Locations:

Monument Valley, Utah, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$40,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$17,069,000, 1 June 2014, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$43,139,300

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$86,408,083

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

Liam Neeson agreed to play the role of Clinch Leatherwood on the condition that he do a broad Irish accent.

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Goofs

Albert takes Anna home back to her hotel after the dance. When she turns to kiss Albert for a second time she puts her hands on both sides of his face in the close-up. The picture then jump cuts to a wide shot and she moves her right hand to the back of Albert's shoulder and her left hand to the back of Albert's neck. Then when the camera jump cuts back to a close up of them kissing, Anna's hands are no longer touching/holding the back of Albert's shoulder or neck.

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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 ...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

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

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Connections

Featured in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Charlize Theron/Josh Hartnett/The Roots (2014)

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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

Silence and Tumbleweeds not included

Comedy westerns have a strong legacy through classics like Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles", "Support your Local Sheriff/Gunfighter" (with James Garner), "Paleface" and "Son of Paleface" (with Bob Hope and Jane Russell) all the way back to the brilliant "Destry Rides Again" (with James Stewart and Marlene Dietrich). Unfortunately for each of these classics there's the odd "Wild Wild West" to restore movie western Karma, and Seth Macfarlane's follow on to "Ted" – "A Million Ways to Die in the West" – is on that other side of the scales.

Macfarlane aside (who really isn't funny enough to take the leading role of the sheep farmer Albert) the rest of the cast is bordering on stellar featuring Liam Neeson, Sarah Silverman, Amanda Seyfried and the gorgeous Charlize Theron. And they work very hard at it: Theron occasionally laughs like a hyena (to cover the fact that normally we are not) and Neeson plays the straight man villain very straight indeed.

So let's accentuate the positive for a moment. The photography of the Utah locations is gorgeous. Joel McNeely's western score is sumptuous (gotta love a western soundtrack) and the songs (including the moustache song and the title song) are both catchy and suitably ridiculous.

And there are moments in this film that are genuinely funny: Sarah Silverman's Christian hooker with a heart who is "saving herself" for her husband-to-be, played by the excellent Giovanni Ribisi (Frank Buffay Jnr in "Friends"), while servicing 10 of the locals ("on a slow day"); shooting practice with plates and a doctor's blue woodpecker for the aftermath; the Navajo translation for "fine" being "Mila Kunis" and – most surreal of all – Albert's drugged up trip with moustache wearing dancing sheep.

There are also some amusing cameos, particularly one in a barn (don't watch some of the trailers that cheaply give it away).

But the bits that did make me really laugh were few and far between. A lot of the jokes fall face first into the dry Utah dust with the humour similar to Albert's aim: scattergun. The script stoops to swearing at every opportunity (because that's always funny isn't it?) and whilst toilet humour can work in moderation you need to know when to stop and when to leave something to the imagination. I'd like to suggest that this was a self-written, self-directed over-indulgent piece by Macfarlane, given carte blanche to indulge, and over-indulge, by studio execs after the runaway success of "Ted" – - but he did have co-writers who could and should have balanced his content more (Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild – I haven't actually checked that these don't make an anagram of Seth Macfarlane).

Comedy movies need to have good material across the whole running time, which means the films need to be tautened until the material 'twangs' along its whole length. This was not one of those films.

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