Review of Hearts of the West

I saw this film for the first time last night on TCM,who were showing Andy Griffith films after his recent death, and was mildly amused. But reading the other reviews here you would have thought that it was much funnier and had more to say about old Hollywood,and B westerns, than it actually did. Although young Jeff Bridges is mildly amusing I don't think I actually laughed out loud once,and his character as written is so obtusely naive it's hard to believe He would ever survive his first experience lost in the desert,much less excel in the film business. The other point of the film seems to be pulling back the curtains on the fact that B western cowboys weren't really cowboys and they couldn't act either. But is this really something that was a hidden conspiracy? It really doesn't have much to say,and it doesn't go anywhere, I kept waiting for it to be better and more interesting,but it never got there.

I do think it was worth watching once,but it's not one that I want to watch repeatedly. You can,however,see the glint of Gwyneth Paltrow in Blythe Danners' eye!