A 50 page Companion Booklet To The Spoken Word Album. Writer/Director Walter Hill, well-known for his westerns (The Long Riders, Geronimo, Wild Bill, Deadwood, Broken Trail), tells the story of a shootout that occurred in Newton, Kansas in 1871 and its legendary aftermath of violence and controversy. "The Cowboy Iliad reaches back to the spoken tradition of storytelling - designed to have no simple resolution, but a mix of history, nostalgia and speculation. And, of course, we wanted to honor the tradition of the Western... In other words, Bobby Woods and I had a couple of shooters and made a record." - Walter Hill As heard on The Cowboy Iliad Spoken Word Album. Hill makes his recording debut at the age of 77, and, for the first time, his writing is presented using his own voice. Hill began his film career as screenwriter, notably working with filmmakers Sam Peckinpah (The Getaway) and John Huston (The MacKintosh Man). He made his own directorial debut in 1975 with Hard Times starring Charles Bronson and James Coburn. In the years following he directed many films, including The Driver, The Warriors, Southern Comfort, 48 HRS., Streets Of Fire, Red Heat, Johnny Handsome, Last Man Standing, Bullet To The Head, and most recently The Assignment. Hill also served as a co-writer and co-producer on the first three Alien films. Recently, Hill has written three graphic novels published in Paris by Rue de Sèvres; Balles Perdues, Corps et Âme, and Le Specimen. The Cowboy Iliad is written by Walter Hill. The album is produced by Bobby Woods with music performed by Les Deux Love Orchestra.The album is released by Heart Times Coffee Cup Studios and available on Amazon, Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, and everywhere records are streamed and sold.

In the American psyche, the "e;Wild West"e; is a mythic-historical place where our nation's values and ideologies were formed. In this violent and uncertain world, the cowboy is the ultimate hero, fighting the bad guys, forging notions of manhood, and delineating what constitutes honor as he works to build civilization out of wilderness. Tales from this mythical place are best known from that most American of media: film. In the Greco-Roman societies that form the foundation of Western civilization, similar narratives were presented in what for them was the most characteristic, and indeed most filmic, genre: epic. Like Western film, the epics of Homer and Virgil focus on the mythic-historical past and its warriors who worked to establish the ideological framework of their respective civilizations. Through a close reading of films like High Noon and Shane, this book examines the surprising connections between these seemingly disparate yet closely related genres, shedding light on both in the process.

Although Americans are no longer compelled to learn Greek and Latin, classical ideals remain embedded in American law and politics, philosophy, oratory, history and especially popular culture. In the Western genre, many film and television directors (such as John Ford, Raoul Walsh, Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann and Sam Peckinpah) have drawn inspiration from antiquity, and the classical values and influences in their work have shaped our conceptions of the West for years. This thought-provoking, first-of-its-kind collection of essays celebrates, affirms and critiques the West's relationship with the classical world. Explored are films like Cheyenne Autumn, The Wild Bunch, The Track of the Cat, Trooper Hook, The Furies, Heaven's Gate, and Slow West, as well as serials like Gunsmoke and Lonesome Dove.

A portrait of a Mafia family focuses on the life and times of patriarch Don Vito Corleone, a Sicilian-American godfather, and his sons.

In this savage yet beautiful book length poem Michael Lieberman captures the rage of men in modern society. He reimagines the characters of Homer's Iliad, recasts them, and sets them in conflict in today's Houston. Unflinching is its descriptions of violence, The Houstiliad implicitly contrasts the rage of Homer's Achilles which was specific and focused with the free-floating rage of contemporary men. Though unsparing in its descriptions, Lieberman's portrait is leavened by lovely lyric passages, reflection, and humor. For those who care about the complicated role of men in modern society this book is revelatory without promising an easy path to redemption or honor. Achilles' wrath is where our tale begins then spools out venom and men's mortal sins. It's tempered true yet riffs on Homer's style, suffused with guile, grit, and mordant wile. * * * Men savage men in violent travails though in the end it's humor that prevails.

For many of us, the image of the cowboy hero facing off against the villain dominates our memories of the movies. Peter French examines the world of the western, one in which death is annihilation, the culmination of life, and there is nothing else. In that world he finds alternatives to Judeo-Christian traditions that dominate our ethical theories, alternatives that also attack the views of the most prominent ethicists of the past three centuries. More than just a meditation on the portrayal of the good, the bad, and the ugly on the big screen, French's work identifies an attitude toward life that he claims is one of the most distinctive and enduring elements of American culture.