Cowboy & Aliens [Extended Edition] [Blu-ray]

Director: Jon Favreau Jon Favreau

Overview

Based on the graphic novel by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, Cowboys & Aliens is set in 1800s Arizona, where the local cowboys, headed by gunslinger Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig), and the indigenous Apache tribe have been feuding fiercely for quite a while. Their skirmish is interrupted, however, by the appearance of a spaceship, commanded by an alien creature that's bent on enslaving the human race. It's time for a six-gun shoot-out between these cattle rustlers and space invaders, and there might even be a temporary peace between the cowboys and Indians as they both take aim at these extraterrestrial uninvited guests. Jon Favreau directs from a script by Star Trek scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, with help from Lost's Damon Lindelof. Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford, and Sam Rockwell fill out the headlining cast.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/15/2019
UPC:	0191329090480
Original Release:	2011
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Universal Studios
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	2:15:00
Sales rank:	1,369

Special Features

Conversations with Jon Favreau; Igniting the Sky: The Making of Cowboys & Aliens; Finding the Story; A Call to Action; Absolution; Outer-Space Icon; The Scope of the Spectacle; Feature Commentary with Director Jon Favreau

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Daniel Craig	Jake Lonergan
Olivia Wilde	Ella Swenson
Harrison Ford	Woodrow Dolarhyde
Paul Dano	Percy Dolarhyde
Adam Beach	Nat Colorado
Noah Ringer	Emmett Taggart
Abigail Spencer	Alice
Sam Rockwell	Doc
Brendan Wayne	Charlie Lyle
Buck Taylor	Wes Claiborne,Luke Claiborne,Mose Claiborne
Clancy Brown	Meacham
Chris Browning	Jed Parker
Ana de la Reguera	Maria
Brian Duffy	Deputy
Keith Carradine	Sheriff John Taggart
Gavin Grazer	Ed
Toby Huss	Roy Murphy
Wyatt Russell	Little Mickey
Jimmy Jatho	Saloon Patron
Kenny Call	Greavy
Walton Goggins	Hunt
Julio Cesar Cedillo	Bronc,Bronc
Garret James Noel	Gang Member
David O'Hara	Pat Dolan
Troy Gilbert	Red,Red
Chad Randall	Bull McCade
Scout Hendrickson	Jake's Gang Member
Raoul Trujillo	Black Knife
David Midthunder	Apache Warrior 1
Moses Brings Plenty	Apache Warrior 2
Phillip Pike	Apache Singer
Calum Blaylock	Apache Singer
Paul Ortega	Medicine Man
Nathaniel Chee	Apache Dancer,Apache Dancer
Robyn Simmons	Apache Dancer
Simon Choneska	Apache Dancer
Vonda Tso	Apache Dancer
Freddie Apache	Apache Dancer
Lariat Geronimo	Apache Dancer
Oliver Enjady	Apache Dancer
Hoyle Osborne	Pianist
Rex Rideout	Fiddler
Garret Noël	Gang Member
Harry Gregson-Williams	Composer

Technical Credits

Mark Fergus

Damon Lindelof

Alex Kurtzman

Roberto Orci

Hawk Ostby

Jon Favreau	Director,Executive Producer
Mark Fergus	Screenwriter
Damon Lindelof	Screenwriter
Alex Kurtzman	Screenwriter,Producer
Roberto Orci	Screenwriter,Producer
Hawk Ostby	Screenwriter
Brian Grazer	Producer
Ron Howard	Producer
Scott Mitchell Rosenberg	Producer
Bobby Cohen	Executive Producer
Randy Greenberg	Executive Producer
Ryan Kavanaugh	Executive Producer
Steven Spielberg	Executive Producer
Denis L. Stewart	Executive Producer
Tom Harper	Stunts
Freddie Hice	Stunts
Sarah Halley Finn	Casting
Terry Leonard	Second Unit Director
Roger Guyett	Second Unit Director
Trudy Ramirez	Script Supervisor
Mark Ulano	Sound Mixer
Tana Dubbe	Key Grip
Dan Sudick	Special Effects Supervisor
Christopher Boyes	Sound/Sound Designer
David Farmer	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

At first glance, the concept of combining a traditional Western with an alien invasion film may seem far too silly to ever work, yet director Jon Favreau and his small army of screenwriters make Cowboys & Aliens feel as natural as a whiskey-fueled bar brawl. Although the sci-fi element is evident from its opening scene, this satisfying hybrid stays true to Western conventions with a fidelity that might surprise audiences, thanks to the fact that the filmmakers find the perfect connective material to seamlessly fuse the archetypes of both science fiction and the Old West. Awakening in the unforgiving Arizona desert with no memory of who he is or where he's from, a bewildered cowboy (Daniel Craig) realizes he's badly wounded, and discovers a mysterious high-tech bracelet affixed to his left wrist. Subsequently wandering into a once-prosperous mining town, the stranger is patched up by sympathetic priest Meacham (Clancy Brown) before incurring the wrath of entitled, impetuous rancher's son Percy Dollarhyde (Paul Dano), whose powerful father, Woodrow (Harrison Ford), practically owns the depressed outpost. Almost as soon as the mysterious newcomer earns the respect of the locals for standing up to Percy, who wounds a deputy while intimidating the townspeople, he's identified as wanted bandit Jake Lonergan by Sheriff John Taggart (Keith Carradine) and thrown in jail. That night, just as Sheriff Taggart prepares to ship Percy and Jake off to court, Woodrow rides into town determined to free his son. Before he can do so, however, alien spaceships set the settlement ablaze while snatching locals -- including Percy -- up into the sky. In the process, Jake uses his bracelet to take down one of the alien spacecrafts. Momentarily putting their differences aside to rescue their kin from the extraterrestrial invaders, Jake, Woodrow, his ranch hand Nat (Adam Beach), bartender Doc (Sam Rockwell), enigmatic beauty Ella (Olivia Wilde), and a fistful of other locals begin tracking the creature that escaped the downed craft, and quickly find that hostile Native American tribes are the least of their worries. For a film like Cowboys & Aliens to work, each leg of its title must be strong enough to support the weight of the outlandish concept. Anyone familiar with the Iron Man films already knows that director Jon Favreau has a natural knack for sci-fi, and thanks to a tense, expertly shot three-on-one fight that opens Cowboys & Aliens, we can confidently surmise that his talents extend to the Western genre as well. With the mysterious drifter, the hard-drinking priest, the hair-trigger bully, the brutish rancher, and the barroom beauty all making appearances early in the film, some might accuse Favreau of kowtowing to Western stereotypes. The more the plot begins to play out, however, the clearer it becomes that these aren't stereotypes but archetypes, and the writers are smartly using their moral ambiguity to keep the audience off balance as the mystery of the main plot builds. This approach is especially effective in the case of Ford's character, Woodrow Dolarhyde -- a feared local figure whose complex true nature gradually comes into focus along with the true intentions of the malevolent aliens. And while it would have been simple to merely replace the hostile aliens of the traditional Western with a foreign threat from beyond the stars, the writers of Cowboys & Aliens make it clear that they're not simply painting by numbers when our posse crosses paths with a decimated tribe and the two groups unite in order to conquer a common threat -- which is made genuinely frightening thanks to both an unsettling creature design and a tense scene that echoes films like Communion and Fire in the Sky as it plays on our darkest fears of alien abduction. The fact that the aliens are not only hideous to behold but ferocious and lightning fast as well makes the struggle against them all the more intense. But while the direction and screenwriting combine to make Cowboys & Aliens wildly entertaining, it's the talented cast that might help to draw in more skeptical viewers -- and thankfully they're all shooting straight here. Craig is appropriately stoic as the amnesiac stranger who drifts into the small town; Ford is captivatingly complex as the wealthy rancher who isn't the sadist he initially appears to be; and Rockwell lends the poker-faced proceedings a subtle dose of comic relief as the bespectacled barkeep who just wants a little respect in his rough-and-tumble town. So, to moviegoers who appreciate a good genre mash-up and a good time at the flicks: saddle up, because Cowboys & Aliens is just the kind of wild ride that makes the summer movie season the most fun time of the year.