Wednesday Western: The top Western social media accounts

Social media has played an interesting role in the revival of Western cinema. I’ve compiled a list of social media accounts dedicated to Westerns.

This article doesn’t include blogs, podcasts, websites, or magazines. I’m currently working on an article for each, so definitely let me know any of these that I need to know about in the comments section, or send me an email.

The following list is by no means comprehensive. And at first glance, it may seem like a random assortment. The accounts vary in audience size, output, and content organization. They employ different media and delivery methods. Some are public; some require you to answer a questionnaire. Each of them is unique.

What unites them is a frontier spirit, a liveliness.

Official John Wayne - Instagram

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of The Duke.

The official John Wayne Instagram page is probably my favorite Western social media account. The X account is also solid. But the Instagram account is far better.

It delivers the perfect number and flow of posts. And the descriptions, titles, and photos are all flawlessly assembled. I’d be shocked if it weren’t run by social media or marketing/PR professionals.

This is the proper handling of the John Wayne legacy. The people in charge of maintaining it make sure that the Duke’s legacy is truly an experience. All of it is interconnected through John Wayne Enterprises: the John Wayne Museum, the John Wayne Cancer Foundation, the John Wayne Grit Series, among others.

You can buy John Wayne cookbooks and a collection of cocktail recipes, coffee, ornamental cups and top-class clothing — all of which will appear in this series in exciting ways.

All of these converge at the Instagram account.

It’s comforting to see a passionate group of people devoted to the upkeep of the Duke’s invaluable legacy.

If all that weren’t good enough, they just launched a collaboration with Broken Bow Country, a friend of the Wednesday Western series, as captured in this profile.

Broken Bow Country: Meet the 17-year-old behind a viral Western clothing brandwww.theblaze.com

In fact, during our interview, we connected on the Duke and our admiration for the official John Wayne account.

Scrolling through this account, it feels like you’re reading a biography of the Duke, told in vignettes and accompanied by pictures, music, and video.

Some of the posts are simply gorgeous. They provide a holistic view of the Duke, a man unlike any other. They offer great commentary on various Wayne films and media appearances. They help you understand who John Wayne was behind the legend, as in this post about his prolific love of chess.

Other times, it’s playful, as with the incredibly creative inclusion of holidays, like this recent celebration of National Sunglasses Day.

The posts hit every emotion as we navigate John Wayne’s love life and comforts and disappointments and truest victories.

And America, you become closer to this great country. Just check out this 4th of July post. And, man, how about this one? Who else deserves to be the biggest movie star of all time?

Just Westerns - YouTube

Just Westerns is an entrepreneurial feat animated by one man’s love for Westerns. He has mastered the possibilities that YouTube offers.

And that narrator’s voice: That’s Marc Reynard, the Englishman in charge of Just Westerns, the unofficial home of Westerns on YouTube.

This dude is undoubtedly one of us.

He examines the genre from creative and at times surprising angles, like this video about the fate of “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly 2.” You read that right: There was supposed to be a sequel.

His videos are smooth, well produced, well crafted, well written, sharp, fun, lovely, informative.

He also does something that I wish we had more of: He hypes upcoming and anticipated Westerns and compiles year-end lists and legitimizes the artistic merit of video games: “20 Best Western Video Games.” He also covers Wednesday Western favorite "Old Henry" (2021)

We need more of all of this. Best of all, you can feel his passion.

My only complaint is that the channel has only 30 videos. I went through them all at a steady clip.

But even this turns out to be further proof that you’re getting content that is authentically wholesome. Marc addresses it in his YouTube bio: “Please bear with me, I am a solo creator without the resources or manpower that larger channels typically have, so I am unfortunately unable to upload as regularly as I like, especially as I am committed to prioritizing quality over quantity.”

Take your time, brother. Personally, I think it's worth the wait.

r/Westerns - Reddit

Reddit can be a nasty place, especially if your politics are anything to the right of Bernie Sanders. And you can’t avoid the ideological slapfests, either. Leftist goons stir it up in every subreddit, constantly, and they’re almost always combative, even in the subreddits devoted to woodwork or kittens.

The Westerns subreddit is a clear exception. It’s a community. It feels like the town square of a dust-ridden Western town.

Check out this thread about “For a Few Dollars More.”

The mixed-media format of Reddit allows for a variety of sources: pictures, movies, trailers, interviews, text-only, even gifs. It might be the most versatile resource on this list.

It’s a great place for recommendations and commentary. Unlike much of the rest of Reddit, which is disproportionately loaded with young white liberal men, there’s an even spread of people of all ages.

These Redditors routinely swap personal stories about the various movies and actors. Some of their stories are poignant and evocative.

Back to the Old Western - Facebook

Facebook is a great place for Western fans. Instagram is too image-centered to accommodate text, and it doesn’t support links. Meanwhile, the microblogging experience of X is limited in its scope and impatient in its daunting pace — the temperament and vibe of Westerns don’t do well in such a frantic environment.

Facebook circumnavigates all of this, finally able to beat all the much lighter apps. For once, it finds an advantage to its cluttered user interface.

This bulk allows users to upload and share every type of content. No limitations. It’s the only platform capable of this, besides Reddit, but I’m not about to equate the megalith Facebook with the niche subreddit.

Besides, Facebook outperforms Reddit anyway. Its Pages function allows for an immersive blogging experience, run by moderators and admins who are passionate about their content and free to run their operation without much interference, right down to the parameters of the group’s privacy.

Back to the old western | Charles Bronson as Chino in classic western film 'The Valdez Horses' in 1973 | Facebookwww.facebook.com

Back to the Old Western is the perfect example of these principles. It is active, with a constant flow of posts, often aggregated from fan pages — the Duke and Sam Elliot, mostly.

The comments sections are fairly quiet, but most of the time people add substance or passion to the movie or actor being celebrated.

Chatter isn’t as important as it is on Reddit. The admins really know their stuff, offering a healthy range of mainstream Westerns, cult classics, and oddities, like this post celebrating Brigitte Bardot and Claudia Cardinale for their roles in “The Legend of Frenchie King” (1971), a wild little movie that will get its Wednesday Western spotlight in due time.

A Word on Westerns - YouTube

BLAZING SADDLES! The fart scene changed my life, says Burton Gilliam A WORD ON WESTERNSwww.youtube.com

I made a point to place Just Westerns higher up than A Word on Westerns, because Just Westerns is the passion project of an ordinary guy who loves Westerns, while A Word on Westerns is a proper television series. An exceedingly good one, with just as much passion and gusto.

It’s a fantastic channel. A Word on Westerns is sort of like a Western-only version of TMC, which is a thrilling reality. That’s the dream.

The channel features entire movies, each with a brief but thorough introduction by Rob Word, a double feature as part of the segment Word’s Wayback.

These are mostly 1930s and 1940s Westerns.

YouTube is an oddity on this list, because so many of the major Western channels exclusively post full movies. What a joy it is to find a rare Western on YouTube. But these channels lack the commentary and artistry that characterize the two YouTube channels I’ve included on this list.

A Word on Westerns blends the rustic ease of the Old West with the hypersonic immediacy of our infinite now. You can also access lectures, speeches, and clever projects like this "Gunsmoke" mash-up.

Smartest of all, it makes good use of the Shorts function on YouTube, will brief clips about various topics, from Robert Mitchum to stories of mutilation.

Western Podcast - X

The Western Podcast X page is small but mighty, with some impressive followers and praise from True West magazine.

It’s an offshoot of the marvelous podcast hosted by our friend Western apostle Andrew Patrick Nelson and the excellent Matthew Chernov, a screenwriter and a journalist with bylines in Variety, Entertainment Weekly, IMBd.com. Yahoo News, and about a hundred other outlets. His insight thrives with the joy of curiosity.

Andrew's Instagram account will keep you up to date with his media appearances and projects, with the occasional infusion of Hair Metal.

These boys are the real deal. Andrew just began his new job as chief curator of Western Spirit, Scottsdale's Museum of the West. Before that, he taught film history. As a professor at the University of Utah, Andrew guided his students through the badlands full of robbers and coyotes, only to unmask the villains hiding behind all their props and plywood scenery.

Why Millennials & Zoomers Should Watch Westerns | Andrew Patrick Nelson | Alignwww.youtube.com

Both of them are impressively smart with a tenderness for beauty, but not at the cost of a good story or a complicated hero.

They take their time with content, even tweets, but this adds to the reverence of their decision-making process. If you haven't taken the dive into their work already, do it.They have a gift for revealing the beautiful, intricate paradoxes of Western movies. They speak with screenwriters, historians, authors, journalists, musicians, directors, costume designers, and more.

They tell stories. They examine personal reactions to various films. They navigate themes of universality and timelessness within the motion of transcendence, while also exposing the flimsiness of any given cultural era.

Is Stagecoach the best movie ever made? Interview with Andrew Patrick Nelsonwww.youtube.com

They have a gift for discerning the role of Western movies in relation to our unexplained world, differentiating these fictions from their context and influence. But also, more impressively, they succeed in witnessing the presence of our entire universe in one tiny section of cinema history.

Kevin Costner and Modern West - X

Kevin Costner & MW (@modernwest) on X

Kevin Costner & MW (@modernwest) on Xx.com

Kevin Costner is this era’s Clint Eastwood. He fights to keep the Western in public view, devoting himself to projects animated by passion, even if his wallet takes a hit. The victory is worth the risk.

He has ushered in a new era for the genre. His success with "Yellowstone" and its Western universe of shows has accelerated the Western’s resurgence. But it’s more than that. We're also witnessing a flourishing of the Western as an ethos, a style, a mode of thought, an approach to life.

So did you realize that Kevin Costner has a country band? Founded in 2007, Kevin Costner and Modern West deliver rowdy songs written for the culturally forgotten people of America. The band's history is tinged with tragedy.

The Kevin Costner and Modern West account is technically the band’s, but it posts tons of Costner content, all hand-picked and polished by a team of social media professionals.

Best Cowboy Movies Forever - Facebook

Best cowboy movies forever | Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, and Van Heflin in "Shane" (1953) | Facebookwww.facebook.com

There are several variations on the “Western” + “Forever” title, but I’m going with Best Cowboy Movies Forever. I enjoy the way the account profiles various actors, like this post about Lee Van Cleef.

It also includes Westerns from every different era. This is important. It’s good to hop around in this way. I’m partial to the 1939-1960 era of the genre, so I can plant myself in that time exclusively if I’m not careful.

The page rarely ventures into the current scene. But this isn’t a problem. It’s important to offer due reverence to the originators.

Old West - Actors, Films, and Legends - Facebook

www.facebook.com

Old West zooms in so that we get a portrait view of an incredible variety of Western actors, films, and legends, like this post devoted to Myron Halle or this homage to Elsa Martinelli. I value any source that prioritizes the lesser-known figures in the genre. Because, as we all know, the Western genre is overflowing with stories, entire generations of actors, producers, directors, screenwriters — you name it — whose fascinating tales deserve to be recounted.

As much as I love the giants of the genre, I derive incredible joy from learning about these forgotten figures.

Passion for Western Movies - Instagram

Passion for Western Movies makes great use of Instagram’s Reels format.

The account does a lot of this kind of multi-movie post, offering a list of movies connected by timeframe or theme.

Passion for Western Movies lives up to its name, able to glide around the history of the Western genre, seemingly without partiality. It also features lesser-known movies, like this post about "The Hunting Party," which features Gene Hackman.

Broken Bow Country - Instagram

I’m a bit biased on this one, because I think Colton is an absolute legend, but Broken Bow Country is perfect for this list.

The Western experience you get is fairly rough around the edges, in a distinctly modern way. But modernity never wins against Broken Bow Country.

It’s unique for many reasons but primarily because, in addition to its Western ethos, it is a clothing retailer and printmaker. No other creator on our list offers this level of art and style.

Then you’ve got the lore, the storytelling that comes with his posts, the war hymns of country-Western rebels and the toll their rebellion often took on their lives.

The past month has been wild for Colton. Early in July, he landed a collaboration with John Wayne Enterprises. The T-shirts are fantastic. In fact, I’m wearing one of them in the cover photo for Wednesday Western.

Then, a gunman on a sloped roof tried to murder former President Donald Trump, who was days away from officially accepting his party’s nomination.

In the panicky hours that followed, many people succumbed to their emotions, others to their resolve. I won’t pretend to have remained cool.

But Colton did. Following the Trump assassination attempt, he designed a T-shirt honoring one of the most American moments in human history, as Trump rose with his fist in the air. And he donated all of the money to a charity for Corey Comperatore, the man who died shielding his family from one of the gunman’s bullets.

This was a controversial move. He even faced the nasty comments about how the shooter shouldn’t have missed or that the deaths of the victims were “completely deserved.”

He lost a few thousand followers, but he describes it as “inconsequential when you think about the people that it's helping to support.”

In a press release, he said, “This has nothing to do with politics, I was incredibly moved by what happened and I wanted to use my platform to do something that extended beyond the controversy and the arguing.”

Lancer TV Blog - Facebook

Last and certainly not least, Lancer TV Blog on Facebook. It is run by a friend of mine, an avid supporter of Wednesday Western.

Unlike every other entry included on this list, Lancer TV Blog focuses entirely on one show, a show that hardly anyone knows. This reversal in focus is good for a movie lover’s mental sharpness.

I’m working on a deep dive into "Lancer," so I won’t say too much.

Beyond the merits of the show and its cast, "Lancer" is an underdog story still in the middle stages, badgered by uncertainty. Because the show hasn’t had a reboot, despite success throughout its two (long) seasons on CBS. So it’s not an issue of merit; the show deserves a second wind. It would very likely expand its audience.

But none of that matters for the art trapped in the murk of a waiting area, a zone of uncertainty. And the gifted athlete eventually starts to wobble. Filmstock degrades. All technology collapses. Call it the inevitable disintegration of a lively body, in this case a body of art.

Even the most perfect masterpieces eventually crumble. But what if that happens to be your masterpiece? What if it’s your tiny heaven, all tangled up in red tape? Life has enough of this disintegration as it is. Our entertainment needs to be clean, enjoyable, and easily accessible. Or so claims the majority.

Well, thank God for the passionate workers of cultural excavation. They dig and fight. They protect, sustain, and preserve. Without them, life would be less beautiful. Without them, our society would be weaker and tamer and less able to see a way out.

"Lancer" episodes run an hour. This extended run time fundamentally changes the character and depth of a TV show. It’s amazing what an episode can accomplish in one hour that it simply can’t in 30 minutes.

What you’ll find, as you scroll through the posts on the Lancer Facebook page, is purity. This fandom rewards people with a tiny kingdom, a crafted world they can always turn to. That experience should rile up every single person.

There’s a fidelity to their affection that is heartwarming. The Lancer TV Blog connects you to this incredibly pure relation. It’s just there, like sand across the winds of time.