The Lonesome Dove Cinema Club
The Best of Western Films from Around the World
Dust off your boots pilgrims.
Every two months, The Lonesome Dove Cinema Club transforms Belfast into the Wild West. From the haunting landscapes of The Great Silence to the nihilistic justice of Unforgiven, we explore the rugged frontier of film. Whether it’s a cult classic like Black God, White Devil or a legendary tale like The Return of Frank James, we are dedicated to one thing: celebrating the cinematic power of the Western.
Lonesome Dove Screenings
The Lonesome Dove comes around about every two months, if the creek don't rise. At the moment we're screening at the Beanbag Cinema, deep in the heart of Belfast.
The Great Silence - Il Grande Silenzio (1968)
Presented in partnership with Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival
“Because wherever he goes, the silence of death follows”
On an unforgiving, snow-swept, frontier a group of bloodthirsty bounty hunters, led by the vicious ‘Loco’, preys on a band of persecuted outlaws who have taken to the hills. As the price on each head is collected one-by-one, only a mute gunslinger named ‘Silence’ stands between the innocent refugees and the greed and corruption that the bounty hunters represent. But in this harsh, brutal world, the lines between right and wrong aren’t always clear, and good doesn’t always triumph.
Featuring one of Ennio Morricone’s most haunting and melancholic soundtracks, director Sergio Corbucci (Django,Navajo Joe) was in a dark place, and he poured his cynicism at the world around him into this groundbreaking film. Starring two icons of cinema, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Klaus Kinski,The Great Silence is a classic anti-western that echoes the political paranoia of Europe of the time, as the revolutions of the 60s became bathed in bloodshed.
The Great Silence will be introduced by Des O’Rawe, reader in Film Studies at Queen’s University Belfast.
105 minutes
Screening 7pm, 6th May 2026 at The Beanbag Cinema
Bad Company (1972)
Set in 1863, Bad Company’s story begins near the midpoint of the American Civil War.
Barry Brown is Drew Dixon, a teen who heads West with his family’s blessing to avoid being drafted into the Union Army. He dreams of becoming a silver baron. Instead, he winds up getting mugged in Missouri. He then falls in with a gang of youths led by the mugger, Jake Rumsey (Jeff Bridges).
Their young westbound gang also includes brothers Loney and Jim Bob, the less than courageous Arthur Simms and the very young Boog Bookin.
But living off the land proves more difficult than any of them imagined. And the young thieves soon become the victims when they cross paths with Big Joe (David Huddleston) and his more experienced gang.
It’s only one of the obstacles, Jake, Drew and their comrades are about to face.
Later classified as an 'acid western', it is our opinion that Bad Company is better seen as a coming of age western, seeing our two young protaganists attempt to survive in the harsh brutality of the old west. Directed by Oscar winner Robert Benton the writer of Bonny and Clyde and Superman, Bad Company sits in the gritty, realistic lineage of McCabe and Mrs Miller and The Wild Bunch.
93 minutes
Screening 7pm, Wednesday 29th July 2026 at The Beanbag Cinema
The Lonesome Dove Cinema Club
The Lonesome Dove CInema Club is dedicated to the screeing of the finest westerns, and also to building a community of western lovers. Founded by Hugh Odling-Smee, the club is always looking for new members for the lonesome trail.
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