Crappy film

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This attempt to duplicate the success of "Support Your Local Sheriff!" fails badly. (Perhaps it was the lack of an exclamation point in the title.)Right from the stat, the story falls flat on its face and never gets up. We're never given a reason why we should be concerned about the characters. (We don't have to like them, just be interested in them.)From the moment he appears, James Garner's character is a cipher -- who cares what happens to him, good or bad? This is a remarkable "achievement", as James Garner is one of the most-engaging actors who ever lived.The other reviews complaining that the characters or dull or uninvolving pretty much hit the nail on the head. It's a mildly irritating bore from beginning to end.

I saw "Support Your Local Sheriff" and enjoyed it so much that I immediately rented "Support Your Local Gunfighter" which I knew was similar. In terms of style, actors used, humor, character types and genre, the two are almost identical. The director Burt Kennedy is also the same. Also, both spoof earlier famous westerns (the first "Rio Bravo" and the like, the second "Yojimbo."). I enjoyed SYLS more than SYLG, though. I would rate the first movie a 9 out of 10—a real gem; the second I'd rate 3 out of 10—disappointing but not a complete waste.The main difference had to do with the likability of Garner's character. In SYLS, although smooth and suave, the Garner character is never deceptive. In fact, part of the humor is his flat honesty (as when he tells Prudy that he can't be in a committed relationship even before she even shows much interest in one). He also has real, not fake, talent, since his shooting ability is practically supernatural.In SYLG, the Garner character is nothing but a smooth fraud. From the very first scene, we watch him sneak away from his betrothed with fistloads of cash he's swindled from her. The first thing he does when getting into town is con a rich older lady into a relationship. Really? At least Robert Preston chose the prettiest and smartest woman in town to woo in "Music Man." This is just slimy, going after rich older women. The Garner character hires on as a gunfighter, but, in this account, he's not even an average shooter. That didn't impress me. I found the subplot where the Garner character keeps betting $4600 on 23 black (and losing) annoying also.SYLS was a real oddity: a film with conservative values made during the liberal era of "Hair," "The Graduate," and "Bonnie and Clyde." The subtext of this earlier film supports ideas like "An orderly town is superior to one full of violence and bullying," "When you take a job, you have certain responsibilities," and "Authority should come from real, not fake, talent." At its core, it was a tongue-in-cheek wish-fulfillment fantasy for those of us that believe a permissive, disorderly society hasn't been such a great improvement, but that with the right leader in charge, this problem could be solved. SYLG had no such appealing subtext. A rather shifty, fast-talking opportunist winds up getting the gal and a whole lot of money mostly by luck—a movie to be enjoyed more as droll character study and parody with a couple of mildly cute scenes than as something special that can be savored.

This film came out two years after SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF. Aside from having very similar titles, both starred James Garner, Harry Morgan and Jack Elam in very similar roles, and the plot itself was so close to the first film it made me wonder why they didn't try something a little more original. Oddly, despite all the similarities, this second film was actually written long before they even made SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF. However, because of the extreme similarity of the films, I really can't rate SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GUNFIGHTER any higher--though it's still a nice little Western-comedy.James Garner's character is a bit more amoral and weasel-like in this film as he plays a clever con man determined to take advantage of a war brewing between rival mine owners (Harry Morgan and John Dehner). His plan is to pretend that his new-found bumbling sidekick (Elam) is the dreaded gunman, Swifty Morgan and capitalize on how much everyone fears this famous hired gun. The problem is that eventually, the REAL Morgan comes to town and it looks bad for Garner and Elam.While the script was pretty good, there was one big difference about this film that I really disliked. In SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF, the female lead was played by Joan Hackett and she was a total kook--a lovable kook, but a kook nonetheless. Here, Susan Pleshette plays a woman who is rather psychotic and IMPOSSIBLE TO LOVE--someone who would have been institutionalized or killed--not someone who would win the man's hand at the end of the film!! Her psychotic outbursts simply weren't funny and really hindered the film whenever she appeared. While I loved Ms. Pleshette in many roles, this one was simply beneath her. As a result of this and the repetitive quality of the film, it's not a film you must see but more of a likable time-passer. Do yourself a favor and see SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF and only see this second film if you feel you need a lot more of the same.

Turner South showed "Support Your Local Sheriff" and "Support Your Local Gunfight" back-to-back on Sunday night (11/20). And after enjoying my umpteenth viewing of "Sheriff", I tried to enjoy "Gunfighter" – after failing to do so the first time I saw it, a few years ago.Admittedly, the first time I watched "Gunfighter", I quit watching it less than thirty-minutes into the movie, because it just didn't seem to be doing what "Sheriff" did so well.This time, thanks to some of the comments of other IMDb users, I stuck with it . . . and I finally got the point. Even though I don't like "Gunfigher" nearly as much as "Sheriff", I think I understand why I don't like it as much as its predecessor.Without going on and on about the differences – "Sheriff" offers idealistic and hero-worshiping viewers like me a character who Waltzes through life with complete confidence, solving problems quickly and easily."Gunfighter", on the other hand, is about a morally confused person who seems reluctant to do any honest work, and who prefers to make desperate attempts to con the local residences out of a few bucks.The defining moment in "Sheriff" is the scene in which Gardner goes on a picnic with Joanne Hatchet and realizes that his plan to leave town before the big gun battle with the bad guys (which he plans to do) would be a cowardly act."Gunfighter" doesn't contain a scene like this one – and James Garner's character does not have the kind of moral fiber that would permit the story to include this kind of scene.For this reason, "Gunfighter" is decidedly inferior to "Sheriff".But, for the record, "Maverick" (1994 – which also starred James Garner – contains many scenes which compare favorably to "Support Your Local Sheriff".Oddly enough, Turner South showed "Maverick" right after "Support Your Local Gunfighter" on the afore-mentioned Sunday night.Weird, eh?