Here in no particular order are the best of the westerns
reviewed at BITS in the last year. (Click through on the titles to read the
complete reviews.)
Preview audiences reportedly
were roused by such strong reactions to this film that many left the theater in
protest. Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch
immediately won a reputation for its graphic violence. Because of or in spite
of that, it quickly found a place on most western fans’ top 10 list. Over 40
years later, it remains a powerful and absorbing story.
There’s an elegiac tone to this
story of aging cowboys. The glory days are over for the men who used to ride
the open ranges, and now they are hanging on to whatever work they can find in
a shrinking rural economy. Distant corporate owners make the decisions about
how the ranches are run. What used to be “money” is now “capital.”
Steve McQueen starred in this
rambling movie set mostly in the West. Its central character goes by different
names until almost the end, when he calls himself “Nevada Smith.” The film was
a prequel, based on a character in Harold Robbins’ 1961 potboiler, The
Carpetbaggers. That novel had been made
into a film in 1964, the character of Nevada Smith played by Alan Ladd
as a Tom Mix-style cowboy actor.
Not quite a western, this story
of an itinerant sheepman and his family in the great outdoors of Australia has
stood up well. The enjoyment comes mostly from the performances and the novelty
of watching something besides cows being driven across country. The work of
sheep shearers and their camaraderie make another contrasting parallel to the
usual run of cowboys.
This rousing low-budget western
had a remarkable cast and enough fresh ideas to keep it more than interesting
from start to finish. The cast includes John Ireland as a disaffected veteran
of the Civil War and Dorothy Malone as a small-town newspaper editor’s
daughter. Lon Chaney, Jr., plays the heavy, a maniacal cattleman. Jack Elam is
nicely sinister as one of his henchmen.
John Ford brings a light touch
to this story of a subject he treated once before in The Searchers (1956). James Stewart is the “searcher” in this film, out
to find women and children kidnapped by Indians. But unlike John Wayne’s darkly
driven character in the earlier film, Stewart is comically larcenous and
unprincipled. His services go to the highest bidder.
First of all, this is a movie
about a long-range rifle. Almost incidentally, it is carried through most of
the film by Tom Selleck. The weapon is a Shiloh Sharps 1874 Long Range,
and Selleck, as the title character, Quigley, is an incredible marksman with
it. Much of the excitement of the film is watching him take aim at someone else
little more than a speck on the screen and seeing them blown away.
This gritty, sweaty western
looks like it was shot somewhere on the endless arid plains under the
great open sky of the American West. But think South—way South. Good
For Nothing was filmed entirely and
convincingly in New Zealand. The panoramic views evoke the romance of the West at the same
time they transport you back in time, in a way that many Hollywood westerns
fail to achieve.
This Budd Boetticher western
filmed from a Burt Kennedy script is a classic. Shot in Cinemascope entirely
in the Alabama Hills of Lone Pine, California, it’s a low-budget movie that
looks as high-gloss and polished as any 1950s western.
This noir western from director
John Sturges is smaller scale than his big films (Gunfight at the OK Corral,
The Magnificent Seven), but a quietly
intense gem. Richard Widmark is cast in a role that recalls the grinning
malice of the hoodlum he plays in Kiss of Death (1947). Robert Taylor, dressed in black, is the handsome
marshal who was once his partner in crime.
Further reading:
Coming up: The year in snapshots
Re Two Rode Together. I do not the Stewart character as unprincipled, unless, of course, trying to make a buck with the available "tools" makes that so. He always, throughout the entirety of the film, tells the truth. He is wise and compassionate with each and every character, where warranted, but especially with Linda Cristal's character. He is a great man. And, by the way, I don't see Ethan Edwards as racist. He is trying to reclaim his family, and if that requires killing the enemy, so be it. You know, like us bombing Japan and Germany.
ReplyDeleteMy memory of the film is that Stewart often claims to be unprincipled. The traditional western hero would be less materialistic. You are right that a better side of him comes out in defense of Cristal's character.
DeleteStewart's character is a classic Fordian hero, who apprises all of the risks inherent in a daunting, dangerous enterprise. For this, he requires compensation and makes an honest job of it. I see nothing wrong with this man. The others, civilian and military appear to be a pack of fools sending McCabe on their errand unwilling, or unable due to flat out stupidity, to deal with truth. Or, for that matter, kindness.
DeleteFurther Thought: McCabe has time, intelligence and courage to sell, and so he does, honestly. The cowboy is a capitalist, just like The Virginian, who aspires to be like Judge Henry, and reaches that goal.
DeleteQuigley definitely deserves to be there. I haven't seen the Sundowners but read the book, which was excellent!
ReplyDelete" the novelty of watching something besides cows being driven across country"
ReplyDeleteSingleton's Pluck, starring Ian Holm and after- a long way after- Red River, features a farmer herding a flock of geese from Norfolk to London.
Will have to look for it. I like Ian Holm.
DeleteRon, I'm going to try and see every one of these westerns in 2014. A Happy New Year to you and your family!
ReplyDelete