Western Week: Shane

Hi-dy doo all!  Welcome to Day 3 of Western Week and man o man I found me a classic.  One of the most talked about, fussed over and in general beloved Westerns to this very day.  So kick yer shoes off, sit a spell and hell why not take a shot at widdlin’ some.   This is Shane.

Hey, an actual watering hole!

Come back Spoilers!!!...

A fella come riding into town in buckskin (No not Navajo Joe) and a six shooter in the sparsely settled of Wyoming just a bit after the Homestead Act.   The town while unaware of this fella who goes by Shane (Alan Ladd of This Gun for Hire, The Iron Mistress, Desert Legion, The Blue Dahlia, The Black Knight, Hell on Frisco Bay and Salty O’ Rourke), a man with a past but he is clearly pegged as a gunslinger and finds himself right in the middle of a homesteader Joe Starrett (Van Heflin of The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, 3:10 to Yuma and Airport) and cattle baron Rufus Ryker (Emile Meyer of The Man with the Golden Arm, Paths of Glory and Sweet Smell of Success) and tries his level best to keep it civil. Ryker clearly wants the land for cheap and wants the settlers to vamoose from town so I guess he can have more grazing land i.e. more beef for the bank.  Shane is invited to supper and a bunk for the night by Joe’s wife, Marian (Jean Arthur of Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can’t Take It with You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Too Many Husbands and The Devil and Miss Jones) takes a liking to these folks and signs on as a farmhand.

Whiskey anyone?!

 Joey, Joe and Marian’s boy becomes fast friends with Shane and asks him about shooting.  Shane is willing to teach both Joey (Brandon De Wilde of Jamie, Good-bye My Lady, Night Passage,  Hud and The Deserter)and Marian both, instilling that a gun is no more than a tool.  Granted it is a killing tool but only the owner can make the decision for what good or evil it will do.   Get all that NRA???    Marian is clearly not a fan of the hogleg and would rather her boy did not learn the ways of violence.   A fist fight brews in town when Joe and Shane run into some of Ryker’s men and they kicked butt.    Ryker is furious about this and hires himself one cold blooded son of a…well you get the idea *ahem* gunfighter named Jack Wilson (Jack Palance of Arrowhead, Flight to Tangier, Man in the Attic, Sign of the Pagan, The Silver Chalice, The Big Knife, Kiss of Fire, A Professional Gun, Batman and City Slickers) and brother this man is one cool customer.  He could shoot a fella as easily as order a drink of whiskey.    Yup what will the town do with this maniac on the streets? 

I have a few observations of this movie now if you don’t mind.  The setting of this town was based on the Johnson County War and was shot primarily on location but there was also more than a few sets via Paramount Studios backdrop.  Some of the exterior shots had a few matte paintings but damn some of these you look at you would swear is the open sky.  Similar to the Italian Eastman format this film was shot in spherical so great close ups and foreground but background looks a little hazy.   

I crap bigger than you, door.

35mm of course and sadly in Technicolor and yes I am not a fan of Technicolor.   Keep in black and white for that matter I say.  Hell how many films could be made better just dropped in black and white alone?    Moving right along, apparently Alan Ladd was not the first draft pick for Shane as the director George Stevens (A Place in the Sun, Penny Serenade and Giant) Montgomery Clift (Red River, I Confess, A Place in the Sun and From Here to Eternity) given their previous work history together.   This has it all.  Good story, likable characters and secondary characters, catchy themes and good luck getting that opening theme out of your head.  I can see why this is hailed as good cinema.

Sydney Pollack Week: The Electric Horseman

Howdy buckaroos!   Day 3 of Sydney Pollack Week and we will examine how far a man can fall from grace and yet still have an award winning smile.   A story of a man that plummeted from the upper echelons of his career, sells out to be a corporate shill and still get the girl in the end.   Preposterous you say?   Perhaps but this little romantic thriller/comedy may surprise you.   So gather your spurs, get in the shoot and hang on for at least 8 seconds.    This is The Electric Horseman.

Absent of dignity

Spoilers be the damnedest things…

Sonny Steele (Robert Redford of This Property Is Condemned, Jeremiah Johnson, The Way We Were, Three Days of the Condor, The Last Castle and Spy Game) is a former championship rodeo rider fallen on hard times is using his last gasps of fame to market breakfast cereal.  Yes, Wheaties can help any fallen athlete in struggles of destitute but sadly he is plugging Ranch Breakfast.   His fat cat boss, Hunt Sears (John Saxon of Enter the Dragon, Mitchell, Desire, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Craving Heart and War Wolves) is not worried about keeping Sonny on a leash and therefore is all sorts of vile. 

Don't wanna go barefoot in the park, woman!

Chasing disappointment away with booze, Sonny is dressed in this ridiculous lit up cowboy suit and prances about almost as much as his equine counterpart Rising Star. It was only later is discovered the horse was drugged and previously injured.   Wow, Sin City lied to the world and you Sonny?  Say it ain’t so.   After discovering this horrendous mistreatment of an animal Sonny becomes disillusioned and disgusted with the current course of his life.   He then steals Rising Star from Caesar’s Palace where they are being held, gallops out the Strip and travels cross-country to release him in a remote canyon where majestic herds of wild horses roam.

Hallie Martin (Jane Fonda of Barefoot in the Park They Shoot Horses, Don’t They, Barbarella, Klute, Julia, Coming Home, The Morning After and Old Gringo), an inspiring TV reporter assigned to cover this decadent event hears of the reward that Sears offers and the lack of concern wither or not Sonny comes back alive so long as Rising Star is returned.  Sensing there is more to this story than Sears will cop to, tracks Sonny down for the headline that may just make her career solid.  She missed Watergate so it is Horse Thief or nothing.  Still struck me as odd that you drop 12 million clams on a horse and no protection in the event your star goes diva and rides away?   Guess even Vegas couldn’t cover the odds of that happening.

Aww what a downy clowny...

Okay this is the part where I will nitpick a bit.   The villains in this piece are a bit one-dimensional and easily thwarted in my opinion, the sheer bravado of out foxing the local authorities, the quest in question feels a bit farfetched but the story overall is got a good tone of one man sticking it to hypocrisy of just making a buck, romance is found on the way and while this is a late 70’s film the tone is more hopeful than the typical cynical writing of the time.   Writer Robert Garland (Steve Martin: Comedy Is Not Pretty, Toostie, No Way Out and The Big Blue) created a decent romp through the desert and made an unlikely pairing of two completely different people.   No I do not think the film is genius but it is clever and warm.   Also has starring Willie Nelson as a ranch hand with the infamous quote of the film and NO I am not about to ruin it but suffice to say it will curl and straighten your hair.