Comanche Station: Budd Boetticher

Randolph Scott has always been an enigma in the Westerns that he made with Budd Boetticher.  He seems to exist somewhere in between the dashing, white-hatted cowboys of Gene Autry and Roy Rogers and the chiseled, amoral loners of Clint Eastwood and Franco Nero.  John Wayne and James Stewart occasionally occupied similar roles. But for John Wayne, roles like Ethan Edwards in The Searchers (1956) which pushed the boundaries of typical romanticized Western morality were usually ignored or forgotten in the shadow of his image as the embodiment of American machismo and masculinity.  And despite his phenomenal collaborations with Anthony Mann, James Stewart is more remembered as George Bailey than as Howard Kemp.  But Scott was something else when he worked with Boetticher. In those films he would tip his hat to a lady, graciously help people in need, and follow it all up by brutally killing a group of outlaws.  After a while, Scott's smile seems to betray him as a man who knows and follows the rules but secretly laughs at their absurdity.  In one of his best collaborations with Boetticher, Comanche Station, this tendency becomes loudly pronounced. Scott plays Jefferson Cody, a loner who at the start of the film trades with a group of Comanche Indians in order to free Nancy Lowe, a woman they recently kidnapped. Cody had heard that the local Comanche had kidnapped a white woman who might be his missing wife. Much to his disappointment, it isn't. But regardless, Lowe's husband has announced a massive reward for her safe return, so he decides to lead her to safety.  As they return to Lowe's home, they are joined by a group of three outlaws led by the charismatic yet dangerous Ben Lane who also intend to turn her in for the reward. And so begins a long journey full of intrigue and danger as Cody must lead Lowe to safety through hostile Indian territory and protect her from the smiling men who suddenly decide to "accompany" them.  Comanche Station is classic Boetticher and stands as one of his best films in a distinguished, yet horrifically overlooked, career.  And, of course, there's Randolph Scott...that tired old man with an occasionally kind heart and a gun full of bullets.

8/10

Four Men and a Prayer: John Ford

It breaks my heart to give films by John Ford bad reviews. But in the interest of fairness, I have to try and be unbiased, even towards my all-time favorite director.  Four Men and a Prayer begins with quite a bit of promise.  It begins with Colonel Loring Leigh of the British Indian Army being dishonorably discharged and sent home to England after apparently issuing an order that resulted in the deaths of 90 soldiers.  He is met by his four sons who try and comfort him upon his return.  However, shortly after arriving, Colonel Leigh is shot and killed by an unknown assassin.  Believing that their father's assassination may have something to do with his expulsion from the military, the four sons set out across the globe to track down their father's old military comrades.  At first this seems like a great adventure film in the same tradition as Gunga Din (1939) and The Four Feathers (1939).  But it quickly deteriorates and losses track of its central narrative like the splayed end of a rope.  In one particularly bizarre change of pace, one of the sons and his American girlfriend witness a group of peasant revolutionaries brutally massacred by the government's army.  At first they are shocked, but after a few minutes they appear to forget the entire affair and move on.  When the final villain is discovered and confronted, the actors all seem bored and their characters uninterested in the fact that they have found their father's killer.  The best part of the film is near the beginning when each of the sons receives telegrams informing them of their father's dismissal. Ford magnificently introduces each son and establishes their distinct personalities in a matter of minutes. If the entire film had been as tight and focused as these early scenes, then this film might have become a classic.  But as it stands, Four Men and a Prayer is a film best left forgotten.

4/10

Red Zone Cuba: Coleman Francis

Is it weird that Red Zone Cuba reminded me of Budd Boetticher's collaborations with Randolph Scott? Wait, don't answer that. Yes. Yes, it is.  Red Zone Cuba is probably the most infamous film by Coleman Francis, a celebrated auteur of cinematic drivel. His films (all three of them) share certain elements: stoic, emotionally absent middle-aged men, a fondness for communal scenes of coffee-drinking and cigarette-smoking, and the violent deaths of central characters.  Red Zone Cuba is by far Francis' most improbable and ridiculous film. It follows three men who search for a lost treasure in a tungsten mine. Of course, mid-way through their search they decide to fly to Cuba and take part in the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion. An invasion which, apparently, only utilized approximately seven American soldiers.  One of the film's prolonged sequences involves the three men as POW's trapped in a Cuban prison who watch as one-by-one the other prisoners are taken outside and executed by a three man firing squad.  Somehow, the three men escape from Cuba and return to the United States where they continue their search for tungsten treasure. And, of course, their little foray into Cuba is never mentioned again.  The film is long, drawn-out, and entirely pointless. Even the film's value as a "good bad" movie is diminished by its glacial pacing, nonsensical story, and robotic acting. But you know, come to think of it, the acting in Red Zone Cuba is exactly what Robert Bresson spent his entire career trying to coax out of his actors.  Wait...on second thought, even Bresson would probably flail his arms and screech for the actors in this film to emote.

As a side note, I just want to point out that I am mesmerized by the film poster provided above.  It's not enough that they had to fill 2/3 of it with a bland photo of three bored actors...they had to add facial profiles FROM THE SAME PICTURE in the lower 1/3.

2/10

The Pillow Book: Peter Greenaway

I almost dread watching Peter Greenaway's work because I've found that I'm quickly running out of ways that I can express my sheer amazement and admiration towards his work.  There are only so many words in the English language and the number that I haven't used in reviews of Greenaway's work is almost completely depleted.  But my curiosity towards his film entitled The Pillow Book finally got the better of me and now I must struggle to find underutilized words.  Greenaway's film is a kind of meta-adaptation of the famous book of observations of the same name by Japanese court lady Sei Shōnagon around 1000 AD.  The film follows a Japanese model named Nagiko who derives sexual pleasure from calligraphers writing on her body.  This fetish arose from a tradition when she was young where on her birthday her father would draw good luck characters on her face and upper back while her mother would read to her from the historical Pillow Book.  When she got older, she sought out famous calligraphers as lovers.  One of these was British translator Jerome (Ewan McGregor) who convinced her to try writing on other people's bodies.  However, through a tragic romantic misunderstanding, Jerome kills himself.  Nagiko, in her grief, decides to write her own Pillow Book based on her own life.  She writes 13 chapters of her Pillow Book on various models in different unusual circumstances before sending them to an evil publisher who blackmailed her father and Jerome for sex.  This is easily my favorite part of the film as it plays as a kind of philosophical answer to David Fincher's Se7en (1995).  For instance, the ninth chapter (The Book of Secrets) is delivered by a nude Buddhist monk with the text written in his "secret" spots, such as between his fingers, on his eyelids, and on the insides of his thighs.  Since Nagiko largely blames the publisher for her father's misery and Jerome's death, she uses the book to extract violent revenge against him.  This is a magnificent film that doesn't just mimic Japanese and calligraphic aesthetics but instead embodies them.  The first and third act of the film are absolutely riveting and transcendent in their execution and Kubrick-esque level of perfectionism. However, the second act which largely charts Nagiko's affair with Jerome is sadly lacking. For this section, the film largely wanders with no clearly defined destination.  Much of it plays like a music video. But the film's other strengths make up for this temporary lull in quality.  There simply isn't anything else quite like The Pillow Book.  To see it is an event.

9/10

The Avengers: Joss Whedon

I think I was naturally predisposed towards being excessively harsh in my evaluation of Joss Whedon's The Avengers for two reasons. First, I come from a film studies environment where many, if not all, of my peers had already condemned the film as trash before even seeing it.  Second, while I love Marvel Comics, I have always been a bigger DC fan. So I admit that I am biased against this film. But despite that, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.  The Avengers was the end result of a truly herculean cinematic effort that stretched four years, six films, and a countless number of writers, directors, actors, and editors. The fact that The Avengers was coherent and focused is a blessing. The fact that it is a great film is a miracle. It seems that Loki is on the loose and is using the power of a mysterious, potentially limitless source of energy called the Tesseract (known to comic book readers as the Cosmic Cube) to summon an alien army known as the Chitauri to conquer Earth. And so, the Avengers are formed with an all-star lineup of the world's mightiest heroes: Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, Hawkeye, and Black Widow.  The film has a ton of plot holes. How did Thor get back to Earth (an unconvincing one-line explanation is given and promptly forgotten)? Who are the council of unknown people who sit in darkly lit rooms and secretly run the world? Did Loki really expect the Chitauri to hand over reign of the Earth after they conquered it? But these plot holes can be ignored due to Whedon's flawless grasp on dialogue and character development. I still don't think Whedon is a very good filmmaker, per say. Many parts of this film felt like a television show with an unusually large budget.  But the action is fluid, not annoying. The film is well-paced, a merciful change from more recent blockbusters who don't know the definition of the term "three act structure." Bottom line: while it doesn't do anything to push the superhero genre forward, it doesn't do anything wrong. Even a DC fanboy like me can admit that it's a very fun film.

8/10

Seven Men From Now: Budd Boetticher

Randolph Scott was one tough, mean sonovabitch. Of course, if you never watched the Westerns he made with Budd Boetticher, you may not know it. One of the best was Seven Men From Now.  I am not alone in this opinion. Legendary critic André Bazin once wrote that Seven Men From Now was "one of the exemplary successes of the contemporary Western."  Like most of Boetticher films, it has a very simple plot.  Scott plays Ben Stride, the ex-sheriff of Silver Springs.  He is on the search for seven criminals who accidentally killed his wife in the middle of a Wells Fargo freight office robbery where they ran off with $20,000 dollars in gold.  During his hunt, he encounters John and Annie Greer, two inexperienced settlers on their way from Kansas City to California.  At first he merely helps them along when they encounter serious problems such a thick mud.  However, it is revealed that the two may be more related to the Wells Fargo freight office robbery than Stride could have ever imagined.  Clocking in at under 80 minutes, Seven Men From Now is a tight ball of compressed Western drama.  For such a short film, it feels over two hours long. But instead of feeling drawn out, the entire two imaginary hours are absolutely riveting. Boetticher's Westerns have an aura of authenticity and authority. And Seven Men From Now is no exception.

8/10

Tall in the Saddle: Edwin L. Marin

It is said that Peter Bogdanovich once mentioned to Orson Welles that he had seen Touch of Evil (1958) four or five times before he even noticed the story.  The reason, he explained, was that he was so enamored with the direction that he couldn't focus on the actual plot. I feel much the same way after viewing Edwin L. Marin's Tall in the Saddle.  Only, instead of being captivated by the direction, I was mesmerized by the performances. If there is a plot to Tall in the Saddle, as I'm sure there is, then I entirely missed it. I was much too focused on the actors' various mannerisms and the tight, terse screenplay by Paul Fix and Michael Hogan.  Central to this film is the indomitable presence of John Ford as Rocklin, a cynical, no-nonsense ranch hand. Rocklin is openly misogynistic, delivering lines like, "I never feel sorry for anything that happens to a woman." It's obvious that some woman has gone and done him wrong in the past, but Rocklin isn't talking. He arrives in a small town to take over as foreman for a local ranch only to discover that its owner had been murdered weeks before his arrival. Furthermore, it seems that the new owner of the ranch, Clara Cardell, is being swindled from her inheritance. So, begrudgingly, Rocklin helps solve the murder and stop to plot to rob Clara. But as I said, I was too busy admiring the acting and dialogue to really pay attention to the story.  I most clearly remember tiny vignettes scattered throughout the film. One of my favorites is when Rocklin is cheated during a poker game in a hotel and calmly walks upstairs to his room. One of the other players tells the cheater that he had better give Rocklin his money back because he's "the kind of man who would come back downstairs." And almost on cue Rocklin slowly, deliberately walks down the stairs, stares the cheater in the face, and tells him to give him his money back. It's an astoundingly powerful scene. Another one of my favorites is when Arly Harolday, the sister of the poker cheat, is tricked into trying to get his money back. She confronts Rocklin in the street and shoots at him. But Rocklin just flat out ignores her and walks straight to the saloon under a hail of angry gunfire. This won't be the only time that I watch Tall in the Saddle. The screenplay is too rich and the acting too superb to warrant only one viewing.

8/10

Border Incident: Anthony Mann

What's that? A film noir directed by Anthony Mann featuring the cinematography of John Alton? Why, that sounds fantastic! It seems like Border Incident was custom made for cinephiles like yours truly. Well, I can say that as far as film noir go, Border Incident delivers the goods.  It focuses on a topic which has become a cause célèbre for politicians in the last few decades: illegal immigration.  After a number of illegal immigrants are brutally murdered, robbed, and thrown into quicksand while attempting to cross the border, the governments of the United States and Mexico decide to collaborate in order to stop the bloodshed. So both governments dispatch agents to try and shut down a group of criminals who illegally smuggle Mexicans over the border. The Mexican agent is Pablo Rodriguez, played by a young Ricardo Montalban, who goes undercover as a bracero seeking illegal transport to America.  It's quite odd to watch a film from 1949 deal with a problem that has dominated our modern politosphere for so many years.  If I was a more cynical man, I would openly mock the scenes where US and Mexican officials talk in deep, serious tones about how most Mexican workers and American ranchers obey the law.  But ignoring that, Border Incident is a decent film. There are a number of particularly effective scenes. In one scene, Rodriguez is almost revealed as an agent when an old woman touches his hands to see whether or not he is a true bracero and he has to improvise a back-story or face execution.  In another, a US agent is savagely murdered by being run over by a mechanized harrow. And it is fascinating to watch how Mann uses quicksand to heighten the tension of the climactic gunfight.  Border Incident may seem somewhat naive from today's perspective. But it remains a solid entry in both Anthony Mann's and John Alton's respective filmographies.

7/10

Buchanan Rides Alone: Budd Boetticher

The Westerns of Budd Boetticher hold a very special place in my heart. As Martin Scorsese once said, his Westerns distill the very essence of the genre into its purest form.  Many of his best Westerns were collaborations with an aged Randolph Scott.  I thoroughly enjoyed such films as Seven Men from Now (1956) and The Tall T (1957).  And yet I find myself feeling less enthusiastic about their 1958 film Buchanan Rides Alone.  The film follows Scott and Tom Buchanan, an ex-gunfigher looking to re-invent himself as a rancher.  When he arrives at the California border town of Agry, he becomes embroiled in a feud concerning the Agry family.  The Agry family dominates the town with members serving as mayor and sheriff.  When Buchanan first came into town, he made the mistake of aiding a young Mexican being brutally assaulted by several men.  What Buchanan didn't know was that the Mexican had just murdered one of the members of the Agry family.  And so Buchanan is pulled into a full-on struggle between the town (and family) of Agry and a Mexican group who are willing to pay a substantial ransom for the killer.  Buchanan Rides Alone contains many of the elements that made Boetticher's Westerns so fantastic: a lone, cynical gunfighter and a bleak landscape dominated by violence.  And yet, it doesn't feel like a Boetticher Western. Buchanan is just a little too happy.  There is just a little too much comic relief.  And most importantly, I never found myself intimidated by the Agry family. The Agry family can't seem to get their priorities in order. Near the start of the film, they stop Buchanan and the Mexican from getting lynched so that one of their number will be elected for mayor...or was it governor? But then the very same Agry who was so scared of upsetting voters hatches a plan to release a despised criminal in exchange for $50,000. Doesn't he realize that ransoming off a convicted murderer will ensure that nobody will vote for him?  Anyhow, the film does contain a few moments of brilliance. My favorite scene was the climactic shootout where the Agry family and Buchanan fight from opposite sides of a bridge with a sack of $50,000 in the middle.  As both sides send out envoys to retrieve the money, the number of bodies in the middle of the street increases. It is a savage, powerful scene. Too bad I can't say the same for the rest of the film.

6/10

The White Buffalo: J. Lee Thompson

Blatant historical inaccuracies can destroy my enjoyment of a film. The idea of Wild Bill Hickok and Crazy Horse joining forces would usually be enough to make me want to avoid a certain film. But The White Buffalo is concerned with myth and legend, dreams and visions.  J. Lee Thompson creates a foreboding fearscape out of the snowy wastes of the West, a setting which is much too often ignored by filmmakers and writers.  Haunted by dreams of a giant white buffalo, Hickok sets out to kill this mythical monster. However, the white buffalo is also being pursued by Crazy Horse. The white buffalo had killed his daughter while rampaging through his camp. His sorrow and tears over her death resulted in his elders taking away his name and replacing it with the title "worm" until he can kill the White Buffalo and wrap his daughter in its hide.  What could have been a very silly film was actually a surprisingly effective fantasy thriller.  Much attention is given to various shootouts where Wild Bill and Crazy Horse intelligently use the terrain to gain the upper hand. Also, the white buffalo becomes a true specter of fear and death.  Part of this has to do with how Thompson never lets us see all of the buffalo in a single shot. We see his side profile, head, and horns in various disjointed shots. But we are almost never allowed to comprehend where the buffalo is in comparison to his surroundings.  He becomes like the monstrous Jaws; capable of appearing wherever and whenever he wants to strike at helpless victims. The White Buffalo is now one of my favorite mythical creatures in the Old West. If I ever write a Western, you can be sure that somewhere inside of it there will be a White Buffalo.

7/10