Western

High Plains Drifter

/ / Home Video
  • Title: High Plains Drifter
  • IMDB: link

High Plains DrifterRecently released on Blu-ray, High Plains Drifter is one of my favorite Clint Eastwood films. Eastwood stars as the nameless Stranger who wanders into the lawless western mining town of Lago. After dispatching three outlaws with relative ease, the town decides to hire the Stranger to deal with three gunfighters (Geoffrey Lewis, Anthony James, Dan Vadis) on their way back to the town which allowed, and then jailed, the outlaws for killing the town’s sheriff.

The Stranger agrees, but decides to take payment for his services in unusual ways, including raping own of the women folk (Marianna Hill) who gets in his way, making the town jester (Billy Curtis) the new sheriff, and ordering the entire town to paint every building in Lago bright red.

Although High Plains Drifter isn’t exactly subtle, the allegory of vengeance works well as the audience, but not the towns folk, will soon guess who the Stranger is and what brought him to Lago.

…

High Plains DrifterRead More »

High Plains Drifter Read More »

Tonto (and The Lone Ranger)

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Lone Ranger
  • IMDB: link

The Lone RangerAfter some success taming the high seas, director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp reunite for this new interpretation of The Lone Ranger. The meandering 149-minute tale is more than a little liberal in its depiction of the Masked Man and his faithful Indian companion. Those looking for a classic western may be disappointed as Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger is an action-adventure similar to the Pirates of the Caribbean that just happens to be set in the Old West.

The entire film is framed from Tonto’s (Depp) perspective, as a far older version of the character (Depp in some pretty good old-age makeup) relates the legend of The Lone Ranger to a young boy (Mason Cook) at a Wild West show. Much like The Princess Bride, at times the tale is interrupted for more interaction between the narrator and his captive young audience. The choice to give us the legend from a trusted, but not necessarily trustworthy, source and allows us to choose how much of Tonto’s story to believe.

…

Tonto (and The Lone Ranger)Read More »

Tonto (and The Lone Ranger) Read More »

3:10 to Yuma

/ / Home Video
  • Title: 3:10 to Yuma (1957)
  • IMDB: link

“Safe!  Who knows what’s safe?  I know a man dropped dead from looking at his wife.  My own grandmother fought the Indians for 60 years then choked to death on lemon pie.”

3:10 to YumaDirector Delmer Daves‘ 1957 western about a cattle rancher forced into the role of getting a dangerous killer out of town finds new life on home video as 3:10 to Yuma is the latest classic to get the Criterion treatment.

Dan Evans (Van Heflin) is a struggling rancher with a wife (Leora Dana), two sons (Barry Curtis, Jerry Hartleben), and cattle who are dying of thirst during one of the worst droughts in recent memory. When Ben Wade (Glenn Ford), the leader of an outlaw gang who has terrorized the territory for years, is caught, Dan accepts an offer of $200 to escort Wade to a nearby town and put him on the 3:10 train to Yuma for trial.

With only the town drunk (Henry Jones) at his side, Evans tries to keep Wade hidden and put him on the train before the rest of his gang can find them and release their leader.

…

3:10 to YumaRead More »

3:10 to Yuma Read More »

Tarantino Unchained

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Django Unchained
  • IMDB: link

django-unchained-posterWith Inglourious Basterds writer/director Quentin Tarantino strode a fine line between between drama and revenge fantasy in his depiction of a select group of Jewish soldiers taking on the Nazis during WWII.

With his latest, Tarantino returns to the well of his revenge fantasy, the theme he’s been stuck on for nearly an entire decade (since 2003’s Kill Bill Vol. 1), to push the envelope even farther with a blaxploitation western that leaves good taste in the dust. If there’s ever a film that so thoroughly argues for a director to be shackled to studio pressure it’s the inarguable trainwreck that is Django Unchained.

Jamie Foxx stars as Django, a slave freed by a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) in need of his help to hunt down and kill the Speck brothers (James Remar, James Russo). After Django shows promise, Shultz (Waltz) agrees to train the newly freed slave in the art of bounty hunting and help retrieve Django’s wife (Kerry Washington) from a ruthless plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio).

…

Tarantino UnchainedRead More »

Tarantino Unchained Read More »

The Lone Ranger #3

/ / Comics

 

 

lone-ranger-vol-2-3-coverWhere the first two issues had focused primarily on Westerners in need of the Lone Ranger’s help, issue #3 puts the masked man and his Indian companion center stage.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto are approached by the United States Government to help track down a vicious gang of railroad robbers. The Ranger reluctantly takes the job, and he and Tonto are able to find the gang with relative ease.

However, their victory is short lived as they discover the thieves have the protection of a local sheriff and an entire town. The comic ends with Tonto gut-shot and bleeding out in the desert and our hero about to have a noose placed around his neck.

The pacing here is much better than in the first couple of issues and, despite the unnecessary use of flashbacks, it works very well by delivering the series’ best issue to date. I’ve also got to throw a shout out to Francesco Francavilla for a very cool cover. Worth a look.

…

The Lone Ranger #3Read More »

The Lone Ranger #3 Read More »