Silent Tongue [Review]

“Insanity is a sorry thing.” – Alan Bates

The Weird Western is the trickiest of animals.  Rarely do you find one of quality in the landscape of cinema and often you have to settle for “okay” rather than “fantastic” as adjectives of proclamation.  There has been a lot of effort of late, but the success rate is mostly fair to midland.  From Dusk Till Dawn 3 (P.J. Pesce, 1999) sure was “interesting” with its vampiric Ambrose Bierce speculation…Cowboys & Aliens (Jon Favreau, 2011) is “fun” if you let it…The Warrior’s Way (Sngmoo Lee, 2010)…uh…uh…has a lot of “crazy” on its side plus Geoffrey Rush bare bottom gags.  But to find a Weird Western that is flat-out good?  That’s a rare treat.

Silent Tongue (Sam Shepard, 1994) was buried in the wake of River Phoenix’s overdose, and after a yearlong delay the film opened to a paltry box office of just over $61,000.  It received a rather lukewarm reception at the Sundance Film Festival and it’s rarely spoken of these days outside of being a footnote in the snuffed career of its third billed actor.  But I’m here to argue that not only should it be seen as a highlight in the miniscule Weird Western subgenre, but it should also be seen as the career best of River Phoenix.

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The Departed [Review]

Remakes in Hollywood are not rare occurrence. It seems that every other film to come out of the giant movie making machine that is Hollywood has been done before, or is based on a book, play, or game. We have seen remakes of classic Hollywood films, remakes of not-so-classic Hollywood films. Remakes of European films, French films, Asian films. We have even seen remakes of remakes. Hollywood loves their remakes. However every once in a while, among the giant cesspool of Hollywood re-tellings, we see a true master piece. A movie, that even though it may have been done before, harvests enough raw talent, and visionary film making that is stands up on its own without needing the original to be its crutch.

The Departed was one of those.

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Tom Horn [Review]

Tom Horn (William Wiard, 1980) serves as the last great hurrah for cinematic icon Steve McQueen.  After the ridiculous success of The Towering Inferno (John Guillermin, 1974), McQueen took a breather from the spotlight, but for his inevitable comeback he chose a series of projects that would soothe him creatively if not financially.  In 1978 illness took the form of a debilitating cough, a year after that while filming The Hunter (Buzz Kulik, 1980) he was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, and just four months after the box office disappointments of both films he was dead.

Now, The Hunter is an okay film to watch on a Sunday afternoon when you’ve got no plans and time to kill.  No one is going to fight tooth & nail to proclaim it superior to The Great Escape (John Sturges, 1963) or Bullitt (Peter Yates, 1968) or Papillion (Franklin Schaffner, 1973).  Tom Horn on the other hand…I would go to war if you claimed it anything less than a masterpiece.  Hyperbole?  This is the Internet, we live in a constant hyperbolic state, but this is about as hard as a fact can get within a subjective medium.  Tom Horn is one of The Great Westerns.

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The Hunting Party [Review]

Just a few seconds into The Hunting Party (Don Medford, 1971) and you’ll know if you want to subject yourself to the rest of the film or not.  Without the aid of a score, the images of a cow being bluntly slaughtered on the plains of the West are crosscut with shots of Gene Hackman forcing himself upon his unwilling wife, Candice Bergen.  Spurting, possibly real cattle mutilation (if it is an effect, and I cannot find any information to confirm or deny, it is definitely, upsettingly realistic) and Bergen’s screeching protests will immediately put off most audience members; even those who had gradually been introduced to this Violent New Western Order with films like The Good The Bad & The Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966) and The Wild Bunch (Sam Pechinpah, 1969).  Yes, The 1970s Are Here and The Western would never be the same again.  And as actor LQ Jones states after he’s been whupped by Olver Reed, “I like being kicked” and if you’re going to enjoy The Hunting Party I think you have to share in that sentiment.

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The Mercenary (il Mercenario) [Review]

The Western is one of my most unfamiliar genres of film, I have seen a few, mostly modern, but none the less have enjoyed what little I have invested into this vast spectrum of movie watching. A personal interest in the Spaghetti Western more specifically has been present since I discovered the incredible music of Ennio Morricone, and traced the specific tracks that Quentin Tarantino incorporated into his Kill Bill, and most recently Inglourious Basterds films. Unfortunately over the past few years I haven’t really tried my hand at too many. In fact I can shamefully admit that the only Spaghetti Western I had ever watched was The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The Mercenary (Il mercenario) marks the second entry I have made into this amazing genre, and I have to say, I LOVED it!

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The Outrage [Review]

1964, the same year that saw Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (1961) unofficially remade as Sergio Leone’s desert bleached macaroni Western A Fistful of Dollars, also saw his classic truthbender Rashomon (1950) transformed into the very earnest oater The Outrage (Martin Ritt).  And this was actually the second time an America director had tackled the material, the first being Sidney Lumet who four years previous filmed a stage production for the syndicated anthology show, Play of the Week (in which Ricardo Montalban played The Bandit!).  Plus, no one can forget The Magnificent Seven (1960), John Sturges’ shockingly entertaining adaptation of Kurosawa’s ultimate epic Seven Samurai.  Obviously, stories depicting the trials and troubles of wandering samurai fit snugly into our American mythology of White Hat/Black Hat gunslingers, and Hollywood had nearly twenty years where they could thieve freely from across borders, feeding ignorant audiences well-crafted scripts draped in safe, celebrity faces.

However, where A Fistful of Dollars and The Magnificent Seven continue to find new audiences, The Outrage has remained nearly forgotten, having only recently been released on DVD in the last two years as part of Warner Brothers’ mammoth Paul Newman collection.  Now, I could not possibly attempt to convince you that The Outrage is the superior Kurosawa Western remake—it most certainly is not—but Martin Ritt’s film does hold tremendous value for those Kurosawa & Western fanboy completests out there, and if you are reading this website than you are most certainly classified as one of those most wonderful eccentrics.

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My Week with Marilyn [Review]

I went into My Week with Marilyn with very little knowledge about the source material. I know very little about Marilyn Monroe aside from what I have seen depicted in other films, and shows. And what little I have read or heard about her over the years. I have never seen any other her films, and have seen very little actual archival footage or  interviews. I was walking into a learning experience, something I often like to do. Watching a biographical film on a topic I know very little about can be very entertaining and enlightening.  This was a little different, this is not a biographical telling of the life of a tragic screen goddess, it’s a story of a young man’s brief brush with greatness, a week that would change his life forever.

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Dazed And Confused: The Criterion Collection 35th Anniversary release [Review]

It’s the first day of summer as three to-be high school seniors drive around aimlessly with nothing to do but question the meaning of life.  “But what are we preparing ourselves for?” asks Cynthia, played by Marissa Ribisi, in Richard Linklater’s 1993 cult classic Dazed and Confused.  “Death,” Mike (Adam Goldberg) instantly responds.  So why not enjoy ourselves now, in the moment, before we reach that inevitable end?  At least, that’s a message writer and director Linklater appears to relay.

 Dazed and Confused has always been one of my favorite films.  To this day, I get goose bumps every time Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion” kicks on and that sweet orange 1970 Pontiac GTO cruises across the screen in the opening shot.  The entire mixture of cast, music, heat, and beer makes this film a fine coming-of-age story colored by wit and nostalgia. … Continue Reading

The Ox-Bow Incident [Review]

“This Is A Fine Company For A Man To Die With.” – Anthony Quinn

Filmed while Henry Fonda was under 20^th Century Fox’s thumb, and during a long stretch of films of perceived low quality, The Ox-Bow Incident (William Wellman, 1943) was seen as a personal highlight for the well established heroic leading man of John Ford’s America (Young Mr. Lincoln, Drums Along The Mohawk, The Grapes of Wrath).  Based on the critically acclaimed novel by William Van Tilburg Clark, the film was the last one to ever be nominated solely for Best Picture, and respectively lost to Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1943).  It sat on the shelf for over a year while Fox tried desperately to discover its marketing strategy, but it’s still doubtful that this dark, brooding non-Western would have taken home the previous year’s Oscar when the country was entrenched in buying War Bonds.  The war-time romance of Bogie & Bacall and William Wyler’s good, little war wife Mrs. Miniver were the appropriate crowd pleasers of the era.  All The Ox-Bow Incident has to offer is depressing heaps of cynicism and anger.

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The King of Comedy

Robert De Niro plays one of his best roles to date when he portrays Rupert Pupkin, a somewhat unstable wannabe superstar who seeks nothing more than to be his living icon Jerry Langford (played by Jerry Lewis). His whole life he has followed, and idolized this Jonny Carson type comedian and late night talk show host, and now feels his time has come, and he must take his shot at super stardom by appearing on the Jerry Langford show. His determination to achieve this celebrity status escalates rapidly.

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