ra-kamal Reviews

Night Passage (1957)

Lacking Depth in Drama

[7/10 · 17 July 2022]

A Western starring James Stewart, Audie Murphy, Dan Duryea, and Brandon De Wilde (yes, the kid in "Shane").

Stewart and Murphy are brothers on opposite sides of the law. Stewart is a fired railroad employee. Murphy is the "Utica Kid", an outlaw who collaborates with a gang that keeps robbing the railroad payroll.

The railroad boss entrusts Stewart with a $10,000 dollar payroll to hand carry in cash on the railroad, to disgruntled unpaid workers down the line. Duryea's gang intercepts the train, but they don't find the cash. Unbeknownst to them, Stewart has stacked it away in a shoebox carried by De Wilde (14 years old when the movie was made in 1956).

Stewart is pistol-whipped and left in the brush as the gang retreats to its cabin hideout taking with them the boy and his shoebox. Stewart recovers and tracks them to their cabin.

Fast-moving action-packed movie that climaxes in a long gunfight during which Murphy changes sides and ends up dying in the arms of his brother.

I was told by a knowledgeable friend that I would like this movie. Well, I wasn't overly impressed, but I didn't dislike it either. In fact, it is currently rated 6.6 on IMDb, and I gave it a 7.

The four stars performed well, but Murphy doesn't show up until 35 minutes into the movie. His performance comes nowhere near his performances in "No Name on the Bullet" and in "The Red Badge of Courage".

The script failed to capitalize on the four stars by developing greater depth in drama, especially between the two brothers. Even the Murphy death scene was too nonchalant. De Wilde's role could have also been better developed. There was no umph in the acting, except perhaps in that of Duryea.

The musical score was developed by the famous Dimitri Tiomkin who also co-wrote the three songs that Stewart sings on an accordion.

The setting was in Colorado along the narrow gauge Denver to Rio Grande railroad segment between Durango and Silverton; awarding the viewers with breathtaking forested mountain scenery.

Perhaps the movie's greatest claim to fame is that it was the first feature film in the U. S. produced in the Technirama widescreen process, developed by the Technicolor Corporation.

The Road (III) (2011)

Filipino Horror that Blurs the Line between the Psychopathic Killer and the Supernatural

[7/10 · 11 July 2022]

A Filipino horror crime thriller that blurs the boundary between slasher killer and the supernatural subgenres. Directed and co-written by Yam Laranas. The two lead stars were Carmina Villarreal and Marvin Agustin.

The movie unfolds in three parts going backwards in time.

It opens in 2008, with the promotion of a cop, who is besieged by a woman to help find her two young daughters, who vanished 10 years earlier, along with a boy. The cop's commander urges him to solve the case.

The story flashes back to 1998, and then 1988, as it unravels who is doing what to whom - and why.

In Part I, three adolescents get lost on a deserted country road and encounter a driverless car and apparitions including that of a bloodied woman with a plastic bag tied around her head, a motif that Is repeated throughout.

In Part II, the two lost girls we are told about in Part I, break down on the same road, and are lured into sequestration by a passing country boy. The boy locks them up in separate rooms in a dilapidated house, chaining one of them up, and mercilessly beating up the second.

Part III explores the boy's childhood, as he is brought up in isolation by a disturbed mother who psychologically and physically abuses him, and a suicidal religious father unable to protect his son.

At the very end of the movie, the link between the cop and the boy, is revealed.

My major issue with the movie is Part I, where after the cop promotion ceremony, the screen is plunged into around 25 minutes of gloomy foggy darkness of an unlit country road, with apparitions of bloodied girls and driverless cars popping up here and there. I struggled to make sense of who is whom, and what is truly happening and why, as the scenes abruptly shift from long shots to close-ups, from scene to scene, from angle to angle. Moreover, the darkness made it difficult to easily pinpoint the film's subgenre; i.e. Killer slasher horror vs supernatural horror. Better editing could have helped. The moviegoer shouldn't be asked to struggle with determining a subgenre.

It is only when Part I comes to a close that the screen lightens up and the moviegoer can sit back and follow events with minimal confusion.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)

Too Slow

[6/10 · 9 July 2022]

An adventure romance drama based on the 1936 short novel with the same title by Ernest Hemingway (1856-1925).

The film starred Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward and Eva Gardner.

A writer, Harry Street, feverishly reflects on his life failures, as he lies dying at a campsite in the shadow of Kilimanjaro, from an infected thorn prick in the leg, while on safari. Caring for him is his wife Helen (Susan Hayward).

Through his delirium, Harry reflects on Cynthia (Ava Gardner) who is no longer alive. Harry had lost Cynthia as a result of his obsession to roam the world in search of stories to write about.

Harry's on and off delirium plays out on the screen in flashbacks that take the moviegoers to Spain, Italy, France, and Africa. His devoted wife Helen listens to Harry's rants and endures his talk of lost romances (it wasn't only Cynthia) as she stubbornly nurses and watches over him, and tries to instill in him the resolve to fight his illness. She even drains the swelling on his leg with a knife which likely saved him from dying until help arrives.

The cinematography and the music score were great as would be expected from a studio movie set in Africa.

The acting was also good, but the script was very abrupt and melodramatic at times. The flashbacks failed to properly develop exciting subplots. Consequently, the entire movie comes across as rather slow and flat. It falls way below expectations. I rate it a 6. It is on YouTube.

The film was the 3rd highest grossing movie of 1952.

King Solomon's Mines (1950)

Very Captivating Motion Picture

[8/10 · 9 July 2022]

A classic adventure romance based on an 1885 novel with the same title by Sir H. Rider Haggard (1856-1925).

The film starred Deborah Kerr (as Elizabeth) and Stewart Granger (as Allan), in his first American film.

Allan is a professional guide in Africa. As he is contemplating wrapping it all up and returning to England, he is hired by Elizabeth and her brother to guide them on a dangerous expedition into uncharted Africa to find her husband who had disappeared a few years earlier. They have a rudimentary map of the route that the lost man had taken.

The trek into the heart of Africa takes them through jungle, across savannas, across a stretch of desert and into a mountainous region. Their voyage is challenged at every turn as they encounter furious elephants, rhinos, and hippopotami; alligators; snakes; a giant spider; a stampede; cannibals; an evil white renegade in hiding; and more. They also walk into the midst of an inter-tribal power struggle.

Along the way, Allan discovers that the lost husband had been searching for a treasure trove of diamonds purported to have been King Solomon's mine.

The movie was filmed in Kenya, Tanzania, The Congo, and Uganda. The mountain scenes were filmed at Mt. Kenya (17,000 ft.). Underground cavern scenes were filmed in the Carlsbad Caverns of New Mexico. Desert scenes were filmed at the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico and in California's Death Valley.

The film provided an in-depth look at indigenous people and their villages; and included an impressive "Lion Dance". All extras were native tribal Africans.

No surprise that the movie picked up an Oscar Award for Best Cinematography and a second one for the editing that brought it all together.

The movie was the highest grossing US film in 1950.

Istanbul (1957)

Yet Another "Casablanca" Wannabe

[7/10 · 5 July 2022]

I critically watched the 1942 super classic "Casablanca" (8.5 on IMDb), and the immemorable 1953 "Flight to Tangier" (5.3 on IMDb); so why not a film highlighting Istanbul?

I expected a flop ala "Flight to Tangier". I was pleasantly surprised.

One of the chief element of the success of "Casablanca" was the star (Humphrey Bogart) painfully, but pragmatically, sacrificing his love (Ingrid Bergman) to another man. Audiences respond favorably to romance dramas with hurt in the endings. You release your love so that she can survive and safely move on. Another example lies in the 1942 super classic "For Whom the Bell Tolls" with Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman. The 1952 super classic "Shane" is yet another example, where the star basically takes on the hurt to save others.

"Istanbul" attempts to do this, but this time with a supporting actor turning over the heroine (Cornell Borchers) back to her original love (Errol Flynn). But, how do we even get there? No spoilers here. Watch it (it's on YouTube) and see what you think.

You will undoubtedly pick up a host of other elements borrowed from "Casablanca", including a cafe that anchors everything together, a Black American piano player (played by Nat King Cole himself - he sings "When I Fall in Love"), and a friendly police officer closely following the events as they unfold. Baddies and diamond smuggling are thrown in for the thrill factor.

Fairly good entertainment for an evening.

Errol Flynn would pass away at the young age of 50, two years after the film was released. I could sense that Flynn came across as sort of tired. To me he looked prematurely aged. See what you think.

Lionheart (1990)

The "Rocky" of Streetfighting

[7/10 · 2 July 2022]

Lyon (1990) (alternately titled: Lionheart)

Between 1979-2022, Jean-Claude Van Damme of martial arts fame, appeared in 76 feature films. In the early 1990s I watched a few of his films on rented VHS tapes. Nothing memorable. Good for an afternoon of nothingness.

Very recently I watched this film because I am interested in learning how the French Foreign Legion (FFL) and natives in the Sahara Desert have been depicted by Hollywood on the big screen.

This film starts off in LA where the brother of our hero, Lyon, is badly injured in a botched up drug deal and is screaming for Lyon from his hospital bed. The movie then shifts to a FFL base in the small Arab country of Djibouti, where Lyon is based. The base commander refuses to allow Lyon a leave, so he makes a spectacular escape and stows away on a ship departing Djibouti. Two other legionnaires in civvies are on his trail with orders to recapture him.

That's all we see of Africa. Only minutes.

After a long voyage our hero makes it to the USA, where most of the film's events play out.

The injured brother perishes before Lyon can get to LA, leaving behind a widow (Deborah Rennard) and a little daughter. The widow is furious that Lyon did not make it to LA before his brother died and wants nothing to do with him although her debts are piling up.

Lyon decides to earn money in no-holds-barred bare-knuckle street fighting and send it to his brother's widow. Lyon starts with small fry opponents and as his wins pile up his fame as a fighter grows. In the meantime he picks up a Black manager (Harrison Page). His opponents get tougher and tougher and his fights harder and harder; climaxing into being pitted against a brute of a man while nursing a bruised rib. Same basic formula used in "Rocky" (1976) and "The Karate Kid" (1984). The ending is a happy ending with Lyon winning the big showdown, reconciling with his brother's widow, and settling in with her and her daughter in LA. The two legionnaires on his trail witness Lyon's heroics and decide that he earned his freedom from the clutches of the FFL.

The movie is action-packed and fast-moving. The fight scenes were well done. In fact, the entire production was a quality one; including acting, the sets, and cinematography. Certainly not a B-movie. In fact, it was a $6 million project that brought in over $7 million on its first weekend of release.

Flight to Tangier (1953)

"Casablanca" wanna-be

[5/10 · 30 June 2022]

The resounding success of "Casablanca" (1942), brought about an avalanche of movies hoping to capitalize on the elements of its success.

For an exotic location, Casablanca was already taken, but Tangier would do. Great, a caper in Tangier, with international tentacles; an American star (Jack Palance) and his girl (Joan Fontaine); a bunch of non-native baddies; and the French police lurking in the background.

The movie was written and directed by Charles Marquis Warren (helped develop "Rawhide" and "Gunsmoke" for TV).

I won't get into the plot. You can look it up or simply watch the film on YouTube. Warren must have had quite an imagination, because the narrative was not too bad. The problem with the movie was in the execution. Palance fell flat as a romantic lead. The script was flimsy. Direction failed to bring out the best in Fontaine and in the key supporting cast. What we got was a rather dull and boring film. The drama came across as superficial and was not very convincing, so the thriller effect does not come across as it could have.

I watched this movie to discover how Arabs were portrayed, but there was not much depiction of the natives. The movie was not interested in the natives. Tangier was just a stage and even then, much of the events take place outside the city proper.

The movie was shot in its entirety at Paramount studies. The studio created quite a sophisticated replica of the narrow streets of Tangier, complete with costumed extras walking back and forth, and donkey-driven carts.

The greatest claim to fame for the film m, however, was that it was the second of only two 3D films shot in Technicolor.

The film is rated 5.3 on IMDb.

For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)

An Epic Motion Picture

[9/10 · 25 June 2022]

A memorable war romance with Gary Cooper (as Robert Jordan) and Ingrid Bergman (as Maria).

The movie stays fairly honest to the 1940 Ernest Hemingway classic with the same title, inspired by his experiences during the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War; when thousands of volunteers from the USA and Europe converged on Spain to volunteer to fight for the Republic against Fascism.

Robert is an American demolitions volunteer tasked with blowing up a bridge over a steep gorge in the buildup for an upcoming offensive by the Republic. Towards this end, he is holed up in a mountain cave hideout with a motley crew of irregulars led by Pablo (played by Akim Tamiroff) and his wife Pilar (played by Katina Paxinou). In the cave hideout, Robert meets Maria, a young woman prisoner who had escaped from a sabotaged Nationalist train.

Ingrid Bergman was brilliant and again proved that she is unmatched in her ability to adapt her facial features to fit difficult character emotions. Please watch the final scene very very carefully. A touching scene portrayed with pure brilliance. Bravo!

This is another of the rare breed of movies where the supporting and secondary actors performed so well, that they become an important factor in lifting a film to the top of the charts of the best classic movies ever released. In fact this film's Oscar Award, was awarded to Katina Paxinou for Best Supporting Actress; and Akim Tamiroff picked up a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.

A Hemingway novel, two top tier lead stars, plus outstanding performances by supporting actors.

The sets, costumes, and props were flawless. Cinematography was beautiful. Mountain scenes were filmed in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains.

I could watch this film many times over. Well, I have!

If you've missed this movie you may not qualify as a true movie connoisseur.

Legionnaire (1998)

Van Damme Shined

[8/10 · 22 June 2022]

An adventure war movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme of martial arts fame.

Movie is set in 1925 where our star is Alain, a French boxer, who is asked by a mobster to throw a fight.

Alain and his ex-fiancée Katrina, who is now the mobster's girl, hatch a plan to run off to America together right after the match.

Alain defeats his opponent. In a botched up escape attempt, Alain's brother is killed, Katrina is captured, and Alain kills the mobster's brother.

Alain flees into a French Foreign Legion (FFL) office, and signs up. He is shipped to Morocco, where the French are fighting against a tough Berber rebellion led by Abdelkarim AlKhatabi (The Rif War 1920-27).

Alain makes friends in the FFL, with Luther, an African American fleeing injustice in the US; Mackintosh, a former British Army Major who was dishonorably discharged due to a gambling problem; and Guido, an Italian who wishes to impress his fiancée by returning as a hero.

Life in the FFL is grueling and involves endless marches across arid landscapes.

After marching for days to reinforce a remote fort, the troop arrives at a waterhole, where they repel an attack, but suffer heavy losses. Among the dead is Guido who fought like a hero. The survivors make it to the fort.

Meanwhile, the mobster sends 2 thugs into the FFL, to find and kill Alain. They end up in the same fort. Mackintosh also reveals that he had been sent to kill Alain as part of a deal to reimburse his father, who was left penniless due to gambling debts.

The commandant sends Luther on a mission to infiltrate the natives' camp. The rebels discover Luther's ploy and take him back to the fort where he is mistreated outside the walls. Alain shoots Luther to spare him further mistreatment.

The Berbers attack the fort and capture it in an epic battle. As one of the mobster's thugs is about to kill Alain, he gets shot down by Mackintosh, who then reveals that Katrina has managed to escape from the mobster, and is already in America. Alain, as a token of appreciation, gives him a single bullet so that he can commit a merciful suicide. As the battle draws to an end, Alain is the only legionnaire standing. AlKhatabi himself recognizes Alain's courage and allows him to live to tell his superiors what awaits them if they continue the colonization.

On 2 occasions, audiences hear that the rebels are natives fighting for their own land, which is rarely made clear in FFL films The entire movie was filmed in Morocco and we are exposed to some beautiful cinematography.

The battle scenes were outstanding, by far, the best I've seen in dozens of FFL movies.

Hollywood is still confused about who were Arabs and who were Berbers. The movie sometimes names the rebels as one, sometimes as the other. The rebellion was a Berber uprising, but AlKhatabi was not one to think Berber vs Arab; in fact he understood and sympathized with Arab Nationalism.

Van Damme does a minimal of man-on-man fighting and no martial arts, and shows that he can hold his own as an actor. Some critics say that this was his best movie performance. Interestingly, his co-stars also put on a good show. Kudos to Director Peter MacDonald.

The movie never made it to theaters and went directly to DVD. It is currently rated a 5.4 on IMDb. I gave it an 8. It is available on YouTube.

Hustle (2022)

Falls short of expectations

[5/10 · 17 June 2022]

When we think of Adam Sandler, we think comedian. His movies tend to be likable, but not very memorable. His style of comedy; a dry urban sarcastic humor; touches a chord with middle class audiences, but only for an afternoon or an evening, before being washed off into the rarely visited section of our cerebral storage cells.

Sandler shares membership in this subgenre of comedy with the likes of Ben Stiller and Hugh Grant. In my book, Ben Stiller is the best of the trio because he is a master of displaying face language to augment humor that depicts a confused person overtaken by a series of bungled events.

This movie is more of a family drama than a comedy. A few of Sandler's one liners were funny, but only a few. I chuckled only once. This is not to say that Sandler is incapable of drama. Not at all. He is an accomplished actor who can hold his own in perhaps any genre. But, this movie, a Netflix production, defeats our expectations. The name Adam Sandler drew me to my TV set. I was ready for a pleasant enjoyable evening of forgettable comedy. Instead I got a family drama that will surely excite boys aged 8-15, but that's it.

The story line? I'll give you a hint; think of the Rocky Bilboa story rewritten for a basketball recruit who finally makes it to the top after a few ups and downs. Moreover, both sagas take place in Philadelphia. The difference being, in 1976, Rocky took the movie world by storm. This movie will not.

Comedy fans are still waiting for the BIG comedy from Adam Sandler.

A Very Special Love (2008)

A Predictable Ending from the Onset, but Keeps You Glued to the Screen

[8/10 · 26 May 2022]

A Filipino comedy romance film starring John Lloyd Cruz and Sarah Geronimo. The film was directed by Cathy Garcia Molina.

Geronimo plays a cute young woman who lands the job of Editorial Assistant to a young handsome, but tyrannical boss played by Cruz, who runs "Bachelor", a magazine for men. Our editor gets more tyrannical and insensitive to the feelings of his staff as he is pressured by his corporate bosses to come up with a winning anniversary edition of the magazine, or lose his job.

To complicate matters, our young editor is the illegitimate son of the magnate of the publishing house that owns "Bachelor", whose legal son is also an executive director. The character played by Cruz, was adopted into the upper crust family when his mother died. He continues to visit her grave.

The young new hire editorial assistant succeeds during the duration of the movie, in breaking down her bosses hard-nosed attitudes and helps him discover his concealed sensitivities.

This story formula has been told countless times on the big stream in every corner of the world.

Surprisingly, however, this 105-minute long film grabs your attention from start to finish, albeit with the ending being predicted from minute 5. Not an easy job for moviemakers.

Geronimo and Cruz very convincingly perform a series of rollercoaster emotions that fluctuate from sadness to romance to glee; and back again. Good actors with a strong screen presence.

Carry on Follow That Camel (1967)

Comedy Gone Flat

[4/10 · 26 May 2022]

Follow That Camel (1967)

This was the 14th film in the "Carry On ..." series (franchise) of 31 British comedy films that were produced between 1958-1978, and once again, in 1992. "Carry On Up the Khyber" (1968) is generally considered the best of them all. "Follow That Camel" is commonly ranked 14th to 16th. It is the only one of the series that starred an American actor, Phil Silvers.

An aristocrat (played by Jim Dale) decides that joining the French Foreign Legion (FFL) is the only way to redeem his honor after lying during a polo game altercation. His valet signs up with his master. His promiscuous lady love follows him to North Africa and ends up in the Shaikh's harem. The sergeant (Silvers) treats them well because they have discovered that he is secretly a womanizer at the local cabaret. An evil Arab Shaikh (Bernard Bresslaw) and his evil cronies use a belly dancer to kidnap the two of them and take them to a desert encampment. Anita Harris performs a notable belly dance. Bresslaw was the best actor in this film. The rest of the film is the attempts of the four captives (joined by the valet) to escape and save the fort from imminent attack.

It had been over 40 years of FFL movies, and Western moviemakers continued to think that the Riffians were Arabs! The garb is also wrong. For headdress, the costume people used the modern kufiyyeh of Eastern Arabs, mainly with the Palestinian black-lined, white, head scarf! It took Harris three weeks to learn belly dancing. It would have taken the costumes people 30 minutes to discover the correct headdress.

Overall, the "Carry On ...." series was good British comedy that paved the way for Benny Hill, Monty Python, and John Cleese going solo. A type of comedy that combines bawdy sexual innuendo; with one-liners and a play on words; with a pinch of neo-slapstick; all wrapped in satirical parody. When well-executed, British comedy is simply hilarious. This specific film was flat. Not really funny. Silvers was not funny. The material was simply not there. It's as if the writers wrote the script in two evenings over dinner. Twice I had to pause my watching only to find out that it took me days to pick up where I had left off. Once I started watching "Carry On Up The Khyber" instead.

Finding Agnes (2020)

Misunderstood Social Drama

[8/10 · 19 May 2022]

Finding Agnes (2020)

A moving Filipino drama that addresses key social issues that will surely resonate with many of the millions of Filipino overseas workers.

The serious issue of wife-battering and how it can destroy families is well highlighted.

To escape abuse, a woman (Sandy Andolong) leaves her husband and her young son and finds refuge in Morocco, with a dissident Filipino couple. Over a 25-year period she heals, helps other women in distress, and becomes an owner of a beautiful bed and breakfast pension. All this time she has written letters to her son at the rate of one a month. The boy's father orders that the letters not be delivered to the boy. They are collected and saved by his aunt.

The boy grows up to become a prosperous businessman (Jelson Bay).

His mother's health deteriorates so she flies back to Manila to reconnect with her son whom she hasn't heard from for 25 years. Soon after they reconnect, she dies of a stroke. Her son takes delivery from his aunt of a big box containing the unopened letters from his mother.

The mother had willed that her ashes be returned to Morocco and given to her adopted daughter (Sue Ramirez).

The son takes the urn holding his mother's ashes to Morocco where he meets her adopted daughter. With her help he pieces together his mother's story in Morocco, and more importantly discovers why she had to flee her country. Very touching journey.

Very scenic and colorful scenery in Morocco. Beautiful Arabic music and song punctuate the film. Fairly good acting. Bay successfully portrays the wooden businessman rediscovering buried emotions. Ramirez successfully portrays a young woman trying to reconcile rapidly unfolding events.

To date, it is rated a weak 4.9 on IMDb. From the reviewer comments, it is obvious that some of them have not properly dwelled into the intricacies of the movie. Available on Netflix.

The Shootist (1976)

This movie is a candidate for John Wayne's best Western ever

[9/10 · 11 February 2022]

This may surprise many readers, but I believe that this movie is a strong candidate to be John Wayne's best Western ever, and one of the top dozen Westerns of all time. I will tell you why.

An aging and dying gunfighter (John Wayne) rides into town and takes a room in a lodge run by a widower (played by Lauren Bacall), where he hopes to die in bed. He bonds well with both the widower's teen son (played by Ron Howard) and his mother. His physician is played by James Stewart. Before long, bad men realize who is in town and are eager to take him on. One of the bad men is played by Richard Boone (of the TV series "Have Gun Will Travel").

Western tell us that gunfighters, the good violence, can not fit back into civility? In this movie, even a dying elderly gunfighter cannot find peace in his last days. The town already has horse-drawn rail trams, turn of the century cars, crank handle phones, and the sheriff (played by Harrry Morgan of the TV series M*A*S*H) wears a necktie. No peace for an old gunfighter in a fast-modernizing world.

Around 85% of the story takes place in the lodging house and in the saloon (where occurs one of the best climatic gunfights you will ever see). Not easy to create any good movie whose narrative is so contained, much less a Western.

Director Don Siegel did a fantastic job. In 100 minutes he ingeniously encapsulated the story of the predicament of the gunfighter in the West. Not in a B Western, but in a star-studded classic befitting to be John Wayne's cinematic farewell.

In the movie, our hero remains a hero under all odds, and goes out a dignified hero. Much like how the colossal John Wayne passed away 3 years after the film was released.

Every time I watch the movie, it touches me like few Westerns could. It is full of meaning. A powerful movie. I rate it a solid 9.

The Naked Dawn (1955)

Different from the run of the mill western movie

[8/10 · 25 November 2016]

A compelling movie of a different kind. When a low budget movie that was filmed in 10 days with very few characters, markedly rivets ones attention, that is a telltale sign of a a good and unusual production. The attire and settings were very convincing. The three leading characters all portrayed Hispanics extremely unusual for a 1950s western. The acting/directing was very good. The movie discusses female servitude/abuse; and the lure of money and its impact on ones loyalty, profession, and romantic decisions. With few characters and a low budget, the movie project took the very little and turned into quite an interesting and believable flick, of a different kind, that found time to examine core aspects of human behavior. In the same general genre as For Whom the Bell Tolls, but yet so different. Wow!!

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

The king of the spaghetti western subgenre of western feature films

[9/10 · 30 September 2014]

The king of the spaghetti westerns, though not the first. The credit for first spaghetti western can be claimed by Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958), a western comedy filmed in Spain. A Fistful of Dollars took western movie audiences by storm and catapulted spaghetti westerns onto the international scene as a serious and recognized western subgenre contender. Dozens of spaghetti westerns followed A Fistful of Dollars trying to capitalize on an emerging fascination with this subgenre.

Spaghetti westerns, a subgenre of western feature films, were movies produced and filmed in Europe particularly in Italy, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom. One of the main characteristics of spaghetti westerns is a hero with unrealistic super gun skills. In a gunfight in an early scene of A Fistful of Dollars, Clint Eastwood shoots dead four villains spread apart by fifteen yards, in under two seconds. Throw in two additional ingredients: back and forth close-up facial shots and unique soundtrack music in the anteceding buildup to the spaghetti western gunfights; and we have scenes that audiences took in with delightful relish. The music was commonly variations of unusual mixtures of sounds including horse clip-clop beats, the snaps of whips, weary harmonica trills; not sparing timely introductions of trumpet sounds, guitar acoustics, cymbals, trombones, flutes, violins, piano and human Ahhs. One internet reviewer writing under the name, Jack Rabid, described the effect of the A Fistful of Dollars soundtrack as: "...It's all pretty prairie, rolling hills, grasslands and cattle, wagon wheels, and unshaven men with uncertain life spans. It's so mood- setting, you expect to see cactus or bison outside your door instead of an asphalt city. It's instrumental music that's a veritable co-star in a motion picture, not a pack of pre-recorded hit songs all wedged into a film like large square pegs into tiny round holes. This is authentic film scoring, and it is as alluring and inviting as Leone's movie itself. You can see it just to hear this."

Spaghetti westerns typically included European directors, crews and actors and one or two fading or rising American actors. Hundreds of spaghetti westerns were produced between 1960-1980, but the popularity of spaghetti westerns was on the wane by the early 1970s. Spaghetti westerns were a passing subgenre fad much like the disco music subgenre of rock and roll. A Fistful of Dollars, a box office success, became the model that was copied over and over again as in releases like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), For a Few Dollars More (1965), Django (1966), and many others.

The emergence of spaghetti westerns in the mid 1960s was considered by some critics as a farcical response to the western movie genre. But, unlike the first known spaghetti western, Sheriff of Fractured Jaw, which was meant to be a comedy, most other spaghetti westerns, including A Fistful of Dollars, were not comedies. In fact they were rife with killings, bloody fistfights, torture scenes, doses of raunchiness and naturally, mind-blowing gunfights.

High Noon (1952)

A Superclassic

[9/10 · 29 September 2014]

A super classic in more ways than one. The movie can be classified as a western thriller with a suspenseful story told in nearly real time; a useful tool to engage audiences. The movie shows several signs of having been meticulously and most skillfully crafted. It is bewildering that it was not awarded an award for best director. Most of the supporting actors were clearly directed to deliver their parts at high standards with the cameras obliging with appropriate close-ups. The director utilized angle shots and shading to deliver required effects. One is left with the impression that every actor was purposely allowed to demonstrate his or her full potential.

Our hero (Gary Cooper) the town marshal has just retired and is preparing to leave town with his newlywed wife (Grace Kelly), a Quaker pacifist, to become a shopkeeper elsewhere. Not far out of town, he elects to turn back to face an ex-con (Ian MacDonald) and three cohorts (including Lee van Cleef) who are about to arrive in town to hunt him down. Nobody in town offers to help him including the deputy (Lloyd Bridges), the judge (Otto Kruger), a friend (Henry Morgan) and the entire church congregation. In fact some prepare to leave town including our hero's former mistress and hotel owner (Katy Jurado). In the end our hero is left to face the hunters alone. The climatic gunfight is seven minutes long as the fighters battle around about the town. As the gunfight starts, our hero's wife, who was one of those who initially decided to skip town, gets off the train that was to take her away from it all and runs back into town concerned about her husband. Our hero kills two of the gang, his wife shoots a third from behind and in the final scene of the gunfight, she claws at the gang's leaders face allowing her husband, who was about to surrender, an opening to shoot and kill the last bad man. The last scene of the film shows the marshal throwing his star in the dirt at the feet of the cowardly townsfolk who abandoned him, climbing into his buggy and driving off with his wife. The marshal was the hero of the movie and did "...what a man must do", but the biggest departure from our typical western gunfights is the wife who stood by her man and in doing so, was instrumental in turning the tide against the bad guys.

The opening titles of the movie were accompanied by a catchy ballad, Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin', sung by country singer Tex Ritter. The ballad, which became a chart hit, foretells the lead up to the story of the film about to unfold.

High Noon was subject to decades of movie-bashing by Hollywood rightwingers because it was conceived by Carl Foreman, a communist in the McCarthy era. The bashers, who included John Wayne, considered the abandonment of the hero by the townsfolk an allegory to Hollywood workers abandoning their colleagues who were caught in the communist witch hunt web. It was detestable, the bashers argued, that the hero would go around town begging support and to be saved in the end by a woman. It appears, however, that Foreman had the last laugh. High Noon rose quickly to become a superclassic rising high over thousands of Hollywood productions before and since.

Shane (1953)

One of Hollywood's most powerful productions

[9/10 · 28 September 2014]

A powerful movie that significantly raised the bar for western movie productions until the emergence of the spaghetti westerns ten years later. A common western film theme of the skilled gunfighter (Alan Ladd as Shane) trying hard to steer away from his violent past; in this case finding solace in settling in with a homesteading family. But, evil comes a calling and the gunfighter is forced back to his gun to save his adopted family from evil land-grabbers who up the ante by hiring a professional gunfighter (Jack Palance). The theme itself is far from unusual for western movies. The difference in this production was the clever way the storyline was shrouded in mysteries. Mysteries that make the viewer think and think and think. One measure of a successful movie production, in fact, is its ability to keep the viewer thinking about what he or she saw, many weeks, months or even years later. Did the homesteader's wife (Jean Arthur) fall for our hero? Did her son (Brandon De Wilde) admire our hero more than he did his farmer father (Van Heflin)? The ending was the most intriguing puzzle of them all; does Shane ride off wounded into the night to die alone or is he off to simply rejoin the ways of the gunfighter in realization that it is not possible to escape being a gunfighter and simply reenter the productive hardworking civilian family life. In support of the first case scenario the production has the hero gliding through a graveyard as he rides out of the movie into the night slightly slumped and nursing a stiffened wounded arm. The second scenario is supported by a handful of innuendos sprinkled throughout the movie about the endless fate of gunfighters to remain part of that violent subculture, unable to simply revert into a peaceful profession.

The boy's admiration for the hero, best illustrated in his desperate cries for Shane to come back, as the hero rides out of the movie into the night, touched the hearts of a whole generation of young boys growing up in the 50s and 60s becoming one of the movie industry's most iconic scenes ever. Whether the boy's cries are interpreted as cries for a departing security screen or as cries from a broken heart; coming of age boys learned that as you admired your father, it was also perfectly permissible to simultaneously idolize an alter hero role model as portrayed by the mysterious savior riding out of the mist to sacrificially face up to evil that threatens the order of which you are a part of.

The breathtaking majestic mountain scenery of the blue-gray Grand Tetons in Wyoming as backdrop was a valuable addition to the Shane story adding an ingredient of natural awe to the unfolding subplots of the storyline. The theme song of the film "The Call of the Faraway Hills" parallels the backdrop of the entire story. The hero image is cleverly played up in the production as the camera tracks our hero's long horseback trot at dusk into town for the climatic showdown, with the soundtrack accentuating the image of the lone hero riding back into the life that he had failed to shed. The power of this movie is its ability to glorify the gunfighter as it wraps him in pathos.

The Proud Rebel (1958)

A classic rendering with many interesting ingredients

[8/10 · 25 September 2014]

The boy, David, is the focal point of this movie. The movie had a resounding impact on young boys coming of age in the late 50s and into the 60s. Its powerful impact at the time is what made it a successful movie. The many emotional ups and downs throughout the movie dealt with a wide variety of issues faced by a devoted war veteran father from the south, trying hard to steer away from violence as he travels the Midwest seeking medical resolution to his traumatized son who had been struck by aphasia after witnessing his mother's burning death in a Civil War atrocity . Some of the issues viewers are exposed to include the tragedies during and after the Civil War, the western range wars, the disenfranchisement of the southerners, an evil rancher and his evil sons, a frontier love story, and a son-dog-father saga. The traumatized boy-cum-hero is superbly portrayed by child actor, David Ladd, who becomes the film's hero at the climatic gunfight at the end of the movie, saving his father, reuniting with his dog and regaining his voice. The developing love story between the father portrayed by the ever stoic and stiff Alan Ladd and the widower farmer portrayed by Olivia de Havilland, takes second stage to the tear-jerking scenes superbly portrayed by the boy in two scenes: when he learns that his father had sold his dog, and when he regains his ability to speak at the end of the movie. A well-crafted movie and an outstanding performance by David Ladd who was eleven years old when the film was released.

The theme of the skilled gunfighter trying to lead a gun-free productive civilian life but is thwarted and forced back to his firearm to right an injustice, is a theme that recurs numerous times in western movies. In fact, this theme is quite common in the most successful of westerns including this movie, Shane and High Noon. The overriding message of this genre of movies is: if you are unjustly treated (justice commonly portrayed as inept or corrupt), then you may take up arms and take justice into your own hands, even if it means killing others. The hero and his gun are paramount.