The Searchers
I’m still not liking Westerns. The only exceptions that come to mind are Unforgiven and the series Deadwood. Regardless, I’ll feel duty-bound to catch the best of the best as far as this crappy genre goes. They’re just so damn long and dull. I don’t get off on sunsets and dudes riding horses across the landscape. There’s just too much not-gunfighting between all the gunfighting, if you know what I’m saying.
The titular searchers (hot damn I love that word!) are looking for a band of Comanche that massacred members of their family. The two man revenge squad is led with moral-of-the-story intolerance by John Wayne, and assisted by his nephew, who is half-native himself. What promises to be a quick mission turns into a five year journey. These searchers: not so good with the searching.
This movie showed up in Entertainment Weekly’s top 100 movies of all time a while back, and stuck with me as something to see ever since. Done now, so good on me. Moving on.
Double Indemnity
If you haven’t seen this one, you probably know what it’s about: a deceitful wife conspires with an insurance agent to murder her husband and collect on a tremendous insurance policy. Going in, I knew the basic plot and I knew the name of the stars—Barbara Stanwyck as the femme fatale, and Fred MacMurray as the insurance agent/lover/co-conspirator. By name alone, I assumed McMurray would be a sucker; just some rube that gets roped into something he barely has the wherewithal to understand. He just has a clownish name, like Jim Nabors or Soupy Sales. But the character he plays is confident and blunt, and nearly all the murder plans are his.
Like To Have or Have Not, I was surprised by the forthright sexuality of this movie. As far as physical demonstrations go, there’s nothing more than lame, tongue-free kisses. But when it comes to dialogue—fucking bold, man. I have no proof on me, no quotes to share, so you’ll have to take my word for it.
What else? I don’t have the energy to do this movie justice, so in brief: Fred MacMurray—cocksure, Barbara Stanwyck—bad wig, Edward G. Robinson—supercool (despite never once uttering, ‘Mah, see! You’ll never get me, copper!)
The Manchurian Candidate
Another library return rack grab, I thought I’d leave this on as background noise while I worked one might. Good plan. This is pretty forgettable stuff, not just as a remake, but simply as a movie.
The character Denzel plays here and the one Mel Gibson plays in Conspiracy Theory are essentially the same guy. All of the other performances rate as okay (and I never thought I’d say this, but Meryl Steep is no Angela Landsbury.) I think this remake worked better in concept that in execution. Rather than have the Chinese communists as the evil brainwashing big bad, the Denzel version has Manchurian Global, a private equity firm trying the wrest control of the White House. There are vague suggestions that this company is a fictionalized Halliburton, but the swipes made in that direction are way too tentative. While the premise is a bit fantastic, the original was relevant and frightening. The remake: neither.
Deadwood
Not a movie and I’m not yet finished, but the seven hours I’ve put into Deadwood earn a mention. Isha brought up the idea of a Deadwood marathon, and we’ve wisely broken it into three sessions. If I had HBO, I think I’d just go ahead and watch every series they put out because I’ve never been disappointed. Deadwood is the new Oz, you heard it here. I find that there are a lot of parallels between Deadwood and Oz: almost all the characters are bad, they’ve set up murderous rivalries from episode one which are sure to ripple forward to later seasons, and anyone can die.
I would take Deadwood over your typical Western any day. Primarily, because if the pacing. There aren’t any chaste kisses or rides into the sunset. Everyone’s filthy, pissing in the street, pissed drunk, and whore-crazy—which is what I like to think the old west was all about. Then there’s the swearing. ‘Like’ and ‘um’ are replaced by ‘fuck’ and ‘cocksucker;’ it takes some getting used to. Also, the word ‘fucknut’ has cropped up twice now, and that’s funny shit no matter how many times you hear it. I’m sure someone on the show has done serious research and found some instance of the word being used back then, but now I’m waiting for the words asshat, doucebag, gaylord, jeezler, and dicksmack to crop up somewhere.
I’m still not liking Westerns. The only exceptions that come to mind are Unforgiven and the series Deadwood. Regardless, I’ll feel duty-bound to catch the best of the best as far as this crappy genre goes. They’re just so damn long and dull. I don’t get off on sunsets and dudes riding horses across the landscape. There’s just too much not-gunfighting between all the gunfighting, if you know what I’m saying.
The titular searchers (hot damn I love that word!) are looking for a band of Comanche that massacred members of their family. The two man revenge squad is led with moral-of-the-story intolerance by John Wayne, and assisted by his nephew, who is half-native himself. What promises to be a quick mission turns into a five year journey. These searchers: not so good with the searching.
This movie showed up in Entertainment Weekly’s top 100 movies of all time a while back, and stuck with me as something to see ever since. Done now, so good on me. Moving on.
Double Indemnity
If you haven’t seen this one, you probably know what it’s about: a deceitful wife conspires with an insurance agent to murder her husband and collect on a tremendous insurance policy. Going in, I knew the basic plot and I knew the name of the stars—Barbara Stanwyck as the femme fatale, and Fred MacMurray as the insurance agent/lover/co-conspirator. By name alone, I assumed McMurray would be a sucker; just some rube that gets roped into something he barely has the wherewithal to understand. He just has a clownish name, like Jim Nabors or Soupy Sales. But the character he plays is confident and blunt, and nearly all the murder plans are his.
Like To Have or Have Not, I was surprised by the forthright sexuality of this movie. As far as physical demonstrations go, there’s nothing more than lame, tongue-free kisses. But when it comes to dialogue—fucking bold, man. I have no proof on me, no quotes to share, so you’ll have to take my word for it.
What else? I don’t have the energy to do this movie justice, so in brief: Fred MacMurray—cocksure, Barbara Stanwyck—bad wig, Edward G. Robinson—supercool (despite never once uttering, ‘Mah, see! You’ll never get me, copper!)
The Manchurian Candidate
Another library return rack grab, I thought I’d leave this on as background noise while I worked one might. Good plan. This is pretty forgettable stuff, not just as a remake, but simply as a movie.
The character Denzel plays here and the one Mel Gibson plays in Conspiracy Theory are essentially the same guy. All of the other performances rate as okay (and I never thought I’d say this, but Meryl Steep is no Angela Landsbury.) I think this remake worked better in concept that in execution. Rather than have the Chinese communists as the evil brainwashing big bad, the Denzel version has Manchurian Global, a private equity firm trying the wrest control of the White House. There are vague suggestions that this company is a fictionalized Halliburton, but the swipes made in that direction are way too tentative. While the premise is a bit fantastic, the original was relevant and frightening. The remake: neither.
Deadwood
Not a movie and I’m not yet finished, but the seven hours I’ve put into Deadwood earn a mention. Isha brought up the idea of a Deadwood marathon, and we’ve wisely broken it into three sessions. If I had HBO, I think I’d just go ahead and watch every series they put out because I’ve never been disappointed. Deadwood is the new Oz, you heard it here. I find that there are a lot of parallels between Deadwood and Oz: almost all the characters are bad, they’ve set up murderous rivalries from episode one which are sure to ripple forward to later seasons, and anyone can die.
I would take Deadwood over your typical Western any day. Primarily, because if the pacing. There aren’t any chaste kisses or rides into the sunset. Everyone’s filthy, pissing in the street, pissed drunk, and whore-crazy—which is what I like to think the old west was all about. Then there’s the swearing. ‘Like’ and ‘um’ are replaced by ‘fuck’ and ‘cocksucker;’ it takes some getting used to. Also, the word ‘fucknut’ has cropped up twice now, and that’s funny shit no matter how many times you hear it. I’m sure someone on the show has done serious research and found some instance of the word being used back then, but now I’m waiting for the words asshat, doucebag, gaylord, jeezler, and dicksmack to crop up somewhere.
Comments
Condo Builder: See you this September.
[3 years later...]
Condo Builder: Almost finished! I swear!
How about The Wild Bunch? If you can't dig that, maybe you can't be saved. There's always Blazing Saddles. Take those, and call me in the morning.