Broken Arrow

Story of a white man ("american") who meets with Cochise (Jeff Chandler, a swell guy I am sure but emphatically not an Apache) to arrange safe passage for mail. The basic facts are more or less correct (let's not dwell on the creepy love story between middle-aged Jimmy Stewart and teen Debra Paget - even the script goes out of its way to make clear that the Apache maiden is of age) but modern viewers will note some omissions. Stewart's character makes a big deal out of how this treaty is not going to be broken and as far as Cochise ever knew it wasn't, dying of natural causes not much later, but the whites started ignoring it soon enough. In 1950, this was the first movie to try to be sympathetic to indians. Photography and color are first rate.

Red Sun

Generally weak but serviceable samurai v. cowboy gimmick. The principals are the sole attraction with Alain Delone pulling in a distant third behind Charles Bronson and Toshiro Mifune. Ursula Andress shows up half way, half dressed. She is shrill. Production hampered by uninspired spaghetti production values. Not much atmosphere or panache but it rolls along.

Lawman

This western lies on the continuum between 3:10 to Yuma and High Plains Drifter. It is superior to the latter just as it is inferior to the former. Eastwood's High Plains Drifter isn't a patch on the Lawman, killer of men. Amusing cast overlaps make the connections in the continuum manifest. The score by Jerry Fielding is another asset although it may be a tad too glossy for the on-screen action. Some of the photography, close-ups of Burt Lancaster especially, is self-conscious, busy or both.

Pale Rider

Clunky, cringe-inducing and artless self-parody is ridiculous mess. Would benefit from being dubbed into Russian.

3:10 to Yuma (1957)

Glenn Ford and Van Heflin may have both provided their best performances in this movie. I'm pretty sure that the ending is not the one that was originally written and even if it is, it doesn't ring true. Luckily, the rest of the movie has already done its job and the ending isn't that critical to the psychology. Which psychology, by the way, escapes mere mortal's grasp at about 2:45, but Heflin pulls it off with aplomb.

Once Upon a Time in the West

Mortal woman's (Cardinale) train is sidetracked into last act of Ragnarok* and she witness the Twilight of the Gods. A terrifying Frost Giant (Fonda) destroys men at will even as he wrestles with Odin (Robards) and Thor (Bronson). Set pieces (80% of the running time) comprise a master class in directorial clarity.

*I submit that Morricone's guitar melody as heard in the scene behind the farmhouse is the exact sound of the Rainbow Bridge being shattered.

The Rainmaker

Clever play translated directly to film doesn't lose much as a play but makes for a bit of a trial as a movie. Performances are extremely quirky. Lancaster is completely out of the traces, Earl Holliman repeats his bumpkin performance from Forbidden Planet, Cameron Prud'homme's interesting vocal performance careens from comedic to bathic in the same speech, and Katherine Hepburn overwhelms her poor part like a tsunami. All this is given a pretty luxe studio treatment, including a busy, dialed-up score by Alex North. The result is pleasantly sincere and unchallenging, if not annoyingly obvious. Good use of this movie is as an example of how a movie isn't a play.

The Man from the Alamo

Glenn Ford plays hard-headed Texan who did not die at the Alamo. Other Texans who also did not die at the Alamo do their level best to lynch him but are foiled repeatedly. Eventually Glenn's friends (although how anybody could work up a single BTU of warm feeling for such a mopey lug is beyond me) convince the mob that he is trying to save their lives. Victor Jory plays an excellent heavy.

The Cimarron Kid

Conformity on parade. Charisma-sink Audie Murphy plays stand-up kid who runs with the wrong crowd. Luckily, the benevolent state allows him sufficient opportunity to pay for his thought crime over and over. Could be called "George Orwell's 1884." The production is not luxurious but pleasantly sturdy. It is a Budd Boetticher movie, after all.

There are a couple of lines delivered by Frank Silvera where there was an uncanny vocal resemblance to Temuera Morrison.

Winchester '73

Winchester '73 stands at the fulcrum of the golden and silver ages of Hollywood. Simple chase plot is used to hang Western tropes out to dry in the winds of change. Infamous Rock Hudson performance isn't that bad although the putty nose is a bit much.

The Naked Spur

Jimmy Stewart is tortured soul with a troubled past (again!) who is dramatically but not mortally or even too troublingly shot (again!) while he works through his issues. This time the working-out is especially fatal to others but he feels pretty bad about it. Music spans the gamut from bombastic (you can just about hear it shouting, "Naked Spur!") to cloying (Beautiful Dreamer, for crissakes!) And, um ... Janet Leigh crazy hot.

The Last Frontier

Victor Mature plays his illiterate back-of-the-backwoods trapper as a 19^th century Enkidu (distinct from a Noble Savage, mind you) with the US Cavalry standing in for Gilgamesh. Nobody plays being bitterly betrayed better than the Bod. What is it with Anthony Mann and elderly sidekicks? Being avuncular in his movies is a death sentence.

The Far Country

Disenfranchised
saddlebum
Cossack
Jedi
Ulysses
(Jimmy Stewart) runs afoul of
smooth-talking
corrupt
Imperial
Olympian

hanging judge
bureaucrat
entanglement
curse
(John Mcintire). Complications include undependable
sidekick
proletariat
Trade Guilds
demi-gods
(Walter Brennan) and feuding
women
women
women
women
(
Veronica
Ginger
Starbuck
whore Ruth Roman and
Betty
Mary Ann
Boomer
Madonna
Corinne Calvet). Supporting cast is a smorgasbord of character actors.

Ride the High Country

Signal entry in the "dying west" sub-genre (see No Country For Old Men for recent state of the type) pairs Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea. Simultaneously forward-looking and slavish to convention in style, this may be the most meta of the type.

Joel or Randolph?

No Country for Old Men

There is a stretch of time between the the appearance of Grendel (Javier Bardem), to winnow singing men from the sheaf of life, and Hrothgar's (Tommy Lee Jones) welcome to the champion of the Geats to his hall. Terror flows around the king but he has no power to stop it or even touch it. No Country for Old Men is a story of that unendurable period.

Will Penny

Charlton Heston portrays last man on earth cowboy in a planet city west dominated by apes zombies dudes accountants. Forges familial ties with ape scientists plague carriers sodbusters as love surmounts craggy orneriness.

Destry Rides Again

Another triumph for the cinematic year 1939. The world may have been going to Hell in a handbasket but Hollywood was accomplishing much. There may be one or two too many songs but at least they are worked into the setting more or less naturally. Brian Donlevy essays another thoroughly evil but manly villain. If one hasn't seen Destry Rides Again one know exactly nothing about Marlene Dietrich. There is nothing predictable about her performance - it's as if she is unaware herself what she may do from moment to moment. I get a real Klaus Kinski vibe from her although maybe that is just the accent. Supporting parts are given ample, if not excessive, screen time.