It’s very difficult to remember ‘The Good Old Days’…I think it simply relies on our memories, which can be very selective, very foggy, and very forgiving, at the best of times.
I just remember attending the cinema a great deal, with my parents…so much so, that now, when I watch a favourite film, I realise that I’d originally watched it at the local screen-flick…‘The Italian Job’; ‘Live and Let Die’; ‘The Wild Geese’; ‘Paint Your Wagon’ etc.
Perhaps the days were not all they were cracked up to be, and perhaps they were … It’s what we remember that makes them good, or bad…
Well, I was suppose to be packin’, and movin’ to a new territory…Stuff that!
As usual I’ve been caught up in ‘discussin’…
'SHALAKO’
One of my favourites…love the opening theme, love the film score, enjoy the fantastic actors on show - Sean, Honor, Brigitte, Stephen, Eric, Jack, …I wont even mention the surnames…if you haven’t seen it by now, you never will…
By the way - despite what many people say - this is a rip-roaring, brilliant adventure, with a Robert Farnon soundtract to match.
Oh…and it also features the great Woody Strorde
Sounds like you had a traumatic childhood …
But the good news were, it could only get better.
My first western in a theatre was probably OUTW, which was disappointing and often a bit boring, or maybe My Name Is Nobody, which was then also not what I had expected, cause it was not always a real comedy, but overall it was good, only not as great as other Spencer/ Hill comedies. Now I wish the scenes I liked then the most in Nobody were not in the film.
When I started going to the cinema westerns were not popular anymore, but some older ones were still reprised here and there. Only OUTW could be watched every year several times. It was an incredible success in Germany, and it ran and an and ran, until older films began to disappear from the theatres.
My third and fourth were Once Upon a Time in the West and Return of Ringo. I don’t remember in what order.
But I wasn’t traumatized by Mackenna or Shalako (well, by Julie Newmar maybe), in fact I thought they were magnificent back then, especially Mackenna’s Gold. It was maybe the experience: the large screen, the atmosphere, the first western on the big screen … furthermore you overlook shortcomings at that age that you notice today. I still like Mackenna’s gold, but more for sentimental than other reasons. It’s of course in reality a lousy movie
I know of course that you liked it then, and that you still do. And these Julie scenes are indeed worth the watch. And quite unusual for a Hollywood film of that year.
He could easily have untied him and let him lay down to die. It would have been less painful than the spear going through him. [quote=“Toscano, post:17, topic:1712”]
Even if Shalako knew that Wells was going to die, would Shalako be the kind of man to put a bullet through another man’s head…in my opinion, yes, but that’s another theory.
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He wouldn’t have to do that, just untie him.
So, at the end of the day, there’s no real explanation. They made Shalako look cruel for the sake of having a bloody scene.
I started rewatching the movie last night (very late, so couldn’t finish it).
Yes, it’s an odd scene.
Funny thing is that Bardot’s character explicitely asks: “Why don’t you help him?” drawing attention to the situation.
They probably should have skipped that line, and let the spear perforate the body at the moment the attention is drawn to the victim. There’s a certain rule in narrative art (literature, cinema) that says: if you have a scene that’s underserving of belief, don’t emphasize it, act dumb, like you know nothing about something … and people might simply accept it.
Watched this one again over the weekend and have to say it has less and less to offer me.
sadly, us Brits have never been any good at westerns and this is a fine example of our failures. On the whole trying too much to copy the classic American style but just not getting it quite right. Plus, while adding in some more violence and misogyny to match the post spaghetti zeitgeist it all seems a bit bolted on and unnecessary. On top of all that it is far too slow and laboriously played out.
That said, Stephen Boyd is always good value and my youth spent watching British films of the 1950s and TV of the 1960s makes me a sucker with anything involving jack Hawkins, Eric Sykes and Honor Blackman. So, it has its pleasures but just isn’t very good.
I like many British westerns to be honest. Chato’s Land and Eagle’s Wing are both exceptional films and prove that British directors were capable of making good westerns. I’ve always enjoyed The Hunting Party, Shalako and Charley One Eye. Captain Apache is probably the only British western I don’t like.
I’m more with Phil as far as British westerns are concerned. I actually think Shalako is one of the better serious/violent British westerns, along with Hannie Caulder, but I wouldn’t call these movie ‘great’ by any stretch of the imagination. The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw is probably my favorite, but I haven’t seen it in over 25 years.
I ddin’t like eagle’s Wing and Charley One Eye at all, and Chato’s Land and - especially - The Hunting Party are imo only remarkable movies because of the excessive violence. To end with a whimsical note: I kinda like Captain Apache.
While The Hunting Party is very bloody, I don’t think that Chato’s Land contains excessive violence, not from a modern point of view compared with other films of the early 70s.
Chato’s Land is for me definitely the best, followed by The Hunting Party, which I like meanwhile much more than in the 80s.
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