At long last back to cultured life after weeks of work, work and more work somewhere on the coast far from civilization and with very poor internet. Brought a BR player and a small stack of DVDs there though, including the following westerns
Viva Zapata with Brando, very impressing, seems both Petroni and Milian were influenced by it while making Tepepa, Villa Rides, what a great disappointment, and Antonio Banderiras’ Pancho Villa. And Shane. And reviewed from my laptop HD: Why Go on Killing, Prega Dio… e scavati la fossa and La Ciudad Maldita.
The latter, La Ciudad Maldita, aka La notte rossa del Falco, has no thread on the Forum and no review on the SWDB, I’ll try to furnish both.
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Yesterday: In a Valley of Violence (West, 2016).
A drifter, Paul (Ethan Hawke), and his dog, Abby, wander into the almost deserted former mining town of Denton and are immediately set upon by the town braggart, Gilly (James Ransone). Paul dismisses this idiot with a single punch but the set-to brings the attention of the town Marshal (John Travolta), who also happens to be Gilly’s father. The Marshal ascertains quickly that Paul is a deserter from a lethal post-Civil War military kill squad currently assigned to indiscriminately wiping out the entire Cheyenne nation and decides to defuse the situation by agreeing not to turn Paul over to the army provided he and his dog leave Denton immediately, and never return. And that should have been that, except that the Marshal’s gormless son’s pride has been wounded in front of his hee-haw buddies, he needs reparation and, if you’ve seen John Wick (Stahelski, 2014), you may have an idea as to how he decides to go about it. The rest of this economical little revenge western more-or-less tells itself.
I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy this at first. The set of Denton didn’t look very well aged and the paucity of extras gave everything a decidedly on-the-cheap feel. Also, I felt that Ethan Hawke and John Travolta, both of whom I like generally, were miscast… But, as the movie progressed, the stripped aesthetic grew on me and so did Mr. Travolta’s performance; his character, at first glance a stock crooked small-town tyrant, is in fact closer to Gene Hackman’s character in Unforgiven (Eastwood, 1992): A hard guy placed in a bad spot. I still don’t feel that Ethan Hawke’s your man if you’re casting a haunted, no-nonsense agent of death but, overall, In a Valley of Violence is well worth a look; it’s certainly the liveliest Ti West film I’ve ever seen, by some measure.
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Just finished it and can’t say that I was impressed. A few violent deaths, an atmospheric SW-like score and that’s about it. Everything else has been done to death before and infinite times better. Where the hell were the rest of the people in that town? As mentioned above, Ethan Hawke doesn’t cut it for this type of role. Couldn’t take Travolta seriously and I don’t believe he took his own role seriously enough either. And the concept of taking such a vicious revenge for a slain dog…well, ok…5/10, tops
That and the dog (until they killed him) were the best thing in this horrible western. The acting and the dialogue was laughably bad… 2 bones for the dog 0 for everything else.
Had a few cringes with some of the dialogue as well.
I just saw who Ti West is. He’s the guy that has directed V/H/S and The Innkeepers, which I found both to be terrible. Suddenly, I feel the need to bash the film a little bit more…
Tbh, if someone murdered my kitty-kat I would go on a kill-crazy rampage. 
His slow-burn style divides opinion, for sure. To be fair he’s only directed one segment of the first V/H/S picture: Second Honeymoon, which I thought was one of the better entries (full disclosure: I like V/H/S, and I bloody love V/H/S/2. The third movie was largely a disappointment). The Innkeepers - yeah, that is a pretty glacial wedge of inactivity.I enjoyed it but it’s one I’ll only need to see once every ten, fifteen years or so.
‘THE SEARCHERS’ - 1956, Directed by John Ford.
Starring John Wayne, Ward Bond, Harry Carey Jr,; Vera Miles; and Jeffrey Hunter.
Actually had a good night, last night…plates piled high with ‘Cottage Pie, eggs and beans’, with a glass of two of white wine. Even my wife sat with me…although, I must admit, she did have to endure my pausing the movie several times…just so that I could then re-play a few of the iconic ‘Wayne Lines’… such as ‘That’ll be the Day!’; and "We’ll find ‘em, I promise…just as sure of the turnin’ of the Earth’.
‘THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN’ (1960)
Well, I didn’t think I’d be waking up the night after watching this favourite, to find that the last of the ‘Seven’ has now gone…R.I.P Mr. Robert Vaughan.
A ‘Classic’ in every sense of the word…
‘Bone Tomahawk’
Now…I’d heard that this was a film that would not please everyone, due to certain acts of violence in part of the feature.
So, after buying the Bluray, I skimmed through the film…just to check out the violent bits - and to ‘prepare’ myself for the experience.
On Saturday night, I say down, with my wife, and watched the film…not knowing what our reaction would be.
People have called this Film ‘slow-moving’; ‘ultra-violent’; ‘Boring’; ‘Tedious’; and 'Sick…
Having said that, my wife, and I, thoroughly enjoyed every second of ‘Bone Tomahawk’; and we’re impressed with the acting, the set-design, the ‘authentic’ ‘Western-Speak’, (to ourselves, at least); and the much criticised tedious pace…
To our minds - at least - there was an ‘realism’ to every aspect of the film.
Perhaps the biggest compliment came from my wife, who said that ‘Bone Tomahawk’ - with the gritty dialogue - reminded her of the ‘True Grit’ remake…
Toscano.
Surely no angels in this one as the title implies, almost impossible to identify with any of the characters. It’s a sick and twisted horror western and certainly has its flaws, but the overall grimness keeps you watching until the very end. I liked it.
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Yes, I liked it too but, for a good portion of the movie’s runtime, I was sure I wasn’t going to. Do you know what I mean? It’s that sort of film, imo. The only thing I took to immediately was the score.
The Magnificent Seven 2016
Simply good, the cameraman did his job well !
Danzel Washington remind me Danny Glover!
It’s not common a black guy to be hero of a western but He did acted so good I can’t forget it.
Firing a church! That was… I can’t find the right word to describe it!
Hope directors make westserns with Danzel.
One-Eyed Jacks (1961)
Had not seen this in over 10 years or so, but recently I found time to watch the new Criterion’s blu-ray restoration and IMO it’s outstanding. For me, this is a magnificent revenge/romance western film with great acting from (Brando and Malden) and strong support form the rest of the cast as well with exceptional cinematography. 9/10
I’ve seen it recently. I thought the first half was near perfect, but then it started to drag. It did not leave lasting impression. The love story was too kitschy and the ending far from original, that’s not how to finish such an epic western. I’ve read it was meant to be (probably tv) serie but eventually it was heavily cut for cinema. Brando was awesome though and the nasty whipping scene was probably the highlight.
No, it was a film for the cinema, but Brando’s preferred version ran probably twice as long.
I keep watching more and more Universal classics, as Koch Media releases them. Some of the recentones I saw
- No name on the bullet
- raw edge
- black horse canyon
- along came jones
- the lone hand
- calamity jane and sam bass
The Last Couple of Weeks of the Year are for me the period to rewatch classics
This also offers me the opportunity to work a little on the lay-out of the review pages
I started with this classic fagioli western, the most successful Italian western in history (when first released):
https://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Trinity_is_still_my_Name_Review
Good on you, scherpschutter!
‘They Still Call Me Trinity’ is one of my favourites. I preferred this to ‘They Call Me Trinity’ even though the former is also excellent.
Just realised I was wrong about the title…
It’s not ‘They Still Call Me Trinity’…!
It’s ‘Trinity is Still My Name’!
For the record, I blame my error on too much Christmas Sherry, and lots of Ruby Port…
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Classic is the wrong word for these mediocre films (apart from No name on the bullet, which isn’t a classic either, but a good one)