Duel in the Sun (King Vidor/William Dieterle/Sidney Franklin/Josef von Sternberg/David O. Selznick)
I’d agree with comments saying this is an overblown, over produced, piece of exploitation. It isn’t without some merit. The wonderful color photography is great and the characters are all well rounded. Peck is extremely unlikeable (and believeable) as the charming yet despicable brother of the suave, cultured, and educated Joseph Cotten who is perhaps the only likeable character in the film. Jones is good in her role but I felt very little sympathy for her as every problem she has, she has brought on herself. Not good as a time passer as it feels never ending even at it’s 2 hour runtime (short for such an epic), but interesting. I didn’t find it engaging or enjoyable.
Hunt for treasure film, which has way to much Indian mumbo jumbo in for my taste. Thought I was viewing a science fiction film with snakes in the last part of the film.[/quote]
Indeed, Blueberry is closer to Kubrick’s 2001 than to the comic it was based on.
[quote=“korano, post:6961, topic:141”]Duel in the Sun (King Vidor/William Dieterle/Sidney Franklin/Josef von Sternberg/David O. Selznick)
I’d agree with comments saying this is an overblown, over produced, piece of exploitation. It isn’t without some merit. The wonderful color photography is great and the characters are all well rounded. Peck is extremely unlikeable (and believeable) as the charming yet despicable brother of the suave, cultured, and educated Joseph Cotten who is perhaps the only likeable character in the film. Jones is good in her role but I felt very little sympathy for her as every problem she has, she has brought on herself. Not good as a time passer as it feels never ending even at it’s 2 hour runtime (short for such an epic), but interesting. I didn’t find it engaging or enjoyable.[/quote]
One of my favourite guilty pleasures this one. I loved Jones in this one, and Barrymore, Cotten and Peck. I think the reason why it works in face of all those directors is the overall control Selzick had on it and thus, like Gone With the Wind, it was a “Selznick Movie” as opposed to a “King Vidor Film”. Absurdly overblown and campy, I find this much more enjoyable than a “worthy” Western like The Searchers.
[size=12pt]Soldier Blue[/size] (1970, Ralph Nelson)
Had not seen it in ages, but became eager to rewatch it when an somebody from Libanon told me that it’s a popular movie among young Arabs (like, for instance, Braveheart). It’s not so difficult to see why.
It’s a bit of an odd experience to rewatch it after all these years. It’s very sixties (although released in '70), very well-meant, very unsubtle - and surprisingly enjoyable (but never really compelling), until the last 15-20 minutes, which remain nearly unwatchable, even if you’re familiar with some of today’s even more graphic screen violence
[quote=“scherpschutter, post:6964, topic:141”][size=12pt]Soldier Blue[/size] (1970, Ralph Nelson)
surprisingly enjoyable (but never really compelling), until the last 15-20 minutes, which remain nearly unwatchable, even if you’re familiar with some of today’s even more graphic screen violence[/quote]
How violant is the graphic violance?
Of Soldier Blue? I suppose you’re familiar with the torture porn and zombie movies of our times
The violence in Soldier Blue is very graphic: decapitations, mutilations etc. but that’s not what makes the film so hard to endure (at least not in the very first place), it’s more the fact that it refers to a historic reality (and an actual reality as well). Moreover the attack on the village is filmed in a cold and clinical way, completely different from the rest of the movie, which is occasionally quite funny. The comedy was probably brought into the movie to make it (and the subject) more palpable, but the effect is rather counterproductive: it makes the finale look all the more gruesome
If you haven’t seen it, I think you should find yourself a copy
It’s one of those movies you have to see at least once in your life (if only to be able to judge for yourself)
“The Gambler Returns” The Luck Of The Draw" (1991)
-Kenny Rogers. Reba McEntire and a whole lot of classic stars
Plot: IMDB
1906: The Gambler Brady Hawkes is back and he’s about to lose his primary means of livelihood, when a law banning gambling is about to be passed. But in honor of that there’s going to be one last great poker game and all what one needs to join is one hundred thousand dollars. A madame named Burgundy Jones along with four other madames is willing to put up the money for Brady but first he has to compete against four other gamblers in the end it comes down to Brady and a man named Cantrell. Brady barely beats him. So he, and Burgundy, and an old friend of his, Ethan Cassidy sets for the game which is in San Francisco. But Cantrell’s a sore loser and is following them hoping to get the money so that he can join the game. Also following them is a band of outlaws who were planning to steal the money but Brady left with it before they got there. And along the way they encounter and/or are aided by some famous individuals like Wyatt Earp, The Rifleman, Cheyenne Bodie, Diamond Jim Brady, Bat Masterson, Judge Roy Bean, and President Teddy Roosevelt. Brady is also feeling that he might not have what he has to win; it seems that some time ago in Europe he lost a big game to an Englishman, and by strange coincidence he is also at the game
Phantom’s Review: Final film in the “Gambler” series. While the plot is pretty standard this is nonetheless a fun entertaining movie, mostly due to the many cameos from classic TV stars helping our hero’s along the way.
The only thing I didn’t like was, literally the final scene in the movie. It’s a bit of a downer, other than that this is a fun film.
The cruelty of the film, which means the extensive and detailed portrayal of the massacre, is neither covered by its moral nor its formal qualities.
Maybe a bad translation:
Die Härte des Films, das heißt die ausführliche und detaillierte Darstellung des Massakers, wird weder von seinen moralischen noch von seinen formalen Qualitäten gedeckt.
Not easy to translate, but I know what he means. Don’t know if I fully agree with his statement. I’ll have to think about it. There’s something wrong with the film, and yet, in the end, you feel it’s right, or better: you feel that the depiction of this horrible massacre is somehow rewarding. As a work of art the film probably fails (both Little Big Man and Ulzana’s Raid are better movies, although Soldier Blue isn’t really a bad movie), but as an essay, as a statement on cruelty, it works, and works very well.
I have rewatched it a few years ago, and wasn’t as disappointed as I was when I first saw it in the 80s. But it is at best slightly above average.
I generally think that all of Ralph Nelson’s films are never as good as their plots (and their beautiful titles) might promise.
The scene in Little Big Man, in which Hoffman’s Indian wife (and their baby) gets shot, and Penn then drops the sound and at the end fades into white, shows how much better you can describe violence by using the film language.
I think this not very bloody scene is more shocking than anything in Soldier Blue. And more memorable anyway.
Always enjoyed Soldier Blue, even if the end is different in tone. Reading on a forum here about possible missing scenes, but could be just someone getting confused:
The following post by a member called Speedspin caught my eye:
I’m not so sure in the case of SOLDIER BLUE that people are necessarily “making up scenes that never existed”. Although it is certainly possible to think you remember scenes that don’t exist or confuse them with other similar films of course.
If anyone out there has an old copy of the 1974 book WESTERN MOVIES by Walter C Clapham (Movie Treasury series), have a look at page 49 and you will see a colour still from SB above the caption “The camera again alights on the horrific in SOLDIER BLUE”. The still depicts two soldiers, one of whom is holding Spotted Wolf’s severed head aloft in triumph. The other one is holding a bloodied knife. The next two pages (p50-51) has one 2 page colour still depicting a less graphic sequence from the rape scene.
Having seen the film many times on TV and VHS over the years, but never a version containing the former scene, I have assumed that it must be from some complete, ‘ultimate’ “uncut” version of the film that was out there somewhere. But the German Kinowelt DVD (which is the most complete version I’ve seen yet) doesn’t contain it either.
To tell the truth, by now, I’m wondering whether in fact it actually does exist in any version. Is it possible perhaps that some ‘sensation’ pics were staged during production for limited distribution to highlight/advertise the extreme nature of the film? Since a still of this scene exists in a 1970s coffee table book, have other similarly extreme but ‘staged’ stills been published somewhere else?
Maybe this could partly explain some of the clamouring for mythical scenes, each more gory than the last
Stills are (or were then) mostly shot by specially hired photographers in the process of the film’s shooting. They often contain images or angles you don’t find in the uncut prints.
As a kid, when watching stills outside the cinema, I often wondered why some of these images weren’t in the movie itself. I later found out that this was the reason.
At the end of the massacre sequence (one of the very last scenes of the movie) there are a few soldiers who hold trophies like the soldiers do on the photos Ennioo (or better Speedspin) describes. I think the stills were shot while shooting that particular scene. I can imagine that’s what you do when you’re in such a scene and spot a photogapher.
The Deadly Companions
Sam Peckinpah’s first feature movie. Not a masterpiece like his other Westerns but entertaining. I liked especially the scenes in which a mysterious Indian chases Brian Keith and Maureen O’Hara. Interestingly two characters are suffering from the Civil War. Obvisiouly a very low budget production so it had some SW Feeling as well.
Three men head of to find some treasure and bump into Sondra Locke along the way, and also have a demon on their tail to add a bit of spice in this average tale. Did not guess the ending.