No, not yet. I’ve been on holidays for a (short) while, and then there’s this football tournament … will watch it soon now
That’s nice, holidays I mean. Watched Jane Got a Gun recently and it puzzled me. As Jane Ballard, Natalie Portman’s character, says: “It’s hard to remember, though, how things seemed when you know how they actually turned out.” There’s a much better movie buried in the one we actually get to see. But that, of course, is a platitude. So I guess I concur, somewhat grudgingly, with Lone_Gringo’s, ENNIOO’s and ION_BRITTON’s assessments.
I bought the DVD this afternoon and am watching it now.
Well, I finished Jane Got a Gun. What shall I say? I enjoyed it for what it was: a good but not great movie in the western genre.
Interesting premise, interesting characters, interesting setting, but somehow all these things of interest lead to a movie that looks, feels and eventually simply is unexceptional. But ever since I saw her as a child in Léon I have a crush on Nathalie Portman, so I enjoyed myself very well. I especially like her ears and they were visible throughout the movie.
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Ultimately, the screenplay and Gavin O’Connor’s direction are too unfocused and formally, narratively and thematically all over the place. There are too many (potentially central) conflicts in the story – between Jane Ballard and “Ham” Hammond (Noah Emmerich), Jane and Dan Frost (Joel Edgerton), Ham and Frost, Jane and Bishop (Ewan McGregor), Ham and Bishop, Frost and Bishop – and none of them are resolved or treated satisfactorily, let alone in a suspenseful, gripping manner. “[T]he film is […] full of half measures it hasn’t the nerve to see through.” (Slant Magazine) The flashbacks don’t support the movie’s dramatic structure, they seem to be inserted arbitrarily. And I really, really didn’t like the filmmakers’ decision to shoot the climactic confrontation mostly in the dark – like turning off the floodlights during a football game’s decisive moments.
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Some of it literally escaped me. at one point I simply didn’t understand what was happening.
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RIDE WITH THE DEVIL (1999, Ang Lee).
Excellent western, very much like a Hong Kong Triad film at times. Needless to say this is the best Ang Lee film I have seen so far.
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The Duel (2016)- Kieran Darcy-Smith.
(“Synopsis–A Texas Ranger is ordered to investigate who is behind some killings along the border of the United States and Mexico”.)
This was not that good at all, it started with a decent knife fight in the rain, but then it went into a snoozefest with talky boring scene to some more talky boring scenes. The film just takes too long to where it wants to go and when the action/violence comes later on it’s just as boring as everything else with no real thrills or excitement. Woody Harrelson is decent enough as a psychotic snake-handling preacher… as for Liam Hemsworth, meh!
The Keeping Room (2014), directed by Daniel Barber
Shot in Romania in 2013, set in the South of the (then Dis-)United States in 1865, The Keeping Room, second feature film of British director Daniel Barber, infuses genre movie stereotypes with political agendas: at the end of the Civil War, three women have to defend their lives and home against two male intruders, Union Army scouts. The resulting cross-genre blend could be called a feminist “home invasion” Western. Barber devotes the first half of his film to a slow study of African-American Mad (Muna Otaru) and European-American sisters Augusta (Brit Marling) and Louise (Hailee Steinfeld) running their farm without male help – father, brother and lover are off to war – and their at times troubled social interaction. The second half, reminiscent of films like Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs (1971) and George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968), provides solid, gory, violent action and suspense, following well-established dramatic patterns. Cleverly constructed, resourcefully written by Julia Hart, The Keeping Room elucidates in its most unsettling scene that no horror story can be as horrifying as the history of slavery.
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Bought the DVD last week, along with Jane Got a Gun, but haven’t watched it yet. Will do that soon
The Tall T (1957)
Some story threads are left hanging (Brennan’s old boss and farm), but amazing gang of villains in this one.
Ranown cycle ranked (without Westbound):
- Ride Lonesome
- Seven Men From Now
- The Tall T
- Comanche Station
- Buchanan Rides Alone
- Decision at Sundown
I’d have Comanche Station in second place, otherwise more or less the same order. All fine movies, btw
Today: Johnny Hamlet (Castellari, 1968)
Yeah, I liked this one. Put me in mind of The Forgotten Pistolero (Baldi, 1969) and of The Return of Ringo (Tessari, 1965). And, as with those two, I can see myself returning to it and finding it even more enjoyable on second/third/fourth viewing. For now, it’s crashed my Spag Top 40. Some fantastic imagery in there, and it started incredibly strongly. Andrea Giordana did well in the lead role I thought, although he was understandably upstaged by a superb Horst Frank.
Just watched this one:
Pretty average with a lot of stock footage used for the battle scene but I did enjoy it.
Bone Tomahawk (Zahler / 2015)
Just got around to watching this and I must say I liked it a lot.
Excellent dialogue, great cast and a nice slow pace leading up to utter brain fuck violence.
8/10
I just finished watching Massacre (1956). The ending was quite surprising for a 1950s western.
The Salvation (Levring / 2014)
Another recent one I have had on the pile to watch but have only just got to now.
Again I was really impressed. Watched this one with the wife (she has some Danish heritage on her Mother’s side so is always up for some Danish linked stuff) and we both really enjoyed this revenge tale in the west with a European slant. Recommended.
Enjoyed it a lot. Straight, unpretentious, well-made genre film (has its own thread, by the way). Refreshing to see (a) Danish protagonist(s) in a Western. Liked the filmmakers’ idea to mention the Second Schleswig War as the reason for the brothers’ emigration.
Have you noticed that the Koch Media DVD cover erroneously credits the film’s direction to George Sherman? Same error as on the cover of Rudolph Maté’s Die Welt gehört ihm! (The Mississippi Gambler). On the downloadable covers, the mistakes are corrected, though.
Nope hadn’t looked that closely I guess… but isn’t it a George Sherman movie?
Anyways, last one I saw was Forsaken, and I liked it. Review coming soon on NK (German) and in English on Furious Cinema