Rancho Deluxe (1975)Two drifters, of widely varying backgrounds, rustle cattle and try to avoid being caught in contemporary Montana. Director:Frank PerryWriter:Thomas McGuane |
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Rancho Deluxe (1975)Two drifters, of widely varying backgrounds, rustle cattle and try to avoid being caught in contemporary Montana. Director:Frank PerryWriter:Thomas McGuane |
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Jeff Bridges | ... |
Jack McKee
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| Sam Waterston | ... |
Cecil Colson
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| Elizabeth Ashley | ... |
Cora Brown
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| Clifton James | ... |
John Brown
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| Slim Pickens | ... |
Henry Beige
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Charlene Dallas | ... |
Laura Beige
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| Harry Dean Stanton | ... |
Curt
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Richard Bright | ... |
Burt
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| Patti D'Arbanville | ... |
Betty Fargo
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Maggie Wellman | ... |
Mary Fargo
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Joe Spinell | ... |
Mr. Colson
(as Joseph Spinell)
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Bert Conway | ... |
Wilbur Fargo
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Anthony Palmer | ... |
Karl
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Richard McMurray | ... |
Mr. McKee
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Danna Hansen | ... |
Mrs. McKee
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Jack McKee and Cecil Colson are bumbling drifters who make a living by rustling cattle in the wilds of Montana. Jack left his wealthy parents because he resented their posh lives. Cecil is of Caucasian and Native American descent seeking his own path in life away from his father. Both hustle and rustle their way in the world by targeting cattle owned by wealthy ranch-owner John Brown. Frustrated that someone is killing his cattle, John hires a pair of ranch hands, Burt and Curt, to find the rustlers. When Brown realizes he cannot trust his two inept ranch hands, he turns to the grizzled former rustler Henry Beige to find the cattle thieves. Jack and Cecil always stay a step ahead of their pursuers, not realizing that their luck must run out sometime. Written by Matt Patay
Rancho Deluxe is a rare delight. It's a Western with a modern twist. The `good guys' are the ranchers. The `bad guys' are rustlers, down and out young men who poach cattle just to get by, pay their rent, and eat. Naturally, your sympathies lie with the rustlers, because they're the underdogs.
We also sympathize with the rustlers because the ranchers are wealthy, socially prominent and dominant everything the rustler's aren't. They have everything they could want, so they're bored. And when the rustling problem appears, they treat it as sport like hunting a predatory animal. But their boredom takes other amusing forms as well. In one scene, the lady of the house tries to light a fire with the ranch hands. She's one of many cowgirls in the movie, women who like to be in the saddle, and to be the saddle. `Come on, goddamit,' she yells at the cowboys, Burt and Kurt. `I want some Gothic ranch action around here! I want some desire under the elms! I want to see some smoldering blazes down at the old corral!' It's hilarious. These guys are worthless. So it's a sad irony that her husband, who boasts that the B-Bar-Lazy-T has `the best matrons and the best sires,' must confine his boast to the non-human mammals on the ranch. When he takes his prize stud-bull to the county fair, the announcer describes it as having `tremendous thickness and length This bull has it all: size, bone, trim and color. It just brings tears to my eyes.' One can almost see the tears of unsatisfied desire in his wife's eyes as well that all the virile sires are bovine.
Slim Pickens, a former horse-thief turned cattle detective, is brilliant, funnier than ever. And then there are the scenes that provide a little social satire. Speaking of the Western love of pickup trucks, for example, one character denounces them as `a sickness here worse than alcohol or dope. It's the pickup truck death. And there's no cure for it.' I wonder sometimes if I don't recognize the disease right here in Flagstaff.
All in all, Rancho Deluxe is a very entertaining hour and a half.