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The Great Gundown (1977)
Bleak and bloody Western
This film is very hard to get hold of, and the DVD version I saw was clearly taken from a poor quality VHS tape, and was only 83 minutes long, as against the 95 minutes advertised on IMDb and 100 minutes according to TCM. I'd like to see the missing 12/17 minutes on a decent quality print some day, as although this isn't exactly a classic of the genre it actually has a bit more going for it than just the bloody mayhem that the title promises -and largely delivers at the end, when Mario (Padilla) and his pals try to storm the villain's stronghold aided by plenty of dynamite and a Gatling gun. Mario tries to give up the outlaw life but is rejected by his wife after his 5 year absence, and even wounded by his own young son who's protecting his mother from this 'stranger'. As if that isn't bad enough, the bad guy sends out a group of henchmen to recover the money Mario has with him from a train raid, and they inflict carnage on Mario's home town, killing most of his family. So it's a dark tale, and the scenes when he's trying and failing to build another life with his family are well done, with some moody guitar music to back up the theme. There are definitely some Peckinpah influences here, especially with echoes of The Wild Bunch and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, though needless to say it's nowhere near that good. And both the director and Padilla are involved in an earlier, equally bleak and violent Western, called Machismo (1970). Hilariousy, Herb Fagen in The Encyclopedia of Westerns claims that The Great Gundown is a reissue of Machismo, which demonstrates that he hasn't watched one (or both) of these films. I've seen both, and they're definitely not the same!
Journey Through Rosebud (1972)
Criminally overlooked drama
In half the runtime this has everything that Dances With Wolves expresses about the allure of Indian life for a liberal white man AND raises far more serious critical questions about the motivation of such a character and why his hopes of integration are liable to remain at the level of dreams. AND it works well as a documentary-style insight into modern (early 70s) Indian life, with appropriately understated but not at all wooden performances by the 3 leads (Kristoffer Tabori as the young draft dodger Danny, Robert Forster as the charismatic but anguished Frank who takes him under his wing, and. Victoria Racimo as Frank's estranged wife, Shirley).
The film I watched before this one, Joe Kidd, from the same year, is glossy nonsense that's so badly written it doesn't even work well as the escapist drama it's trying to be. By contrast, Journey Through Rosebud, directed by Tom Gries, who showed he knew what he was doing with Will Penny, is thoughtful, moving adult drama. Joe Kidd has 20,000 ratings; Journey Through Rosebud has 63. That makes me sadder than the ending of this film...
Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye (2003)
If you're here because of Bataille, prepare to be disappointed.
There are a couple of mildly interesting ideas here but basically it just comes over as a string of tediously extended hardcore sex scenes performed by art students. Associating it with Bataille is ridiculous - the only link is the openness about sex. But in terms of aesthetic interest there's no comparison at all. In short: don't bother.
Android (1982)
Look past the cheap special effects to the playful, intelligent script
If this film had been made in the 1950s when nobody expected sci-fi to have amazing special effects it would probably have been rediscovered as a classic by now, as it has some really interesting themes (unusually and determinedly pro-android), and an extremely clever and witty script, not to mention some fun old-movie references. Unfortunately, films like Alien and the Star Wars series had reset expectations by the early 80s, so the obvious cheapness of the production was probably hard for cinema audiences of the day to accept. Trust me, though, if you like intelligent, amusing, quirky, thought-provoking sci-fi then you can do a lot worse than Android. Sooner or later this film will be rediscovered, as it's far too good to languish forever forgotten.
I give a hat-tip to Danny Peary for recommending it - he really does have some very good off-the-beaten-track suggestions.
Monte Walsh (1970)
one of the great tragic westerns
I'm a sucker for death-of-the-west westerns and this is right up there with the all time greats. Put it this way: It wouldn't look at all out of place if you put it in alongside Peckinpah's westerns; it has the same kind of look, the same kind of feel, it breathes the same air. For me there's no higher accolade than that. I've always admired Lee Marvin but this might just be his best screen role. Inevitably some people will complain that it's too slow and too episodic, but I'd suggest they try to tweak their expectations. This is a film about the cowboy life, and the pain of seeing it gradually slipping away right in front of your eyes. I'll trade a few shots of Lee Marvin's face expressing that for any number of shootouts and plot twists.
Monte Walsh (2003)
A good remake but can't match the 1970 version
The claim in the opening credits that this film is based on the Jack Schaefer novel is something of a white lie, as it actually follows the 1970 film in almost every detail, often word-for-word, just adding a couple of scenes and one additional supporting character (the company man). That's a hard act to follow and while Selleck is decent enough he can't match Lee Marvin. It's still pretty classy for a made-for-TV movie, though, and well worth watching in its own right. I recommend seeing this one first and then watching the (superior) original.
A torinói ló (2011)
The slowest of slow cinema
I do actually think I've had visits to the dentist that were less painful than sitting through two and a half hours of this. Tarr is renowned for long takes of nothing happening, but he takes the approach to absurd extremes here. And the soundtrack is as bleak and monotonous as the visuals - either the noise of the relentless gale or an endlessly repeated 3-note dirge. I think if you really like Bresson then you might like this - Tarr makes Bresson seem like Baz Luhrmann by comparison. If not, avoid it like the plague. You have been warned.
Hadaka no shima (1960)
Beautiful to look at but boring
Though the cinematography is tremendous and the soundtrack also good I'm afraid endless repetitions of peasant farmers irrigating their crops (this must take up nearly half of the film's running time) isn't my idea of a good cinematic experience. I also hated The Tree of Wooden Clogs, so clearly films glorifying the quiet nobility of peasant life aren't for me. I just kept thinking 'why don't they give up this back-breaking work and go and join the modern world?'
Lancelot du Lac (1974)
Dull anti-mythical take on the Arthurian story.
It's clear that Bresson has a negative intention NOT to follow the tradition of mystical, magic-haunted renderings of the Arthurian legend. There's no Merlin, no Lady in the Lake, no Excalibur, no Morgana le Fay. But what is he offering instead? There's a lot of courtly intriguing (with Mordred cast as a Machiavellian politician) and a lot of emphasis on background elements like clinking armour and horses' hoofs. But if there's a larger purpose to all this it's lost on me. As usual Bresson seems to have instructed his actors to deliver their lines as lifelessly as possible, and there is little by way of human drama. So if you fancy a bit of cinematic Arthurianism I recommend you skip Lancelot du Lac and instead look up Boorman's superb Excalibur.
Cross of Iron (1977)
The best war film after 'Apocalypse Now'.
Peckinpah blows everything to smithereens as only he knows how but still delivers a powerful character driven drama with a heartfelt anti-war message. Coburn, Schell, Mason, Warner and the supporting cast of German character actors are all great.
Husbands (1970)
Meandering story of mid-life crisis
The starting premise - the death of a friend triggering a mid-life crisis among three other men - is decent enough, and the actors are talented, but what follows is two hours of incoherent improv with minimal plot. I guess Cassavetes is offering a commentary on the emotional incompetence of the American male, but it's hard to sit through such a meandering, directionless sprawl of a film. I'm also mystified about the billing as 'comedy' - that might be the film's one and only joke.
Pickpocket (1959)
Bresson is no Dostoevsky
That's the fourth Bresson film I've seen and it's clear by now that I simply don't like Bresson, and frankly cannot comprehend the critical adulation. The fact that the main character at one point justifies his behaviour in terms similar to Raskolnikov does not mean that this is the cinematic equivalent of Crime and Punishment. I've read Crime and Punishment and comparing that in any way to Pickpocket is an insult to Dostoevsky. In stark contrast to the Russian's ability to take you inside the head of a character and feel with his pumping heart, Bresson puts nothing but archetypes on the screen, figures out of Christian morality plays who bear no resemblance to real flesh and blood people (and LaSalle's wooden acting certainly doesn't help). His pious female characters particularly stick in my craw - you can virtually see the halos glowing over their heads.
Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto (1970)
A clever concept but dramatically unengaging
The film's opening scene is great, but overall I found it very disappointing given all the rave reviews I've read. The political point about 'citizens above suspicion' is made with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer and the main character is both unsympathetic and implausible. The answer to the question 'what's the character's motivation?' shouldn't be 'to prove a political point the director wants to make'. I'm not even unsympathetic to the politics, I just don't think they're effectively expressed in a feature film if it lacks plausible characterization. Of course, you could go for all-out satire, but despite flirting with that approach Petri sticks for the most part with telling it straight, and it just doesn't work because the plot is so contrived.