CHUD FILM OF THE MONTH CLUB - JUNE 2010 - Clint & Westerns.

Very timely, Tati, especially as the Danish Film Institute has dedicated June to Clint Eastwood. Check out this line up! (sorry to all my English speaking compadres...you'll have to settle for Google Translate if you want to read that)

At any rate, I reserved my seat for Pale Rider, so I'll be seeing that (for the first time ever!) on the 17th, and I'll make sure to pop in here and offer up my thoughts afterward. Not sure I'll be able to get out to see Outlaw Josey Wales, though. Hope it's not a big deal if I watch one and not the other.

Pale Rider will leave a lot of people cold. Wales is considerably more sentimental than Drifter, and Pale Rider takes it even further, possibly too far, into "family friendly" territory. Then Clint gets all pissed off again and makes Unforgiven. It's a really weird arc in his career.

But for me, Wales has the best craft of any of them, especially the photography of Bruce Surtees, an unsung hero of the decade. Eastwood has said he likes to shoot in the fall because the low-hanging sun combined with the weather gives you a certain kind of crisp light that you don't get in spring or summer, and I never even noticed that in life until I read him talking about it.

Outlaw Josey Wales is easily one of my favorite Eastwood westerns, even considering the Leone movies it's close. I just really like the entire character arc and it feels like a pretty epic story altogether, so I'd love to watch it again. That being said, the last time I saw Pale Rider I was naught but a kid (thanks, Pop!) so I don't remember much about it. I'll pull Outlaw out of my DVD pile and grab Pale Rider when I get a chance and then weigh in.

Josey Wales is a great film. probably Clint's most affecting take on his western persona, aside from Unforgiven. Josey losing one family and gaining another, the film's take on the cost of the civil war on both sides and Josey kicking all sorts of ass, it's just an incredible film.

Maybe I'm just not that into Westerns, but something about the pacing of Outlaw Josey Wales really bugs me. It's tightly plotted and exciting and then it just sort of slows down somewhere around the one hour mark.

I think I'm just not a Western kind of guy. Should I even give Pale Rider a chance?

The Man With No Name trilogy. Love The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, the rest I like alright.

Netflix sent me Stagecoach, though, so I'll have another chance to give it a try. Maybe "Classic" westerns are more my speed.

The picks are kind of obvious.

Outlaw Josey Wales has a lot of baggage as a production which pops up in the film a lot. Still, it's got an amazing non-Peckinpah score from Jerry Fielding.

Pale Rider is a film that I flip-flop on due to my desire to want to respect Eastwood's Carmel period and beyond. But, it doesn't hold up when you pair it with something like High Plains Drifter.

What fucks with me more about Pale Rider is that it became indicative of a man that wanted to stop being an actor. Sure, he was fucking amazing in Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby (to a lesser extent). But, you don't quite get that connection to the material that Eastwood had with Post, Leone or Siegel.

But, if you want to bemoan the start of serious Eastwood...it can be proven to stretch back to Wales. The start of the Indian issue and the desire to foster surrogate families. But, how much of that was Philip Kaufman or Clint Eastwood?

Let's not stop here. There's much better Eastwood films to cover.

Strictly Westerns?

Chief Dan George is one of the top ten Clint sidekicks. Bad acting or no, the chemistry between them is awesome.

"When I get to likin' someone, they ain't around long."

"I notice when you get to dislikin' someone they ain't around long, neither."

For the record, it goes:

1. Clyde
2. Chief Dan George
3. Tyne Daly
4. Geoffrey Lewis
5. George "NOTONYAHLIFE!!!!" Kennedy
6. Shirley MacLaine
7. Jeff Bridges
8. Reni Santoni
9. Felton Perry (did the Dirty Harry people ever get him a new mailbox?)
10. Sondra Locke

Clint material?


THE BEGUILED
THE GAUNTLET
MAGNUM FORCE (The best Dirty Harry flick)
KELLY'S HEROES
WHERE EAGLES DARE
COOGAN'S BLUFF
BRONCO BILLY
WHITE HUNTER BLACK HEART

Tati, hit up that Clint Eastwood appreciation thread for some love for his other films. I dig The Eiger Sanction quite a bit.

The Eiger Sanction is a great thriller, and I have to throw in some love for a sentimental favorite of mine, Honkytonk Man. I also still think that Sudden Impact is still a bit underrated around here.

Sudden Impact is another Eastwood flick that I flip-flop on. I appreciate the fact that they tried to take Dirty Harry into a new decade, but Sondra Locke is very one note.

The Eiger Sanction is a good movie, but not a great one. It's a slower start than needed, plus there's a lot of scenes that just hang there.

Honkytonk Man is like Bronco Billy for me. I prefer Billy, but Honkytonk Man was another important building block in the later Eastwood career. You had the director trying to break out of the Dirty Harry Callahan mold, as he made careful character studies. Relying on a steady stable of character actors, Eastwood builds careful studies of sad sacks that feel more in line with directors such as Michael Ritchie or Hal Ashby. A far cry from the weepy male dramatics of Million Dollar Baby and Flags of Our Fathers.

Eastwood comes in phases and everyone will have what they like.

Also, another recommend.

A Perfect World. Costner works his ass off, but Eastwood keeps the film steady.

I love MAGNUM, but that's just crazy.

I was watching the Eastwood Factor last night and a thought occured, when will the Pale Rider revisionism happen? It's been too long since I watched it in one lump sum, but it's too limp and repetitive of his better work (as has been mentioned, High Plains Drifter, which I don't even think got a nod in that documentary.) for mr to get totally behind it.

Tightrope is worth a gander, I reckon.

How in the fuck is that crazy? The sequels are pretty much Harry grandstanding. Take the original and Magnum Force together.

Magnum Force works better as the root fantasy. A cop fighting dirty in the 1970s. Placing him against a psycho Zodiac sniper type isn't that much in terms of cinematic pleasure. Place the fucker against a death squad and Hal Holbrook. Throw in Milius and Cimino on script detail. It's better.

PLUS!


Better theme music. One of the best movie themes of the 1970s.

This, I'll give you. Just watched it last night thanks to DVR and Clint's bday salute, and when that theme starts at the WB logo, why, I just know I want to shamelessly rip it off someday.

Forget the other sequels, anyway. I stop giving a shit after Magnum Force. Don't get me wrong, if I'm flipping through and one of them is on, I might leave it there for a larf. But I think the DIRTY HARRY is just about a perfect marriage of material and actor, and nails the idea. There is no need for a sequel at all, and that maybe what I hold against MAGNUM FORCE. Truth be told, though, MAGNUM (which I must point out again that I ADORE) is also wildly uneven, and doesn't have that same tightness that HARRY had. The Mitchell Ryan stuff goes nowhere, other than add a revenge type arc, and that goes nowhere as well. The central conceit is great, though, we see that even Harry isn't as extreme as we may think, and Magnum Force probablyl works best as a fuck you to the folks that took HARRY'S politics a little too close to the vest.

But anything that will make me forget about THE ENFORCER is fine by me.

Tati: you NEED NEED NEED to watch 'Where Eagles Dare' and tell me what you think of it. It's my favorite WW2 film, and it places in my top 10 of all time.

WHERE EAGLES DARE is good fun but there are a lot better WW2 movies out there. Kelly's Heroes, for example.

Tati - I don't think the Villian in DIRTY HARRY is awful, I think as Psycho's go he's extremely effective. Good performaance from Robinson. I think Eastwood is better, (although still great in MAGNUM) and San Fran is used more effectively.

Plus Dirty Harry has HOT MARY.

I like 'Kelly's Heroes', but it's pretty lightweight to me. 'Where Eagles Dare' is, at least to me, the perfect 'men on a mission' film: Great action, clever plot twists, and many perfect scenes (especially the 'dinner' scene) deliver a 10/10 experience...at least, to me.

I have a question for Tati and the other South American guys, name some good South American westerns. There got to be some South American got more cowboys, then North America and Australia combine.

I haven't seen it in a long time but Pale Rider always felt like High Plains Drifter without the balls. U never realized it was written, directed and produced by Richard Schickel, the noted Leone and Eastwood biographer.

that suck!

I agree Pale Rider kind of a poor man High Plains Drifter, or Shane for that matter. although I kind of surprised no one tried to make a closer film version of Shane yet.

I can't remember if it was HPD or PR but I saw an Eastwood film that involved painting buildings red. I really enjoyed that movie, where as I don't really care for TOJW

You're thinking of 'High Plains Drifter', Kate.

Huh?

Thanks for the info, JB. I really liked that one, it was quite good where as I felt that TOJW was basically a less interesting version of SERAPHIM FALLS

No kidding. I might have bought it for a few seconds if he'd claimed PINK CADILLAC was from Schickel, but that's about it.

I think Dragon was talking about the doc itself.

Shit, you're right. It was directed by Eastwood, I thinking of the documentary on the DVD.

Got to see Pale Rider on the big screen this past weekend (the print was kinda shit, but it wasn't enough to ruin the experience). While I liked the film overall, I kind of feel like the simplistic morality that pervades the story sort of drags it down a bit. This becomes especially apparent when compared to other Eastwood films like the aforementioned High Plains Drifter or Unforgiven (quite possibly one of the 10 best movies ever made); both of those films feature somewhat similar narratives, but feel much deeper and more nuanced. Pale Rider is still well worth a look, though, if for no other reason than the absolutely gorgeous cinematography.

I have to admit, though, that I was having kind of a hard time taking Michael Moriarty seriously as the second lead, as I was really only familiar with him from the films he did with Larry Cohen. Also, the little fling that the Preacher has with Sarah felt a bit forced to me, not to mention totally unnecessary. It never really felt like it was earned, if that makes any sense. It just seemed like it was thrown in there for no reason, as it never really has any impact on anything in the film.

I haven't seen either in a while but I love Josey Wales and I thought Pale Rider was just kind of bleh. It's a perfectly fine movie when all is said and done, but it doesn't stack up against Eastwood's other westerns.

Obviously Unforgiven is the end-all be-all of Eastwood westerns, but I go back and forth on whether Josey Wales or Drifter is better. I think Drifter might be the more consistent, over-all better film, but Wales is a lot of fun and has some of my favorite lines in all of cinema. I could probably watch Josey more than I could Drifter.

If I can get a hold of the DVDs before the end of the month I'll come back and give some more thorough thoughts.

Got to watch Outlaw Josey Wales on a plane last weekend (unedited, even), and it really went a long way toward washing the rather bland taste of Pale Rider out of my mouth. I loved watching the evolution of Clint's character, from family man, to vengeful bad ass, and then back to a family man, but this time with a bit of a wary edge. All the performances were great in this one, and everything in the film felt organic and necessary, unlike Pale Rider which had a lot of bits that just didn't feel like they belonged to the story that was being told.

Best thing from Pale Rider (Barely SFW).

Hang Em High almost feels like a TV movie in parts, thanks to Ted Post.

Jesus, Hang Em' High is one of the dullest movie experiences I've ever had. The only well paced film I've seen from Ted Post is Beneath the Planet of the Apes.