Gunsmoke: Second Season, Vol. 2 (2008)

“Gunsmoke: Second Season, Vol. 2”

In Dodge City, Kansas, where smoking guns and shootouts are the order of the day, U.S. Marshal Matt Dillon (James Arness, superb) is up to his arms in the chaos brimming along the new frontier.

This second season of the show, which appeared during the 1956 television season, isn’t as dark as what came before it, but within it, you nevertheless can see its influence reflected in other television shows, from “The Big Valley” straight up through “Deadwood.”

The series is an appealing throwback, with Dennis Weaver as Dillon’s sidekick Chester and Amanda Blake as the formidable Miss Kitty, owner of the lively Longbranch Saloon.

Blake is very good here--she’s tough and she's pretty--but once you’ve seen Joan Crawford’s saloonkeeper in the camp classic “Johnny Guitar” (add it to your Netflix queue), all others come second.

Grade: B+

John Wayne: The Fox Westerns (2008)

“John Wayne: The Fox Westerns”

Four films--1930’s “The Big Trail,” the 1960 Western-comedy “North to Alaska,” 1961’s “The Comancheros” and 1969’s “The Undefeated.”

The standout is Raoul Walsh’s “Trail,” one of Wayne’s best and earliest films, in which he looks ridiculously young, but don’t let his baby face fool you.

When it comes to romancing Marguerite Churchill, he’s all Duke. Beyond the value (find it online for under $25), the set finds Wayne once again capturing the isolation of the cowboy, turning him into a kind of comic hero, and all while offering a valentine to the masculine aesthetic.

Grade: B+

The 2007 Academy Award-Nominated Short Films: Review (2008)

This time out, size doesn't matter

If for some reason you didn't find time to jet to the film festivals at Cannes, Berlin, Los Angeles and Tribeca, not to worry. Currently, 50 theaters in 50 cities around the U.S. are offering a rare opportunity to see the range of amazing work being done in the short-film format, both animated and live action, which is so frequently and unjustly ignored in the hype over big-budget films.

Because these films must be condensed to their essence, they often are more entertaining minute-for-minute than any other films.

This year's animated nominees are especially rich, with Josh Raskin's "I Met the Walrus" offering a brief, trippy account of the day 14-year-old Jerry Levitan interviewed John Lennon on the sly. A riff on cheating death is found in Samuel Tourneux's "Even Pigeons Go To Heaven," though that cheat doesn't exactly go as one man plans, and one woman's haunting journey by train is the focus of Chris Lavis' anxiety-ridden "Madame Tutli-Putli." Also here is "My Love," a beautifully impressionistic piece from Russia's Alexander Petrov that follows one young man's love affair with two women (as with some of the films in this collection, this one is best suited for children).

As for the live-action films, look for Andrea Jublin's bizarre Italian offering "The Substitute," which is dedicated to those who have difficulties with conduct (for reasons that immediately become clear); the funny French comedy "The Mozart of Pickpockets," with director Philippe Pollet-Villard following two bumbling pickpockets whose luck is lifted thanks to a deaf boy; and Belgium's funnier "Tanghi Argentini."

That film is from Guido Thys, and in it is a man who promises the Internet love of his life the fire of the tango, a dance he doesn't know. It's up to the help of a reluctant male co-worker to get him up to speed within two weeks, all of which makes for a hugely entertaining movie that, in the end, literally is a gift. Also in the mix is Daniel Barber's "The Tonto Woman," which comes by way of Elmore Leonard's deceptively spare short story. It's an intense, nicely mounted Western romance that's so compelling, you almost wish its characters could be explored in a feature-length film.

All of the films are special, but one in each category is remarkable. First is Christian E. Christiansen's harrowing and heart-breaking live-action Denmark film, "At Night," in which three women struggle to cope with cancer and their own mortality at a cancer ward. The results are powerful. Second is the standout in the animated category, "Peter and The Wolf," a fantastic entry from the United Kingdom and Poland that sometimes puts a lump in your throat before forcing it out with a laugh.

What this film observes about cats alone is reason enough to seek out these movies.

Grade: A

The Missing: Movie Review, DVD Review (2003)

First grief, then rage

(Originally published 2003)

Directed by Ron Howard, written by Ken Kaufman, 135 minutes, rated R.

In the opening scene of Ron Howard's western “The Missing,” Cate Blanchett, in full period drag, straddles a writhing Mexican woman, holds her down and pulls the last rotten tooth from her head.

It’s 1885 and times are tough in New Mexico, particularly for a beleaguered healer like Blanchett’s Maggie Gilkeson, a single woman raising two daughters with the help of Brake Baldwin (Aaron Eckhart), the scruffy cowpoke she loves, albeit secretly.

Like novelist Willa Cather’s great character, Antonia, Maggie is a product of the frontier.

She’s bold and spirited, tough and unshrinking. As played by Blanchett in one of her most rewarding and challenging roles since her breakout performance in “Elizabeth,” Maggie is a force to be reckoned with, which is a good thing since her teenage daughter, Lilly (Evan Rachel Wood), has recently been kidnapped by a band of Apaches determined to sell her and other women into sexual slavery in Mexico.

Reminiscent of John Ford’s 1956 classic, “The Searchers,” in which John Wayne gave one of the best, most memorable performances of his career, “The Missing” conspires to reconnect Maggie with her father Samuel (Tommy Lee Jones), who abandoned Maggie as a child and who has since re-entered her life to make amends.

In spite of the cold fist of hatred Maggie feels toward him, she soon realizes she has no choice but to seek his help. Indeed, rather conveniently, Samuel has lived among the Apaches for years; he knows their customs, their language, how they think. And so, along with Maggie’s young daughter, Dot (Jenna Boyd), the three go in search of Lilly, a perilous journey that often proves uncomfortably violent.

The film, which screenwriter Ken Kaufman based on Thomas Eidson’s novel, “The Last Ride,” is more claustrophobic than this year’s other western, “Open Range,” and it never achieves the scenic greatness of the films of Sam Peckinpah, Howard Hawks and Ford. But it does have energy, comedy and passion, rising above the contrivances that drive it because Howard’s heart is in it so completely.

There are moments in this movie that are unshakable, such as the harrowing, beautifully shot scene in which Maggie and Dot race through the woods on horseback; the look that wavers across Maggie’s face when it occurs to her that she might have lost her daughter for good to the evil Chidin (Eric Schweig); the scores of fiery arrows hurtling through the air and sinking still ablaze into the bellies and necks of unsuspecting horses.

Howard doesn’t hold back in “The Missing,” and neither does his cast. Together, they’re a force, lifting the movie above its unnecessary lapses into mysticism and mythmaking with superlative action and acting.

Grade: B+

3:10 to Yuma: Movie Review (2007)

Discovering life in the Old West

(Originally published 2007)

Directed by James Mangold, written by Halsted Welles, Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, 117 minutes, rated R.

The new James Mangold movie, "3:10 to Yuma," follows Kevin Costner's "Open Range" and Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven" in that it comes to the genre having learned plenty from all that came before it. In Mangold's case, that also meant studying the 1957 original on which his film is based, which happens to be a plus since the movie is a classic.

This beautifully acted, expertly staged film is infused with the sense that there still is more to be discovered in the Old West.

Given the enthusiasm with which he directs, it's clear that Mangold (“Walk the Line”) came to the material charged with the sense that he could manipulate familiar stock Western conventions and make them appear fresh again so long as he had the story, the characters and the cast to back up his bravado.

That he does is an understatement. "3:10 to Yuma" is one of the more exciting, engrossing movies to come along in awhile.

Based on Elmore Leonard's short story, itself inspired by the 1952 movie "High Noon," the film’s plot is as lean and as simple as you’d expect from Leonard, but none of that simplicity translates to the characters, who are complex and human in ways that make for a satisfying, emotionally rich narrative.

Christian Bale is Dan Evans, a down-on-his-luck rancher with a bum leg and a bum life who is trying to keep it together in Bisbee, Ariz., in the late 1800s. Thanks to a drought, his cattle are dying off, which is fueling an already tense situation at home.

Though his youngest boy adores him, his eldest son, Will (Logan Lerman), and Dan's wife, Alice (Gretchen Mol), have lost faith in him--Will looks at him in disgust, Alice with pity, neither of which exactly makes Dan feel like the man he longs to be.

When into his life comes Russell Crowe's Ben Wade, an infamous outlaw with a string of robberies and murders behind him, Dan is faced with an opportunity to regain the respect he has lost when Wade is captured. A railroad official (Dallas Roberts) offers him $200 to help bring Wade to justice.

Given the viciousness of Wade's posse, which is led by the chilling Charlie Prince (Ben Foster in an Academy Award-worthy supporting performance), it's a risky proposition, but Dan’s desperation to turn his life around is so great, he nevertheless accepts it. Against his wife's wishes, he joins the railroad official and his men (including Peter Fonda and Alan Tudyk) on a 2-day trip to Contention City, where Wade will be placed on the 3:10 train to Yuma and meet his maker when he arrives there at the prison.

What ensues is just as action-packed and as disastrous as you'd expect--Wade's men want their leader back and they're skilled enough to do it--but what you might not expect is the odd bond that grows between Dan and Ben. With Dan choosing a life of good and Ben a life of evil, each becomes fascinated by the other, which allows Mangold to mine unexpected depths from a movie that, in the wrong hands, could have relied solely on action and thus wouldn’t have allowed for the terrific performances Mangold pulls from Crowe and Bale.

In the end, if "3:10 to Yuma" doesn't find itself on the short list of Academy Award contenders, this film itself has been robbed.

Grade: A

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Open Range: Movie & DVD Review (2003)

At home on the range

(Originally published 2003)

Directed by Kevin Costner, written by Craig Storper, based on the novel “The Open Range Men” by Lauran Paine, 135 minutes, rated R.

In the Western “Open Range,” director, producer and star Kevin Costner casts himself in a variation of the role that has defined so much of his career, that of a troubled loner whose reluctance to become romantically involved is exactly the quality that makes him so irresistible to strong-willed women.

He’s Charley Waite, a quiet, brooding man guiding cattle across the wild West with three other free rangers—the patriarch of the group, Boss Spearman (Robert Duvall), gentle giant Mose (Abraham Benrubi) and the immature Button (Diego Luna).

After a leisurely opening that drags in spite of the welcome diversion of cinematographer James Muro’s stunning, wide-open landscapes (the film was shot in Alberta and its look is pure John Ford), the movie gets under your skin.

Working against the men as they move along the outskirts of Harmonville is a powerful, insidious rancher named Baxter (Michael Gambon), who detests free rangers so much, he employs several men to find Charley, Boss and the others with the intent to kill them.

What ensues is a gathering storm, one that culminates in a vicious, beautifully conceived gunfight that matches anything in “High Noon” or “Unforgiven,” along with a stiff romantic undercurrent that pulls the film together as Charley falls for Sue Barlow (Annette Bening), the local doctor’s handsome, headstrong sister.

Time and failure have turned Costner into a generous actor and director. Throughout “Open Range,” he literally hands his movie to Duvall, who runs with the film, doing some of his best work in years, walking a fine line between grounding the movie as Charley’s moral compass while offering several much-needed moments of comic relief. He’s terrific here, one of the best reasons to see the movie.

Some of the film’s dialogue is unfortunate (“I’ve been holdin’ my love a long time, Charley”; “Let’s go rustle up some grub”), and Costner remains the sort of cornball softy who can’t resist forcibly tugging at our hearts. Still, for the most part, he’s more sure-footed than ever, mining a memorable posthumous performance from Michael Jeter, delivering a solid turn himself, and finding in the Western something grand, familiar and new within a genre that clearly has some life in it yet.

Grade: B+

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