Post by drystyx on Mar 30, 2021 5:10:36 GMT
I can't giet enough of this Western. One of the first I saw on a late show as a kid. I liked it for the "coolness" and spectacle at that time.
When I saw it later, as an adult, I got the full thrust. This was a very deep film. The three main characters all have lots of credible motivation. Even the sideline characters aren't "throw away" characters, save perhaps the one truly evil one, Cinch, who murders our hero's bride to be, and starts our hero (Arthur Kennedy) on a trail of revenge, to an unknown place called Chuck a Luck.
We have an "anti villain" duo in Mel Ferrer and Marlene Dietrich, both of whom have very keen senses of honor in their outlaw lives. They're not exactly "realistic" outlaws. More like "Robin Hood" outlaws. As Frenchie, Ferrer has a loyalty to his friends. When his right hand man is severely wounded in a hold up, Frenchie slows his horse along with his friend's horse, and when his friend dies, he gives him a pretty good burial.
Little things like this make us care about the characters. Even the gang of outlaws who aren't as honorable as "Frenchie" and aren't as evil as "Cinch" have likable traits due to their motivations.
9/10
When I saw it later, as an adult, I got the full thrust. This was a very deep film. The three main characters all have lots of credible motivation. Even the sideline characters aren't "throw away" characters, save perhaps the one truly evil one, Cinch, who murders our hero's bride to be, and starts our hero (Arthur Kennedy) on a trail of revenge, to an unknown place called Chuck a Luck.
We have an "anti villain" duo in Mel Ferrer and Marlene Dietrich, both of whom have very keen senses of honor in their outlaw lives. They're not exactly "realistic" outlaws. More like "Robin Hood" outlaws. As Frenchie, Ferrer has a loyalty to his friends. When his right hand man is severely wounded in a hold up, Frenchie slows his horse along with his friend's horse, and when his friend dies, he gives him a pretty good burial.
Little things like this make us care about the characters. Even the gang of outlaws who aren't as honorable as "Frenchie" and aren't as evil as "Cinch" have likable traits due to their motivations.
9/10
