Post by pimpinainteasy on Jan 21, 2019 13:35:19 GMT
an oddity among american westerns - a feminist western.
zandy (gene hackman) - a lonely farmer answers an advertisement for a 25 year old bride because he wants a son. the bride (liv ullman) turns up and she is actually 32. the ruthless and rough zandy is tough on his new bride and he even rapes her. but the bride is resilient and the two of them settle down. there are temptations in the form of a loose woman (SUSAN TYRELL played a few of these hussy roles. FAT CITY, TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS come to mind). life on zandy's farm is tough and he is also wary of men who might have an eye on his bride.
there are very realistic scenes of HACKMAN fighting a bear (yes, long before DI CAPRIO) and him and a horse falling off a steep hill. the director JAN TROELL (i have not seen any other film by him) is clearly a nature lover and there are beautiful long shots of sparsely populated grand vistas.
the film shows frontier life as it might have actually been - dull, dreary and harsh. there are no gunfights or cowboys and indians. just the harshness of the land and two people trying to get along in this tough backdrop.
HACKMAN is perfect as the unrefined insecure brute. ULLMAN is rather matronly (and not beautiful and sexy like in BERGMAN movies) as the sincere and resilient bride.
i did not really enjoy the film's slow pace or the indecipherable dialog delivery of the actors. it is not the kind of film that i would normally watch. or even rewatch.
(6/10)