|
|
Rating:  - My Favorite Peckinpah Western
The Shut Mouth Society
The Shopkeeper
An unusual and great Western--well worth owning
The Ballad of Cable Hogue may seem like a departure for Peckinpah, but that's only because his reputation in westerns was set by the more popular The Wild Bunch. This film shows a much more subtle side of Peckinpah and his view of the Old West. (Well, not quite the Old West. The story takes place in 1908.)
Jason Robards is perfect in this role. His portrayal of Hogue as a cantankerous character that gave up his youthful dreams years ago is engaging and compelling. This is a lament (ballad) about a dying lifestyle--a mythical time perhaps, but when it faded into history, it crushed people's dreams and aspirations for a new life just beyond civilization.
The Ballad of Cable Hogue is a well-executed film with great acting.
The Wild Bunch - The Original Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Rating: - A Peckinpaugh Keeper
This movie, suddenly became available, as I continue
to add to a completion of Sam Peckinpaugh legends. I had
no expectations, so I just enjoyed watching Jason Robards
operate.
Rating:  - Not really a great film...but it stays with you...
I've always been a big fan of Sam Peckinpah and a bigger fan of Strother Martin so when I ran across this film some years ago on late night television I was hooked. Recently I bought a copy of the DVD and watched it again and I think it is better than I remembered it being, which is always a nice surprise.
Peckinpah's noted fixation on extreme violence isn't really present here, to any notable degree; in fact this film is rather sweet, or at least bitter-sweet. There is the obligatory killing or two but they're rather incidental.
Robard's performance is excellent as to be expected, but then so is everyone else's. One thing about Sam was that he had an eye for characters.
Unfortunately he didn't have much of an ear for music. I've long noted that in nearly all of his films the soundtracks are awful and this one is no exception. The tunes are intended to be mellow and invocative but in reality are maudlin and syrupy. In the end they don't do much damage and I'm sure that there are folks out there who feel quite differently about the music than I do.
Still it is an interesting film and it does have "staying power". In the final analysis it may be one of Peckinpah's finer efforts.
Rating: - A Great Western Love Story
I bought this movie for my husband who loves westerns and he has watched it several times and enjoys it, the more he watches it. He especially loves the music.
Rating:  - Films don't age well
There are films that are not just movies to me--"The Sound of Music," "The Last Tycoon," "Chariots of Fire," "The Purple Rose of Cairo". . . Yet, I won't watch them again; I'm certain, for some reason, they would be disappointing on review.
Had I seen "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" in 1970 I would have loved it. There is great stuff here: a smiling $5.00 bill, a beautiful heroine with pretty underwear, a eulogy for, what?--individualism, a frontier way of life, and. . .
But the corn shows, too. The film has, perhaps as all films must, not aged well.
|
|