April 13th, 2004 05:18 PM |
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Ten Thousand Motels |
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)
Directed by
Sam Peckinpah
In a Western, the eventual confrontation between the powers of good & evil is the showdown. It is the classic ending..the point towards which the whole movie has been progressing..
Sam Peckinpah ( a director whose work was charged with feeling, although of a different kind & with different motivations) was undoubtedly the most promising contender for Westerns.
Like John Ford (an artist with profound feeling for time & place & people) before him.. he saw the Western as an expression of ideals that have passed out in real life..
The film (rich, haunting, yet demanding the director's work ) is full of gunplay which is as far from the "High Noon" & "Shane" methods as can be imagined. Peckinpah has most of his characters deeply dyed with violence & aware of the prevailing appearance of corruption..
A Showdown between Kris Kristofferson (Billy the Kid) & Jack Elam (deputy sheriff) is performed by none of the conventional rules.
Both stand back to back, assent to walk..counting ten before turning & shooting.. Elam starts walking & counting..Kristofferson stands quiet..turns & fires. Jack Elam, similarly, turned long before the count was completed..Both cheated but Kristofferson cheated better.
Garrett is the reformed outlaw made sheriff to hunt down his old friend..& thereby the man who compromises.. ( "This country's getting older & I aim to grow old with it..there's an age in a man's life when he has to consider what's going to happen next.")
But Billy can't compromise..It's not his way.. "Billy, they don't like you to be free!" proclaims the Bob Dylan theme song..Again the ultimate confrontation (told in set-pieces) is not typical : Billy the Kid is caught (half-dressed) by surprise..There is no traditional showdown but an extermination from a reluctant hunter sold out to power..Perhaps the absolute tendency to realism destined the final showdown as an interesting object of cinematic legend..
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April 13th, 2004 06:24 PM |
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Bloozehound |
quote: Ten Thousand Motels wrote:
who's that? |
April 13th, 2004 07:31 PM |
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mac_daddy |
looks like dylan to me...
I am glad you like Lopnesome Dove - I couldnt put it down the first time, either...
fave Clint western --> Fistfull of Dynamite |
April 13th, 2004 11:32 PM |
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Bloozehound |
What about Ned Kelly? (I've never seen it though hehe)
[Edited by Bloozehound] |
April 14th, 2004 02:30 AM |
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Bloozehound |
Electric Horseman was on tv tonight, i like this old flick.
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April 14th, 2004 04:47 PM |
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Ten Thousand Motels |
quote: Bloozehound wrote:
What about Ned Kelly? (I've never seen it though hehe)
I never have either. Maybe I'll rent it just for the F of it. I have no idea whether it's any good. |
April 14th, 2004 04:54 PM |
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glencar |
It was a b+ & that's cuz I'm a Jagger fan. The new version of that story came out & was unfavorably compared to the MJ version. The new one features Heath Ledger & Naomi Watts. |
April 14th, 2004 04:59 PM |
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Ten Thousand Motels |
quote: glencar wrote:
It was a b+ & that's cuz I'm a Jagger fan. The new version of that story came out & was unfavorably compared to the MJ version. The new one features Heath Ledger & Naomi Watts.
Well good enough. I'll take your word for it. I gotta see it. I don't tend to like remakes though. King Kong is supposedly being remade again. I didn't like the Jeff Bridges one. |
April 16th, 2004 04:23 AM |
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Cant Catch Me |
I rented "Bullet in the Head" in Arlington, Va., at a local specialty rental place called Hong Kong Action Films (really), although the store had at least as many XXX videos as it did Hong Kong action, or perhaps even more. I always felt a little embarrased going in there because of that, although I think XXX is where it made its money. Hell of a selection of HK ultraviolence though.
How about these two excellent films, though, which may or may not qualify as Westerns despite both having "Cowboy" in their titles?
"Midnight Cowboy" and
"Drugstore Cowboy." |
April 17th, 2004 11:28 AM |
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Ten Thousand Motels |
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April 17th, 2004 12:57 PM |
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Bloozehound |
[Edited by Bloozehound] |
April 21st, 2004 11:01 PM |
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Ten Thousand Motels |
Disclaimer: Normally I wouldn't ressurect a thread from page two. But since some posters seemed to like Eastwoods "cult westerns" I thought maybe a few people would find this of interest.
Music a Central Theme in Eastwood's Movies
By Tamara Conniff
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Clint Eastwood (news)'s passion for music began when he was very young, playing trumpet and piano. "I played when I was a kid, but I drifted away from all of it when I got into the acting profession and then came back to it later on," he says.
During his illustrious career, Eastwood has appeared in 55 features, starring in 43. He has directed 24 films and produced 17. He also has served as the composer on many of his features, including "Unforgiven," "The Bridges of Madison County," "A Perfect World" and last year's "Mystic River." For his musical vision, he was set to be honored Wednesday with performing rights group ASCAP's Opus Award at the 19th annual Film and TV Music Awards at the Beverly Hilton.
The Opus Award is bestowed on an artist "in appreciation for recognizing the singular contribution of music to film," says Marilyn Bergman, ASCAP president and chairman of the board.
"It's not just scores that he's written," Bergman says. "It's the sensitively he shows to the use of music in all his movies."
Eastwood says he found his way back to composing in the 1970s. "I just started writing various melodies for themes that I used in pictures and wasn't really trying to write songs; I was writing theme material," Eastwood says.
Some of Eastwood's themes did translate into songs. For example, he collaborated with Linda Thompson and Carole Bayer Sager to write "Why Should I Care?" from "True Crime," which was performed by Diana Krall (news).
"One thing just led to another," Eastwood says. "Even though I gave up playing many years earlier, I can still kind of sit down and doodle a little bit. In hindsight, I kick myself for not having the discipline to spend more time with it when I was younger, but by the same token, I might have avoided doing some of the things I've done. One thing pays off when the other gets shorted."
For Eastwood, the melody or theme takes on a life of its own and comes to him at different times during the filmmaking process.
"Sometimes I hear the melody before the picture, sometimes afterward," he says. "For 'Unforgiven,' I jotted down a theme before I ever started the movie. Then I just sort of thought about it, revisited it again at the end of the movie and put it in. But for 'The Bridges of Madison County,' I wrote that theme while we were in the midst of shooting."
Films take on a feeling, a sound, Eastwood says. "A movie is either going to have very simplistic music or something very intricate," he says. If Eastwood envisions an intricate score, he'll often align himself with an arranger and co-composer.
However, sometimes silence is just as golden. "I like music in movies, but I don't like it wall to wall," Eastwood says. "If it's wall to wall, it callouses the ear. Sometimes when you have a musical theme, it should be offset by some moments of either silence or some other effect that's going on."
Eastwood also is a jazz fanatic. "He's always been very interested in music," Bergman says. "I always run into him at jazz clubs around town."
Bergman says Eastwood's first foray into weaving music and film was with 1988's "Bird," which followed the troubled life of jazz great Charlie "Bird" Parker.
"I loved doing that film," Eastwood says.
Eastwood is working on "Million Dollar Baby," but he's in talks to do another pure music-oriented film down the road. "I would love that more than anything," he says.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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April 22nd, 2004 12:33 AM |
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Bloozehound |
Keep the western thread alive!
Eastwood loves the music.
His film on Charlie Parker
His semi-fictional account of Hank Williams
In Scorsese's "The Blues" series he did the final segment about piano blues with legend Pinetop Perkins (who I saw in concert a month ago)
[Edited by Bloozehound] |
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