VERA CRUZ

1954/Director: Robert Aldrich/ Writers: Roland Kibbee, James R. Webb

Cast: Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Denise Darcel, Cesar Romero, Sara Montiel, George Macready, Jack Elam, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson

I love a good Western and some of my favorites types of westerns have to be what I call the Mexican Westerns. These sorts of westerns became popular during the sixties and typically featured renegade mercenary types from America who travel into Mexico for purposes that usually revolve around nothing more than money and gold. The backdrop is one of the many periods of revolution in Mexico during the late 19th century and into the early 20th century. Typically there is some sort of transformation in the motives of the mercenaries towards the end of the film away from gold and wealth to some sort of cause, or to something the men once believed in before life made them cynical and ruthless. The best examples are films like The Wild Bunch, The Magnificent Seven and The Professionals. One could also include the handful of legendary and influential Westerns by Sergio Leone and many other Spaghetti or Italian-Westrns as well some lone cowboy films – as opposed to a band of mercenaries –like Two Mules for Sister Sara with Clint Eastwood and Valdez is Coming with Burt Lancaster. While 1954’s Robert Aldrich (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, Hush… Hush, Sweet Charolette, The Dirty Dozen, Flight of the Phoenix)  film Vera Cruz is not as violent or cynical as Sam Peckinpah’s classic of slow motion blood spatter it can still regarded as an early transitional western and the first of the Mexican Westerns of the sixties. The action takes place during the period of Mexican revolt against the French during the brief and troubled reign of Emperor Maximillian. Seems Austrian born Maxillian was none to keen on heading off to Mexico to manage the situation there but its hard to say no to repeated requests by Napoleon III. And he had good reasons for reservations since his short reign was marked by constant revolt by the rebels led by Benito Jaurez (the Jauristas) and his eventual overthrow and execution by firing squad. Most of these films do not try to be historical dramas and instead use the backdrop of Meixico’s civil unrest as a flexible vehicle for the conflicts between the gringo fortune seekers and whoever stands in the way of their loot and booty.

MORE ABOUT VERA CRUZ HERE >>

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo)

1966/Director: Sergio Leone/Writers: Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone

Cast/ Eli Wallach, Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimov, Enzo Petito

I was living in San Antonio Texas where my dad was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base when The Good, the Bad and the Ugly was released. We all packed ourselves in his Valiant station wagon and went to the Valley-Hi Drive to see the film and it left an impression on me that was to linger for the rest of my life. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a film that falls into a very narrow category for me. Films that I feel are not only great films but films worthy of deeper introspection and multiple viewings and each viewing seems as fresh as the first one. It is a film I am not even comfortable commenting on here. There are a few others as well that would make me shudder to do a post here at my humble site about: Apocalypse Now, The Last Picture Show, Dr. Zhivago, Lord Jim and even Blade Runner and other films of the same caliber that have left such a lasting impact on me that I simply feel unworthy to expound on them in any fashion. And is another reason and that is that films like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Apocalypse Now have been critiqued and reviewed to death on the net. I usually try to select more obscure and little viewed films of an often trashier variety here at the Café to pander. Also I try not to be too pretentious with my comments and speculations. I will leave all that to the experts. Certainly many films deserve deeper philosophical reflection but I am not the sort of person to publicly delve into all that sort of thing. In simple terms I like to proceed with my foot as much out of my mouth as possible. But when I watch a film like this one I am usually transported to another world all together. So with that as an introduction let’s take a look at this western masterpiece by maestro Sergio Leone.

MORE OF THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY HERE >>

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I recievied an invitation from both Chick Young at Trash Aesthetics and Gilligan over at Retrospace to participate in something called a “meme”, but I am so out of touch I have no clue what that is (but that has never stopped me from getting involved before). Seems it originated from Piper and Brian over at Lazy Eye Theatre blog (a couple of the more active LAMBers) and there have been good fantasy film festivals so far by Chick, Gilligan and Barbarella apologist Becca at No Smoking in the Skull Cave. I do not know if Tal at Taliesen Meets the Vampires has contributed as of this moment, but I will plug his excellent site anyway, free of charge. The rules (as laid down by the crew at the Lazy Eye site) are:

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• Bob: [referring to Rio's busted gun hand] It’s been six weeks. That hand ain’t gettin’ no better. I say we lay for Longworth with shotguns and then go rob that bank. Rio: Ambushin’ folks ain’t exactly my style, Bob. Bob: I’d say your style’s gettin’ a bit slow. We brought you along because you’re supposed to be the big man with the iron; but now, I think I could even out pull you. Rio: [Putting his hand on his gun butt] You’re probably right, Bob. You probably could get six into me by the time I get that one into you.
• Deputy Lon Dedrick: You got a lot of guts, ain’t you kid? Rio: You’re the one with the gut Lon.
• Longworth: You’ve been tryin’ to get yourself hung for the last fifteen years Kid. This time I think you might have made it.
• Bob: What about Longworth? Rio: Nothin’ about him. In the mornin’ I’ll kill him and then we’ll rob that bank.
• Rio: You may be a one eyed jack around here, but I’ve seen the other side of your face.
• Deputy Lon Dedrick: You ain’t gettin’ no older than tomorrow.
• [Longworth has tied up and whipped Rio] Rio: You better kill me. Longworth: No, there’s no need for that. [smashes Rio's gun hand with a shotgun butt] Longworth: Your gun days are over. Put him on a horse.
• Louisa: You think that to kill him, will make you a man?Rio: Well, I don’t know ’bout that. But I know that I thought about him every day for five years. And that was the only thing that kept me going.
• Bob: This is part that’s goin’ to tickle you; the sheriff in that town is named Dad Longworth.
• [Rio has just bluffed his way out of jail with an empty pistol] Rio: Looky here, Lon; wasn’t loaded.
• Bob: Harvey Johnson’s about to be a famous name in these parts. You’re about to be gunned down by a man named Rio.
• [Modesto is attempting to stop Bob from double crossing Rio] Bob: I’m real disappointed in you, Modesto; pullin’ a gun on an old saddle pal like that. Chico: One more word and I will kill you! Bob: One more word, huh? Let me see if I can think of one. How about g-r-e-a-s-e-r? Greaser? [Modesto pulls his trigger and realizes that Bob has unloaded his gun during the night] Bob: Lookin’ for these, Modesto? (throws cartridges at him)Harvey: (laughing) Eat ‘em, greaser. Chico: (throws his gun at Bob) Banditos! Bob: You had a good life, Modesto. (shoots him)
• Rio: Get up! Get up, you scum suckin’ pig!
• Rio: I don’t know, Dad. You may not want me around too long. You may be retired from robbin’ banks, Dad; but I’m still in business.
• [Bob and Harvey are watching Longworth whip Rio] Harvey: We better get down there and do something. Bob: Do something? Not this old horse; Longworth’s got enough shotguns down there to start a war. Besides, this might help get some of that snot-nose out of him.

VIDEO WAS DISABELD BY USER.

WILL SEE IF I CAN FIND A NEW ONE SOON.

ONE EYED JACKS

1961/Director: Marlon Brando/Screenplay: Charles Neider (novel) Guy Trosper (screenplay)

Cast:Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Katy Jurado, Pina Pellicer, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Elisha Cook Jr, Tim Carrey, Larry Duran, Sam Gilman

This 1961 Western is really a pretty good movie I never get tired of watching while at the same time not a perfectly flawless work. It deserves some of the criticism it gets yet is in no way deserving of the harsh abuse sometimes thrown at it. It is Brando’s only work as a director and the movie has so much historic behind the scenes drama that it rivals the epic adventure on the screen. Stanley Kubrick was slated to direct the film originally and Sam Peckinpah was to write the script. Kubrick fired Peckinpah who used his idea for the film as the inspiration for his later Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. There were a couple more script writers before the script got to a workable state by Guy Trosper. However Kubrick and Brando simply could not work together and Kubrick bitterly left and Brando took over chores as director under the guidance of his own film company. His first big decision was to replace Spencer Tracy as Dad Longworth and replace him with movie pal Karl Malden. They worked on several films together including A Streetcr Named Desire and On the Waterfront. MORE OF MARLON BRANDO IN ONE EYED JACKS >>