Day #48 - High Noon

IMDB Link

High Noon is a Fred Zinnermann directed Western starring Gary Cooper - according to John Lithgow (yay TCM!), this movie came about at a time, in the early 50's, when bravery and courage were much valued at the box office. Gary Cooper won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Marshal Will Cane. The movie opens with Will's wedding to Amy, played by Grace Kelly. It seems like all is well until 3 shady looking men stride into town. This immediately puts the town into uproar, and we find out that these three men are waiting on their leader, Frank Miller, to arrive on the noon train. Frank threatened to come back and kill Will after being sentenced to hang for murder - little did Will know that he would be pardoned and come back looking for him. The rest of the movie basically consists of Will going around to the men of the town asking for deputies to help him take down Frank. When no one will step up to help, Will must fight on his own. At the beginning of the movie, Amy decided to leave town, disgusted with Will's desire to stay and fight. At the very end though, she comes back and helps him kill Frank and his men. The movie ends with Will throwing his deputy badge down at the townspeople who wouldn't help him and leaving with Amy.

When the movie was over, Chris said, "well, that's the most concise movie I've ever seen" - which is true, haha - it was only 85 minutes long, not much time for froo froo. Overall, I thought it was a fine movie - not great or bad, just fine. The Mexican woman who played Mrs. Ramirez drove me CRAZY. I didn't care for the acting much and am surprised Gary Cooper was called out for an Oscar. I find that I'm often times not impressed with acting in Westerns - is it like watching action movies today, knowing they aren't made for their great acting?

Throughout the movie, clocks are shown often as the movie is shot in real time. This reminds me a lot of 3:10 To Yuma, a Western remake from a couple of years ago with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe - that movie also was centered around the arrival or departure of a train and relied a lot on time.

Though I didn't care for his acting, I really like the look of Gary Cooper - he looks like a real man :) I would pick him for my side on a fight :)

According to IMDB:

"This film was intended as an allegory in Hollywood for the failure of Hollywood people to stand up to the House Un-American Activities Committee during the Sen. Joseph McCarthy Red-baiting era."

Day #26 - She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

IMDB Link!

I had a couple of paragraphs written for this movie but somehow they got lost...I have a pretty good inkling of what happened but alas, I have to start over and I don't have the energy! She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is a John Ford movie - one of many starring John Wayne - and part of his cavalry trilogy including this movie along with Rio Grande and Fort Apache. This was recommended to me by my mother-in-law AND my Grandpa so I was really excited to see it :)

I thought it was a good movie - not great, but good and enjoyable. I feel like I must be missing something though because the critics speak SO highly of this movie. As much as I like John Wayne, I feel like he wasn't really acting much in this movie..in fact, I was a bit disappointed with him until maybe about halfway through the movie when I started enjoying him more. I have a feeling though that he is like this in most of his movies - any thoughts? That being said, I loved how much older he was supposed to look with his graying hair and mustache - what a handsome man he was - seriously. Chris and I liked Victor McLaglen's character even though he was SO random - is his role basically just to be the drunken sidekick who gets in fights? Haha :) I had a LOT more written my first time around about the "company" of actors that John Ford frequently used but I will save all of that for the next Ford movie - let's just say I was glad to be able to put some faces with names such as Harry Carey, Jr., Ben Johnson and John Agar. I have many more Ford movies on my list - next I believe is The Searchers. I am getting my moneys worth at Netflix!

Day #20 - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

I would like to title the pictures above "What.", "Just Plain Wrong", and "You Have to be Kidding Me." :)

IMDB Link:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064115/

Let's not even TALK about the first 5 minutes of this movie.  I mean, come ON.  I was practically breathing into a paper bag!  Paul Newman.  You are the love of my life.  Let me see if I can find a video of you in all of your splendor.

There is something seriously wrong with this world.  No video.

I did find another good one though- the bike scene with "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head".  I must admit, and I'm SORRY, don't kill me, but I'm not a big fan of this song.  Good thing I'm a fan of HIM though, haha - here it is:

So let's talk about the movie :)  I enjoyed it in its entirety but really didn't love it until the end - I felt that Butch and Sundance were buddies and kind of like business partners but didn't really feel their friendship that strong until later in the movie.  I liked that Butch was the "thinker" and Sundance was the "fast one".  Robert Redford.  Le sigh.  

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was directed by George Roy Hill, who also directed Newman and Redford in The Sting, 4 years after this one.  It won 4 Oscars - Best Song, Best Score, Best Cinematography and Best Original Screenplay.  It was also nominated for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Sound - it lost Best Picture to Midnight Cowboy.

A bit of trivia....originally Steve McQueen was set to play the Sundance Kid with Paul Newman as Butch - the title, had it worked out that way, would have been The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy :)  Also - with nine wins, this movie holds the record for BAFTA (British Academy Awards) wins - Best Picture, Best Actor (Redford), Best Actress (Katharine Ross - WHAT?? - she was annoying!), Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Sound and Score. 

AFI named Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid #7 on its Top 10 Westerns.

Notice how little I talked about the movie :)  I spent too much time looking at pictures!

Day #5 - Unforgiven

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105695/

An Oscar doozie - 1992 Best Picture, Best Director (Clint Eastwood), Best Film Editing and Best Supporting Actor (Gene Hackman). Without even planning it, I started a 1992-Oscar-a-thon :) Clint Eastwood was nominated for Best Actor but lost to Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman - and now we have come full circle from my Glengarry Glen Ross post :)

AFI named Unforgiven the 4th best Western of all time - behind The Searchers, High Noon and Shane - I'm hoping to add a couple of those to my challenge list.

Wow - amazing movie. I LOVED it. I was genuinely interested in every minute of the movie, especially when Richard Harris was on screen. His part was small, but memorable. He is just so fantastic - so subtle and perfect. I'm not even gonna lie - I am SCARED of Clint Eastwood. I would not cross him for anything - he absolutely took OVER the end of this movie. What a force. Chris and I loved Morgan Freeman of course, he is always perfect. ...and for Gene Hackman, well, every time I see him I think it's Norman Dale from Hoosiers. It's like, OH look, Norman Dale is playing a Sherriff, haha. That aside though, he was really, really good.

There was some really great dialogue in this movie - one scene in particular was an exchange in which Little Bill (Gene Hackman) has arrested English Bob (Richard Harris), who is sitting in a jail cell. English Bob had come with a biographer, and Little Bill was telling the biographer the "true" stories of English Bob's exagerrations - this one in particular about a fight between English Bob and a man named Corky...

[Little Bill is telling Beauchamp the real story of English Bob's gunfight]
Little Bill Daggett: You see, the night that Corky walked into the Blue Bottle, and before he
knows what's happening, Bob here takes a shot at him! And he misses, 'cause he's so damn
drunk. Now that bullet whizzing by panicked old Corky, and he did the wrong thing. He
went for his gun in such a hurry that he shot his own damn toe off. Meantime Bob here, he's
aiming real good, and he squeezes off another, but he misses, because he's still so damn
drunk, and he hits this thousand-dollar mirror up over the bar. And now, the Duck of Death
is as good as dead. Because Corky does it right. He aims real careful, no hurry, and... BAM!
That Walker Colt blew up in his hand, which was a failing common to that model. You see,
if old Corky had had two guns instead of just a big dick, he'd would have been there right to
the end to defend himself.
W.W. Beauchamp: Wait a minute. You mean that, English Bob killed him when he didn't
even have...?
Little Bill Daggett: Well, old Bob wasn't goin' to wait for Corky to grow a new hand.

Another great moment - the end, when William Munny (Clint being BA) comes in to get his revenge...
(...am having trouble embedding this video...so for now, follow the link!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccqdEhytKOk

Day #3 - Appaloosa

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800308/

So today I didn't get anything in Netflix so I went to our Movies on Demand channel and picked Appaloosa - my thought was, first of all, I like Westerns (all 3 or 4 I've seen) and second of all, this cast is loaded. Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen and if that wasn't enough, Jeremy Irons? Come on, this movie can't go wrong, right? Well - I was disappointed. It was a pretty typical Western storyline but I felt like the lines were delivered straight from paper. Chris and I always try to picture what the script LOOKS like on paper - then watch the actors speak and interact...can you tell they are reading a script or have they convinced you they are actually thinking those words on their own? This movie failed that test. You can't bring in these heavyweights and walk out with that movie. I've seen them all act better - although...Ed Harris does look pretty nice as a cowboy :) All men do. I'm also inspired to check out some Jeremy Irons flicks....any suggestions?

FYI, this movie was also directed and co-written by Ed Harris :)

Additionally, the posters for this movie are B.A. They won an Internet Movie Poster award for Best Character Posters. Check it out: