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| a weekly series hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves |
This week with are talking about outlaws, and I seriously considered skipping it as my mind was absolutely blank (also, I'm very tired and I didn't feel like writing at all because, as usual, I couldn't write the post in advance). Then my stupid brain realised that most people in westerns are outlaws so, there you go, theme within a theme.
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) - Review
The Hateful Eight (2015) - Review
The Magnificent Seven (1960) - Review
I understand that tired feeling and the lack of motivation to pull something together, especially if the theme doesn't particularly strike a chord but this was a good solution.
ReplyDeleteI put off Assassination of Jesse James for years because everyone talked about how slow paced it was but my liking of Brad Pitt finally got me there. It was ssllooww but since I was prepared for it to be so I found that less bothersome than had I walked in blind. The acting was strong, the look of the film beautiful and the story interesting but the slackness did damage the overall narrative. A skillful editor could have pared it down by at least 40-45 minutes, told the same story and it would have been a more rewarding experience.
The Magnificent Seven is a perfect example of that sort of smart editing. It's long but precise in its focus so you never feel the length just the propulsive motion of the story.
I've avoided Hateful Eight. Tarantino is very variable for me and the word of mouth I've heard and the degree of violence it contains have kept me away.
Ha my first thought was Westerns too! The term outlaw is pretty much synonymous with the genre but then I thought about it and whether they are called gangsters, criminals, bandits or what have you they are all outlaws which freed me up.
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)-Pussycat Club go-go dancers Varla (Tura Satana), Rosie (Haji) and Billie (Lori Williams) head out to the desert to drag race and raise some hell. When they meet a young hot-rodding couple they dispatch the guy, take the girl hostage and head to the hills on the hunt for rumored hidden fortune guarded by a disabled old letch (Stuart Lancaster) and The Vegetable (Dennis Busch) his hulking infantile son. They blaze in figuring an easy score, but the men have plans of their own. Pure exploitation is one big wild ride.
Deadlier Than the Male (1967)-Glamorous paid assassins Irma (Elke Sommer) and Penelope (Sylva Koscina) entice prominent businessmen with their wiles then off them for big bucks until insurance investigator "Bulldog" Drummond (Richard Johnson) and his mod nephew, Robert (Steve Carlson) jump on their trail. The twosome circles the globe hopping from one exotic locale to the next to bring the lethal lovelies to justice!
The Getaway (1972)-When career criminal Doc McCoy (Steve McQueen) is refused parole he convinces his wife Carol (Ali MacGraw) to strike a bargain with corrupt businessman Jack Benyon (Ben Johnson). Benyon agrees to get him sprung on the condition Doc pulls a bank heist with his gang. All goes as planned but double crosses and betrayals abound. The result-Doc and Carol try to flee to Mexico with both the money and their lives crossing Texas as both cops and outlaws pursue them, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. McQueen and MacGraw fell in love during the filming, left their respective spouses and embarked on a high profile tempestuously short-lived marriage.
I've only seen the remake of The Magnificent Seven, I really need to get around to watching the original!
ReplyDelete3 great westerns. My dad loved westerns. He only saw The Magnificent Seven on that list as it's a shame he never saw The Hateful Eight which I'm sure he would've liked though one of the last films he did see before he passed was Django Unchained and fucking loved it.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen your last pick. Jesse James is my favorite of this group but I really wish they would've left out the line about Casey Affleck's character being 19 because that took me out of the movie and I never recovered. lol
ReplyDeleteThe Hateful Eight is a great pick - I love all things Tarantino :-D
ReplyDeleteI've skipped a few TMPs when I haven't had time or the motivation. Be kind to yourself.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen any of these but I'd like to watch The Magnificent Seven. I've seen the remake but wasn't overly wowed by it.