Cowboys & Aliens

Another slightly dated movie review; however, in this case, you probably haven’t seen Cowboys & Aliens yet, since not that many people did. This might be the best sci-fi/western hybrid movie ever made, since the only other one I can think of is Oblivion, which was not a high point of cinema, despite the presence of George Takei. That is assuming you don’t count Firefly/Serenity, which is science fiction with western themes rather than a western with science fiction themes. Confusing enough?

Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) wakes up in the desert, with no memory, a wound in his side and a strange metal device strapped to his wrist. He doesn’t remember his name, but he does know he is a badass, since he dispatches four desperadoes on the 10 o’clock train to Boot Hill. (Westerns bring this sort of thing out in me.) With newly acquired horses, weapons and clothes, he makes his way to the nearby town of Absolution. This turns out to be a bad choice, since Absolution is controlled by rich rancher and former Army Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) – and Lonergan robbed a stagecoach of money belonging to Dolarhyde. An encounter with Dolarhyde’s dimwitted jerk of a son (Paul Dano) lands both Lonergan and the son in jail, but not before Lonergan meets the enigmatic Ella (Olivia Wilde).

To this point, the movie hasn’t been that different from a traditional western, but then alien space craft start buzzing the town and abducting the townsfolk. Lonergan discovers his bracelet can fire energy blasts that can shoot down the alien aircraft, and he and Dolarhyde lead a posse in pursuit of the aliens, in order to recover the abductees.

All of this is not nearly as much fun as it sounds. Despite the title, the story is played deadly serious, and could have used more humor. Craig and Ford are playing the same character – the gruff tough guy with a secret good streak – and there needed to be more contrast for them to play off each other. The story also leaves no western trope untouched. In addition to the posse, Lonergan and Dolarhyde recruit Lonergan’s old criminal gang (in a scene reminiscent of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and an Apache tribe (after a spirit ceremony, reminiscent of almost every bad modern western). The chase after the aliens seems to take place in real time, and the movie slows down just when it needs to speed up.

The aliens have an improbable reason for coming to Earth and abducting yokels. Worst of all, when it comes time for the climactic battle between our heroes and the aliens, the aliens fight with their bare hands, completely nude. Space dudes! You have the technology to travel between the stars, beam up precious metals and create wrist-blasters. You should use that know-how on the guys with six-guns and bows & arrows. I suppose they are related to the ETs from Signs. It is also stated the aliens can’t see well in daylight (this is mentioned, but has absolutely no bearing on the plot in any way) but choose to come out of their dark tunnels to fight the heroes in sunlight.

The cast does the best they can with the limitations of the script. (Harrison Ford said when he read the script he “didn’t get it.” I feel your pain, Mr. Ford.) Craig makes a surprisingly good western hero, and I can’t help but think it would have been a better movie if the filmmakers had created a straight western, leaving out the sci-fi elements. There is a fairly impressive supporting cast, with Clancy Brown, Sam Rockwell, Keith Carradine and Walton Goggins. It is a particular crime that Carradine and Goggins weren’t given more to do.

All in all, Cowboys & Aliens is more interesting to consider as the movie it might have been than it is to watch the movie that was made.
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New Ronald Kelly Novel - Timber Gray

Any new of a new Ron Kelly release is good news, and Macabre Ink is now offering his new novel Timber Gray as a digital download in the various popular formats. This is the first time Ron has written a novel in the Western genre, and from the description, I’d say it is western enough to please western fans, while being dark enough to satisfy the horror audiences. You can read more about it and order it by clicking on this site, the Crossroads Press web presence. Cool cover, too.
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Print The Legend

I don’t just watch low-rent horror movies about mansquitos terrorizing the countryside, I like pretty much all genres of film. A recent bout of compulsive watching of westerns brought me to reading Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford. It was written by Scott Eyman, and first published in 1999., although copies are easy to come by. Eyman also wrote Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise about the legendary director of To Be Or Not To Be, a book I found to be interesting.

John Ford’s career began in the silent era, and he continued directing until the 1960s. He is most known for his westerns, but worked in various types of film, directing prominent non-Westerns such as The Informer and The Quiet Man. It was in westerns, though, that he made his mark, directing at least three true classics, Stagecoach, Fort Apache and The Searchers, as well as a number of near-classics such as My Darling Clementine, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and others. He had a great eye for detail and composition, and the westerns shot in his prime, largely using Monument Valley, Utah as a backdrop, are some of the most beautiful ever created. He is known for using John Wayne, for whose career he was partially responsible, in a number of roles.
Print the Legend (title taken from a line near the end of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance) is an adept portrait of the man and the studio system he worked in and fought against. Eyman resists the temptation to descend into gossip, as the sexual dalliances common to the studio era are discussed but not dwelled on. At the end of it, the reader feels as close as he ever will be to knowing a man unknowable even to himself.

John Ford was a great director, but not such a nice person. He had a streak of real sadism, and never forgot any perceived slight. Sometimes, his cruelty was calculated to achieve a desired emotion in an actor, but often it was just an expression of who he really was. He harassed those who worked with him, and mostly ignored his children.

Biographies of people who live full lives are always tragedies. Talent fades, health declines. This is seen in Ford, as he progresses from being one of the top Hollywood directors to a point where he is reduced to unsuccessful attempts to get work directing ultra-low budget westerns for scale. His films reflect the dimming of his health and the darkening of his worldview. Compare the beautiful location-filmed vistas of The Searchers to the claustrophobic set-driven The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, his last good movie, made when he was losing his sight, a difficult burden for a director who always said the set determines the story. Valance is also a tragic commentary of the destruction time inflicts on all of us. If you don’t believe that, re-watch the final framing segment, and reflect on the fates of the three man characters, all of whom lost what was most precious to them, although two of them got what they thought they wanted.

I’d recommend Print the Legend: The Life and Times of John Ford to any fan of his movies, or to anyone interested in the Golden Age of movies.