Tag: Mexico

Project: 100 Westerns: Part Three: God Forgives…I Don’t!, The Drover’s Wife, Hidalgo; Robbers’ Roost

Posted on February, 2025 by JS

Wattup western-fans,

You’re reading the 3rd entry in Project: 100 Westerns. I’m angling to watch 100 Westerns in 2025.

As a reminder, I’m picking these movies with no criteria in mind. Just whatever seems Western enough. I’m always up for suggestions, especially if they’re unheralded or plain weird!

#8. God Forgives…I Don’t! (1969)

Movie poster for God Forgives...I Don't. The main character hangs upsidedown, another image shows him throwing dynamite

People mill about on a sunny train platform, speaking in excited voices and offering friendly gestures. A train pulls to the busy station. Onboard are corpses, a bloody heap of dead passengers. One man jostles himself back to consciousness and skitters off into the hills over a cacophony of screams. 

That’s how God Forgives…I Don’t! opens. A surreal and ugly scene setting the foundation for a series of plot mysteries and subsequent violence. Don’t think too hard on if or how the conductor is still alive (as the train did stop at a station, I’ll assume that was not automated back in the 1800s), just immerse yourself in the Spaghetti Western goodness. 

The first of eighteen films co-starring Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer, this tale of debauchery and crime won’t blow your hair back, but does just enough to keep you engaged throughout. It’s the typical Italian Western, the good guys are cool and gaudy, the villains gross and unpredictable. While the picture quality is a little bit rough, the competent direction by Giuseppe Colizzi gives the endeavor enough spine to hold it upright. 

The story has some intrigue. It starts with a slow-boiling poker game that bubbles over into a peculiar gun duel between Hill’s lead character, Cat Stevens (oh baby, it’s a wild world!), and prime antagonist Bill San Antonio (Frank Wolff). The two men are acquainted and even supposedly a touch friendly, but Bill is adamant they should duel in a burning building and instructs his men to let Cat, also referred to as “Pretty Face”, go without harm if he wins. After some hijinks regarding stolen treasure, Cat is told by another former gang partner, “Jackass” (Spencer), that Bill is likely alive and the mastermind behind the train massacre/robbery from the opening scene. 

No one particularly likable possesses much screen time in this film. It’s bandit-on-bandit violence, and we sort of root for the intense-eyed Pretty Face through obligation. He’s a smug guy, played with a little too much bravado by Hill (who won the role the day before filming), but tonally the movie makes that work. I think this was supposed to be a little bit of a comedy, too. 

The movie is just good enough that I’m actually interested in its follow-ups: Ace High and Boot Hill, which conveniently aren’t available on the streaming platform I used to watch God Forgives…I Don’t! You gotta love our new media landscape. 

#9. The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson (2021)

Movie poster for The Drover's Wife. Molly Johnson faces toward the viewer holding a long gun

I needed a small break from the Westerns of yore and sought something a little more contemporary. After some perusing, I landed on this Australian Western released in 2021.

(A short aside but has anyone noticed how many low budget Westerns have been made in the last few years? They’re all over the streaming apps. Someone’s chasing that Yellowstone money!)

I came away deeply impressed by this cleanly shot movie adapted from a 130 year old short story by Harry Lawson. It follows Molly Johnson (Leah Purcell), a woman living in the Snowy Mountains with her children, as she deals with new visitors and the threat they bring to her family. She’s a hard woman made by hard times, and through her actions the plot unfolds in intriguing ways. 

I totally get it if you don’t consider Australian-set movies to be a traditional Western. I recently wrote about what I consider to be firmly inside the genre and what sits on its outer edge, and I can appreciate placing this type of story outside the “actual Western” category, but man, this has all the trappings of a standard Old West tale. Rugged landscapes, nascent civilization, earnest lawmen, widespread savagery, native struggles; you could easily swap out American people, places and lingo and it would feel right at home in settings like Texas, Montana or Oregon. 

The film mostly concerns itself with the hardships of women in the 19th century and their continuous fight for justice in a time when justice is only starting to be a concept evenly applied. It’s not a happy story, by any means, but certainly an undertold one. The family history of Molly and her relationship with the land and its people is poignant. The themes and messages embedded in the plot don’t hit you over the head too hard, but definitely make sure you know what’s what by the end. 

Leah Purcell, also the writer and director, is very good in The Drover’s Wife, demonstrating steely resolve as Molly. She rarely opens up or even emotes, but her determination to protect her pack is apparent in every stern line and gun blast. Aborigine outlaw Yadaka (Rob Collins), provides an incredible counterbalance to her, offering bits of reflective positivity and crucial context to her tale, and the local sergeant (Sam Reid) and his wife (Jessica Elise De Gouw) round out the cast nicely. 

Mostly though, I have to give kudos to Purcell for shooting a really pretty flick, particularly the slow exposure shots of the sky and celestial bodies. It really is a complete product, and I think it is worth a watch if you’re like me and enjoy a modern look at the olden days.  

I also got to learn the term “sparrow’s fart”, which is neat!

#10. Hidalgo (2004)

Movie poster for Hidalgo. On the top, a headshot of actor Viggo Mortensen; on the bottom, Viggo and the titular horse ride across the desert

“Underrated” is a tough word to apply. 

“Underrated to whom?” is the follow-up question. With the modern media landscape, it’s uncommon for a piece of recent art to go underseen or undervalued. There’s a fan group for just about anything, and most artistic efforts are met with at least a little fanfare. “Underrated” is subjective, for the most part. 

So I ask, how the hell does Hidalgo only have a 46% rating on Rotten Tomatoes??

I first saw this movie about 15-20 years ago when I was just getting into the Western genre. Viggo Mortensen as a cowboy in an exotic locale? Sign me up. I remember thinking then it was a fabulous film – high adventure, interesting characters, gorgeous settings and a plot with enough turns to keep you on your toes throughout. In so many ways, it seemed to be a complete work. 

Since then, I’ve rarely, if ever, seen this movie suggested, heralded or even mentioned. When I fired it up last week, I was halfway expecting it to not hold up to the modern eye. Its ambition in regards to story and subject matter, a tale of culture shock and identity, seemed ready to step in quicksand. I thought it likely that this movie aged like camel’s milk.  From attitudes to tech, a lot has changed in twenty years.

Let me say then: Hidalgo fucking slaps.

The story follows Frank Hopkins (Mortensen), a Wild West show performer and accomplished longrider, as he and his horse Hidalgo are whisked across the world to compete in a race across Saudi Arabia’s “Ocean of Fire”. Frank is reluctant to participate, but the promise of a huge payday compels the generally listless and dejected man to give it a shot, despite Hidalgo’s age and decline as a racer. 

Director Joe Johnston has an impressive track record of helming films with spectacle and action. I would hold up the quality of Hidalgo to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, The Rocketeer or the first (MCU) Captain America movie. The tonal pitch of these all hit the sweet spot of danger, humor and poignancy in a way that appeals to wide audiences, and Hidalgo might have the most to say. Frank Hopkins is a talented man, and his skills put him in peril and helps him escape as well. His rustic sensibilities clash with the haughty hierarchy of the Arab world, but the humanity we all share is demonstrated, too. This movie does an amazing job of keeping the antagonism hidden and shifting, many elements seem pitted against Frank, and it takes several story beats to discern where his allies lie, and what they offer. 

It’s curious that this movie is not more popular or known. Some of that I think is from the atmosphere around its debut. In the opening we’re told: “Based on the life of Frank T. Hopkins” and Disney marketed this as a true story. Upon scrutiny, it is likely that much of the story is exaggerated, and many claims the real life Hopkins made about his exploits seem dubious.  Additionally, consider the year this debuted. There was a clear shift in attitude toward the Arab world during this time, and that likely had a chilling effect when it comes to Western (both the Old West and Western society) moviegoers. I think these two factors hurt the perception of this movie, even now.

I was half-expecting a clunky story full of dated stereotypes and techniques, rather I found a thoughtful, inspired script executed by a seasoned filmmaker and stocked with a talented cast, all the way down to the beast that plays the titular horse. I love the pink/orange wide shots of the desert, the hostile environment and creeping savagery of the setting. One of my fave Westerns of the modern age, and maybe one of the best horse-centric films ever made. Truly underrated.

#11. Robbers’ Roost (1955)

Movie poster for Robbers' Roost. The movies villain holds a gun while shouting. On the bottom of the poster the film's hero holds onto a damsel.

First off, don’t read the description of this movie, it gives away part of the end!

Robbers’ Roost, starring George Montgomery and Richard Boone, is the second attempt at adapting a Zane Grey novel of the same name. It’s decidedly Good, but the opening and closing are both clunky/choppy in a way that bars it from regions of Great. 

Our hero is an apparent wanderer named “Tex” (Montgomery) who is offered a job by Hays (Boone), a local rustler, to join his gang and work as ranch hands for “Bull” Herrick (Bruce Bennett), a disabled man with about 6000 head of cattle. When Tex, Hays and the rest show up to the ranch, they discover their rival gang, led by Heesman (Peter Graves), is there too, employed by Herrick to do the same job of projecting the herd. Apparently, Herrick believes the two groups will watch each other and cancel out the tomfoolery. 

Now, this doesn’t seem too intelligent to me, but hey, that’s the plot opener. Herrick does seem like a desperate man, so his attempt at employing criminals may make sense in that context.

Things complicate when his sister Helen (Sylvia Findley) comes to town to convince him to sell the property and get medical treatment for his spinal injury. Her presence stirs drama at the ranch, several men lust for her and others leap to protect her honor. Tex, a self-described “woman-hater”, is assigned to chaperone Helen, and they form a bond that borders on romantic. Naturally, Hays and Heesman plot to betray Herrick and steal the cattle and in the fray, Helen is also abducted, which pushes Tex into reluctant hero mode. 

If you can get past the disjointed choreography of the final showdown, Robbers’ Roost is an astute and flavorful Western. The performances carry it most of the way. Montgomery is a convincing justice-seeker type, and Boone is masterful as the smiley rogue.

Part Three of Project: One Hundred Westerns is complete, it’s sorta a struggle to actually fire these movies up (there is so much to watch these days!) but it’s almost always an enlightening experience when I do.

Be sure to check in March 3rd, 2025 for our newest short comic.

Westward!

 

~Jamil

Project: 100 Westerns: Part Two: Five for Revenge, El Diablo, The Wonderful Country and There Will Be Blood

Posted on January, 2025 by JS

Hello Westheads,

This is the 2nd entry in Project: 100 Westerns. Where I, a man with many creative responsibilities,  attempt to watch 100 Westerns in about a year. Ambitious, or stupid? Both? You decide!

As stated before, there’s no particular rhyme or reason to my picks. I just scroll through one the many streaming apps and if something seems Western enough I hit “Play”. If you have suggestions on can’t-miss movies in the genre, let me know!

#4. Five For Revenge (1966)

A shirtless man stands with guns in each hand as a Mexican woman poses at his feet.

A patient, choppy Spaghetti Western with a simple premise:  After Jim Lattimore is murdered by his Mexican in-laws, a group of five men gather to enact revenge. 

Guy Madison stars and Aldo Florio directs in what is a roughly edited late-bloomer of a movie. A lot of Five for Revenge, alternatively titled Five Giants from Texas, is told between the (poorly dubbed) dialogue. It’s very deliberate piece, at times forcing the viewer to stew in the nastiness of this affair, from the murders to the rapes to the torture to the severe and twangy soundtrack. 

First off: the sound direction is not good. Too much stop and go, too many jolts of volume. There seems to have been an intent to create suspense with the horns and toots but coupled with some ragged jump-cuts it leaves the viewer jarred. It’s pretty apparent this is Florio’s first attempt at directing. 

The then-budding Western trope of using a number to spice up your title draws you in, but what’s funny is the “”Five” are a quintet of the chillest dudes in the Old West. The Five work in relative quiet coordination, they greet each other with looks and nods, direct each other with intuition and familiarity. We have little idea of the nature of the apparent bloodpact between them all. They come in different shapes and skin tones but they’re a unit. It’s cool on paper, but nonchalant revenge-seekers taking care of biz doesn’t pop on the screen.

Despite the poster’s promise, Madison’s shirt remains on for the duration of the flick. The former Wild Bill Hickok is adequate in this, confused-looking mostly, like the character doesn’t understand the world’s violence. He sort of moves like the Terminator, completing each terrible task until the revenge mission is complete. Though he forms a little bit of chemistry with Jim’s gorgeous widow, Rosalita (Mónica Randall), it’s essentially dressing for a murderous affair. 

What pulls the movie together is the bullet barrage at the end. The lulls and valleys of the first and second act set up the payoff of the finale’s mayhem. It’s not like total fireworks of blood or anything but the familiar festivity of a SW emerges when John and dem boys walk into the lair of the Gonzales Bros and start lighting up background actors. John’s showdown with the film’s big bad is probably the best bit of the whole affair. 

Ultimately: It’s a movie that punishes you, then throws a big ugly, fun party at the end.

#5. El Diablo (1990)

The poster for El Diablo, a schoolteacher holds a gun while a mercenary watches on helpfully

Comedy Westerns are a hard sell. It’s already hard enough being funny, so setting a story in a certain time or place is a whole other bundle of complications. Blazing Saddles did it well but that was flash-in-the-pan success with some all-timer writing and performances. El Diablo never had a chance, in that regard.

You’ll see this movie floating around HBO (app and channel) from time to time. I never really gave it much consideration until I saw the cast list:

Louis Gossett Jr., Anthony Edwards, Joe Pantoliano, John Glover, Robert Beltran, Jim Beaver, Branscombe Richmond, Miguel Sandoval. It’s a robust lineup of guys who’ll have you shouting “Hey, it’s whatshisnuts!” at your screen. 

This made-for-TV movie is actually a lot more sleek and well-produced than you’d expect. The sets and locales are authentic and there doesn’t seem to be too much of an issue with budget-related matters. The acting is more than good. When this was made the cast was probably considered second and third-tier talents, but I think most of us now understand that the career actors of TV land are some of the most skilled in the trade. 

Maybe the most interesting tidbit about this movie is that it’s a rework of a John Carpenter script. That’s sort of fascinating because you can sense maybe some of the master’s fingerprints on this movie: it’s a bit morbid and matter-of-fact, the characters are seedy and action-oriented, but it’s simply unlike anything from his body of work. The script (with input from Tommy Lee Wallace and Bill Phillips) is just OK, there’s nothing surprising or fantastic going on plotwise, but it hits all the vital beats.

The real jewel is Gossett Jr. as Thomas Van Leek. A sort of bummy gunslinger, he assists the main character, Billy Ray (Edwards) in trying to take down the notorious woman-abducting El Diablo (Beltran). They (very quickly) assemble a ragtag group of ne’er-do-wells and then tumble into a final violent confrontation. Gossett is a real delight in his every scene. He’s untrustworthy but charming, clever but simple. Van Leek is well past his prime yet perfectly built for the “real” West, relating to Billy Ray, “I ain’t as fast as I was, but I cheat real good.”

The rest of the cast carries this along pretty well. Edwards struggles as the lead even though he plays the buffoonish antihero as intended. Others, like Glover as a swindling preacher, and Pantoliano, playing a dainty dime novel writer – aggressively against his career archetype – do enough to push the scenes along. 

My main takeaway: There’s a few mentions to the idea that a Western “hero” like Van Leek is not palatable to the late 1800s audience Joey Pants’ character writes for, but that theme applies to this movie’s focus too. Gossett Jr. should’ve got way more screen time, he was great.

If you’re trying to milk that MAX subscription this movie may be worth the hour-forty-five runtime. Ultimately though, it’s not funny or clever enough to succeed in the Comedy Western genre, despite being a decent enough Western. Without the right tone, the savagery of the genre is hard to square with laughter. I mean, the plot impetus for this one is the abduction of a schoolgirl and the movie sort of glosses over the apparent rape and trauma perpetrated by El Diablo. Hah, crimes!

#6. The Wonderful Country (1959)

movie poster for The Wonderful Country depicting Robert's Mitchum profile and a pretty horizon

First, the movie looks incredible. Wowee. The location team earned their dollar, definitely. The vistas, valleys and views of The Wonderful Country superbly showcase the terrain of the US-Mexico border. Director Robert Parrish, a filmmaker sired by several roles, knows where to place the camera. 

As much as I can tell you what I saw, I cannot really tell you what I watched. The movie is a thin broth stew of underdeveloped ideas and erratic character movement. It’s a de facto love story: expatriate Martin Brady (Robert Mitchum) enters into a flirty jig with a Major’s bored wife (Julie London)…and then moseys into something of an antihero tale. It’s murky. 

Though the choice of accent is questionable, Mitchum brings some of that patented noir coolness to the role of Brady. Having fled his home country following the murder of his father’s killer, Brady is now a chillax pistolero working for power-hungry Mexican brothers. He doesn’t seem too emotionally invested in anything, but brightens when in the company of Helen Colton. Before they can get to know each other too intimately, the plot yanks him back to Mexico, putting Brady in soft peril until it appears he’s again on the path to (mild) redemption and (implied) happiness. 

That’s sorta it. The spark between the two leads barely flickers as their screen time is limited by the other pieces of the plot. There’s an Army/Apache fight in there that sort of rips through a scene, and Satchel Paige (playing a soldier) saunters in randomly as well, just to give the movie a quirky footnote. This was the era of pumping out Westerns for cinema fodder, so it makes sense some came out undercooked. 

The bones of a good film are in there somewhere but there’s not enough meat to really make it worth the venture. However, if you like Michum or London, it may be worth a viewing, they both give adequate performances.

#7. There Will Be Blood (2007)

Movie poster for There Will Be Blood

For me, the Western genre can be bifurcated into two broad categories: “Actual” Westerns: Cowboys, wagons, cattle, vengeance, revolvers, vistas composed of dust, grass or snow, etc. And the counterpart, “spiritual” Western, which takes a few of these elements and imprints them onto a movie about something else. It’s a spectrum of course, more an inverted bell curve – most Westerns, actual or spiritual, are clearly defined.

So which type of Western is There Will Be Blood? 

TWBB (much like its spiritual predecessor, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre)  exists just inside the membrane of actual Westerns. Primarily set in 1911 California, the film is an intense examination of greed and determination in mid-American history. Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is an “oilman”, a hawkish energy magnate on a quest to tame the earth and milk her resources. As we follow the most important years of his career, we also witness his questionable parenting of an adopted son, his quirkily adversarial relationship with a small-town preacher and the terrible lengths he’ll go to acclimate wealth. 

We rarely see the appearance of “robber barons” in the Western genres. Their little cousin, the “town boss”,  the wealthy figure controlling a community, are a staple of the actual Western. However, the dukes of 19th century America don’t get much attention, despite names like Carnegie, Vanderbilt, and Morgan shaping the nation’s history. In fact, you’ll more likely see a movie (1937’s Wells Fargo) praising these folks rather than scrutinizing them

It’s after the wildness of the West is tamed that men like Plainview swooped in and soaked the raw vitality straight from the ground. TWBB is about the exploitation of the American frontier and its denizens, swindled into social contracts under the guise of shared prosperity. Plainview knows he’s dealing with the “common clay” yet molds it unapologetically, and doesn’t meet opposition until a similarly cunning manipulator throws a few firecrackers at his feet. 

It doesn’t hurt that I really love the movie, which I consider one of the finest of the ‘00s. I understand it’s not to everyone’s tastes, it’s narrowly-plotted with a noisy soundtrack, pale tones and a grouchy theme. Still, director Paul Thomas Anderson is brilliant at framing and pacing a film, and Day-Lewis is an absolute force in an all-time role (though I do prefer Bill the Butcher a tad more). Paul Dano is fantastic as well. 

Why wouldn’t the Western genre want to claim this movie? It’s great, and a haunting sequel to the Wild West chapter of American history.

That is it for this 2nd entry of Project: One Hundred Westerns, see you next week with another installment, and be sure to check back February 3rd, 2025 for a new comic.

Westward!

 

~Jamil

Project: 100 Westerns: Part One: Barbarosa, Campañeros and Decision at Sundown

Posted on December, 2024 by JS

Over the next twelve months I’m going to attempt to watch 100 Western flicks.

The math is simple, right? Two a week should get me there. That’s not too crazy. Right?

I’ve seen a good number of Westerns. Not as much as your dad, likely, but more than the next 30-something dude from urban Appalachia, There’s still so many out there. Studios cranked out copious Old West-set films for about four decades. Nearly one in four movies that came out in the 50s and 60s was in the genre, and they’re still pumping them out today in the Neo-Western style. Speedrunning the catalogue could be considered stupidly ambitious, but it’ll be fun to see how the art of storytelling has changed, adapted and evolved over the decades.

No particular rhyme or reason to my picks. I’m just throwing darts at what’s interesting, mostly stuff I’ve never seen, however many selections will be favorites or something I’d like to give another shot. If you have suggestions, let me know!

#1. Barbarosa (1982)

I watched this one after seeing it mentioned on reddit as one of the best 80s Westerns. It was a super average, but deserves at least one watch from any aficionado.

Willie Nelson and Gary Busey do a sort of buddy outlaw thing, menacing folks through Texas and Mexico. Both men’s families are thirsty for revenge and it’s a little ambiguous how justified it is.

Busey is made for the role of slightly likeable bumpkin, and Willie is sublime as the sly road agent type. The tone of the movie never settles, it’s got brutal imagery and nasty protagonists yet is pretty lighthearted overall. Not a lot of great lines in the movie but there are a few laughs. The cinematography is really good; the vast beauty of Texas sets the mood.

The ending is rad. The execution wasn’t great but I loved how they played up the ongoing mystique of Barbarosa (did he deflect a bullet with his face there at the beginning?) while making him relatable to the viewer. Overall, pretty good but somewhat short of remarkable. It’s worth a watch for Willie alone

#2. Campañeros (1970)

This one practically comes with a side of garlic bread

The acclaimed Django director/actor combo reunite in this fun Spaghetti Western that also features familiar faces Tomas Milian and Jack Palance. The buddy movie genre, comedy to drama, lends itself really well to Westerns. There’s so much space for eccentric characters, and there’s a bunch of them here.

Franco Nero plays “Penguin”, a well-dressed, Stockholm-born rogue, and Milian is “Vasco” a crass Mexican rebel. They team up to track down (and eventually jailbreak) a preachy professor so they can open a safe containing the town of San Bernardino’s “wealth”.

Both men are avowed assholes, and it’s fun to watch them bounce that energy off each other. Vasco is bit of a dunce, but earnest and capable. The Penguin is played extremely well by Nero, whose every phrase and gesture is dripping in gentle smarm. They’re a great odd couple — Vasco is a killer and fiend in a way necessitated by his environment, the Swede very much has sought out a life of crime and chaos.

We need to discuss Palance’s character… An American simply named “John”, Palance uses his Skeletor visage to build Bond-villain aura around the film’s prime villain. He’s got an absurd haircut, a pet hawk, a wooden hand, a bunch of joints and an absolutely inexplicable accent. He tortures Vasco by  strapping a rodent to his torso! It’s a crazy role for a guy essentially doing his second tour through film acting at this point in his career. Loved it.

The slick direction by Sergio Corbucci shapes Campañeros and makes it quality. But wow is this thing Italian. The dubbing is rough, and there’s a lot of regional accent and gestures slipping through, breaking immersion. Some of the background and secondary actors, oh my. The script is surprisingly strong though, and just when you’d expect an unimpressive petering off the final act slams the viewer with a series of cool and earned moments.

Oh and that soundtrack hits harrrd.

A pretty good movie, very representative of the time and place it was made. A little goofy at parts but it gets points for the general depth of the characters

#3. Decision at Sundown (1957)

 

In this heyday Western, Randolph Scott plays against type as a man lusting for revenge, inadvertently freeing the town of Sundown from the grasp of big boss Tate Kimbrough. It’s a something of a stomach churner, lots of bad feelings and angry words fly between Kimbrough (played by John Carroll) and Scott’s Bart Allison, and while the movie fails in spots it represents a bridge between the Classic Western and the soon forthcoming Revisionist era. 

With plenty of shooting and pageantry, Decision at Sundown hits all the notes of the genre: good sets and costumes, ultra-competent acting and an eye toward a dynamic plot. It’s what you’d expect from a Budd Boetticher film, and for fans of the Ranown series it’d make for a nice watch on a Sunday afternoon. 

The movie sputters at the start, with the central drama not fully surfacing until the 2nd act. The thorny Bart Allison smolders and steams in the general direction of Kimbrough and then tries to disrupt his wedding, eventually revealing that the businessman courted his wife while Allison was at war, broke her heart and drove her to suicide.

This conflict is purposely gray and murky. After some gunplay and a lot of posturing, more details are unleashed on the viewer, and it sort of comes down to the theory that Allison’s wife Mary was maybe a bit of a ho-bag and their marriage wasn’t strong in any way that counted. 

This core premise is interesting and flips many of the conventions built by the genre over 20-30 years. An angry man rides into a small town looking for retribution and you expect his cause to be clear and just, but in Decision at Sundown, everything is distorted through the lens of perspective. Was Kimbrough a vile womanizer or just a dapper lady-killer? The movie sort of lets you in on the truth, but remains nebulous on what really went down between Mary and the two leads. 

It’s here the true flaw of the ambitious script appears. Mary is never given a voice, the viewer is denied a hint of what it was like on her side. Allison’s partner Sam, the only other character who knew Mary, certainly intimates that Mary wasn’t a great wife and the marriage was troubled, but we have very little inkling of her perspective. With her voice, I think this could have been a much better piece on the inadequacies of frontier justice. 

The real thing tying this together are the leads’ performances. Scott slides into the gray hat role extremely well, demonstrating his talent in bringing the truth of a character to the forefront. I thought Caroll matched him, taking the presumed antagonist and playing it with subtleness that questions the allegations against him. The two lead female roles, Lucy (Karen Steele), the daughter of a prominent townsperson and a babe, and Ruby (Valerie French), Kimbrough’s scorned-yet-loyal side piece, round out the male hostility with a woman’s touch and rationality. But other than that, many of the tertiary characters fail to impress. 

I liked this movie for its gusto but it was a touch before its time. The intent, commendable. Execution, eh. 

That is it for this first entry of Project: One Hundred Westerns, see you Januarary 6th, 2025 with the next All-True Outlaw comic!

Westward!

 

~Jamil