CHRISTIAN BALE RETURNS WEST FOR 'HOSTILES', PLUS WHO DO YOU BELIEVE IN 'TOMBSTONE-RASHOMON'?

Christian Bale

HOSTILES – A Film Review 

A decade ago, Christian Bale played the reluctant temporary deputy escorting outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crow) to a train in the remake of Elmore Leonard’s 3:10 TO YUMA. In HOSTILES, he’s more than reluctant; he’s defiant. A heroic, much-honored veteran of both the Civil War and Indian Wars, Cap. Joseph J. Blocker (Bale), is ordered to escort captive Cheyenne Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) back to his homeland in Montana, presumably to die. Having lost many friends at the hands of Yellow Hawk and his men, Blocker refuses, and it is only the threat of court martial, and loss of his pension, by Col. Briggs (Stephen Lang), that induces Blocker to transport Yellow Hawk and his family through deadly territory.

Jonathan Majors & Wes Studi

The movie becomes, in a sense, a ‘road picture’, with Blocker and Yellow Hawk gradually coming to grips with their intersecting pasts and their terrible memories. There are chance encounters along the way. En route they meet up with Rosalie Quaid (Rosamund Pike, Oscar-nominated for GONE GIRL), a settler whose husband and three daughters have been piteously butchered by Comanches. Her mind shattered by her pain, she is brought along, and begins healing along the way. Soldiers and Cheyenne must do battle with Comanches, enemies of both. They’re also asked to transport a soldier to a court for trial and presumably a hanging – Sgt. Charles Wills (Ben Foster) hacked a family to pieces with an axe. Wills has a history with Blocker – they soldiered together – and Wills is eager to convince Blocker that his crimes are no worse than Blocker committed, and that they’re a pair of angels next to Yellow Hawk. Interestingly, Foster, who all but walked away with last year’s HELL OR HIGH WATER, as the bank-robbing brother with no off-switch, has a history with Bale, as he played Crow’s obsessively-loyal right-hand in 3:10 TO YUMA. Come to think of it, he all but walked off with that movie as well.

Rosamund Pike

HOSTILES, written and directed by Scott Cooper, based on a manuscript by the late Donald E. Stewart, an Oscar-winner for 1983’s MISSING, is a deeply felt story, peopled by soldiers, Indians and civilians who express their feelings with utmost caution.  Despite the familiar premise, the flow of the story, and the people who populate it, are happily unfamiliar. The cavalry soldiers assisting Blocker include a young Frenchman (Timothee Chalamet – currently starring in CALL ME BY YOUR NAME), a sergeant recently treated for melancholy (Rory Cochrane), and a loyal black corporal (Jonathan Majors) ironically in charge of chaining the Indians. It’s full of both quiet passages, and jarring, unflinching violence – in some ways it’s the SAVING PRIVATE RYAN of Westerns.  

Christian Bale & Adam Beach

Scott Cooper made CRAZY HEART with Jeff Bridges, but his Western credentials go back further, to his acting career, in GODS AND GENERALS, with Stephen Lang, and the excellent miniseries BROKEN TRAIL. Cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi, who also shot Cooper’s BLACK MASS, makes full, beautiful use of the New Mexico and Arizona locations, and at times effectively thrusts the viewer deeper into the action than we want to go. There is also frequently a classical look to the images – his doorway compositions are not merely an homage to John Ford, but a jumping-off point.

My one disappointment is that the excellent Adam Beach, who plays Yellow Hawk’s son, has virtually nothing to do. But with a performance by Bale that runs from barely contained fury to understated grace, and a story that is frequently grim, but never without hope, HOSTILES is one of the finest Westerns in several years. From Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures, it opens in theatres on January 19^th.

TOMBSTONE – RASHOMON – Alex Cox at the O.K. Corral!

There is probably no more polarizing incident in the Old West than the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral or, as those involved demurely referred to it, ‘the difficulties.’ 132 years after the Earp and Cowboy factions faced each other, all that can be agreed upon is that 30 seconds after it started, Billy Clanton, and Frank and Tom McLaury were dead.  There is no consensus as to whether or not it was avoidable, and who was at fault.    

“I was a kid at grammar school in England, and in the school library was a copy of Stuart N. Lake’s book, WYATT EARP -- FRONTIER MARSHALL,” remembers wildly-independent filmmaker Alex Cox – whose previous Westerns include 1986’s punk neo-Spaghetti STRAIGHT TO HELL and ‘87’s classical WALKER. “I read that, and of course it’s a total hierography of Earp. But it was well-written, entertaining, and it got me interested in the subject.” His favorite of the films on the subject is John Ford’s 1946 MY DARLING CLEMENTINE. “It’s so beautiful. It doesn’t have a lot to do with the events; it’s a made-up story, for the purpose of entertaining and myth-making.” He also liked 1971’s DOC, “the anti-Earp version. And I kinda like TOMBSTONE – it’s a bit long, but it tells a bigger version of the story, so you know who Johnny Behan is, and Curly Bill Brocious, and all these guys who don’t normally make it into the story.”

Christine Doidge as Kate, Eric Schumacher as Doc 

To tell his own version, Cox took inspiration from Akira Kurosawa’s RASHOMON, 1951’s Best Foreign Film Oscar-winner. The story of a crime is told repeatedly from several different perspectives, and it’s up to the viewer to decide what to believe. RASHOMON, whose title refers to the gate of a walled city, was remade as a Western, THE OUTRAGE, in 1964, starring Paul Newman in the Toshiro Mifune role.

The premise is explained in the film’s opening title: “On 27 October, 1881, a time-travelling video crew arrived in Tombstone, Arizona, to film the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Realizing they were a day late, they started interviewing the survivors.”

Adam Newberry as Wyatt

Cox’s research is as journalistic as his premise is whimsical. The various tellings come directly from Judge Spicer’s hearings, and the coroner’s report. Those who testify include Wyatt Earp, Ike Clanton, Johnny Behan, and saloon-owner Roderick Hafford. Cox also uses newspaper interviews with Doc Holliday, and a letter ‘Big Nose Kate’ Haroney wrote to her niece. Talking-head interviews lead to filmed versions of each participant’s memories, which overlap, and oppose each other. Among events leading up to the shootout, Wyatt offered Ike Clanton a reward for turning in three men for stage-robbery and murder. But their versions of the proposed deal, and involvement of Doc Holiday, differ radically.  And when it comes to the walk-down, and Sheriff Johnny Behan’s words, do we believe Wyatt’s version, that Behan said he’d disarmed the Cowboys, or Behan’s version, that he said he was there to disarm them?

The casting-for-resemblance is striking: Adam Newberry as sulky Wyatt, Eric Schumacher as manic Doc, and Benny Lee Kennedy as Ike seem to have emerged from the pages of The Tombstone Epitaph. Kennedy’s Ike is unexpectedly sympathetic, but Christine Doidge, as Kate, walks off with the movie as a character who is by turns hilarious, tragic, savvy and innocent. Doidge recalls, “Alex had given (Kate) a real space to be herself. Which is great, because he could have easily written this film without her, or with her in one scene; I think having Kate’s perspective is important.”

Hafford's - Richard Anderson as Hafford, 

Benny Lee Kennedy as Ike

It wasn’t a film easily put together. After a “disastrous” crowd-funding campaign, Cox spent a month preparing at Old Tucson, accomplishing the impossible. “We shot a five-week movie in a week.” Having recently taught a learn-by-doing film-production class at University of Colorado Boulder, making the feature BILL THE GALACTIC HERO, he hired several ex-students as crew. 

The real Hafford's Saloon

Cinematographer Alana Murphy remembers, “I was an assistant camera for HERO.  I suppose I made an impression. When I graduated in 2015, Alex said, hey, I’ve got a project I might want your help with - very mysterious.” A year later she was cinematographer on her first feature. She loved working with Cox. “He starts with a lot of inspiration; he gave me a lot of homework, a lot of films to watch, that inspired. That’s how I got to know him, through the source material.”  The biggest challenge?  “The heat. We were having technical issues with batteries not lasting very long. And we were working on a bigger scale then I’m used to.”

Production Designer Melissa Erdman marveled at Cox’s ability to pull it off. “Alex really had great planning skills in the way that the film was structured. So we had an ‘A’ unit and a ‘B’ unit operating pretty much the entire shoot: the B unit was doing the interviews, and the A unit was shooting the various reenactments.” Recreating the interior of Roderick Haffords’ Corner Saloon, famous for hundreds of pictures of birds on its walls, required major planning.  “We had a pretty limited team – it was me, and my art director, who helped to construct the inside of Hafford’s. We had two days of load-in, and most of the stuff came pre-painted, and then putting the bar together, and then getting all the birds put up. I had three people cutting out birds for two days.”

Cox, like Kurosawa, has no intention of telling the viewer if any version of the shoot-out is the unvarnished truth, but he gives each speaker, without pre-judging, a chance to state his or her case. While some differences are flagrant, some are surprisingly subtle. Doidge remembers that after the shootout, as Kate remembers it, “When Doc comes back, grazed by a bullet, I’m there, and I’m horrified.  And in Doc’s version he’s just sitting on the bed by himself. I’m not there.”

TOMBSTONE – RASHOMON will be available on video in 2018 – stay tuned for details!

SILENTS DESCENDS ON THE AUTRY - AND OTHER AUTRY NEWS 

For years The Autry has had their monthly ‘What is a Western?’ screening series – they’re showing STAGECOACH on January 20^th -- and every second month they screen a Gene Autry double feature. They’re now adding a new film series, The Silent Treatment, featuring silent Westerns with a live piano accompaniment by Cliff Retallick, starting on January 27^th with James Cruze’s epic, THE COVERED WAGON (1923). 

Also at the Autry, on Tuesday, January 16^th, Rob Word’s Cowboy Lunch and Word on Western series, Rob will look at the role of women and children in Western films, and Rob always gets terrific guests.

HENRY PARKE WINS WWA'S 'TWEET US A WESTERN' CONTEST! 

I don’t mean to brag, but like Ralphie’s old man, I just won a Major Award. I won first place in the Western Writers of America’s ‘Tweet Us A Western’ contest, where you were challenged to write a complete Western story in 280 characters or less – the length of a tweet.  My winning entry was as follows:

“Eureka!” shouted the old sourdough, sluicing the last of Columbia River silt from his pan to reveal the glitter of color. He straightened.

'Thwack!' The Indian's arrow pierced his back between the shoulders. For a moment he knew his gold rush was over. Then he knew nothing.

...AND THAT'S A WRAP!

...and my New Years resolution is to get the Round-Up out a lot more frequently in 2018. I've got a huge backlog of stories and interviews, and books and movies to review, and I'll get to them as soon as I can. In the meantime, please check out the February 2018 True West, where we asked readers to help us choose the Most Historically Accurate Westerns. And in my column, I take a look at continuing popularity of  The High Chaparral series. Have a wonderful 2018!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright January 2018 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved

MARYLAND WESTERN ‘DAY OF THE GUN’ REVIEWED, PLUS ‘STARDUST COWBOYS’ TICKET GIVEAWAY!

MARYLAND-LENSED WESTERN ‘DAY OF THE GUN’ – A Film Review

Eric Roberts as Tanner

Over the years we’ve gotten used to seeing Westerns made in Spain and Italy; in Germany and Croatia – the Karl May films; Australia and New Zealand; and even the Canary Islands – okay, just once, with TAKE A HARD RIDE.  But somehow, making a Western in Maryland seems the most bizarre of all.  Yet Maryland-based filmmaker Wayne Shipley and his One-Eyed Horse Productions has recently completed their second Western feature there, DAY OF THE GUN.  GUN and his previous feature, ONE-EYED HORSE, along with several shorts, have all been set in the fictional frontier town of Singletree, Montana, and for this newest film, his crew actually ventured to Montana, though the vast majority was shot in that neighbor to New England, Maryland.   

For Shipley’s most ambitious, and I would assume most costly, film to date, he has reached outside of his stock-company of actors to Hollywood, and hired Eric Roberts to play a crucial role.  The story concerns a widow, Maggie Carter (LaDon Hart Hall), who has taken over the reins of the family spread from her late husband.  An opinionated and aggressive woman, she is not welcomed to the fold by the other local cattle ranchers, and when one of them (Jim Osborn) starts fencing in open range to combat rustling, a line has been crossed which she cannot forgive: a range war is inevitable.  Into this battleground comes her son (Ned Carter), still smarting from disfiguring face scars; and her daughter (Rachel McCall), just home from an eastern college.  And the daughter’s romantic interest is none other than the son (Jason Brown) of the fence-raising cattleman.  The son was once Maggie’s son’s best friend, and even introduced him to the girl who took a broken bottle to his face.

This is an unusually big story for recent westerns, especially low-budget ones, a throwback to family-centered Western stories like BROKEN LANCE and FLAMING STAR and TV’s BONANZA and BIG VALLEY.  Shipley succeeds in making the production seem big enough.  The Western town is extensive and well-detailed, the rolling stock and horse-flesh substantial.  The location is attractively lush and green, and the gun-action is long and loud, well-staged, with plenty of participants.  The weapons and, by-and-large the wardrobe, are attractive and, with the exception of some of the ladies’ hats, historically accurate.  

Cinematographer and editor Jeff Herberger frames his shots to good effect – sometimes spectacular effect in the Montana sequences – and edits well.  Standout sequences include an extended shoot-out with the rustlers, and an unusual climax filmed on a mountain-top.

Writer- director Shipley stages the action well.  His manner of writing dialogue is not the naturalistic style mostly favored today, but a much more literary one.  That calls for precise delivery to not sound stilted, and not all of the cast is up to that challenge.  And there is one bit of casting for a central role that seems so off-the-mark that it’s hard for the film to recover.  But when, late in the story, Eric Roberts appears as a hired gun with a personal stake in the events, the professionalism of the project is kicked up several notches. 

Very recently completed, DAY OF THE GUN is making the rounds of film festivals, and we’ll let you know when it’s available.  To learn more about One-Eyed Horse Productions, HERE’s the link to their site.  

WIN TICKETS TO SEE ‘THE STARDUST COWBOYS’ MARCH 20^TH!

The Stardust Cowboys, having played Western Swing at concerts, rodeos, conventions, fairs and cowboy gatherings all over Northern California for two decades, will make their much-anticipated premiere Los Angeles-area appearance on Thursday, March 20^th.  It’s part of the OutWest Concert Series at the Repertory East Playhouse, at 24266 Main Street, Newhall, CA 91321.   The Stardust Cowboys draw their inspiration from the fabled Bob Wills who, with his Texas Playboys, invented Western Swing, that delightful mash-up of cowboy and big band music.  They play a mix of traditional western songs as well as their own originals, and their live shows are full of humor and high energy.

You can buy tickets for $20 by calling OutWest at 661-255-7087. This concert is part of the OutWest series -- in case you haven’t noticed, we have a new sponsor here at the Round-up, the OutWest Western Boutique and Cultural Center in Newhall – just go to the top left corner of the Round-up, click their logo, and you’ll be magically transported to their wonderful store.  The doors open at 7 p.m., and the concert begins at 8, and Bobbi Jean Bell, purveyor of OutWest, tells me that Newhall is having their 3^rd Thursday of the month block party, SENSES (as in delighting the same), so you might want to arrive early for dinner from the food trucks, live music – and to find parking.   Bobbi also tells me that if you’re coming to the concert, you might want to dress up!  SCTV will be filming the show, and you just may be on TV! 

So you say you’d like to win a free pair of tickets to see The Stardust Cowboys?  Here’s what you need to do.  Number one, before you enter, make sure you live someplace where you can actually get to the concert from (I just checked, and right now folks are reading the Round-up in Thailand, The Netherlands and China, but I doubt most can make it here).  Number two, send an email to swansongmail@sbcglobal.net, with ‘Stardust Cowboys ticket giveaway’ in the subject line.  Make sure to include your name, snail-mail address, and phone number.  And here’s the challenging part: name the band leader other than Bob Wills, who was also called The King of Western Swing, and who used to be a movie stand-in for Roy Rogers!  Please be sure to send your entry by 11 pm Saturday, March 15th.  The winner will be selected randomly from all correct entries.  And below is a sneak preview of The Stardust Cowboys. 

SEE ‘3:10 TO YUMA’ MON. AT AERO WITH DIR.  JAMES MANGOLD

Monday, March 10^th, at 7:30 p.m., you can see one of the best and most important Westerns of recent years, 3:10 TO YUMA (2007), to be followed by a discussion with director James Mangold, moderated by Geoff Boucher.  The film stars Russell Crowe as an outlaw being transported to jail, and Christian Bale as the failing farmer who agrees to put Crowe on the train of the title, no matter what the cost.  Also starring are Ben Foster (who’s so good he steals the picture) and Peter Fonda.  One of those rare cases where the remake is comparable to the original, the Elmore Leonard story was first filmed in 1957, with Delmer Daves directing Glenn Ford in the Crowe role, and Van Heflin in the Bale role.  Go HERE for more information, and tickets. 

PAPERBACK SHOW MOVES TO GLENDALE!

DO go to the Paperback Collectors Show on Sunday, March 16^th, but DO NOT go to that hotel on Sepulveda where it’s been for a decade – now it’s at the Glendale Civic Auditorium, 1401 N. Verdugo Road, Glendale, CA 91208.   Parking is free, admission is five clams.  This is a great annual event, and a wonderful opportunity to fill in the gaps in your collection.  This is where I track down all my hard-to-find Luke Shorts and Donald Hamiltons and the like.  You can find not just westerns, but sci-fi, crime, horror, and lots of pulps.  The pristine stuff gets pricey, but speaking as a paperback slob rather than a snob, I’ve never paid more than $2.50 for anything.  Authors will be there to sign your books for free, and while there are no big  western guys, some of the civilian authors of note include Earl ‘The Waltons’ Hamner, George Clayton Jackson, David Gerrold, Ib Melchior, William F. Nolan, Larry Niven, and Harlan Ellison (Harlie will sign two of your books if you buy one from him – and don’t tell him I called him Harlie!) To find the authors signing times, go here: http://la-vintage-paperback-show.com/#sthash.bPAEwAhx.dpbs

ANTHONY MANN RETROSPECTIVE CONTINUES AT BILLY WILDER/UCLA

The two-month retrospective entitled Dark City, Open Country: The Films of Anthony Mann.  Which opened in January at the UCLA Motion Picture & Television Archive at the Billy Wilder Theatre, continues. Best known for his post-war western collaborations with James Stewart at Universal, he also directed many other excellent westerns, as well as gritty crime stories, at all of the major studios as well as the poverty row outfits.  On Wednesday, March 12^th, it’s T-MEN (1947) and RAW DEAL (1948).  March 15^th SIDE STREET (1950) and WINCHESTER ’73 (1950).  March 23^rd THE TALL TARGET (1951) and THE FAR COUNTRY (1954).  And finally, on March 30^th MAN OF THE WEST (1958) and THE TIN STAR (1957).

SANTA CLARITA COWBOY FEST BOOKSIGNERS ANNOUNCED

One of the high points of the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival, which will be April 26 & 27 at Melody Ranch, is the Buckaroo Book Shop, where author of Western fact and fiction will be signing their books and meeting their fans.  The Book Shop is run by the folks at OutWest, and they’ve just finalized their list of authors who’ll be attending.   Cheryl Rogers-Barnett (daughter of Roy and Dale), Margaret Brownley, Jim Christina, Peter Conway, Steve Deming, Edward M. Erdelac, J.P. Gorman, Dale B. Jackson, Jim Jones, C. Courtney Joyner (see my review of his SHOTGUN in next week’s Round-up), Andria Kidd, Antoinette Lane, Jerry Nickle (a descendant of Harry Longabaugh, alias the Sundance Kid), J.R. Sanders, Tony Sanders, Janet Squires, ‘Cowgirl Peg’ Sundberg, Miles Hood Swarthout (who scripted THE SHOOTIST), Rod Thompson, and Nancy Pitchford-Zee.  We’ll have a schedule as the date gets closer.

DESERT PAST COMES ALIVE AT 8^TH ANNUAL ‘VALLECITO DAY’ SAT. MARCH 15

Held at and around the original Vallecito stage station, this one-day event will feature tours, a reenactment of California soldiers’ historic march along the southern Overland Trail at the start of the Civil War, how-to demonstrations for throwing a tomahawk, archery, flint and steel fire making, soap-making and how to cook on an open hearth.  There will be mountain man demonstrations as well.  You are encouraged to come in 1850s and 1860s attire, and encouraged to bring food, as none will be available.  Learn more details, including how to get there. At this link: http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/parks/press/VallecitoDay.html

 

‘ZORRO’ REBOOT IN THE WORKS AT SONY

 

According to Deadline Hollywood, Chris Boal has been signed to script a new Zorro, to be produced by Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald.  Playwright Boal has lately scripted three upcoming films: sci-fier OLD MAN’S WAR for Paramount, and Viking pic VANGUARD for Wolfgang Peterson, and CESAR for Warner Brothers.

NOT A HALLUCINATION!  NEW VIDEO STORE OPENS IN SHERMAN OAKS, CA!

Just about cracked up the Toyota on the way to Sharky’s when I saw the ‘Grand Opening’ sign!  The new Video Hut at 13326 Burbank Boulevard in Sherman Oaks 91401, has been open just a week, still getting organized, so they don’t have a Westerns section yet.  But a casual glance around showed more than a dozen Western titles, including DJANGO UNCHAINED, new and old TRUE GRIT, A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, OPEN RANGE, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, SWEETWATER, LAST RITES OF RANSOM PRIDE, GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE – MEASURE OF A MAN, GUNDOWN, the HATFIELDS & MCCOYS miniseries, and Fred Olen Ray’s film on the same subject, TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARAH, 3:10 TO YUMA, ACE HIGH, ACES & 8S, APALOOSA, AMERICAN BANDITS – FRANK AND JESSE JAMES, AMERICAN OUTLAWS, BLAZING SADDLES, BROKEN BULLET, and LONE RANGER both for rent and for sale.  I rented DEAD IN TOMBSTONE on BluRay, and will soon have a review (take THAT, Universal, who wouldn’t answer my requests for a review copy!).  They also had multiples of the Oscar pics, and the HUNGER GAMES movies.  They’re open 7 days a week, from ten ‘til midnight, and all rentals are $1.50, $1.62 with tax.  Their phone is 818-994-5878.

THAT'S A WRAP!

Every time someone has a monopoly, the customers get burned.  We saw it when Blockbuster drove the mom and pop stores out of business with their huge selection, then dumped 3/4s of their films.  Blockbuster got killed by Netflix, and now Netflix is dumping tons of their content.  I tried to catch up with Oscar movies through VOD on DirecTV, it worked twice, and then it took 36 hours to download half of 12 YEARS A SLAVE – during which my internet was dead (wish I’d realized the connection sooner).  And have I mentioned lately that DirecTV dropped INSP?  My point is, the more choices we have, the better.  Support your local video store if you still have one!

Happy Trails,

Henry

All Original Contents Copyright March 2014 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved