Country: US
Technical: col/VistaVision 141m
Director: Marlon Brando
Cast: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Pina Pellicer, Katy Jurado, Ben Johnson
Synopsis:
A bankrobber gets out of the pen in Sonora and tracks down the partner who double-crossed him years before, finding that he has bought respectability with the proceeds and become sheriff of a Californian town.
Review:
Notorious as the vanity project on which Brando shot over a million feet of film, originally in a cut lasting over five hours, this is in fact a Western with many points of interest alongside, or even because of, its self-indulgences. The supporting cast, including Pickens, Johnson, Jurado, Timothy Carey and Cook Jnr, makes it seem like a Peckinpah movie 'avant la lettre', although the direction and casual sadism is more Anthony Mann. The story is made the more compelling for the study of truth and lies embedded in the script, and much has been written about the father-son subtext (Malden's character name is Dad Longworth), further indicting the 'sins of the fathers' moral universe that was the American west and, by extension, the American present. The Monterey coastline looks great in VistaVision, but it is regrettable that with so much footage shot fewer mismatched edits could not be afforded.
Country: US
Technical: col/VistaVision 141m
Director: Marlon Brando
Cast: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Pina Pellicer, Katy Jurado, Ben Johnson
Synopsis:
A bankrobber gets out of the pen in Sonora and tracks down the partner who double-crossed him years before, finding that he has bought respectability with the proceeds and become sheriff of a Californian town.
Review:
Notorious as the vanity project on which Brando shot over a million feet of film, originally in a cut lasting over five hours, this is in fact a Western with many points of interest alongside, or even because of, its self-indulgences. The supporting cast, including Pickens, Johnson, Jurado, Timothy Carey and Cook Jnr, makes it seem like a Peckinpah movie 'avant la lettre', although the direction and casual sadism is more Anthony Mann. The story is made the more compelling for the study of truth and lies embedded in the script, and much has been written about the father-son subtext (Malden's character name is Dad Longworth), further indicting the 'sins of the fathers' moral universe that was the American west and, by extension, the American present. The Monterey coastline looks great in VistaVision, but it is regrettable that with so much footage shot fewer mismatched edits could not be afforded.
