I just finished watching, for possibly the tenth time, but certainly not for the last, the 1970 Western, MONTE WALSH. I would be doing my Western-watching friends a disservice if I didn't do a review of this movie for you all.
I don't know how, but director William Fraker came up with what I believe to be THE ultimate cowboy movie when he made this little-known Western in 1970. Don't get me wrong. When I say "cowboy movie," I MEAN cowboy movie. Not gunfighter movie. Not Indian movie. Not WESTERN, but COWBOY movie.
I am told that this movie did not follow Jack Shaefer's novel, and that this is a shame. I can't judge that. I have read Shaefer's SHANE several times, but I have never read Monte Walsh. So I can judge this movie only on its own merits. And I judge it to be THE best cowboy movie ever made.
I don't want this to come across to anyone as a rip on Tom Selleck session for his remake of Monte Walsh. I love Selleck's Westerns. I really do. He makes a great hero. He's a great actor. He has done a lot of great things. But why ANYONE would ever choose to out-do Lee Marvin and Jack Palance is WAY beyond me. I know that I sure would not want to follow in those shoes. The fact that Selleck pretty much used the same screenplay, mostly just changing what was a great beginning and a great ending in the original movie, made the reason for the remake even worse. There are so many great books out there just begging to be made into movies. Not just mine, but many others. Why would anyone remake a proven classic? 3:10 to Yuma. Monte Walsh. True Grit. And now they are going to try doing The Cowboys over. No accounting for brains, I reckon. But, back to 1970's M.W.
The movie deals with aging cowboys Monte and Chet, as the days of the open range are ending. A bad winter has just wiped out most of the neighboring ranches, including the one Monte and Chet were working on, and they have narrowly missed being put out of work altogether. While Monte takes this in stride and just wants to go get a drink, Chet (Palance) is much more realistic, and he can already start to see the end of the cowboy era.
There is a lot of good humor in the movie, but there is a lot of sobering drama and sadness as well, especially if you are a nostalgic like I am. I don't remember the movie having so many tear-jerking moments, and probably for the run-of-the-mill viewer it doesn't. But for a man like me, now aging himself and who grew up on the myth of the cowboy, it was a very sobering movie.
One of the saddest scenes in the movie is when Monte and Chet are delivering barbed wire to an old man who is left now with nothing but mending fences. This old man, who once rode with "Fighting Joe Hooker" in the Civil War, says, "I had a good life." But in his eyes you can see that life is over. Later, he relives his most memorable moment, riding down "Missionary Ridge" to his death. If he couldn't be a cowboy anymore, he had no reason left to live.
The best line in the movie, and one of the best lines in ANY movie, in my opinion, was delivered by Chet to Monte right after he announces that he is breaking up their long-time partnership by getting married and moving to town.
Chet says, "Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever." It could be carved in my tombstone. Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever. To those of us who grew up in the era of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies and Johnny West action figures, when every night there was at least one Western series on TV and we could still drive to the local theater and watch John and Clint on the big screen, this is a very poignant line. Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever.
CBS has released this movie again on DVD, and it is as fabulous as the day it was released. With a beautiful song sung by Mama Cass at beginning and end, and a fabulous score by John Barry throughout, with impeccable acting by a score of your favorite Western stand-bys, and with Oscar-class acting by Marvin, Palance, and Jim Davis, this is a movie not to be missed, and not to be viewed lightly. It tells of the end of an era that was quintessential "America," the era of the cowboy.
Friday, May 30, 2014
Sunday, April 13, 2014
THE WOLF--HE IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY
Before anyone ever starts calling me a wolf hater, I wonder if I might put my stance in a totally different way than anything I've said so far. Please bear with me, all right? And please do read this. I think it might clear up a lot of things.
First, I like wolves. They are beautiful and majestic and loving of their own families. And born and raised to kill, to solve boredom, for exercise, and to eat. We all need to understand this simple truth.
It has been said, and very recently on this wall, that we shouldn't be "killing wolves," and that all we have to do is put them in a more controlled environment. What? You mean like in a zoo? I hope that's what the maker of the comment meant. No, never mind. I already know that isn't what they meant. They meant to put them in a place like Yellowstone National Park. What, and then tell them "STAY"? In a firm, resolute voice? Maybe we need to train them longer to "stay" and then even paint orange lines all around their territory so they won't step out of it. And next, train them not to kill anyone's dog, cat, sheep, goat, horse, cow, llama. Okay, well you get the picture.
The photos I've included here are just a sampling of animals. Let's bring them all back to their native environment. Bison. A bull can weigh over 2000 pounds. Back in their native environment means my garden. My lawn. YOUR golf course. Your city street. Elephants? Same thing. Ask the people living in Africa what kind of damage a herd of 14,000 pound bull elephants can do to the crops they rely on to survive. Grizzlies? Yeah. Your back yard, not mine.
Now let's say that I should turn my 10 rattlesnakes loose. I'm going to do it right here in my yard and not let them go into anyone else's yard. They'll stay. I just have to teach them, right? I want to know a year from now what my neighbors have to say about that. Snakes, like wolves, bison, elephants, and grizzly bears, don't stay. They have NO idea when you put them in a certain place that you intend for them to remain there--not that they would care even if they did know.
I really like wolves. I admire them a lot. They have a lot of great qualities, and they, like bears and bison--and rattlesnakes--symbolize the wild. But unless you want to spend your own pocket money spaying and neutering them to control their populations--you know, so they won't have to be murdered (or what's the fashionable word, slaughtered?), then you need to understand that wolves, like any other animal, cannot be allowed to breed willy nilly, not in our modern world. This is about common sense. All of us--BOTH SIDES--need to leave emotion out of it. The wolf haters and the wolf worshippers need to come together and meet in the middle. This situation is out of control. Why and when did wolves become more important than dogs, horses, cats, any other animal, or even people? It is time to wake up, America. Step back, stuff your hearts back in your chest and trot your brains back out to the forefront. We can enjoy wolves, and the whole call of the wild thing, but still keep them under control. This is a stupid saying and I don't generally use it, but we can't have our cake and eat it too. If we want wolves here as part of our environment, we are going to have to help them to survive. And letting them run rampant across our land with no control is NOT the help the species needs.
First, I like wolves. They are beautiful and majestic and loving of their own families. And born and raised to kill, to solve boredom, for exercise, and to eat. We all need to understand this simple truth.
It has been said, and very recently on this wall, that we shouldn't be "killing wolves," and that all we have to do is put them in a more controlled environment. What? You mean like in a zoo? I hope that's what the maker of the comment meant. No, never mind. I already know that isn't what they meant. They meant to put them in a place like Yellowstone National Park. What, and then tell them "STAY"? In a firm, resolute voice? Maybe we need to train them longer to "stay" and then even paint orange lines all around their territory so they won't step out of it. And next, train them not to kill anyone's dog, cat, sheep, goat, horse, cow, llama. Okay, well you get the picture.
The photos I've included here are just a sampling of animals. Let's bring them all back to their native environment. Bison. A bull can weigh over 2000 pounds. Back in their native environment means my garden. My lawn. YOUR golf course. Your city street. Elephants? Same thing. Ask the people living in Africa what kind of damage a herd of 14,000 pound bull elephants can do to the crops they rely on to survive. Grizzlies? Yeah. Your back yard, not mine.
Now let's say that I should turn my 10 rattlesnakes loose. I'm going to do it right here in my yard and not let them go into anyone else's yard. They'll stay. I just have to teach them, right? I want to know a year from now what my neighbors have to say about that. Snakes, like wolves, bison, elephants, and grizzly bears, don't stay. They have NO idea when you put them in a certain place that you intend for them to remain there--not that they would care even if they did know.
I really like wolves. I admire them a lot. They have a lot of great qualities, and they, like bears and bison--and rattlesnakes--symbolize the wild. But unless you want to spend your own pocket money spaying and neutering them to control their populations--you know, so they won't have to be murdered (or what's the fashionable word, slaughtered?), then you need to understand that wolves, like any other animal, cannot be allowed to breed willy nilly, not in our modern world. This is about common sense. All of us--BOTH SIDES--need to leave emotion out of it. The wolf haters and the wolf worshippers need to come together and meet in the middle. This situation is out of control. Why and when did wolves become more important than dogs, horses, cats, any other animal, or even people? It is time to wake up, America. Step back, stuff your hearts back in your chest and trot your brains back out to the forefront. We can enjoy wolves, and the whole call of the wild thing, but still keep them under control. This is a stupid saying and I don't generally use it, but we can't have our cake and eat it too. If we want wolves here as part of our environment, we are going to have to help them to survive. And letting them run rampant across our land with no control is NOT the help the species needs.
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