Bottom-of-the barrel stuff. A Civil War semi-Western with anachronistic hair, costuming, and carpeting, et al. The cast is interesting for having Ted Neely in a non-singing, non-Jesus role, but uninteresting for having Joe Don Baker and a passel of TV-quality actors. A staggering six alternate titles.
I don't know what to make of this, but I could not finish this movie. I watched about half of it and every time I opened it up on Tubi to try and finish, I couldn't bring myself to. I've seen worse movies, and I've seen movies as mediocre, but this one aggressively worked against my interest in it, being predictable and racist and sexist and just so totally meaningless. What of it I watched looked taped from television, as the quality seemed like VHS and the swears were blanked out. I do not think a pristine copy would have made much of a difference. Maybe it was cut and taped together such that entire, good scenes are missing, but I doubt that, as well.
Two things that make this movie part of a pattern: one is the staleness of Westerns at this time, and the other is Confederate sympathy. After dominating the early and middle periods of filmmaking in the 20th century, Westerns had lost their power almost entirely by the late 1970s. It's a shame, as it's a rich genre with a variety of masterpieces. But the mood of the 70s did not suit the Western at all, and there wasn't much new to say about the genre at the time anyhow.
For reasons I don't think are deliberately racist, a lot of storytellers and filmmakers in the 20th century decided to set their stories within the Confederacy - the hero is a former Confederate or similar - when using the Civil War as a catalyst or pretext for some other story. This movie includes the song "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" by the Band, telling the story of a Southern farmer and his losses, and like, the Band is full of Canadians. Buster Keaton's masterpiece The General places Buster in the Confederacy, which I think is about putting him with the underdog, not the slaveholder.
My sense is that, in the last century, white people used the romance of being on the losing side of a war to tell stories about loners, wanderers, tragic heroes. In the case of the Civil War, this is gross, because it puts them on the side that supports human rights abuses. I try to see this trend as naïve without excusing it. There is no romance in subjugation.
Anyway, I wish I'd had the stamina to finish this movie, but I didn't, and I don't think I missed a lot about the year via that choice.
Comments
Post a Comment