Synopsis: A steamy slice of 60's Texan hokum
Director: Arthur Penn
Actors: Marlon Brando, Robert Redford, EG Marshall, James Fox, Jane Fonda, Robert Duvall, Angie Dickinson, Janice Rule
Date: 1965
How viewed: Lovefilm rental
Rating: 5/5
David Meyer says:
A dark, pessimistic, big-budget drama featuring several unpredictable turns, crazy dialogue, superb (and ghastly) performance, the first inclination of Penn's gift for cinematic mayhem, and numerous high-minded messages.
I say:
In the mid 60's, when local bad-boy (Redford, unexpectedly convincing!) escapes from jail, rumours of his imminent return to his small Texan town, bring all the simmering tensions (sexual. racial and social) to a head. Actually he's not bad, just unlucky - the prisoner he escapes with kills the driver of a car they're trying to hijack (and he knows he'll be blamed), and the train he hitches a ride on, expecting it to take him to Mexico, is actually coming from Mexico and dumps him right back in his home town! Along with Brando, who is outstanding as the sheriff trying to keep the lid on the gathering storm (it's almost like his character is shot in slow motion while the rest of the film and cast speed up), there's a star studded cast: Marshall, Dickinson, Fonda, Duvall, etc, many early in their careers. There are no great location shots, no stunning set pieces, no flashbacks (all the action takes place over one Saturday evening), and no arty camera angles or long takes, the film is simply a stunning piece of straightforward storytelling, with overlapping story-lines, unexpected plot twists, and a great script (by Lillian Hellman) with loads of memorable lines:
To the Sheriff: 'Taxes in this town pay your salary to protect this place'
Sheriff: 'Well, if anything happens to you we'll give you a refund'
and
'Shoot a man for sleeping with somebody's wife? That's silly, half the town would be wiped out'
The only fly in the ointment for me was James Fox, why would anyone cast this quintessential English man as a Texan oilman? Nevertheless, all in all, essential viewing!
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