The Classics - Little Big Man (1979)

It starts off as a lightweight, comic western and then half way through we are shown the massacre of the Cheyanne Indians who have adopted our hero, Jack Crabb. This is the most shocking moment in Arthur Penn's 1979,  revisionist western Little Big Man. Coming after so much character driven comedy it hits the force of a Winchester on steroids.

Jack stands by helplessly while Custer's cavalrymen cut down his family and then have the temerity to claim they have rescued him. Of course Jack Crabb is a fictitious character but many of the events in the movie were based on truth. And the carnage of Crabb's Cheyenne family was based on 1868 campaign to beat the Cheyenne into submission or exterminate the entire tribe. The movie seemed another example of Hollywood trying to atone for its history of collaboration in White America's imperialist savagery towards the red man, but it is more likely that the massacre in Pen's movie was meant to echo the 1968 events at My Lai in Vietnam which was of particular interest to the director who had criticized the Vietnam war. But whatever the reasoning behind the scene which is anomalous to the rest of the movie it is clear that Little Big Man, like several other major westerns, does something toward adjusting the historical  imbalance of most westerns.

"Arthur Penn's most extravagant and ambitious movie, an attempt to capture the essence of the American heritage in the funny, bitter, uproarious adventures of Jack Crabb." Vincent Canby of The New York Times

The movie supposedly told by a 121 year old man who survived the battle of Little Big Horn, is a triumph that gleefully destroys many of the myths created by Hollywood's long love affair with the western. The mythical gunfighter is shown to be ridiculous, the pure fresh faced frontiers-women ends up on a brothel, the noble cavalry suddenly transform into brutal butchers,  and many iconic historical figures such as Custer and Wild Bill Hickok are shown as pretentious clowns. In fact most of the well worn western tropes are destroyed and it is only  the Indians, Human Beings this picture calls them, who are treated with real affection. They are shown to have been brave, spiritual people However the Indians do not entirely escape the sarcastic wand and at one point a gay Indian, Little Horse is brought to life on the screen.

Of course the movie belongs to Dustin Hoffman who is superb as Jack Crabb, convincing as a 121 year old, as well as all other incarnations of our everyman traveling through the western years. It seems that the movie manages to cram in every iconic image the western has ever spewed onto the screen, but throughout it all there is an unmistakable love for the spectacle that only the western can provide - excellent.

Little Big Man is available on both DVD and Blu Ray.

Classic Westerns out there now

Priced at £7.99 and exclusive to W H Smith, Classic Western is a glossy magazine that looks at the best the genre has to cover. It also comes with what are described as six over sized postcards but these are basically colour prints that are good enough for framing.

The choice of films featured are predictable but then as this is a magazine on classic westerns then that's to be expected. There is a detailed essay on each film covered and some great full colour photographs - there's also some great trivia boxes alongside the films. However the magazine is a little out of date when it tells us that it is rumoured the Coen Brothers are remaking True Grit.

It's a full colour magazine with John Wayne on the cover - that should be good enough for any western fan.

I noticed that Smith's also have a similar magazine on sale entitled, Classic British Crime movies with the iconic image of Michael Caine in Get Carter on the cover but I only had the one £7.99 so I grabbed the wesetrn mag.

BORDER CABALLERO - FREE FULL FILM

Thanks to the public domain and archive. org, The Tainted Archive presents another full length western for your pleasure - this time Border Cabellero.
Sam Newfield was allegedly mighty fast on his movie-shooting feet, but no-one has ever described him as stylish or creative. This little film could well be the exception.

True, Doc Shaw's endless fulminating is allowed to take up too much screen time, but this is otherwise an admirably well-produced "B" with a surprisingly gritty, realistic feel to it.

By Newfield's humble standards, the direction is extremely gripping and involving, with action vigorously staged with lots of extras and an unusually dark atmosphere deftly, realistically created, despite a routine plot that pits our hero reluctantly against a band of bank bandits.

THE TEXAS RANGERS (1936 MOVIE)

The Texas Rangers
Directed by King Vidor
Written by Louis Stevens
Based on the novel by Walter Prescott Webb

Although the screenplay is credited to Louis Stevens it was actually written by Vidor himself with only the basic plot lifted from Webb's novel of the same name.

Three outlaws are separated after committing a robbery - two of them Jim and Wahoo join the Texas Rangers while the third man, Sam continues with his outlaw ways. Soon his two ex-bandit friends are on his trail in order to bring him to justice.

This film was remade in 1949 under the title, The Streets of Laredo and there is also an unconnected film titled, The Texas Rangers made in 1951 which shares an almost identical plot.

It is this version though that is the best - a good solid old fashioned oater with plenty of action, some great landscape photography with excellent use of shadows and texture in the lush black and white print. The film also boasts a small role for Gabby Hayes as a judge.


It's available on a fine DVD print as part of Universals western collection and well worth seeking out.

THE WAR WAGON

The War Wagon
dr by Marvin Schwartz
Based on the novel Badman by Clair Huffaker
1967 97 minutes

What makes The War Wagon stand out from the standard run of the mill comedy westerns is the pairing of John Wayne and Kirk Douglas.

Wayne plays Taw Jackson (Jack Tawlin in the original novel) a man who has just returned from jail after being cheated out of his ranch and land by cattle baron Pierce (Bruce Cabat). Taw has a plan to rob The War Wagon - a heavily guarded armoured wagon carrying half a million in gold bullion which has been mined on the land that once belonged to Taw but first he must build up a team to help him. The team includes Lomax (Douglas) who has already taken a commission from the crooked Pierce to kill Taw, a drunken explosive expert, a Indian and a crazy old man.


The magnificent five, indeed.


The action scenes are well orchestrated and the chemistry between Wayne and Douglas provides the heart of the movie. There's some snappy dialogue between the two and both actors seem to be enjoying themselves which transfers to the screen. In one early scene the two beat a couple of cowboys in a gunfight.

'Mine hit the ground first.' Douglas boasts.

'Mine was taller.' Wayne answers and walks off in the familiar style.

An enjoyable well made western with iconic stars and some great photography - true some of the characters, especially the Indians, may be the standard lazy Hollywood stereotypes but the film's entertaining enough and the climax is truly thrilling.