but let's remember that "Butch Cassidy..." was released exactly the same time as "The Wild Bunch," which is a real western (and possibly the best). "BCATSK" was a movie in western drag for hip potheads.
I didn't say I didn't LIKE it, just that it's not really what I'd call a "western."
but let's remember that "Butch Cassidy..." was released exactly the same time as "The Wild Bunch," which is a real western (and possibly the best). "BCATSK" was a movie in western drag for hip potheads.
I didn't say I didn't LIKE it, just that it's not really what I'd call a "western."
whatever affection I have for it might be related to the fact that the girl I was with back then (for much too short a time, alas) was mobbed by people after the movie who thought she was Katherine Ross.
is the "Bloody Mama" you mention the person Angie Dickinson played in "Bloody Mama?" terrible movie, but Angie had a scene of simulated sex (with, of all people, William Shatner!) which involved her being naked from the waist up and if one had thought she had great legs...
in the interests of maintaining a modicum of seriousness in this venue, I leave the rest of that last sentence to be finished by others. and in my own defense, I was in my TWENTIES, for godsake.
.
PS--I looked it up and I mixed up two movies. "Big Bad Mama" was the Angie Dickinson one. "Bloody Mama" had Shelley Winters with a very young Robert DeNiro as one of her sons. it's still on my "not yet seen" list.
I think Shelley Winters played the Ma Barker character who headed up a gang with her sons during the Depression. Kate Bender along with her brothers killed people who stayed at their rooming house some time after the Civil War. By the time the law figured out something was amiss with so many victims who'd stayed at the same place, the Benders disappeared farther into the West.
"The Wild Bunch" with its violent ballet was very troubling for me. I guess I was too young to have been sufficiently brined in US gun violence.
Watch Wild Bunch again, Judith - but be sure to get "extended version" the director's cut, so it makes sense. The Good Guys are the Bad Guys, the Bad Guys are the Good Guys, it couldn't have been made any other year than 1968.
if that was your reaction to the slo-mo deaths in "The Wild Bunch," I'd say you were close to a perfect audience. Peckinpah repeatedly told everyone who asked that the violence was intended to be shocking, especially in showing what a bullet can do to human flesh. he also intended it to serve as an allegory about Vietnam, which was pretty obvious in 1969. Peckinpah also cited Kurosawa as a major inspiration and you can see it..."Seven Samurai" has a lot of slow-motion mayhem which is, at the same time, very beautiful.
unfortunately, recent history seems to tell us that Peckinpah (and other directors of that era) might have been rather naive about their ability to shock America out of its gun thing...it's gonna take a lot more than a few movies, no matter how great they might be.
I've come around to respecting "Unforgiven."
but let's remember that "Butch Cassidy..." was released exactly the same time as "The Wild Bunch," which is a real western (and possibly the best). "BCATSK" was a movie in western drag for hip potheads.
I didn't say I didn't LIKE it, just that it's not really what I'd call a "western."
whatever affection I have for it might be related to the fact that the girl I was with back then (for much too short a time, alas) was mobbed by people after the movie who thought she was Katherine Ross.
is the "Bloody Mama" you mention the person Angie Dickinson played in "Bloody Mama?" terrible movie, but Angie had a scene of simulated sex (with, of all people, William Shatner!) which involved her being naked from the waist up and if one had thought she had great legs...
in the interests of maintaining a modicum of seriousness in this venue, I leave the rest of that last sentence to be finished by others. and in my own defense, I was in my TWENTIES, for godsake.
.
PS--I looked it up and I mixed up two movies. "Big Bad Mama" was the Angie Dickinson one. "Bloody Mama" had Shelley Winters with a very young Robert DeNiro as one of her sons. it's still on my "not yet seen" list.
I think Shelley Winters played the Ma Barker character who headed up a gang with her sons during the Depression. Kate Bender along with her brothers killed people who stayed at their rooming house some time after the Civil War. By the time the law figured out something was amiss with so many victims who'd stayed at the same place, the Benders disappeared farther into the West.
"The Wild Bunch" with its violent ballet was very troubling for me. I guess I was too young to have been sufficiently brined in US gun violence.
Watch Wild Bunch again, Judith - but be sure to get "extended version" the director's cut, so it makes sense. The Good Guys are the Bad Guys, the Bad Guys are the Good Guys, it couldn't have been made any other year than 1968.
yea verily. MASTERPIECE. and it MIGHT be around time for my annual viewing. next time the grandnephew shows up, so I can continue his movie education.
thanks for the disambiguation.
if that was your reaction to the slo-mo deaths in "The Wild Bunch," I'd say you were close to a perfect audience. Peckinpah repeatedly told everyone who asked that the violence was intended to be shocking, especially in showing what a bullet can do to human flesh. he also intended it to serve as an allegory about Vietnam, which was pretty obvious in 1969. Peckinpah also cited Kurosawa as a major inspiration and you can see it..."Seven Samurai" has a lot of slow-motion mayhem which is, at the same time, very beautiful.
unfortunately, recent history seems to tell us that Peckinpah (and other directors of that era) might have been rather naive about their ability to shock America out of its gun thing...it's gonna take a lot more than a few movies, no matter how great they might be.
at this point, I'm out of ideas.