"Ride Beyond Vengeance" (**1/2 out of ****)is a gritty, violent, but far from unsavory frontier western revenge saga starring Chuck Connors that could almost be mistaken for a Spaghetti western, except for its polished production values, its humane characters, and its offbeat ending. Hollywood wasn't making westerns like this until a few years later after the Spaghettis had taken violence to more intense, savage levels. In fact, in 1968, Chuck Connors followed a stream of American leading men who migrated to Europe to cash in on the Spaghetti western craze and played in a forgotten but rip-snorting little shoot'em up called "Kill Them All and Come Back Alive."
Derived from Al Dewlen's novel "Night of the Tiger," "Ride Beyond Vengeance" begins in the contemporary Texas town of Cold Iron when an exhausted census taker (James MacArthur of CBS-TV's "Hawaii 5-0") visits a cafe and points out to the man behind the counter (Arthur O'Connell of "The Poseidon Adventure") that three names are popular with the town's folk. The narrator explains the relevance of those names and links them to a legend about a vengeful man who went on a rampage in Cold Iron when it was a frontier berg. Veteran TV director Bernard McEveety, who helmed episodes on virtually every major TV western series, including "Gunsmoke," "Branded," "Laredo," "Bonanza," and "Rawhide," takes us back to the past as O'Connell begins his narration about the turbulent events that rocked Cold Iron to its roots.
The first set of flashbacks open with rugged Chuck Connors sporting a shaggy beard and riding a horse through the wilderness. We learn that he had left his hometown eleven years and also had deserted his pretty wife. During that decade he lived as a buffalo hunter and earned $17-thousand dollars shooting and killing the beasts for their hides. On his way back to Cold Iron, Jonas (Chuck Connors of "The Big Country") spots a campfire. Although he finds nobody at the camp, he helps himself to the coffee and then notices a roped calf nearby. At that point, things take a turn for the worst. Three men emerge from the brush and get the drop on him. Crazy, pistol-toting Elwood Coates (Claude Atkins of "Return of the Seven"), handsome, well-dressed Johnsy Boy Hood (Bill Bixby of CBS-TV's "My Favorite Martian"), and local banker Brooks Durham (Michael Rennie of "The Day The Earth Stood Still") accuse Jonas of rustling cattle. Naturally, our innocent protagonist denies their allegation. Coates wants to string up Jonas. Brooks persuades them not to hang Jonas, but Johnsy Boy devises something rather sadistic instead of hanging. He wields a branding iron and sears a T-shape mark into Jonas' chest and our hero passes out. McEveety shows us the branding iron from Jonas's point of view so that the glowing end is hovering in our faces.
We learn from another flashback in writer/producer Andrew J. Fenady's screenplay that Jonas came from the wrong side of the tracks and married a town girl, Jessie (TV actress Kathryn Hays), despite the protests of her wealthy mother. Jessie lied to her Aunt Gussie (Ruth Warrick of "Citizen Kane") and told her that she was pregnant in order to wed Jonas. Eventually, Jonas gets fed up with living with his aunt. He hates the fact that he cannot find a decent job and must do the work of a boy for the pay of a boy. Jonas tries to convince Jessie to leave her aunt and start life anew, but she refuses to abandon her ailing aunt. Jonas rides off and Jessie discovers that her wealthy mother was up to her ears in debt and Jessie has to rely on Durham to help her survive.
Eventually, Jonas recovers from the branding and discovers that his $17-thousand dollars is missing. He rides into Cold Iron and finds Johnsy Boy, follows him into the brush, and threatens to brand him as Johnsy had branded him. At the last minute, as Jonas is about to relent, Johnsy Boy seizes the branding iron, brands himself and disappears howling mad insane into the wilderness. Later, Elwood learns about the missing money and he tries to kill Brooks. Elwood gets into a knuckle-busting fight with Jonas and they destroy the local saloon before Jonas shoots him. Brooks confesses to the townspeople that he stole Jonas' money. When everything is said and done, Jonas lets Brooks live and leaves the town and his wife again.
Director Bernard McEveety must have relished this opportunity to make a grim, unrelenting western as opposed to the family friendly western fare that he had done for prime-time television. Everybody uses some profanity, primarily "Hell" and "bastard," and Fenady's flavorful dialogue is rift with interesting slang. "Ride Beyond Vengeance" isn't exactly memorable, but it is gripping throughout its 101 minutes and boils over with melodrama. Bill Bixby and Claude Atkins shine as venomous villains. Atkins' ruffian character carries on a conversation with an imaginary character called 'Whiskey Man.' McEveety stages a standard knock down, drag-out brawl in a saloon between Atkins and Connors that was a little rougher than usual. The supporting cast is almost too good for this minor western. In the process seasoned Hollywood celebrities like Joan Blondell and Gloria Grahame are squandered in peripheral roles as is Frank Gorshin who has one big scene where he describes the grisly death of Bill Bixby's character, particularly how Johnsy Boy's guts resembled blue snakes. The atmospheric title song by Glenn Yarbrough has some catchy lyrics. Writer/producer Fenady went on to produce the John Wayne epic "Chism," but "Ride Beyond Vengeance" surpasses "Chism" in terms of its violence and its villains. Most but not all of the action takes place in a Hollywood western set that looks too polished for it to be a Spaghetti western. Nevertheless, Connors makes a convincing, sympathetic hero who loves cats. Not bad for its kind.
CINEMATIC REVELATIONS allows me the luxury of writing, editing and archiving my film and television reviews. Some reviews appeared initially in "The Commercial Dispatch" and "The Planet Weekly" and then later in the comment archives at the Internet Movie Database. IMDB.COM, however, imposes a limit on both the number of words and the number of times that an author may revise their comments. I hope that anybody who peruses these expanded reviews will find them useful.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
FILM REVIEW OF ''RANDOM HEARTS'' (1999)
Sometimes when you get a chance to see the previews for a movie, you learn more about the story than the characters even know. Worse, you find yourself so far ahead of them that you grow impatient while waiting for them to catch up. They call this situation 'dramatic irony.' More than 30 minutes elapse in "Random Hearts" (* out of ****)before Harrison Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas realize that their respective spouses have not only died in a tragic plane crash, but that they also were cheating on them. Sadly, Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack of "Out of Africa" and his scenarists—Kurt Luedtke and Daryl Ponicsan--belabor the inevitable, trivialize adultery, and pad the action with two obligatory subplots that interfere with the main romance.
Although Warren Adler's novel served as the source material for "Random Hearts," this contemporary tale of ill-fated, middle-aged lovers draws inspiration from Sir David Lean's classic, 1945, rainy day soaper "Brief Encounter." Unlike Lean's legendary weepie, "Random Hearts" whirls aimlessly in circles but never seems to go anywhere, chiseling its audience out of any kind of emotional closure with its humdrum ending. Ford and Thomas both radiate celestial Hollywood star power, but their combined wattage cannot energize this comatose two-hour and 13-minute tearjerker.
Cast as a District of Columbia cop assigned to Internal Affairs, Ford is appropriately tight-lipped and believably gruff as Sergeant Dutch Van Den Broeck. "They call me Dutch—it's easier," he likes to tell people. Dutch busts bad cops, but racking up convictions to earn a long overdue promotion to lieutenant is not his style. He is as content as a police sergeant as he is secure in his marriage to his pretty wife Peyton (Susan Thompson of "Ghosts of Mississippi), a catalog designer for Saks Fifth Avenue. Sadly, Dutch lives in a fool's paradise, and the revelations from the plane crash shatter him. Ford is credible as the cuckolded cop, but his short, bristly hairstyle and a gold stud in his ear lobe contradict his blue-collar sensibilities.
Thomas plays Kay Chandler, a fastidious, New Hampshire, Republican congresswoman running for reelection against a billionaire opponent with few scruples. Married to well-heeled Washington attorney Cullen (Peter Coyote in a cameo role), Kay adores her 15-year old daughter Jessica (Kate Mara). Obviously, a scandal is the last thing that Kay needs during her re-election bid. When she discovers what her philandering husband has been doing, she keeps the truth from her daughter—and tries to deny it herself. "If they find out about your wife, it's gossip," Kay tells Dutch. "If they find out about my husband, it's in the newspapers.
The recurring question that haunts the characters in the Kurt "Out of Africa" Luedtke & Daryl "The Last Detail" Ponicsan screenplay is: How deeply can we trust our partners as well as ourselves? The drama in "Random Hearts: grows out of the troubled relationship that evolved when Dutch shows up at her apartment one day with a series of questions about Cullen. Dutch cannot believe that his wife cheated on him. Obsessively, he must turn over every rock in his search for the truth. Dutch figures Kay must be just as curious. They have a fling while he investigates the untimely death of their spouses. Kay fears Dutch because he cannot leave well enough alone, and the sense of betrayal that Dutch feels threatens his sanity.
The people that made "Random Hearts" had the right idea. Like most classic love stories, the characters share little in common except for their grief and betrayal, and they clash when they first collide. Diametrical opposites always attract in this genre, but the coupling of Kay and Dutch seems more like a screenwriter's conceit than a credible liaison. These characters never win our sympathy because they are too self-absorbed to see what is really happening around them. Further, Dutch and Kay aren't as interesting as their adulterous spouses. You know that a movie is in trouble, too, when forty-five minutes pass before its main characters get together. Luedtke and Ponicsan furnish Ford and Thomas with dialogue that verges on the ridiculous.
At one point, before they hop into the sack, Kay says to Dutch: "I'm not going to make small talk so there won't be any junk between us." Later, Kay observes about herself: "Nobody knows who I am anymore." While "Random Hearts" refuses to condone adultery, its sentiments about extramarital affairs seems capricious. During a conversation with one of his late wife's colleagues, Dutch listens as the woman explains how she accidentally caught her own erring husband in bed with another woman. Instead of exposing them, she felt discretion was the better part of fidelity and fled. "I kept my mouth shut and I never went home again without calling first," she states.
Some of the late Stanley Kubrick must have rubbed off on Pollack. Pollack, if you recall, acted in Kubrick's final film "Eyes Wide Shut." Kubrick was known for slowly paced epics. Similarly, Pollack takes great pains to draw out "Random Hearts" with long, dramatic pauses. The two subplots involving a crooked cop that Dutch is investigating and Kay's reelection campaign add nothing other than an obligatory shoot-out and Pollack himself as a spin doctor moderating Kay's election.
"Random Hearts" emerges as a gorgeous looking but glum melodrama that creeps along with agonizing solemnity before it arbitrarily fades out on a hollow note. Despite its gripping premise and its polished craftsmanship, "Random Hearts" is still a mopey love story in search of a pulse.
Although Warren Adler's novel served as the source material for "Random Hearts," this contemporary tale of ill-fated, middle-aged lovers draws inspiration from Sir David Lean's classic, 1945, rainy day soaper "Brief Encounter." Unlike Lean's legendary weepie, "Random Hearts" whirls aimlessly in circles but never seems to go anywhere, chiseling its audience out of any kind of emotional closure with its humdrum ending. Ford and Thomas both radiate celestial Hollywood star power, but their combined wattage cannot energize this comatose two-hour and 13-minute tearjerker.
Cast as a District of Columbia cop assigned to Internal Affairs, Ford is appropriately tight-lipped and believably gruff as Sergeant Dutch Van Den Broeck. "They call me Dutch—it's easier," he likes to tell people. Dutch busts bad cops, but racking up convictions to earn a long overdue promotion to lieutenant is not his style. He is as content as a police sergeant as he is secure in his marriage to his pretty wife Peyton (Susan Thompson of "Ghosts of Mississippi), a catalog designer for Saks Fifth Avenue. Sadly, Dutch lives in a fool's paradise, and the revelations from the plane crash shatter him. Ford is credible as the cuckolded cop, but his short, bristly hairstyle and a gold stud in his ear lobe contradict his blue-collar sensibilities.
Thomas plays Kay Chandler, a fastidious, New Hampshire, Republican congresswoman running for reelection against a billionaire opponent with few scruples. Married to well-heeled Washington attorney Cullen (Peter Coyote in a cameo role), Kay adores her 15-year old daughter Jessica (Kate Mara). Obviously, a scandal is the last thing that Kay needs during her re-election bid. When she discovers what her philandering husband has been doing, she keeps the truth from her daughter—and tries to deny it herself. "If they find out about your wife, it's gossip," Kay tells Dutch. "If they find out about my husband, it's in the newspapers.
The recurring question that haunts the characters in the Kurt "Out of Africa" Luedtke & Daryl "The Last Detail" Ponicsan screenplay is: How deeply can we trust our partners as well as ourselves? The drama in "Random Hearts: grows out of the troubled relationship that evolved when Dutch shows up at her apartment one day with a series of questions about Cullen. Dutch cannot believe that his wife cheated on him. Obsessively, he must turn over every rock in his search for the truth. Dutch figures Kay must be just as curious. They have a fling while he investigates the untimely death of their spouses. Kay fears Dutch because he cannot leave well enough alone, and the sense of betrayal that Dutch feels threatens his sanity.
The people that made "Random Hearts" had the right idea. Like most classic love stories, the characters share little in common except for their grief and betrayal, and they clash when they first collide. Diametrical opposites always attract in this genre, but the coupling of Kay and Dutch seems more like a screenwriter's conceit than a credible liaison. These characters never win our sympathy because they are too self-absorbed to see what is really happening around them. Further, Dutch and Kay aren't as interesting as their adulterous spouses. You know that a movie is in trouble, too, when forty-five minutes pass before its main characters get together. Luedtke and Ponicsan furnish Ford and Thomas with dialogue that verges on the ridiculous.
At one point, before they hop into the sack, Kay says to Dutch: "I'm not going to make small talk so there won't be any junk between us." Later, Kay observes about herself: "Nobody knows who I am anymore." While "Random Hearts" refuses to condone adultery, its sentiments about extramarital affairs seems capricious. During a conversation with one of his late wife's colleagues, Dutch listens as the woman explains how she accidentally caught her own erring husband in bed with another woman. Instead of exposing them, she felt discretion was the better part of fidelity and fled. "I kept my mouth shut and I never went home again without calling first," she states.
Some of the late Stanley Kubrick must have rubbed off on Pollack. Pollack, if you recall, acted in Kubrick's final film "Eyes Wide Shut." Kubrick was known for slowly paced epics. Similarly, Pollack takes great pains to draw out "Random Hearts" with long, dramatic pauses. The two subplots involving a crooked cop that Dutch is investigating and Kay's reelection campaign add nothing other than an obligatory shoot-out and Pollack himself as a spin doctor moderating Kay's election.
"Random Hearts" emerges as a gorgeous looking but glum melodrama that creeps along with agonizing solemnity before it arbitrarily fades out on a hollow note. Despite its gripping premise and its polished craftsmanship, "Random Hearts" is still a mopey love story in search of a pulse.
FILM REVIEW OF ''THE OMEGA MAN'' (1971)
Husband and wife scenarists John and Joyce Carrington of "Boxcar Bertha" fame alter Richard Matheson's novel "I Am Legend" in "Mosquito Squadron" director Boris Sagal's violent remake as "The Omega Man" (**1/2 out of ****)with Charlton Heston taking over the character that Vincent Price created in the 1964 original film "The Last Man on Earth." Germ warfare has devastated the earth, and scientist John Neville is the only man alive who has acquired immunity from the plague that gradually turns humans into mutants. Unlike the brooding Italian-produced original, where the plague turned everybody into zombie-like vampires, "The Omega Man" turns everybody into a mob of pale-faced maniacs that can only come out after dark to do their dirty deeds. These fiends wear hooded robes and resemble albinos. They are a murderous bunch led by a former TV news announcer named Mathias (Anthony Zerbe of "License to Kill") and they refer to themselves as 'the Family.' This is one of the better aspect of this hit and miss melodrama. Mathias is Neville's sworn enemy, and Mathias' mutant mob never stop trying to kill our hero. When Mathias and company are not roaming the streets in search of Neville, they hole up in the courthouse and await the sun to go down. (This is another clever touch in a film that needs a lot of clever touches. Sunlight damages their eyes and weakens them. During the day, Neville scours Los Angeles for signs of intelligent life. The mutant capture him early on, and Mathias is about to have him killed when Dutch (Paul Koslo of "Joe Kidd") and Lisa (Rosalind Cash of "Klute") rescue him. They surprise the mutants by turning on the stadium lights so Neville can overpower his captors and flee. Briefly, Neville and his newly discovered friends join forces. Neville distills a serum from his own blood and saves Lisa's little brother Ritchie (Eric Laneuville of "Death Wish") but Lisa turns and allows Mathias and his vermin ambush Neville.
Warner Brothers lensed the second version of "I Am Legend" entirely in Los Angeles on Sundays and holidays when the streets were empty and the filmmakers could simulate a city abandoned. Boris Sagal and his scribes change up the hero so that he is more military minded in his destruction of his enemies. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) was merely a scientist, whereas Heston arms himself with an array of ultra-cool, exotic weaponry to battle the villains. Unlike Vincent Price and Will Smith's heroes, Heston doesn't have a dog. Heston's Neville resides in a fortified town-house and parks his car in an underground garage, a far cry from Price's modest digs. The other major change is that the villains are no longer vampires. They behave like a mob. They don't shamble like zombies; instead, they can run, jump, and throw spears. Despite their greater numbers, they prove easy prey when our hero packs a grease gun and can mow them down. Unquestionably, Sagal and company have opened up the Matheson novel and given it greater scope—aside from its widescreen Cinemascope—with an ending that bodes well for humanity. Basically, "The Omega Man" serves as a metaphor of the theme of the erosion of white male authority figures during the 1970s when fringe groups managed to acquire greater influence over society. Otherwise, most of what happens alternates between Neville shooting his way out of scrapes and pretentious dialogue about his messiah status. An inter-racial romance between Heston and Cash isn't allowed to go very far, even though they spend an on-screen night in the sack and we see Cash nude from the side the next morning as she opens the curtains to let the sun into the room. Charlton Heston spends at least half of the film running around bare-chested displaying his athletic prowess. Composer Ron Grainer of "Dr. Who" and "The Prisoner" contributes a lackluster score, especially during the opening credits.
Undoubtedly, "The Omega Man" sits better for a mainstream audience but it lacks the atmosphere of the Price original.
Warner Brothers lensed the second version of "I Am Legend" entirely in Los Angeles on Sundays and holidays when the streets were empty and the filmmakers could simulate a city abandoned. Boris Sagal and his scribes change up the hero so that he is more military minded in his destruction of his enemies. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) was merely a scientist, whereas Heston arms himself with an array of ultra-cool, exotic weaponry to battle the villains. Unlike Vincent Price and Will Smith's heroes, Heston doesn't have a dog. Heston's Neville resides in a fortified town-house and parks his car in an underground garage, a far cry from Price's modest digs. The other major change is that the villains are no longer vampires. They behave like a mob. They don't shamble like zombies; instead, they can run, jump, and throw spears. Despite their greater numbers, they prove easy prey when our hero packs a grease gun and can mow them down. Unquestionably, Sagal and company have opened up the Matheson novel and given it greater scope—aside from its widescreen Cinemascope—with an ending that bodes well for humanity. Basically, "The Omega Man" serves as a metaphor of the theme of the erosion of white male authority figures during the 1970s when fringe groups managed to acquire greater influence over society. Otherwise, most of what happens alternates between Neville shooting his way out of scrapes and pretentious dialogue about his messiah status. An inter-racial romance between Heston and Cash isn't allowed to go very far, even though they spend an on-screen night in the sack and we see Cash nude from the side the next morning as she opens the curtains to let the sun into the room. Charlton Heston spends at least half of the film running around bare-chested displaying his athletic prowess. Composer Ron Grainer of "Dr. Who" and "The Prisoner" contributes a lackluster score, especially during the opening credits.
Undoubtedly, "The Omega Man" sits better for a mainstream audience but it lacks the atmosphere of the Price original.
FILM REVIEW OF ''FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE'' (1965)
Sergio Leone's superlative "For a Few Dollars More" (**** OUT OF ****) with Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef ranks in the top five of all Spaghetti westerns. This exciting bounty hunter shoot'em up has Monco (Clint Eastwood) forming an uneasy alliance with Colonel Douglas Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef) to wipe out a ruthless gang of murderous desperadoes. Monco wants the bounty on El Indio (Gian Maria Volonte of "A Bullet for the General") and his gang, while Colonel Mortimer vows to kill Indio strictly out of revenge because the dastard raped his sister and she committed suicide. A multitude of distinctive Leone touches appear in this fabulous frontier saga; this represents the first time that Leone would stage a gunfight in the round. Meanwhile, Ennio Morricone's theme music is classic with its chiming bells, piercing whistles, and crisp whip cracks, but it is the tender and moving watch-piece theme that is really memorable here. Leone and cinematographer Massimo Dallamano lensed this 132 minute oater in the craggy mountainous regions of southern Spain that substitute marvelously for the American southwest. Every time that a six-gun toting character tramps the gritty earth with his jingling, spur-clad boots, you can hear the scratchy sound of dirt being displaced. The sets seem so much more authentic the way that they have been grafted to the spartan scenery.
The opening words on screen establish "For a Few Dollars More" as a bounty hunting western: "Where life has no value, death sometimes has its price. This is why the bounty hunters appeared." Clint Eastwood returns as the monosyllabic gunman dressed in a serape, with wrist-bands, and a Colt's .45 revolver with a coiled snake on the plow handle grip. More than Eastwood's stoic performance, it is Lee Van Cleef's formidable presence as a natty stranger clad in black who carries an arsenal of weapons on his horse that makes this western stand out. Originally, Leone had sought the service of Lee Marvin. Marvin would have been exemplary, but veteran western heavy Lee Van Cleef made the role of the Colonel into one of his most memorable roles. Later, Van Cleef would take the Colonel character a bit farther in Gianfranco Parolini's exciting saga "Sabata." As the pot-smoking villain, Gian Maria Volonte challenges both men at every turn of the plot. Volonte looks like the equivalent of a wolf with his lupine features and grizzled hair. There is a psychotic glint in his eyes that make you believe that he prefers to shoot first and ask questions later. "For A Few Dollars More" represents the first western in over 40 years where a character actually smokes a marihuana cigarette. Everybody here looks like a mutant, especially Klaus Kinski cast as a killer named 'Wild' with a hunchback. Leone characterizes each character with an Ennio Morricone musical motif.
"For A Few Dollars More" begins with Colonel Mortimer killing a repulsively ugly outlaw named Guy Calloway (José Terrón of ""God Forgives... I Don't!") after he tries to flee from the colonel. Mortimer wields a rifle, kills Guy's horse and then kills Guy with a bullet in the forehead as the villain shoots at him. Mortimer collects a thousand dollars for Calloway, and the scene shifts to White Rocks where Monco shows up to claim the $2-thousand bounty on 'Baby' Red Cavanaugh (José Marco of "Man of the Cursed Valley") and winds up not only killing him but three of Red's gunslinging partners. Now that Leone has set up his two heroes, he shifts the scene again to introduce the villain as a band of killers break El Indio out of prison. Coincidentally, Indio shares his cell with a carpenter (Dante Maggio of "The Fighting Fists of Shangai Joe") who knows a thing or two about the safe at the Bank of El Paso. El Indio and his trigger-happy gunslingers kill all the uniformed prison guards and Indio shoots the warden in the face. Later, Indio tracks down the man who turned him into the authorities and used the bounty money to start a family. Indio's men murder the man's wife and 18 month old son and then Indio prods the man into a duel with the watch-piece used as a timer.
Meanwhile, Mortimer searches for a bank that only a maniac would try to rob and learns that the Bank of El Paso is just such a bank. Indeed, Indio plans to rob a bank, but he has planned a very unconventional hold-up. Monco and Colonel Mortimer arrive in town at the same time. They agree to work together but neither truly trusts the other. Earlier, they spent an evening shooting at each other's hats that ended into a stand-off. Monco shot at Mortimer's hat and the hat skidded past Mortimer. Comparatively, Mortimer blows Monco's hat off his head and continues to shoot at it in the air. Afterward, they devise a plan that calls on Monco infiltrating the gang. Monco uses dynamite to blow a hole in the cell occupied by El Indio's right-hand man Sancho Perez (Panos Papadopoulos of "The Indian Tomb") who is serving time in prison. When Indio asked him why he wants to join his gang, Monco says that he wants to kill them all for the bounty on their heads. Indio appreciates Monco's audacity and admits him to his gang.
The bank hold-up itself differs from most westerns of the day. After they blast a hole in the rear of the bank, the bandits take the entire safe, something that would be imitated in "Sabata," and haul it off in a wagon. Mortimer worms his way into the gang because he claims that he can open it with nitro after the villains cannot blast it open without destroying the bank notes. Each shoot out is terrifically staged and the gunshots themselves are nothing like the American equivalent. The final shoot-out in the round with the chimes on the watch serving as the timing device is imaginative. "For a Few Dollars More" is better than both "A Fistful of Dollars" and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." British spaghetti western expert Christopher Frayling has written an excellent book about this movie and its shattering impact on American westerns as well as Italian westerns.
The opening words on screen establish "For a Few Dollars More" as a bounty hunting western: "Where life has no value, death sometimes has its price. This is why the bounty hunters appeared." Clint Eastwood returns as the monosyllabic gunman dressed in a serape, with wrist-bands, and a Colt's .45 revolver with a coiled snake on the plow handle grip. More than Eastwood's stoic performance, it is Lee Van Cleef's formidable presence as a natty stranger clad in black who carries an arsenal of weapons on his horse that makes this western stand out. Originally, Leone had sought the service of Lee Marvin. Marvin would have been exemplary, but veteran western heavy Lee Van Cleef made the role of the Colonel into one of his most memorable roles. Later, Van Cleef would take the Colonel character a bit farther in Gianfranco Parolini's exciting saga "Sabata." As the pot-smoking villain, Gian Maria Volonte challenges both men at every turn of the plot. Volonte looks like the equivalent of a wolf with his lupine features and grizzled hair. There is a psychotic glint in his eyes that make you believe that he prefers to shoot first and ask questions later. "For A Few Dollars More" represents the first western in over 40 years where a character actually smokes a marihuana cigarette. Everybody here looks like a mutant, especially Klaus Kinski cast as a killer named 'Wild' with a hunchback. Leone characterizes each character with an Ennio Morricone musical motif.
"For A Few Dollars More" begins with Colonel Mortimer killing a repulsively ugly outlaw named Guy Calloway (José Terrón of ""God Forgives... I Don't!") after he tries to flee from the colonel. Mortimer wields a rifle, kills Guy's horse and then kills Guy with a bullet in the forehead as the villain shoots at him. Mortimer collects a thousand dollars for Calloway, and the scene shifts to White Rocks where Monco shows up to claim the $2-thousand bounty on 'Baby' Red Cavanaugh (José Marco of "Man of the Cursed Valley") and winds up not only killing him but three of Red's gunslinging partners. Now that Leone has set up his two heroes, he shifts the scene again to introduce the villain as a band of killers break El Indio out of prison. Coincidentally, Indio shares his cell with a carpenter (Dante Maggio of "The Fighting Fists of Shangai Joe") who knows a thing or two about the safe at the Bank of El Paso. El Indio and his trigger-happy gunslingers kill all the uniformed prison guards and Indio shoots the warden in the face. Later, Indio tracks down the man who turned him into the authorities and used the bounty money to start a family. Indio's men murder the man's wife and 18 month old son and then Indio prods the man into a duel with the watch-piece used as a timer.
Meanwhile, Mortimer searches for a bank that only a maniac would try to rob and learns that the Bank of El Paso is just such a bank. Indeed, Indio plans to rob a bank, but he has planned a very unconventional hold-up. Monco and Colonel Mortimer arrive in town at the same time. They agree to work together but neither truly trusts the other. Earlier, they spent an evening shooting at each other's hats that ended into a stand-off. Monco shot at Mortimer's hat and the hat skidded past Mortimer. Comparatively, Mortimer blows Monco's hat off his head and continues to shoot at it in the air. Afterward, they devise a plan that calls on Monco infiltrating the gang. Monco uses dynamite to blow a hole in the cell occupied by El Indio's right-hand man Sancho Perez (Panos Papadopoulos of "The Indian Tomb") who is serving time in prison. When Indio asked him why he wants to join his gang, Monco says that he wants to kill them all for the bounty on their heads. Indio appreciates Monco's audacity and admits him to his gang.
The bank hold-up itself differs from most westerns of the day. After they blast a hole in the rear of the bank, the bandits take the entire safe, something that would be imitated in "Sabata," and haul it off in a wagon. Mortimer worms his way into the gang because he claims that he can open it with nitro after the villains cannot blast it open without destroying the bank notes. Each shoot out is terrifically staged and the gunshots themselves are nothing like the American equivalent. The final shoot-out in the round with the chimes on the watch serving as the timing device is imaginative. "For a Few Dollars More" is better than both "A Fistful of Dollars" and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." British spaghetti western expert Christopher Frayling has written an excellent book about this movie and its shattering impact on American westerns as well as Italian westerns.
FILM REVIEW OF ''THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES" (1976)
The trail of a notorious Confederate gunslinger through and after the American Civil War as shown in the superb western "The Outlaw Josey Wales" (**** out of ****) is a dangerous and blood splattered trail to follow. As directed by Clint Eastwood, "Josey Wales" is as much an attack on war and the degrading effects war has on man as it is on the double-dealing politicians and scalawag soldiers who tried to profit by war to achieve their own selfish aims at the expense of innocent men's lives. "The Outlaw Josey Wales" is about revenge and rebirth. When the family of a harmless sod buster, Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood of "Hang'em High"), massacred by Northern raiders, Wales joins a band of Confederates led by Bloody Bill Anderson (John Russell of "Pale Rider") to go North and "set things a-right." In a masterful stroke of directorial genius, Eastwood compresses the Civil War into a tightly constructed title credit sequence which documents the transformation of Wales the poor dirt farmer into Wales the most feared of all guerrilla fighters. At the end of the war, as Josey is about to hang up his six-guns, he witnesses an incredible act of cold-blooded murder. Reluctant to turn himself over the Federal authorities, Josey remains behind and watches as his men surrender to the Yankees who repay them by wiping them out with a Gatling gun after they have been disarmed. "There is no end to doing right," cries the leader of these ruthless Yankees, a Captain Terrill (Bill McKinney of "Deliverance") who was also responsible for killing Josey's wife (director William Wellman's daughter Cissy Wellman of "Redline 7000") as well as son and leaving Josey literally scared for life with than painful memory. Indeed, Terrill slashes our protagonist's face so he wears a scar.
Josey tries to escape Terrill and his troops, but everywhere he goes, he is found out and must fight. Finally, in the unlikely company of renegade Indians and the survivors of Comanchero raiders, Josey tries to start a new life. He picks up an Indian friend, Lone Watie (Chief Dan George of "Americathon"), and Watie becomes his sidekick. Before Josey can fully restart his life, however, he must confront the man who destroyed his life.
For all its macho, action-paced gunfights, "The Outlaw Josey Wales" is also a film about the growth of America and the Utopia that the West offered in place of the war-torn East. Among the film's assets are Bruce Surtees's outstanding, widescreen color cinematography and a richly comic performance by Chief Dan George. One example of the humor occurs during a ride through the wilderness when Wales observes, "When I get to knowing somebody, they ain't around for long." To which Lone Watie replies, "I noticed when you get to disliking somebody, they ain't around for long." Eastwood shuns a poncho and his wardrobe reflects the time period. He doesn't wear his "Rawhide" gun belt with the low-slung holsters. Instead, he sports black powder pistols in holster that ride high on his hips and he totes multiple firearms. Black powder pistols required a longer time to reload because they didn't accommodate store-bought metallic cartridges. Eastwood doesn't smoke a cigar as he did in his Sergio Leone westerns. Instead, he chews tobacco and gets a lot of mileage out of spitting before he shoots and kills. Lone Watie narrates one of Josey's confrontations from afar and says, "Now, spit." After Josey spits, he blows away the opposition in a hail of gunfire.
Wales and Lone Watie befriend an immigrant group and rescue them from the Comancheros and Wales falls for a slender, thread of a woman, Laura Lee (Sondra Locke of "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter"), and helps the remnants of this settler family when Terrill and his marauders arrive to wipe him out. At the end, when Wales tries to make peace, he remarks "a little part in each of us died in that damned war." Although the character refers to the American Civil War, there is a strong underlying suggestion that runs throughout "Josey Wales" that director Clint Eastwood and his scenarist Philip Kaufman of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" that they are alluding to the Vietnam war.
Some of the more memorable scenes include the Missouri boat ride scene, the shoot-out in the trading post when Josey displays his skill with twirling guns around, and the scene at the end when Josey dry-fires his arsenal of guns before he runs the villain through with a saber. Anybody that loves seminal westerns and Clint Eastwood westerns in particular MUST watch "The Outlaw Josey Wales."
Josey tries to escape Terrill and his troops, but everywhere he goes, he is found out and must fight. Finally, in the unlikely company of renegade Indians and the survivors of Comanchero raiders, Josey tries to start a new life. He picks up an Indian friend, Lone Watie (Chief Dan George of "Americathon"), and Watie becomes his sidekick. Before Josey can fully restart his life, however, he must confront the man who destroyed his life.
For all its macho, action-paced gunfights, "The Outlaw Josey Wales" is also a film about the growth of America and the Utopia that the West offered in place of the war-torn East. Among the film's assets are Bruce Surtees's outstanding, widescreen color cinematography and a richly comic performance by Chief Dan George. One example of the humor occurs during a ride through the wilderness when Wales observes, "When I get to knowing somebody, they ain't around for long." To which Lone Watie replies, "I noticed when you get to disliking somebody, they ain't around for long." Eastwood shuns a poncho and his wardrobe reflects the time period. He doesn't wear his "Rawhide" gun belt with the low-slung holsters. Instead, he sports black powder pistols in holster that ride high on his hips and he totes multiple firearms. Black powder pistols required a longer time to reload because they didn't accommodate store-bought metallic cartridges. Eastwood doesn't smoke a cigar as he did in his Sergio Leone westerns. Instead, he chews tobacco and gets a lot of mileage out of spitting before he shoots and kills. Lone Watie narrates one of Josey's confrontations from afar and says, "Now, spit." After Josey spits, he blows away the opposition in a hail of gunfire.
Wales and Lone Watie befriend an immigrant group and rescue them from the Comancheros and Wales falls for a slender, thread of a woman, Laura Lee (Sondra Locke of "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter"), and helps the remnants of this settler family when Terrill and his marauders arrive to wipe him out. At the end, when Wales tries to make peace, he remarks "a little part in each of us died in that damned war." Although the character refers to the American Civil War, there is a strong underlying suggestion that runs throughout "Josey Wales" that director Clint Eastwood and his scenarist Philip Kaufman of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" that they are alluding to the Vietnam war.
Some of the more memorable scenes include the Missouri boat ride scene, the shoot-out in the trading post when Josey displays his skill with twirling guns around, and the scene at the end when Josey dry-fires his arsenal of guns before he runs the villain through with a saber. Anybody that loves seminal westerns and Clint Eastwood westerns in particular MUST watch "The Outlaw Josey Wales."
FILM REVIEW OF "THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST'' (2004)
Oscar winning "Braveheart" director Mel Gibson sets a whole new standard for Biblical epics in his "The Passion of the Christ" (**** out of ****), an inspiringly original but incredibly visceral account of the final 12 hours in the life of Jesus of Nazareth between his arrest in Gethsemane and his crucifixion at Golgotha. Everything that everybody's told you about this two hour & six minute, sincerely made, moodily filmed, but sadomasochistic saga rings true. However, "The Passion" does NOT qualify as remotely anti-Semitic. Sure, it is blatantly Anti-Pharisee, but not anti-Semitic. Anybody who calls "The Passion" anti-Semitic is naïve beyond belief. The anti-Semitism accusation is so general as to be inconsequential. You can condemn the actions of a handful of men (in this case the self-righteous Pharisees), but you cannot condemn an entire race of people (in this case Jewish) for the actions of a heinous few. Indeed, several Jewish characters in "The Passion" come to Jesus' aid. Labeling "The Passion" as anti-Semitic is as ludicrous as describing The Bible as anti-Semitic. Were these sentiments not sufficient, the central message of Gibson's "Passion" pleads for the audience to forgive your enemies.
The violence registers off the Richter scale. The torture scene where the Roman soldiers compete to inflict the most damage on the Son of God gives new meaning to gratuitous violence. Okay, isn't violence in any form gratuitous? In this instance, gratuitous violence suits the situation, because the torture and crucifixion of Jesus were about as gratuitous as violence can get. Nevertheless, chances are you may not survive this torture scene, especially if you haven't seen a gory R-rated movie. The graphic crucifixion scene reminds us of the heartless savagery of public executions in New Testament times, too. Gibson must have spilled several gallons of Karo syrup mixed with red food coloring for this scene as well as the 45-minute flogging scene to emphasize the violence as it has never been stressed before in spectacles like "King of Kings" (1961) and "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965). Perhaps the only movie to rival Gibson's "Passion" for its documentary realism is the obscure 1966 Italian art film "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" that portrays Jesus as an activist.
The largely unknown cast adds to the authenticity. Actor Jim Caviezel's exploits as the cinematic Jesus have been well-documented in the news media. Indeed, he took an accidental lashing during the scourging scene and nearly passed out from the impact. Later, lightning struck him on the cross. Happily, throughout "The Passion," Caviezel delivers a nuanced performance that never overshadows his messiah character. Unlike most Jesus movies, "The Passion" gives us a Christ who looks and behaves as an ordinary individual. This Jesus isn't a blond, blue-eyed loafer with shaven armpits in an immaculate white robe. Gibson shows Jesus the carpenter finishing up a table. When his mother Mary (Romanian actress Maia Morgenstern) brings him a bowl of water, he splashes it on her in an example of a playful mother a son relationship. This unusual scene of Jesus clowning is a welcome relief from those sanitized and solemn depictions of Christ as a man with no sense of humor. Earlier, Caviezel gives us a glimpse of Jesus' humanity in Gethsemane when he chides his drowsy disciples for failing to stay awake. At the same time, this Jesus is no weakling. During his first encounter with Satan, Jesus stomps the Devil's snake into the ground and gives Lucifer a dirty look. By the end of "The Passion," Caviezel doesn't have to act and looks virtually unrecognizable under all the blood, gore, and crown of thorns. Aside from Caviezel, who’s acting credits include "Angel Eyes," "Frequency," and "The Thin Red Line," Gibson wisely cast no-name actors. As Mary Magdalene, a tastefully subdued Monica Bellucci of "The Matrix Reloaded" is the only other big-name Hollywood refugee. Hristo Shopov takes top honors for his thoughtful performance as the conflicted Pontius Pilate, while Italian actress Rosalinda Celentano of "The Other" makes a creepy, androgynous Satan. She is enough to send a shiver up or down your spine. Collectively, however, the actors who impersonate the sadistic Roman soldiers give the movie its gut-wrenching quality with their savage shenanigans, especially when they flip the cross over to beat the protruding nails sideways. These guys give new meaning to evil!
Loosely based on the Synoptic New Testament gospels as well as the book of John along with the Catholic Church's 14 Stations of the Cross, "The Passion" champions celluloid realism, but falls short of strict theological authenticity. Reportedly, Gibson also relied on the visions of two nuns: the 17th century Mary of Agreda and the 18th century Anne Catherine Emmerich. What "Saving Private Ryan" did for W.W. II movies; what "Pulp Fiction" did for crime movies, what "Star Wars" did for science fiction movies, "The Passion" does for Biblical epics. The late movie director Cecil B. DeMille, who made both versions of "The Ten Commandants," would stand up in his grave and applaud Mel Gibson for reinventing the genre. When the actors speak, they utter their lines in either Latin or Aramaic to give this chronicle a convincing sense of historicity. Don't worry, the subtitles are easily read. Ironically, for a movie about Christ, "The Passion" doesn't preach as much as you might expect. Instead, Gibson lets the visuals tell the story. He intersperses several flashbacks throughout, such as the Sermon on the Mount and the Last Supper, but "The Passion" focuses largely on the agony of Christ. Other characters that appear in "The Passion" as they have never before been seen include Herod (played as a cretinous homosexual) and the despicable Barabbas (nothing like the Barabbas that Anthony Quinn played in the 1961 movie.) The script by Gibson and scenarist Benedict Fitzgerald of TV's "In Cold Blood" doesn't provide a literal transcription of Biblical events, but present a poetic reenactment on a heretofore reverential but imaginative scale. One of the more touching flashbacks shows mother Mary reacting to young Jesus falling down and hurting him (something never mentioned in scripture). Gibson inserts this flashback into a scene where Jesus falls under the burden of the cross while Mary watches. Certain scenes will give you goose-bumps, especially when the demonic children chase Judas (Italian actor Luca Lionello) into the desert where he commits suicide. In another scene, a door flies open, but the effect is such that you want to jump. In many ways, "The Passion" resembles a horror movie, until the last few minutes when the Resurrection occurs.
If you watch movies for recreation, "The Passion" may be more than you counted on seeing. If your faith drives you to watch "The Passion," you may find yourself sorely tested, particular when those Roman soldier wield their scourges. Whether you're saved or secular, "The Passion" remains a seminal movie for our times. Churchgoers will revel in its heightened realistic portrayal of an event that previous movies have been too lily-livered to show, while secular filmgoers can savor the archetypal sequence of events that Hollywood recreates on a regular basis for its own pseudo messiah heroes. Despite some minor technical flaws which you may miss because you're caught up in the action, "The Passion of the Christ" emerges as a cinematic revelation.
The violence registers off the Richter scale. The torture scene where the Roman soldiers compete to inflict the most damage on the Son of God gives new meaning to gratuitous violence. Okay, isn't violence in any form gratuitous? In this instance, gratuitous violence suits the situation, because the torture and crucifixion of Jesus were about as gratuitous as violence can get. Nevertheless, chances are you may not survive this torture scene, especially if you haven't seen a gory R-rated movie. The graphic crucifixion scene reminds us of the heartless savagery of public executions in New Testament times, too. Gibson must have spilled several gallons of Karo syrup mixed with red food coloring for this scene as well as the 45-minute flogging scene to emphasize the violence as it has never been stressed before in spectacles like "King of Kings" (1961) and "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965). Perhaps the only movie to rival Gibson's "Passion" for its documentary realism is the obscure 1966 Italian art film "The Gospel According to St. Matthew" that portrays Jesus as an activist.
The largely unknown cast adds to the authenticity. Actor Jim Caviezel's exploits as the cinematic Jesus have been well-documented in the news media. Indeed, he took an accidental lashing during the scourging scene and nearly passed out from the impact. Later, lightning struck him on the cross. Happily, throughout "The Passion," Caviezel delivers a nuanced performance that never overshadows his messiah character. Unlike most Jesus movies, "The Passion" gives us a Christ who looks and behaves as an ordinary individual. This Jesus isn't a blond, blue-eyed loafer with shaven armpits in an immaculate white robe. Gibson shows Jesus the carpenter finishing up a table. When his mother Mary (Romanian actress Maia Morgenstern) brings him a bowl of water, he splashes it on her in an example of a playful mother a son relationship. This unusual scene of Jesus clowning is a welcome relief from those sanitized and solemn depictions of Christ as a man with no sense of humor. Earlier, Caviezel gives us a glimpse of Jesus' humanity in Gethsemane when he chides his drowsy disciples for failing to stay awake. At the same time, this Jesus is no weakling. During his first encounter with Satan, Jesus stomps the Devil's snake into the ground and gives Lucifer a dirty look. By the end of "The Passion," Caviezel doesn't have to act and looks virtually unrecognizable under all the blood, gore, and crown of thorns. Aside from Caviezel, who’s acting credits include "Angel Eyes," "Frequency," and "The Thin Red Line," Gibson wisely cast no-name actors. As Mary Magdalene, a tastefully subdued Monica Bellucci of "The Matrix Reloaded" is the only other big-name Hollywood refugee. Hristo Shopov takes top honors for his thoughtful performance as the conflicted Pontius Pilate, while Italian actress Rosalinda Celentano of "The Other" makes a creepy, androgynous Satan. She is enough to send a shiver up or down your spine. Collectively, however, the actors who impersonate the sadistic Roman soldiers give the movie its gut-wrenching quality with their savage shenanigans, especially when they flip the cross over to beat the protruding nails sideways. These guys give new meaning to evil!
Loosely based on the Synoptic New Testament gospels as well as the book of John along with the Catholic Church's 14 Stations of the Cross, "The Passion" champions celluloid realism, but falls short of strict theological authenticity. Reportedly, Gibson also relied on the visions of two nuns: the 17th century Mary of Agreda and the 18th century Anne Catherine Emmerich. What "Saving Private Ryan" did for W.W. II movies; what "Pulp Fiction" did for crime movies, what "Star Wars" did for science fiction movies, "The Passion" does for Biblical epics. The late movie director Cecil B. DeMille, who made both versions of "The Ten Commandants," would stand up in his grave and applaud Mel Gibson for reinventing the genre. When the actors speak, they utter their lines in either Latin or Aramaic to give this chronicle a convincing sense of historicity. Don't worry, the subtitles are easily read. Ironically, for a movie about Christ, "The Passion" doesn't preach as much as you might expect. Instead, Gibson lets the visuals tell the story. He intersperses several flashbacks throughout, such as the Sermon on the Mount and the Last Supper, but "The Passion" focuses largely on the agony of Christ. Other characters that appear in "The Passion" as they have never before been seen include Herod (played as a cretinous homosexual) and the despicable Barabbas (nothing like the Barabbas that Anthony Quinn played in the 1961 movie.) The script by Gibson and scenarist Benedict Fitzgerald of TV's "In Cold Blood" doesn't provide a literal transcription of Biblical events, but present a poetic reenactment on a heretofore reverential but imaginative scale. One of the more touching flashbacks shows mother Mary reacting to young Jesus falling down and hurting him (something never mentioned in scripture). Gibson inserts this flashback into a scene where Jesus falls under the burden of the cross while Mary watches. Certain scenes will give you goose-bumps, especially when the demonic children chase Judas (Italian actor Luca Lionello) into the desert where he commits suicide. In another scene, a door flies open, but the effect is such that you want to jump. In many ways, "The Passion" resembles a horror movie, until the last few minutes when the Resurrection occurs.
If you watch movies for recreation, "The Passion" may be more than you counted on seeing. If your faith drives you to watch "The Passion," you may find yourself sorely tested, particular when those Roman soldier wield their scourges. Whether you're saved or secular, "The Passion" remains a seminal movie for our times. Churchgoers will revel in its heightened realistic portrayal of an event that previous movies have been too lily-livered to show, while secular filmgoers can savor the archetypal sequence of events that Hollywood recreates on a regular basis for its own pseudo messiah heroes. Despite some minor technical flaws which you may miss because you're caught up in the action, "The Passion of the Christ" emerges as a cinematic revelation.
FILM REVIEW OF ''ABSOLUTE POWER" (1997)
Clint Eastwood makes out two kinds of movies. He cranks sure-fire popcorn hits such as "Dirty Harry" (1971) and "Pale Rider" (1985). But he also gambles with unproven, oddball projects such as "Pink Cadillac" (1989) and "A Perfect World" (1993). Eastwood's latest opus "Absolute Power," (***OUT OF****) co-starring Gene Hackman, Judy Davis, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, and Scott Glenn, combines elements of both kinds of Clint flicks. Altogether, "Absolute Power" is a laid back, efficient potboiler that avoids rabid sensationalism but delivers the goods.
In "Absolute Power," Clint plays Luther Whitney, a elderly but hi-tech cat burglar. During a jewelry heist at the posh estate of a well-known Washington, D.C. power broker, a drunken couple interrupt Luther as he's cleaning out the safe. He's trapped in a closet that houses the vault and valuables, but he remains undetected throughout the tryst. Suddenly,things get rough, and the man (Gene Hackman) finds himself in a deadly fight with a scorned woman. She stabs him once in the arm and is poised to plunge a letter opener into his chest when his Secret Service bodyguards scramble in and gun her down. Meanwhile, a shocked Luther sits quietly in the closet behind a two-way mirror and grimly contemplates his future. The man responsible for the murder of the socialite is none other than the President of the United States!
Republicans will no doubt stand in line and argue that Alan Richmond (Hackman) is a Democrat. The President in "Absolute Power" is insidious. Gene Hackman, a gifted actor who can turn on his emotions as easily as a water facet, excels in his portrayal of a philandering President. The President's Chief of Staff (Judy Davis) struggles to keep a lid on the murder. The Secret Service agent (Scott Glenn) who shot the girl bows to the Chief of Staff's decision not to summon the police. They clear the room of all evidence. But they lose the incriminating letter opener. When they go back, they find it gone and a rope hanging out a bedroom window. They realize somebody witnessed the murder, but they fail to capture him.
"Absolute Power" contains a couple of classic scenes. The President's tango with his chief of staff in a room full of guests while they discuss the murder is superb. Eastwood's clash with a Secret Service agent at the hospital is hard-edged Old Testament revenge. If you're looking for a dandy confrontation scene between Eastwood and Hackman like the one they had in "Unforgiven" prepare to be disappointed. The Eastwood and Hackman characters never cross paths.
Scriptwriter William Goldman of "Heat" has retooled David Baldacci's bestseller. Notably, he's changed the ending. "Absolute Power" has enough scenes from the popcorn style Clint movies to get it over the rough spots, but it strives to be different. Clint fans will approve of their hero's invincibility. As Luther Whitney, Eastwood doesn't miss a trick in besting the badguys. But he doesn't play his usual taciturn loner. His role emphasizes him as his father figure more than his action figure. "Absolute Power" is rated R, but there's no nudity, little blood, and moderate profanity.
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