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Selleck plays the symbolic last cowboy of the open range West, who resists or tries to ignore all the technological and economic changes that threaten to diminish or end his lifelong cherished working life as a wandering open range cowboy -for-hire. These factors include :cheap cattle fences, absente corporate ranches with idiotic managers, railroads, wild west shows for clueless audiences, and primitive motor buggies that can't outrun a horse on a good road, let alone navigate rough country or mud-mired roads. This last point is dramatized in the finale, when the hated horse-shy helpless-on the-range corporate range manager from the East(Slocum) is stuck in the mud in his minimal low clearance pioneer motor buggy Monte happens along on his horse and declines to pull this pathetic vehicle out, with the quote in my title. He then adds insult to injury by jumping his horse over the low buggy with occupants, then galloping off into the horizon. Prior to this scene, when the motor buggy was first encountered, in town, Monte initially refused to get his horse out of the way, just starring at it in disbelief, especially after Slocum predicted that eventually horses wouldn't be allowed on town streets.
Actually, Monte had used this quote in my title previously, in a fight with the trainmen stopped at the spur at Antelope Junction. As a prank, the engineer blew his whistle as the cowboys were driving a herd of horses toward the train, causing them to scatter. The cowboys didn't think this was funny, thus all lassoed the smokestack, pulling it down, essentially grounding the train. This provoked a general brawl,, resulting in a draw. Monte then articulates his quote to the trainmen's complaint that they can't move their train without the smokestack, which they can't fix. The point was that the cowboys wanted respect for their jobs and way of life. They weren't 'Indians' that the high tech boys could push around and make fun of. There follows a classic discussion between boss Slocum and ex-cowboy Cal Brennan over who is going to pay for the damage to the train, and the strong loyalty of cowboys toward each other, despite their often short-term coworker status. However, this loyalty has its limits, as we see in Monte's response to Shorty's joining a gang of rustlers and shooting his former cowboy partner in a hold up.
This was a remake for TV of the 1970 Hollywood film of the same title, based on a book by Jack Schaefer.. I haven't seen the highly praised original film, hence cannot compare them. The original was shot in dry Arizona, whereas the present film was beautifully shot in the verdant rolling country of Alberta, often with a mountain range in the near or far background. I prefer looking at the latter landscape. The scenes of several cowboys chasing and roping steers in this verdant country are particularly memorable to me. I found most all the characters well cast especially Selleck as the mule-headed last cowboy. Unlike most cowboy stars of the past, Selleck typically spends considerable time meditating and grinning, slowing down the overall action. But don't miss his bucking bronco caper in Main Street.
Unfortunately, the film begins very slowly, with Monte biding his time lounging on a town porch in tiny Antelope Junction until his partners show up, and we're off chasing cows. Later, we meet Monte's intermittent immigrant lover in Isabella Rossellini, as 'countess' Martine. She doesn't come across as a believable prostitute: too cultured. We meet her several more times. At some point, Monte considers giving up cowboying to join a wild west show, to make a more proper husband for her. But, it's not to be, as he decides against this, and she dies rather soon thereafter, apparently from a combo of TB and a broken heart. Thus, this superficially not very exciting romance ends in ultimate obscurity. In Ford fashion, Monte spends considerable time meditating while setting next to her body, and later visits her grave.
The film dramatizes some of the various responses of the cowboys to their much diminished opportunities for cowboying. Chet finally decides to marry and work at his wife's hardware store.'Fightin' Joe Hooker' gallops his horse off a high cliff to his death. Shorty gets into rustling and store robbing. Historically, this was not an unusual response during hard times, when many cattle died from weather extremes or prices plummeted. Monte somehow manages to find enough work cowboying to get by. Like Carleton Heston's Will Penny, he doesn't think he could psychologically adapt to any other way of life. Penny's problem is he's getting old rather than the free ranging cowboy is becoming obsolete
The current DVD, part of a small set of Selleck's westerns is of excellent quality. I rate this film in the middle of the 3 films included, with "Last Stand at Saber River" my favorite, this film only slightly behind it, and "Crossfire Trail" clearly the least. Yes, I consider it a classic, as many others do. Too slow paced for many, I realize.
score 9/10
weezeralfalfa 24 June 2014
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3038985/ |
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6-4-2021 02:54:11