I didn't like that film because it hung on a stupid conceit. Why didn't Tracy just mention why he was there in the first place? This is the perfect example of what Roger Ebert calls the Idiot Plot: the whole story wouldn't have taken place if Tracy had been marginally more direct about his intentions. Contrived" is the perfect word for this movie.
That's a shallow criticism to dismiss a movie because the character doesn't act the way you want them to. This is a board that wouldn't exist if not for the mysterious stranger character for christsakes. Why don't the same rules apply to Harmonica or Mortimer or hundreds of other characters?
That's a shallow criticism to dismiss a movie because the character doesn't act the way you want them to. This is a board that wouldn't exist if not for the mysterious stranger character for christsakes. Why don't the same rules apply to Harmonica or Mortimer or hundreds of other characters?I avoid drinkandestroy's posts because he hates movies for the most inane reasons (which is quite a statement round these parts). CASABLANCA IS TERRIBLE, WHY WOULD ALL OF THOSE CHARACTERS SPEAK ENGLISH.
Hour of the Gun - 7/10 - Well, after years of waiting to see this I was bound to be disappointed. It's not a bad film at all but it definitely feels like a TV movie in spots, with lots of dialogue scenes that drag the pace to a crawl. For a movie that boldly proclaims its historical accuracy at the onset, it makes some pretty obvious errors (Curly Bill and Ike's deaths). Still, it definitely has its merits: some nice shootouts, pretty scenery (when we go outdoors), a nice Jerry Goldsmith score and an interesting cast. I wasn't impressed by Garner, but Robards and Ryan pick up the slack. See if you can spot a young Jon Voight.
Hour of the Gun is almost too literate and historically informed to be a western. It's one of my favorite westerns of the 1960s. I watched it again recently because I came across the soundtrack and had to buy it, and then I had to watch the film again. I'm very impressed with it. The writing is quite good, better than most westerns at the time, and it always has something to say. Extensive dialogue scenes were expected in American cinema when this film was made and do not indicate TV origins. John Sturges did not work in television. I quite like James Garner's atypical, stoic, steely-eyed performance. His Wyatt is a radical departure from previous Wyatts because he's conflicted, obsessive, seeking vengeance, crossing ethical lines like the national boundary he crosses illegally, and an all-around darker character than had been depicted before. Previous Wyatts were angels compared to this one. Doc Holliday always steals the show, and this time it's Jason Robards, who is superb. The direction by John Sturges is inventive, muscular, carefully choreographed, and classically composed. This is his best of several superior westerns. His decision to not use background extras invests the film with a visual austerity. To start with the gunfight and then show the social and political implications, and the personal cost of it, was a bold move in the 1960s. Somebody got the facts jumbled, but at least there is an honest effort to tell an historical story. Previous films about Wyatt Earp were pure myth. Hour of the Gun is a maturation ten years after the purely mythological Gunfight At the O.K. Corral (1957). 7.5 out of 10 is a relatively high rating and I think a fair rating for Hour of the Gun. I have two bookcases devoted to the history of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Cochise County, and the Tombstone A.T. conflicts, and I belong in the camp that says Wyatt killed Curly Bill. Or at least he sincerely believed he did. Ike Clanton was a vicious and sleazy drunk, a terrible business man, and a wholesale rustler and smuggler. Hardly the classy guy played here by Robert Ryan. I've always believed Robert Ryan, when he was a younger man in the 1940s or early 1950s, had the right personality to play Wyatt Earp. Kind of dour and ambivalent, but inwardly a decent guy. Physically he resembled Wyatt more than any other actor who played him. Right around the time Ryan played the heavy in The Naked Spur (1953) he would have made a perfect Wyatt Earp as written for Hour of the Gun.Richard
Yeah that's a badass poster. The concept of the film is certainly interesting but I found it indifferently executed. It assumes a background knowledge of the Wyatt Earp story (which granted, most Western fans would have) and because of this, it doesn't bother to develop characters much. I didn't mind the courtroom scenes as much as some, but having Doc stop to heckle Wyatt about his callousness every now and then was pretty irritating.I don't normally critique films for historical inaccuracy unless it really bugs me, but a film that proclaims "this is how it happened" in its opening credits is asking for scrutiny. Certainly it's more accurate than previous Earp films but that's like saying the Pacific Ocean is deeper than a puddle. I will give it credit for not showing Morgan and Virgil shot on the same night, mistakes the two most recent Earp films made.
I really hate this image and I despise the program it comes from:It really dominates the thread.Can't you shrink it in size so that it ain't so damned obnoxious?Richard
But the whole point of it is to get up your nose. You've just given Groggy the satisfaction that the rest of us were denying him.
