The Missing (2003)

[cigar joe]

I might not mind the supernatural stuff if it's done right, I actually liked Renegade (Blueberry) but I'd never read the complete comic only random frames so I never knew how much of it they screwed up.

[stanton]

I might not mind the supernatural stuff if it's done right, I actually liked Renegade (Blueberry) but I'd never read the complete comic only random frames so I never knew how much of it they screwed up.

The Blueberry film has nothing to do with the comic, apart from using some names and a few unimportant plot motives. The film is much closer to 2001 than to the comic.

[noodles_leone]

The Blueberry film has nothing to do with the comic, apart from using some names and a few unimportant plot motives. The film is much closer to 2001 than to the comic.

... which is a shame since the comic is a true masterpiece.

[dave jenkins]

I always thought that Ron Howard western was going to be garbage. I finally saw it the other day thanks to Netflix and it was a good surprise. I'm not crazy about the supernatural stuff, but the movie is well shot (I never thought I'd say that about a Ron Howard flick), the dusty production design is great and the casting is almost perfect. Has anyone seen it?

All this chat about the film got me curious, so I gave it a try. I agree, for a Ron Howard film it was surprisingly good. At least, until the final sequences. Plot logic goes out the window (wait, the plan is to get robbed and beat up?), and I really hated the ending ("Grandpa is going to live with us and we'll be a family again"--er, not so fast . . . ). I'm shocked that you liked the lighting; the climax, which occurs entirely at night, consists of 100% BS lighting. It could be happening at high noon.

[cigar joe]

Watch The Salvation next and see what you think, I was surprised.

[dave jenkins]

Watch The Salvation next and see what you think, I was surprised.

OK, ordered. The blu is only 8.99 at amazon (a dollar cheaper than the DVD).

[noodles_leone]

All this chat about the film got me curious, so I gave it a try. I agree, for a Ron Howard film it was surprisingly good. At least, until the final sequences. Plot logic goes out the window (wait, the plan is to get robbed and beat up?), and I really hated the ending ("Grandpa is going to live with us and we'll be a family again"--er, not so fast . . . ). I'm shocked that you liked the lighting; the climax, which occurs entirely at night, consists of 100% BS lighting. It could be happening at high noon.

I think everyone here agrees: the climax is the weakest part of the film. I was actually doing the dishes with my iPad playing the film above the sink during that part so I was a bit distracted. This is why it didn't bothered as much as if I had watched it in the same conditions as the rest of the movie.

I especially liked the way they portray the cavalry, its bureaucracy and the way they treat the ranch/farm. That Val Kilmer scene is what I think first when I talking about the movie. Once again, that's a sentence I never thought I'd write; this movie is full of surprises.

[stanton]

... which is a shame since the comic is a true masterpiece.

Really?
It is pretty good, and Giraud was probably never better in the Giraud part of his oeuvre, and in no other Blueberry comic Giraud got that much away from a typical Charlier comic with all the typical Charlier faults, but I do not think that it is strong enough to call it a masterpiece.
Actually while Blueberry was the favourite comic of my childhood (apart from the Gosciny stuff, but that's a different kettle of fish), I prefer meanwhile Comanche to Blueberry. The best Comanche albums are better constructed than any Blueberry story, and the drawings are equally good.

And the masterpiece of Giraud is from the Moebius universe, and that is the incredible The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius. One of the greatest comics ever.

[cigar joe]

The Airtight Garage of Jerry Cornelius. One of the greatest comics ever.

Agree, I've only read parts of it. I should get a complete English translation, I'm sure they are out there, anybody know what would be the best edition to look for?

[noodles_leone]

Really?

Really. it just doesn't get better than that. Not on Earth anyway.

[stanton]

Really. it just doesn't get better than that. Not on Earth anyway.

But it as a western not on the level of The Wild Bunch or OUTW.

And as a comic not on the level of e.g. Hugo Pratt's The Salt Sea Ballad or some other comic masterpieces.

Do you know the Comanche albums from Greg and Hermann?

And what do you think about the other Blueberry stories?

[noodles_leone]

But it as a western not on the level of The Wild Bunch or OUTW.

I wouldn't compare it to these kind of films, it's lighter. It's not trying to capture human soul: it's a western on the level of GBU, the perfect adventure-western crossover.

And as a comic not on the level of e.g. Hugo Pratt's The Salt Sea Ballad or some other comic masterpieces.

It's exactly on the same level to me: even if Pratt's poetry is nowhere to be found in Charlier's work, the entertaining value of a good Blueberry is what makes it special.

Do you know the Comanche albums from Greg and Hermann?

I only read very few of them years ago. I thought it was pretty good but not overwelming. I need to try more seriously now, you may very well be right about them. But Blueberry's graphics are so much better...

And what do you think about the other Blueberry stories?

I like the earlier stuff the way I like a good old John Wayne movie. I wouldn't recommend most of them nowadays to someone who doesn't love the genre... I absolutely love Chihuahua Pearl/Balade Pour Un Cercueil/L'Homme Qui Valait 500.000$", it's almost as good as the previous 2. Blueberry went downhill from there, especially since Charlier died. The Mister Blueberry cycle was an interesting take at first but it ended as some weird garbage with a couple good stuff per comic. Giraud as an artist struggled a lot from the moment Moebius took over anyway.

For the record:
- I like Moebius a lot, but I've personally known at least one unknown artist that was much better than him (at drawing SciFi; not talking about the scripts there). This is why I'll never consider Moebius as a master. He was just one of the very good ones. By the way, I never liked Jodorowski that much.
- I saw the Moebius exhibition at Fondation Quartier in Paris a few years ago, great stuff.
- His death is the "famous people" death that touched me the most, it was a part of my childhood and from who I am who died with him
- My parents adapted La Mine de l'Allemand Perdu and Le Spectre Aux Balles D'Or as a video game back in 1987: http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-st-blueberry_24142.html

[Spikeopath]

Adding my review.

There's always the next something, Maggie. And that will take a man away.

The Missing is directed by Ron Howard and adapted by Ken Kaufman from the novel The Last Ride written by Thomas Eidson. It stars Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchet, Eric Schweig, Evan Rachel Wood, Jenna Boyd, Ray McKinnon, Val Kilmer & Aaron Eckhart. James Horner scores the music and Salvatore Totino is the cinematographer.

New Mexico 1885 and frontier doctor Maggie Gilkeson (Blanchet) has to seek help from her estranged father Samuel Jones/Chaa-duu-ba-its-iidan (Lee Jones), when her eldest daughter is kidnapped by Pesh-Chidin/El Brujo (Schweig) an Apache Warlock who sells girls into prostitution.

An obvious variation on John Ford's The Searchers, The Missing slipped under the radar some what of Western fans who were greatly served by Kevin Costner's Open Range released the same year. It was a box office flop; which in a genre that has rarely hit great heights in modern times is hardly surprising, but to dismiss Howard's film as a fop is just wrong. True enough it's hardly original on the page, but it manages to not sacrifice character depth as it crams in the Western staples. While there is plenty enough here for none Western fans to enjoy; from the many colourful characters on show (including a great horror movie like villain in Schweig), to the panoramic scenery, and the number of action sequences that flit in and out of the narrative. There's a little something for most movie loving fans.

The cast, too, are value for money. Blanchet gives it guts and layers as Maggie, emotionally cold, is forced to put family dissension to one side and take up arms as a Western heroine, and Wood equally holds court with her transference from irksome waif to bold babe. Tommy Jones enjoys himself as he finds a cowboy role to suit his craggy features, features that impressively dovetail with Salvatore's stark photography of the landscapes. Along with the plucky and endearing young Jenna Boyd's performance it obviously only really mounts up to a broken family coming together under duress. But as a quartet, and with Schweig's vile turn as the "monster" of the piece in amongst them, they function so well, thus all character arcs are acted skilfully and please the senses. Also to be applauded is the use of genuine Apache language from some of the actors, a nice touch that shows a director taking his material seriously.

There's a few endings available to view via DVD etc, but the one that Howard chose for its general release is the right one. It perhaps doesn't hold any great surprise, given the directors reputation and output thus far, but it works well in the context of the story and the period tone set throughout. A safe film, then, one that is very well made and tells its story efficiently in structure and verse. If only the script had dared to take a few more risks then this surely wouldn't have been the monetary flop it was. Still, give it a go and you may find as much to like as I did. 7/10

[titoli]

This looks more than a miniseries in two parts than a movie for theatrical release: I mean plotwise. There are too many women and too much dialogue for my taste. What doesn't worK? The Apaches stealing slave-trading Mexicans of their horses? Yeah, sure. The witchcraft scene could have been easily cut, I presume it was a dvd extra. And some of the plot turns make little sense. Jones first says that he'll try to buy the granddaughter back. But instead he goes for action. And in the first ambush, instead of  start running after the moronic girl is allowed to reveal their position, he should have least shot down a couple of Apaches while telling the two females to go for the horses: two less and some minute more taking advantage of the confusion. Next step is trying to buy the girl(s): apparently he thinks that may work this time: for unknown reasons. The witch-doctor declares he'll make him die like an Indian but doesn't kill him (odd: he doesn't waste time killing Jones pard): he just puffs some magic red dust in his eyes. The kidnapped girl has got two chances to escape but never manages to: the first time she gives for no logic reason  the gun to a girl she should have understood at once is deranged  after her daughter's death. The second time there's more logic in her reaction, but it's a second time too much anyway.
Still, it has good sceneries, some good scenes (the discovery of corpses in the beginning, the flooded canyon), mean Apaches. So is 6-7/10.   

[moorman]

See The Searchers when you can moviesceleton! It's arguably the greatest American Western ever. One of the greatest films ever made, in my opinion.

  The most overrated Western ever.