The Way West

-

 The Way West isn't anyone's favorite movie or even favorite Western.  It's too upbeat for those who like downer westerns and vice versa. Robert Mitchum only seems to wake in time to say his lines, but still suffers sleep inertia.  Kirk Douglas seems to be playing not a character, but A Kirk Douglas Character.   And Richard Widmark is, as always, tofu in the mix.

"Guys? I ... I'm here, too. Can I look?"

But, it's a poor film that has NO memorable lines or scenes, and The Way West got one off that I'll always remember:


Innocent teenage boy: "I noticed that [the frontiersman's necklace]. Mighty handsome possession.  D'ja get it off a dead Indian?"

Veteran frontiersman: "Yeah; my wife."

Much more powerful and memorable than the way the "Frontiersman with an Indian woman handles a question from an innocent young'un" was done in The Indian Fighter (played by Kirk Douglas in a better performance), it says worlds about the myths and realities of relationship between settlers and natives, and in very few words.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friendly Cows

-
Image
The Circle of Fifths is central to composing, or even understanding, any music complicated enough to include a key change. Not that anyone understands car gearshifts anymore, but they are a useful metaphor.  Just as you can't slam from first gear to fourth gear without it being pretty jarring, you can't jump from one key to another in music randomly without it being jarring.  In a car, you have to transition via neutral or other gears in between.  That's kind of how music works and the circle of fifths is like a gearshift that let's you do so. With three times the number of gears, and different ones for leaded and unleaded. Metaphors aren't perfect. Most songs, even ones that have nothing but melody, have chords (a group of notes played simultaneously).  Those chords are based on the notes of the melody of the song (the melody is the "tune"; the part of a song you would whistle).  Sometimes the chords are performed, sometimes not; but even when they are no
Read more

How To Be Fabulous: Soap

-
Image
Like many skills and attributes, Being Fabulous seems mysterious and inaccessible from the outside or like some sort of magical inborn ability.  But, although such abilities are certainly aided by natural aptitude, Being Fabulous (like most of them) is much more a learned skill than people realize.   Because, in case you have never met one, babies are not fabulous. Amazing, perhaps, but not fabulous.  Some people say they SUCK, but I won't believe such a calumny until I see it in person. The world is not made of "wizards/gay people" and "muggles/straight people". It is made of people.  It's made of people who make choices designed to improve the aesthetics (and therefore the quality) of their immediate environment and experiences and those who do not. Your romantic and sexual preferences do not matter. So, this is the first of future posts that will simply EXPLAIN how to be fabulous.  And, mostly, it's a matter of how you approach things; it's about
Read more

Are you a MAN?!

-
Image
 A man who has MAN-HANDS?! And you want a ring or ring for those man-hands?  But it can't be a weak, flimsy, REGULAR ring?  It's needs to be a MAN-RING? Well, SigmaRings has you (and you man-fingers) covered. Whiskey Barrel and Deer Antlers; it's the next best thing to a ring made from the bones of your enemies.
Read more