#140RVW
Reaches far beyond original movie, which was shot more like a music video than a Western. Gorgeous photography & very good characterization.
What’s more:
This is one of my favorite movies, and I won’t apologize for it. It’s hardly high art, but it is a highly enjoyable movie that approaches (if not reaches) something even better.
To start with, I liked the first one. Virtually all of the criticisms of it are valid; it definitely had that MTV-style over substance thing going on and the actors looked like little boys playing cowboys & indians. (Actually, in hindsight this may have been ahead of its time a little on the use of music video styling in filmmaking.)
But for all that, I liked it. While not probably expected to be a beacon of historical accuracy, it was probably more on the money than any other film on the Kid, and certainly takes the subject matter seriously. There are lots of fun little moments, particularly early on with Terrance Stamp. The brat pack of young actors actually handle themselves well and the biggest problem with the movie frankly is it’s so Hollywood. It feels like the big production that it is and subtlety is out the window.
By contrast, then, the sequel feels markedly different. The characters have tried to move on from the events of the Lincoln County War, and if they are not entirely successful, it makes for more interesting characters. As The Kid enjoys his notoriety, it clearly is not fulfilling him as he tries to reclaim the camaraderie of the Regulators and his desperation at trying to keep the group together is real.
And if William Petersen isn’t given the screen time to really delve into the interesting character of Pat Garrett, it’s no slight on his performance, which makes use of all the time he has. In the hands of a different director, this film could have possibly become a character study between these two fascinating men.
The story is a much better one than last time. One thing I observed and consider a great tool is the fact that the characters are always in motion, always setting out on adventures, but in the end they really never get anywhere; they are prisoners of their own lifestyle, one that is untenable. The dialogue may not be cited by many film professors, but I think there are some really wonderful passages that benefit immensely by the fine work the actors do in making the words seem entirely natural to their characters.
The cinematography of this movie is really what I keep coming back to, though, when it comes to why I think this movie is worthy of attention. Director of Photography Dean Semler, who would win an Oscar for his other 1990 film Dances With Wolves, shot both movies in this series. I don’t know if it was the change of locations (this one split time between Arizona & New Mexico) or a deliberate different feel to reflect the story, but this film feels so much more grand. Vistas are sweeping and vast, hues are reflective of the desert and the Old West seems alive.
Need any other reasons to give it a try? Let’s see: a young Viggo Mortensen has a neat part as one of the lawmen, Jon Bon Jovi gets shot, and James Coburn (the most wonderful voice in Hollywood) brings the gravitas, and one of his lines from when he played Pat Garrett!
Poster:
