Post by Eddie Love on Apr 25, 2010 17:21:41 GMT -5
The twin manias of 60s cinema -- the Euro-Spy craze inspired by James Bond and the "Spaghetti Western"-- seem to find their nexus here in the lone Western to star Sean Connery. It's based on a Louis L'Amour novel, and I recall it strangely had a reputation as being dark and violent, ala those "revisionist Westerns" of the late 60s, so-called as their penchant for often sadistic violence or sensuality distinguished them from the tame TV fare that around that time dominated the airwaves and was killing off the genre.
The film revolves around a group of pampered and titled Europeans who go on a hunting party in the American west. They're indifferent to the treaties that restrict hunting on certain lands, and when Apache's attack, their only hope is the former Army tracker who warned them in the first place -- the mysterious Shalako played by Connery. (Their worries also include the mustache-twirling hunter they've hired whose beady eyes are on one of the ladies in the group as well as their pricey jewelery.)
You can tell that the filmmakers are conscious of transplanting Connery to the prior century. For the first half of the film he doesn't do much, but we still get lots of scenes of him on his horse to get the 60s audience comfortable with the idea that he's not 007. And this kind of works, because while these scenes have no significance to the story -- and do pad the running time -- you do marvel at how good he is on horseback. Even when he takes center-stage and his considerable presence dominates the action, he has a solid ensemble to work with. I think there were over half a dozen names above the title here. They're a wild cross-section of European and American (semi) stars, and they're all good. The stand-outs may be Stephen Boyd (always as good as he is underrated) as the villain, and Honor Blackman as the haughtiest lady in the party whose brutal comeuppance is the only really violent bit by today's standards. (I think this has to be the only time Connery was reunited with a Bond girl.)
Unlike other European Westerns from the time, there seems to have been contemporaneous sound captured for this, so we don't get that standard dubbed soundtrack you get with most Spaghetti Westerns. Indeed, for Bridgette Bardot as the female lead, I used the DVD subtitle option, as I couldn't make out much of her dialogue. She's the other main attraction here, besides Connery, and her blinding blondness is fetching, if not exactly heart-stopping. She has a couple of romantic scenes with Sean that are cheesy, but fun.
Like other films based on L'Amour novels, this one has a solid plot and characters. It's a little over-long, but it holds up -- thanks mainly to the seriousness that went into ther direction and performances for the non-action scenes. These set things up so that we're invested in what happens.
This isn't a groundbreaking Western from the period. But it is fun, with heroics, romance and solid action. Connery fans will be more than satisfied.
