I Sometimes Want to See Jane Fonda, So...
I didn't watch any movies for a few weeks, but I saw Comes a Horseman (1978), directed by Alan J. Pakula, yesterday, was somewhat impressed by it, although overall it's not a movie exciting me now as I think about it.
This failure has to do with the film's characterization of the villainous antagonist, J.W. Ewing (Jason Robards). Ewing is a landowner and cattle rancher in 1940s Colorado who's under the thumb of an oilman, Neil Atkinson (George Grizzard), requiring the latter's support to maintain his ranch as long as he submits to oil drilling. The drilling process first requires surveys and tests of the geological strata beneath the landscape. It turns out the oil is probably underneath Ella Connors' (Jane Fonda) land, a property she inherited from her deceased father. She now struggles to work her own cattle ranch with the assistance of family friend Dodger (Richard Farnsworth).
To make ends meet, she has already sold part of the land to two Pacific War veterans, Frank Athearn (James Caan) and Billie Joe Meynert (Mark Harmon). Ewing wants to buy her out, use her land as the oil parcel, continuing to work his cattle on his own ranch and surrounding spaces.
Ewing's criminal and coercive past with Ella is told as a painful story to Frank late in the movie. When she was a girl, Ewing, obsessed, stalked her for months, then raped her.
Frank has become her partner in resisting the oil man Atkinson, who, denied the sale of Ella's land, wants to slant drill into it. Ewing's two enforcers, meanwhile, act out their boss's wishes, taking care of his problems through threats and violence. Early in the film, they kill Billie Joe, Frank's partner, wounding Frank in the shoulder, the event leading to Ella getting to know him.
Explosions preliminary to oil exploration shatter the land's peace, causing Dodger to fall down a slope from his spooked horse, leaving him mortally wounded. Ewing and his men later burn down Ella's house, coming on like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, except there's three of them. The film's title, I guess, refers to that New Testament prophecy. Ella and Frank, though, manage to shoot all three of them. Ewing's horse drags him away, foot caught in a stirrup, a stunt that killed Robards' double, Jim Sheppard.
Through all this slow-moving melodrama, Frank and Ella very slowly fall in love. Jane Fonda throughout wears no makeup, a look not often seen on Hollywood actresses. She's beautiful, of course, there's nothing off-putting about that face. Her downbeat plains-woman look, plus her abilities while riding a horse and twirling a lasso are convincing. Caan is good, too, tying up cattle, riding horses, being outside in the elements of the gorgeous Colorado and Arizona locations. Richard Farnsworth, too, gives a typically good performance. A former stuntman going back to 1937, he began to receive meaty acting roles in later life. David Lynch gave him the lead in The Straight Story (1999), a year before his death in 2000.
The film's main problem is the lack of time spent helping the viewer understand J.W. Ewing's character. He's an evil bastard pretending he's not desperate (given his financial problems) but we have no idea why he got that way. His vicious acts towards his enemies, like arranging the plane crash of the oil man Atkinson, seem more like the reckless behavior of someone who wouldn't be able to get away with his crimes for very long. When he sets fire to Ella's house, with Ella and Frank trapped in a closet, Ewing has clearly gone off the deep end. Is there no Sheriff's Department in this county? Has Ewing bought off prosecutors, the police, the governor? If that's the case, why is he dependent on the oilman Atkinson in saving him financially? Ewing's actions in the film seem deeply unstable, yet he's apparently been horrible and evil since at least the time when Ella was a girl.
The best reason to see this movie is the scenery, the horses, the cattle, the mountains in the distance, the verisimilitude of 1940s Great Plains America. Although it's admirable that Pakula, who directed Jane Fonda in the eerie masterpiece, Klute (1971), wanted to make a modern Western, he built Comes a Horseman on a premise lacking sense pertaining to the chief antagonist's motives. Pakula relied too much, perhaps, on the stardom of Jane Fonda, James Caan, and Jason Robards, even while the great character actor, Richard Farnsworth, steals the show.
Vic Neptune
I didn't watch any movies for a few weeks, but I saw Comes a Horseman (1978), directed by Alan J. Pakula, yesterday, was somewhat impressed by it, although overall it's not a movie exciting me now as I think about it.
This failure has to do with the film's characterization of the villainous antagonist, J.W. Ewing (Jason Robards). Ewing is a landowner and cattle rancher in 1940s Colorado who's under the thumb of an oilman, Neil Atkinson (George Grizzard), requiring the latter's support to maintain his ranch as long as he submits to oil drilling. The drilling process first requires surveys and tests of the geological strata beneath the landscape. It turns out the oil is probably underneath Ella Connors' (Jane Fonda) land, a property she inherited from her deceased father. She now struggles to work her own cattle ranch with the assistance of family friend Dodger (Richard Farnsworth).
To make ends meet, she has already sold part of the land to two Pacific War veterans, Frank Athearn (James Caan) and Billie Joe Meynert (Mark Harmon). Ewing wants to buy her out, use her land as the oil parcel, continuing to work his cattle on his own ranch and surrounding spaces.
Ewing's criminal and coercive past with Ella is told as a painful story to Frank late in the movie. When she was a girl, Ewing, obsessed, stalked her for months, then raped her.
Frank has become her partner in resisting the oil man Atkinson, who, denied the sale of Ella's land, wants to slant drill into it. Ewing's two enforcers, meanwhile, act out their boss's wishes, taking care of his problems through threats and violence. Early in the film, they kill Billie Joe, Frank's partner, wounding Frank in the shoulder, the event leading to Ella getting to know him.
Explosions preliminary to oil exploration shatter the land's peace, causing Dodger to fall down a slope from his spooked horse, leaving him mortally wounded. Ewing and his men later burn down Ella's house, coming on like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, except there's three of them. The film's title, I guess, refers to that New Testament prophecy. Ella and Frank, though, manage to shoot all three of them. Ewing's horse drags him away, foot caught in a stirrup, a stunt that killed Robards' double, Jim Sheppard.
Through all this slow-moving melodrama, Frank and Ella very slowly fall in love. Jane Fonda throughout wears no makeup, a look not often seen on Hollywood actresses. She's beautiful, of course, there's nothing off-putting about that face. Her downbeat plains-woman look, plus her abilities while riding a horse and twirling a lasso are convincing. Caan is good, too, tying up cattle, riding horses, being outside in the elements of the gorgeous Colorado and Arizona locations. Richard Farnsworth, too, gives a typically good performance. A former stuntman going back to 1937, he began to receive meaty acting roles in later life. David Lynch gave him the lead in The Straight Story (1999), a year before his death in 2000.
The film's main problem is the lack of time spent helping the viewer understand J.W. Ewing's character. He's an evil bastard pretending he's not desperate (given his financial problems) but we have no idea why he got that way. His vicious acts towards his enemies, like arranging the plane crash of the oil man Atkinson, seem more like the reckless behavior of someone who wouldn't be able to get away with his crimes for very long. When he sets fire to Ella's house, with Ella and Frank trapped in a closet, Ewing has clearly gone off the deep end. Is there no Sheriff's Department in this county? Has Ewing bought off prosecutors, the police, the governor? If that's the case, why is he dependent on the oilman Atkinson in saving him financially? Ewing's actions in the film seem deeply unstable, yet he's apparently been horrible and evil since at least the time when Ella was a girl.
The best reason to see this movie is the scenery, the horses, the cattle, the mountains in the distance, the verisimilitude of 1940s Great Plains America. Although it's admirable that Pakula, who directed Jane Fonda in the eerie masterpiece, Klute (1971), wanted to make a modern Western, he built Comes a Horseman on a premise lacking sense pertaining to the chief antagonist's motives. Pakula relied too much, perhaps, on the stardom of Jane Fonda, James Caan, and Jason Robards, even while the great character actor, Richard Farnsworth, steals the show.
Vic Neptune
Comments
Post a Comment