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A couple of the (old) movies I've watched recently. Spoilers.
Thursday, 7 January 2016 06:59 am"You Threaten A Man In A South Bronx Social Club, You Come Back Inside And Reach For Your Pocket, You're Supposed To Get Shot."*
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I re-watched Sea of Grass the other day. If you've never seen it, it's an unhappy Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn movie. If you've seen Giant, you've seen Sea of Grass. The biggest difference is, it's a fight between cattlemen and settlers, and it always makes The Cowman and the Farmer Should Be Friends start playing in my head, which is annoying. My friend Christy described it as, "white men fighting over what to do with the land they stole," and that's it exactly.
I actively dislike Spencer Tracy in it, and wish Katharine Hepburn had left him for Melvyn Douglas. He's oh-so-high-minded in his assertion that his way of living on the land is the best. This land, he says, can't sustain farming.
He's not wrong; it can't. It also can't sustain cattle indefinitely. If he was truly serious about using the land for the purpose it was intended, he'd be raising buffalo. But he's only serious about getting his own way. And Robert Walker ends up dead and nobody's happy.
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The other movie, I didn't finish: Welcome to Hard Times. Henry Fonda is mayor of a small town that is beset by a bad guy with a gun. Fonda is no good guy with a gun, though he does have a gun; he refuses to do anything because it would be dangerous and it's not his job. The bad guy rapes and kills one of the town prostitutes, and nearly kills the other (who Fonda seems to be in a relationship with, but not a close enough one to risk his life). Then he burns the town to the ground.
Elisha Cook Jr. is the only one who tries to stand up to the bad guy. Really, you know you're in trouble when Elisha Cook Jr. is the bravest man in town. And he only did it because the bad buy stole his horse. Of course he just walks towards him while the guy is sitting, watching. So Elisha Cook Jr. gets killed, and so does another man. Nobody had sense enough to sneak up on him or shoot him while he was busy; they just cower and try to talk other people into doing something, then let him leave once the town has been destroyed.
I kept thinking of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Jimmy Stewart would never have put up with this kind of shit. Even Vera Miles would have taken a shot this guy; John Wayne wouldn't have been needed. But Henry Fonda just kept saying it wasn't his job. I didn't care enough to find out what happened next. It wasn't my job.
(Years ago, it seemed like every time one station would show Cat Ballou, another station would show The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance the next day. But you can't watch The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance right after you've watched Cat Ballou because it's impossible to take Lee Marvin seriously. I always wondered if they did that deliberately.
*Davidson, Blossom
-:- -:- -:- -:-
I re-watched Sea of Grass the other day. If you've never seen it, it's an unhappy Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn movie. If you've seen Giant, you've seen Sea of Grass. The biggest difference is, it's a fight between cattlemen and settlers, and it always makes The Cowman and the Farmer Should Be Friends start playing in my head, which is annoying. My friend Christy described it as, "white men fighting over what to do with the land they stole," and that's it exactly.
I actively dislike Spencer Tracy in it, and wish Katharine Hepburn had left him for Melvyn Douglas. He's oh-so-high-minded in his assertion that his way of living on the land is the best. This land, he says, can't sustain farming.
He's not wrong; it can't. It also can't sustain cattle indefinitely. If he was truly serious about using the land for the purpose it was intended, he'd be raising buffalo. But he's only serious about getting his own way. And Robert Walker ends up dead and nobody's happy.
-:- -:- -:- -:-
The other movie, I didn't finish: Welcome to Hard Times. Henry Fonda is mayor of a small town that is beset by a bad guy with a gun. Fonda is no good guy with a gun, though he does have a gun; he refuses to do anything because it would be dangerous and it's not his job. The bad guy rapes and kills one of the town prostitutes, and nearly kills the other (who Fonda seems to be in a relationship with, but not a close enough one to risk his life). Then he burns the town to the ground.
Elisha Cook Jr. is the only one who tries to stand up to the bad guy. Really, you know you're in trouble when Elisha Cook Jr. is the bravest man in town. And he only did it because the bad buy stole his horse. Of course he just walks towards him while the guy is sitting, watching. So Elisha Cook Jr. gets killed, and so does another man. Nobody had sense enough to sneak up on him or shoot him while he was busy; they just cower and try to talk other people into doing something, then let him leave once the town has been destroyed.
I kept thinking of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. Jimmy Stewart would never have put up with this kind of shit. Even Vera Miles would have taken a shot this guy; John Wayne wouldn't have been needed. But Henry Fonda just kept saying it wasn't his job. I didn't care enough to find out what happened next. It wasn't my job.
(Years ago, it seemed like every time one station would show Cat Ballou, another station would show The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance the next day. But you can't watch The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance right after you've watched Cat Ballou because it's impossible to take Lee Marvin seriously. I always wondered if they did that deliberately.
*Davidson, Blossom