One of the best Westerns of the new generation. 1939. Stagecoach. One of the founders of the genre is the Western. The scene of jumping from horse to horse has long become classic and parodied, parodied and will be parodied for many more years.
1965-1968. The apogee of Western development. Four classic westerns by Sergio Leone.
1992. "Unforgiven." Clint Eastwood revived the western genre (Kevin Costner tried to revive the genre in 1991 in Dancing with Wolves, but it turned out to be something a bit different from a western, but more like some adventure film) and raised it to a very high bar. Then there were attempts to remove decent westerns, but nothing particularly worthwhile came out.
2007. "Train to Yuma." Certainly a new word in the genre. Very dynamic, moderately cheerful in moderation sad film, and most importantly it has a lot of shooting.
For me, the plot of the Western is not the most important. Of course, it is important, but in such a genre it fades into my background. The most important thing is that there are well-made shootouts in westerns, taking into account the time period, chases, duels and all that. It was all in my favorite Sergio Leone western, The Good, the Bad, the Evil, but it had a great story. Almost everything is in this movie.
Like I said, the most important thing for me is a shootout. This component of the film in this film is full. Especially the final firing. From now on, after watching this film, the shootout at the end of the film will be one of my favorite shootouts in cinema, along with the Blonde and Tuco trek down the boulevard in the same Sergio Leone movie. All the big-budget shootouts in all these "Transformers" are not even suitable for sweepstakes. 15 minutes of pure drive, that's what I get. And the most important thing was done at the highest level: the view from behind, the mountains of corpses, everything is right. At the beginning of the film, there was also a good shooting, but it cannot be compared with the final one. The chase here is not much, but still, the same escape from the railway, albeit short-term.
But the most important thing that I didn’t say, and I should have said that the most important thing for a Western is the atmosphere. One time, after watching 4 iconic Leone films in four days, I just couldn’t look at other westerns. I was constantly looking through the eyes of Clint Eastwood, or Lee Van Cliff, or at worst Charles Bronson. I waited and couldn’t wait for Ennio Morricone’s signature music. That's the impression I get after these movies, and most of it because of the atmosphere. It's the same film, "For a Fistful of Dynamite," which seems to be no different from the other westerns of this director, but there's no atmosphere there and because of this I can't stand it. Well, that's what this is all about. This movie has a western atmosphere. There's a good soundtrack. The costumes are well suited, and most importantly the hats. The hat is the key to the success of any Western. Although I didn’t like Russell Crowe’s black hat, it was quickly changed.
The acting duo was selected more than successfully, the best and simply cannot be imagined. I'm not saying that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are resting, but they are. By the way, there are some similarities between the characters, it is a pity that the film was not even an open final, then it would be just aerobatics. Well, for Russell Crowe, this is not the first role of this kind. There was a less successful role in the western “Fast and Dead”, but it was his first film in the states, and this is still the role of an already quite accomplished actor who, to my great regret, seems to have already passed the peak of his fame. His best films seem to be behind him, but that doesn’t make him a bad actor. This is the same Russell Crowe, only 7-8 years later. Toli Christian Bale. I never thought of him as a good actor until I saw his first movie, Empire of the Sun. It almost struck me there. So authentic to play... However, we are not talking about that movie right now. Here he played very not bad, of course not as well as reasonable, calm, moderately ironic, moderately capable of reasoning Russell Crowe, but, nevertheless, the cold calculation on his face was visible throughout the film. And how he at the end rushed with a colt shooting on the right and left. Well, I liked all the roles. I also want to mention Ben Foster, who played the deputy gang leader Ben Wade.
I didn’t really like the ending of this movie, but it turned out in moderation. And not so sweet and not so dramatic. Of course, this is not a story about how bad guys become good, this is basically a story about a desperate man, not a hero who is looking for his way in life, and at the end of the film ultimately finds him. Russell Crowe himself is by and large a secondary character, although everyone must decide for himself who is the main character, Ben Wade or Dan Evans. Or maybe someone will decide that the main characters are two, and the fate of each in its own way is tragic.
Anyway, I really liked the movie. Western is one of my favorite genres, and this film revived my hope for the genre after a long hiatus. I hope James Mangold does something like that again.
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