Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Nostalgia
Every ten years or so I have to drag this epic western out for another viewing.
I saw this when it came out. I was 11 years old. I was with my cousin Barbara. We both went nuts over Montgomery Clift. That should have been a signpost.
I have seen it many times. It does not get old.
The improbable pairing of John Wayne and Clift was cinema magic. Old rough hewn and beautiful youth. Father and son.
As it turned out they could not have been more different in real life.
But the movies don't care about that.
The rest of the cast is classic. John Ireland, Jill Drew (Groot) and Walter Brennan. Noah Beery Junior a bare shadow of his Dad. But still good in the second level comic sidekick role.
It ends the same way as it always did but I always forget what happens. Purposeful forgetting.
This is a 5 out of Netflix5. The quintessential Western with a father son twist. Oedipus in the American west. Timeless theme with timeless actors.
I don't think that they make westerns any more. It has been a long time. Now it is some other cliché genre. Maybe that is because with this film and a few others everything got done that could be. End of sentence. Period and Paragraph.
Labels: best films, films
