Talking About Westerns I Had Never Heard Of

Last weekend, among other cheap DVDs, I picked up a collection of 20 Westerns for 5 bucks. Seemed like a good deal, and since I've started to watch them the last two days, I might as well talk a bit about them.

Problem is, I don't have much to say about the first movie, Powder Keg. I think it was made for TV, and it feels more like an episode of the A-Team than a Western. Being set in 1914, and having the heroes ride into town in a car, rather than on horseback might have something to do with it. Hey, it's a swell car, but they look kind of ridiculous with the goggles, scarves, those driving caps, and long coats, I presume to keep dust off their clothes.

So let's move on to Boot Hill, or La collina degli stivali, as I guess it's known in Italy. Giuseppe Colizzi's the writer and director, and the movie reminds me a bit of Leone's work, at least as far as the numerous close-ups on people's faces and hands, especially when those hands are holding firearms. There's also a tendency for the the man doing the shooting to not be in the same shot as the target. A man is nearly hit, but we never see the shooter until after the near-miss. It's a nice way to ratchet up tension, because it feels as though death will always come from whatever direction you (or the camera) aren't looking, and a body can't look in all directions simultaneously.

It takes a long time to establish what's actually going on. Early in the film, a man (played by Terence Hill) tries to escape from a town, pursued by many shadowy gunmen. Though he's wounded, he manages to stow away with a traveling circus, and thanks to a trapeze artist named Thomas (Woody Strode), he survives. I'd say the movie is over halfway done before we learn why Hill is being pursued. It ends up working fairly well, because at that point, my expectation was he and Thomas would be attacking the shadowy gunmen for killing one of Thomas' fellow trapeze artists, but the truth is a much bigger problem. It's a similar problem to the one presented in Pale Rider, with the rich guy using his wealth to hire people to intimidate the poor prospectors, or otherwise make their lives difficult. So perhaps both films are drawing from Shane, only Boot Hill has salvation come with a traveling circus, rather than a preacher or hired farmhand.

There are some odd combinations of music and shots in the film. Cheery circus music over a huge brawl between the heroes and the villains, or the opening scene which cuts between dirty, sweaty fellows playing heated games of poker and craps, and scenes of dirty, sweaty fellows dancing and having a good time. I would say I was more interested in some of the shots Colizzi used, and the use of music, than in the plot, but the story did have its moments.

OK, before we hit this last film, To the Last Man I need you to remove your hats, and place them over your hearts, because this one stars. . . Randolph Scott.

Heavenly chorus: Randolph Scott!

Thank you for observing the customs established by Blazing Saddles. The film starts after the conclusion of the Civil War, as Mark Hayden (Egon Brecher) returns to his Kentucky home. he doesn't plan to stay long, though, as he's going west with his children (I think his wife is deceased). There's a problem, a feud between his family (or his wife's) and the Colby clan, and before he can get home, Grandpa Spelvin is killed by Jed Colby, who is seeking revenge for Spelvin killing his father. Tradition demands Mark go kill Jed, but he's having none of it, having seen too much killing in the war. He goes to the authorities, who are clearly confused by his desire for them to deal with this. The judge doesn't sentence Colby to death, just 15 years in prison for murder*. Hayden continues west with all his kids except Lynn, who stays behind to care for Granny Spelvin**.

I thought it would be one of Jed's kids who would continue the feud, because I figured the odds a man would survive 15 years in a mid-19th century prison were poor. I either underestimated the condition of the prison, or simply forgot how movies work. Colby survives, and his cellmate Jim Daggs (who had been released a few months earlier) has located Hayden. The two of them and Colby's daughter Ellen head west to start the feuding once more. Colby has his men start stealing horses, a few at a time, to drag out Hayden's suffering, against Daggs' suggestions they just take everything. After a year of this, Granny's died, so Lynn (Scott) comes west. Naturally he runs into Ellen***, and there's an attraction, until they share their last names****. Daggs wants to marry Ellen, though neither she nor her father think much of that idea. Daggs starts making plans.

Colby keeps escalating things, and Mark keeps refusing to respond, until someone dies. Here's where the movie gets strange, many spoilers follow. One of Hayden's sons is now dead, her widow berates Mark for continuously refusing to go kill Colby, so finally, Mark succumbs to peer pressure, and takes his rifle into town to get Colby. He sees him, raises the rifle. . . and Colby shoots him first. I wanted the rifle to be empty, so Colby would be guilty of killing a man who couldn't shoot back. Surely that, plus killing Bill Hayden would be enough for a hanging. That's not how it plays out, so I suppose the gun was loaded. The rest of the Haydens ride in, and the Colbys lead them into an explosive trap. Flushed with success, Daggs kills Jed Colby, and rides home to tell Ellen they should marry. Except Lynn survived the rockslide and somehow made it there first (despite staggering there and collapsing on the porch). Ellen hides him, then has to try and protect him from Jack when he discovers Lynn. Lynn deals with Daggs by rolling out of the loft while holding his knife, and stabbing Daggs as he falls on top of him. The next shot is of a photo being developed, and surprise, it's Lynn and Ellen's wedding picture. End flick.

It's a ridiculously abrupt shift. Near as I can tell, all the other Haydens (and their ranch hands) are dead. Jed Colby is dead, I have no idea if his men were caught in the rockslide, or if they survived. Mark Hayden finally did what everyone wanted, and it got him killed. No time is spent on any of this, and it isn't as though the movie was long, it's 70 minutes. They say people today have short attention spans. What, were the filmmakers worried people would be losing interest, so better hurry up and end it? It's 1933, I'm sure people were dying for the film to end so they could leave the theater and remember they were in the middle of a depression.

Sarcasm aside, I was surprised by my reaction to the movie. Normally, I have no issue with vigilante actions in my entertainment (obviously, I read superhero comics). Still, I was deeply impressed by Mark Hayden, who kept refusing to go that route. He saw it would solve nothing, his killing Jed would only force one of Jed's kids to come kill him, and the his kids would have to go kill Colby offspring, and that's just stupid. It's rough to see how much grief he takes for the decision. Granny Spelvin, Molly Hayden, his sons and son-in-law, Jed Colby*****, even the authorities and the judge in Kentucky seemed disappointed that Mark would bring this to them rather than deal with it himself. I was disappointed when he finally decided he had to go kill Jed Colby, to the point I can't decide whether I'm glad he failed or not.

It's interesting that Hayden shows the effect of time passing, but Jed looks roughly the same after he leaves prison, as he did before (he might be a little cleaner after). Hayden looks more wrinkled, more drawn, so perhaps he's supposed to be haunted by not taking action all those years ago. Or the scorn he feels from others wears on him. Or maybe it's simply that building a ranch from scratch is harder on a person than being in prison. I don't buy that last one myself.

The two families find peace, but only when the two remaining members get hitched. Everyone else, including the one member of the two sides that refused to feud for so long, dies. It suggests Mark was right, revenge killing is the wrong approach, but the characters keep treating him as though he's done wrong, including the one member of his family who survived. Lynn wasn't as aggressive as his brother, but he was certainly more het up to get those Colbys than his father had been. When Mark finally does what everyone's been telling him to, he dies, and the ensuing battle gets several more people killed, which would also support the idea than taking the law into your own hands is a mistake. Except the battle also kills off the two people doing the most to keep the feud going, Jed Colby and Daggs, and that probably wouldn't have happened without Mark Hayden finally taking action. As long as they live, things would have kept going, so I don't know what to make of it.

* Upon hearing this Colby, replies 'Murder? It was just feudin'.'

** I assume Granny didn't want to leave her home, which is a blessing for Mark. She was pissed he wouldn't kill Jed, so if she'd come along, he'd have likely heard about it for the rest of her life. Sixteen years of an old person bitching at you would not be pleasant.

*** When Lynn arrives at the Hayden ranch, and mentions he met Ellen, his brother Bill retorts, 'She's white trash'. His wife scolds him for that, but I was struck by the phrase. I wasn't aware it existed in the 1930s, let alone the 1880s. Maybe it didn't exist in the 1880s, but it obviously did in the '30s. I figured it was more recent, maybe from the '60s, or '80s.

**** Lynn tries to explain there's no reason they have to be enemies, and Ellen spits back that Lynn's dad had hers locked up for 15 years. I think the proper response would have been to point out at least her pop is still alive. If Mark had settled things as everyone else wished, her dad would be dead. Period.

***** Who really ought to be grateful he's alive, but never considers that he's living in the West, with a ranch, his daughter, and that he actually has people who work for him, and that's better than possibly being dead at Mark Hayden's hands. He can't get past the stupid feud, not even long enough to realize Daggs is a much greater problem than Hayden.