"Deliver my soul from the sword. My darling from the power of the dog."
I suppose the easiest way to describe The Power of the Dog is as a western. It takes place in the American West, at a cattle ranch in Montana, there are cowboys and picturesque landscapes, but there are no gunfights or intense cattle drives. The year is 1925 and the inexorable modernity of the 20th century is creeping in and the hidden emotions of the taciturn western men are creeping out. There is a showdown of sorts, but it is so understated that even the climax of the film sneaks up on you.
Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George (Jesse Plemons) are brothers who own a cattle rancher and live a quiet life. Though being quiet and shy, George proposes marriage to Rose (Kirsten Dunst) just after he meets her. She accepts and moves to the ranch along with her teenage son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Phil does not approve of Rose or her son or their being at the ranch. In the second act, while Peter is away at college and George is away on business, Rose is left alone at the ranch with Phil’s unrelenting bullying and psychological abuse. In the third and final part of the film, Peter returns from college to be confronted with his now alcoholic mother and Phil’s domineering personality. Phil seems ready to bully Peter as well but then takes him under his wing and teaches him about being a rancher. Their uneasy dynamic is the source of the film's beguiling tension.
All four of the principal cast members received Oscar nominations but the two real standout performances are from Kodi Smit-Mcphee, for what his character hides, and Benedict Cumberbatch, for what his character fails to hide. Phil becomes an unlikely mentor to Peter but there is also an underlying hostility even as the two grow closer. I don’t feel that it is giving away too much to reveal that Phil is a closeted and repressed homosexual, something he would not admit to anyone, especially himself. His treatment of the other characters is rooted in his repression. Peter’s presence has the potential to be a positive in Phil’s life, but Peter may have his own hidden intentions.
The Power of the Dog has an almost experimental structure. Its first two acts are exposition and setup and it is not until the reappearance of Peter in the final third when a plot is set in motion. Until Peter’s reappearance the story feels like it is treading water and the pacing throughout is slow but deliberate. Director Jane Campion, who also adapted the screenplay from the novel by Thomas Savage, does not telegraph the thoughts of the characters and neither do the performances. They take a low key approach of revealing the characters through their actions (a reflection of themselves). This makes for an interesting but unconventional western.
Nominees: Jane Campion, Tanya Seghatchian, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Roger Frappier, producers
Director: Jane Campion
Screenplay: Jane Campion; based on the novel by Thomas Savage
This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas.
Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long
celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies
out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream
critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few
quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and
subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some
recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.
Night 10: Bill Paxton Memorial Night III/Vampire Night
“Howdy. I'm gonna separate your head from your shoulders. Hope you don't mind none.” Near Dark (1987)
The DVD rerelease cover art for Near Dark has the male and
female leads airbrushed to like characters from Twilight, but don’t be
fooled. Though there is a romance, Near Dark is a full bore action-horror
vampire western. The original poster for Near Dark shows only Bill Paxton, skin
burned black and covered in dirt and blood with shafts of light bursting
through his body. It’s a much more accurate promise of what’s in store for the
audience.
After a night out at a bar, small town cowboy, Caleb
(Adrian Pasdar), meets a mysterious young woman with short hair. She says that
the light that just left the stars will take a billion years to get to Earth
and when it does, she’ll still be here. As dawn approaches she becomes nervous
and when Caleb won’t drive her home right away, she bites him and runs away.
When the sun comes up Caleb becomes sick and starts to smolder and burn. An RV
speeds by and pulls him inside.
The mysterious young woman is Mae (Jenny Wright). She’s one
of a motley crew of Oklahoma vampires. The gang is led by Lance Henriksen as
Jesse, who is so old he says he fought for the South (“We lost.”). Jenette Goldstein plays his longtime companion, Diamondback. Joshua Miller plays Homer,
an aged vampire trapped in the body of a child. Rounding out the monstrous
family is Bill Paxton as Severen, the flamboyant and ultra-violent loose
cannon. They reluctantly take in Caleb but pressure him to make a kill.
Meanwhile, Caleb’s father and local law enforcement are on their trail.
There is not as much bloodsucking in Near Dark as there is
bloodshed. Necks are bitten but most of the violence comes from shootouts and
Severen’s creative killing techniques. The gang takes Caleb to a bar to make a
kill and we watch and each vampire kill a patron. It’s a prolonged and bloody
scene but is incredibly engaging and totally dominated by Bill Paxton. The
scene plays out not like a group of vampires preying on victims, but a group of
psychos entertaining themselves. This may sound like a torture porn-esque
scene, but it is not full of dread and despair. The blood and gore are not the point of the scene; it’s about seeing what these vampires are capable
of and the intense danger that surrounds Caleb and Mae.
There’s really not much to the character of Caleb or the
romance plot between him and Mae, but the eccentric and violent vampire family
are incredibly interesting and entertaining. Paxton swings for the rafters with his
performance and lands every time. He’s easily the most memorable part of Near
Dark and it’s no wonder he’s the poster for movie. Lance Henriksen’s performance
is as subtle and lowkey as Paxton’s is loud and centerstage, Since Hendriksen plays his
character as a quiet menace, he and Paxton balance each other.
Near Dark is more influenced by The Wild Bunch than any
vampire movie. It has the look of gritty westerns of the 1970’s. Everything looks and
feels run down and lived in, even the character’s clothes and hair. The
cinematography by Adam Greenberg gives the film an excellent dusty look. For being a
movie about vampires, this movie has a very bright, sun-drenched look. In every
daylight scene the sunlight feels intense, like you could almost feel the heat
and there is dust or smoke in nearly every shot. The score by Tangerine Dream
gives this unusual vampire movie a unique, mysterious feel. All of these
elements come together most excellently under Katherine Bigelow’s direction. Her
sole entry into the horror genre gave us a most noteworthy and entertaining vampire
movie.
Cimarron, RKO’s
big budget western that was the Academy’s choice for Outstanding Production of
1930-31, has not aged well. It was well received by critics at the time, but a
modern viewer would be likely to disagree. I know I did. As of 2017, Cimarron holds a 53% rating on RottenTomatoes.com, based on only 17 reviews. It did not perform well at the
box office and actually lost money for RKO in its initial theatrical release.
Its poor box office performance was more than likely due to the onset of the
Great Depression, which was in full effect by 1931. It was rereleased in 1935
and made back most of its money.
Cimarron tells the
decades spanning story of 19th century newspaper editor Yancey
Cravat who settles his family in the boom town of Osage, Oklahoma just after
the Land Rush. Richard Dix plays Yancey and though he received an Oscar
nomination for Best Actor, his performance comes across as overly grandiose and
exaggerated even for an era with heightened acting styles. Dix uses big gestures
the way a silent film actor would, and one must keep in mind that talkies were
only three years old when Cimarron
was made. Yancey is determined to settle on a piece of one of the last
frontiers of the United States. In the most exciting scene in the movie, Yancey
takes place in the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. This reenactment took one week
to film, used 5000 extras, and required 28 cameramen to shoot. We see horses
and covered wagons at the starting line waiting for the starting pistol. Despite
not getting any land in the Rush, Yancey moves his family to Osage against the
protestations of his wife, Saba, played by Irene Dunne. Yancey is set on
building a new home in a new land for his family.
As a modern-day viewer, I found Cimarron old fashioned and dated, and not in a charming way. The
very first thing we see and hear in the movie is a couple of cowboys yelling at
some American Indians, calling them “redskins.” Yancy’s wife, Saba, is
especially repulsed by the native peoples, calling them “dirty” and “filthy”
and scolds her son for playing with a Native American boy. It is mentioned
briefly by another character that Yancey is sympathetic to Native Americans,
which does not win him any favor with the white settlers. However, aside from
naming his son Cimarron, there is only one scene showing his sympathy for
Native Americans when Yancey objects to a businessman’s scheme to steal Native
American land on which oil was recently discovered. This scene takes place in
1907 when Yancey is running for governor. He jeopardizes his campaign by
printing an editorial that states: “the time has come to give the redman full
citizenship.”
A young black boy named Isiah moves with Yancey to Osage and
Yancey is kind to him, but he also points out a watermelon patch to Isiah when they
first arrive in Osage. Isiah is the most servile character in the movie and is
meant to be comic relief; this character portrayal is one of many things that
has not aged well. His scenes would make a modern audience cringe. However, at
least Isiah is a character. There are no Native Americans with speaking parts
in a film called Cimarron. The
portrayal of the treatment of blacks and Native Americans is unfortunately
period appropriate, but does not enhance the film with any sense of realism.
Female characters fair only slightly better in terms of
portrayal and treatment in Cimarron. In
a scene which I was only able to half enjoy, Sabra marches right up to the town
bully and scolds him for shooting her husband’s hat off his head—bullets were
more accurate back then, I guess. Yancey marches up to her and tells her
not to interfere in a “friendly shootout” between two men. He tells her that it
will all over town that he hides behind his wife’s petticoat. Yancey may be out
to tame the west but it is Sabra that runs the home and the newspaper on the
many occasions when Yancey gets “wanderlust” and leaves his home and family at the
drop of a hat to take part in a new land rush or settle new lands. We’re
supposed to accept and even admire that he cannot set down roots for more than
a few years. He disappears for years at a time without a word sent home which
is something I cannot admire, no matter much land there is to tame. In her
husband’s absence Sabra becomes a congresswoman, but the film barely pays
attention to that. At least Irene Dunne received an Oscar nomination for Best
Actress for her role as Sabra.
Despite Cimarron’s
epic scope, it does not have breathtaking visuals or memorable set pieces aside
from the Land Rush scene at the opening of the film. The cinematography was
nominated for an Oscar and while I’ll concede that what is on screen is well
photographed, there is no distinct visual style or flair to any scene of the
movie. Cimarron did win an Oscar for
Art Direction, which is an impressive element of the movie. RKO bought 89 acres
of land outside of Encino, CA to build the “boomer town” of Osage. The sets and
look of the town make the shots of the crowded downtown area impressive. The
set design likely helped the cinematography get a nomination, but much more
likely the Academy voters liked the film so much they nominated it for every
category for which it qualified. Cimarron
had the most nominations of any film at the 4th Academy Awards with
a total of seven. It was the first film to be nominated for all of the “major
categories” (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, Screenplay). Cimarron would be the most awarded film
of the night with 3 wins: Art Direction, Writing Adaptation, and Outstanding
Production. It was the only film produced and released by RKO to win Best
Picture.
Cimarron is
technically a Pre-Code film but has none of the daring or boldness associated
with Pre-Code movies. It feels dull and bland today. Even with shoot outs and
the Land Rush scene, this movie lacks thrills and excitement. The characters
and dialogue are stock, stilted, and bland. Dix’s character is overblown. He is
THE MAN in Osage; he runs the newspaper, shoots down outlaws, becomes the town
minister, is known by everyone, shoots a whiskey bottle out of someone’s hand,
and when he shoots an outlaw, the outlaw essentially thanks Yancey before he
dies. It’s a bit much. Yancey is practically a superman and because of this I
never felt any danger or concern for him or his family. There is no challenge that is not
immediately and easily conquerable for Yancey, aside from the Land Rush. His
character feels artificial, perhaps because Dix’s dated performance and the way
the character is written. Yancey has a vision of taming the West that many male
characters have in classic westerns, but Cimarron does not feel like a classic
western. A film has no control over which elements will become dated and effect
the way it is viewed by later audiences. There are countless films that have
dated themes, acting styles, or dialogue but still retain their entertainment
value and a sense of charm. Cimarron,
however, is not one of those films.
Nominee: RKO Producer: William LeBaron Director: Wesley Ruggles Screenplay: Howard Estabrook, based on the novel by Edna
Ferber Cast: Richard Dix, Irene Dunne, Estelle Taylor Release Date: February 9th, 1931 Total Nominations: 7, including Outstanding Production Wins: 3, including Outstanding Production, Writing
Adaptation-Howard Estabrook, Art Direction-Max Rèe Other Nominations: Actor-Richard Dix, Actress-Irene Dunne,
Director-Wesley Ruggles, Cinematography-Edward Conjager
You can think of Hell or High Water as a modern day western.
It certainly has the plot, setting, and characters of a western. We follow a
pair of bank robbing brothers and the lawman pursuing them across the dusty
landscape of West Texas and the Texas plains. Hell or High Water doesn’t
reinvent genre, but it doesn’t need to; it’s executed extremely well.
Chris Pine and Ben Foster play the outlaw brothers, Toby and
Tanner, respectively. Pine’s Toby is the quiet, more reserved brother. Foster’s
Tanner, recently released from prison, is the more volatile one. There’s more
to their plan than just grabbing as much money as they can and going on the
run. They have a specific amount to rob from a specific chain of banks, Texas
Midlands Bank, which is set to foreclose on the family home. They will pay
Texas Midlands Bank with money they robbed from its own branches. Toby wants to
make sure that his ex-wife and children will have enough money for a secure
future. Tanner wants to help his brother, and if that means robbing banks, he’s
completely willing.
Jeff Bridges is the heavy hitter among the cast. It’s good
to see Bridges give a great, solid performance in a role that is befitting of
an actor of his talent, instead of the cartoonish roles he’s taken in recent
movies. That’s not to say that Bridges doesn’t bring a certain amount of flair—or
the tough, western man equivalent—to Marcus Hamilton, a surly Texas Ranger on
the brink of retirement. He’s smart enough to catch on to the brother’s plan
and crafty enough to use patience as his method for capturing them. He’ll
figure out which branch they’ll rob next, then sit back and wait for them
to mess up. Working with Hamilton is his half-Mexican, half-Native American
partner, Alberto, who is the subject of relentless racist teasing from
Hamilton. Bridges, however, is adept at portraying Hamilton as a man with an
underlying, genuine affection for his partner that he has to mask with sarcasm. Bridges' Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor comes as no surprise.
There’s a lot of great acting in different styles from the
leads. Bridges and Foster are ostentatious; Pine is more subdued and pensive. The
screenplay by Taylor Sheridan has rightfully received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay; it creates full-fledged characters and successfully
divides our sympathy between both cops and criminals. The climatic
confrontation is intense and thrilling. It’s an action sequence the film earns
by firmly establishing what’s at stake and building the characters. I wanted Toby and Tanner to get away as much
as I wanted Hamilton to catch them. British director David Mackenzie seems to
be the perfect fit for this modern day western. He doesn’t mythologize or
glorify the setting or the characters. These are everyday people dealing with
extraordinary circumstances and the final result is an extraordinary film.
Nominees: Carla Hacken, Julie Yorn, producers
Director: David Mackenzie
Screenplay: Taylor Sheridan
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine, Ben Foster
Production Companies: Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, OddLot
Entertainment, Film 44, LBI Entertainment
Distributor: CBS Films, Lionsgate
Release Date: August 12th, 2016
Total Nominations: 4, including Best Picture
Other Nominations: Original Screenplay-Taylor Sheridan,
Supporting Actor-Jeff Bridges, Editing-Jake Roberts
Based on the O. Henry story “The Caballero’s Way,” In Old Arizona is about the charming
Mexican bandit, the Cisco Kid, whose unfaithful lover, Tonia, plots to turn him
in for reward money to the U.S. Army sergeant assigned to capture him. The plot
is simple enough for entertaining western, but that film would have to be much
shorter than this one. This movie somehow just doesn’t have enough plot or substantial
characters to fill out its relatively short runtime of 95 minutes. So, the film
drags and drags. Its main concern is the very new and exciting spectacle of sound. It is clear that this was the big draw for audiences
in 1928. The poster art advertises the film as “100% ALL-TALKING” and has the
tag line “You Hear What You See While Enjoying… In Old Arizona.”
In Old Arizona, available on DVD, Blu-Ray, and, YouTube.com (for the moment), has
the distinction of being the first western nominated for Best Picture
(unofficially, since there were no official nominations that year) and being
the first sound film shot primarily outdoors. Raoul Walsh was originally set to
both direct and star as the Cisco Kid and shot some scenes but had to be
replaced after a jackrabbit jumped through the windshield of his car causing
him to have an accident in which he lost his right eye. He was replaced by
Irving Cumming as director and Warner Baxter as the smiling, lovable
Cisco Kid, for which he won for Best Actor.
I’m sure audiences would have been transfixed and excited by
seeing and hearing actors talk on screen. In
Old Arizona gives the audience what it wants but an unintended side effect
is some scenes go on for way too long. After dialogue concerning plot points
has been delivered, any given scene will carry on with extraneous dialogue. I was
pretty invested in the Cisco Kid’s breakfast of ham and eggs because so much
was said of the meal. When the Cisco Kid meets the comically cocksure Sergeant
Dunn, who doesn’t know that the Kid looks like, they exchange some friendly
words at a barbershop. That scene moves a little slow but is funny and pretty
entertaining. Then they go outside and talk some more. Though this is not a
musical there is a fair amount of singing from the Cisco Kid and the soldiers
of the nearby army battalion. The Cisco Kid is a sort of prototype of the
singing cowboy archetype that would be perfected in later western/musicals.
There are many things that make In Old Arizona feel very, very dated and it does not quite have the
charm necessary to overlook those aspects. The style of acting from every
character is heightened and exaggerated like it would be in a silent film. There
is very little camera movement and for some scenes I thought that it must surely
be bolted to the ground. The sound quality for each scene depends on how close
the actors are standing to the hidden microphone, and when they speak they are
projecting like they would in the theatre. Baxter and Dorothy Burgess, as
Tonia, speak with heavily accented broken English. This film is most
interesting, and perhaps only interesting, as an example of a film from the
early sound era when talking pictures where still finding their footing.
In Old
Arizona could have been a better film, or at least more entertaining, if it
was shorter. There are some funny moments with heavy innuendos. The thin story
is stretched to breaking and only picks up at very end for the climatic
confrontation between the Cisco Kid, Tonia, and Sergeant Dunn. I suppose I
can’t blame this movie too much for being so preoccupied with sound and
talking, but I know from the silent films of just the previous year that
filmmakers were capable of turning out interesting stories with full-fledged
characters and good, steady pacing. I wish that In Old Arizona found interesting dialogue for the characters to
speak and audiences to hear.
Nominee: Fox
Producer: Winfield Sheehan
Director: Irving Cummings, Raoul Walsh
Screenplay: Tom Barry, based on the story “The Caballero’s
Way” by O. Henry
Cast: Warner Baxter, Edmund Lowe, Dorothy Burgess
Release Date: December 25th, 1928
Total Nominations: 5, including Outstanding Picture
Win: Best Actor-Warner Baxter
Other Nominations: Director-Irving Cummings, Writing-Tom
Barry, Cinematography-Arthur Edeson
