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Western Classics on DVD from Paramount

A Man Called Horse
Little Big Man
Big Jake
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Rio Lobo

A Man Called Horse

A Man Called Horse

Richard Harris stars as an English gentleman visiting the US frontier in a movie that claims to be a realistic look at the life of the Dakota Sioux.

Maybe it is a realistic look, but as a movie it leaves a lot to be desired. In fact, it seems like a thin plot strung along as an excuse to show us the spectacularly savage and brutal ceremony by which he finally gets accepted as one of the natives.

Harris is captured by the Indians at the movie’s beginning and is dragged back to their haunts, humiliated, and kept as a prisoner of the regime. Then, for whatever reason (perhaps the Stockholm Syndrome?) he goes from prisoner to native wannabe and eventually marries one of them and becomes one of the group’s leaders. He even teaches them some very British battle strategies.

The movie is one of those “let’s make native Americans look cool” movies of the late 1960’s/early 1970’s, and yet looking back on it via this DVD some thirty three years later it’s hard to see how these natives are cool. While we do get some interesting insight into the way they lived (assuming it isn’t too Hollywoodized), they come off as brutal savages who, while they may live in harmony with the land around them, certainly don’t live in harmony with their neighbors. It looks like they either spend their time capturing white people (Harris isn’t the only captive in this camp) or battling other native bands.

They’re not particularly embracing of even their own people, judging by the way “orphaned” women are left to freeze to death when the winter storms come.

Dances With Wolves” and “Little Big Man” this ain’t!

The cast, which includes many natives in small supporting roles, is good. Harris does his best with the few lines he has (most of the movie is spoken in the natives’ language and, fortunately, there’s another captive along to translate), and the production values are very good as well (though - how’s this for nit picky? - we noticed a jet contrail in the sky in one shot!).

The DVD’s pretty good, though, at least as far as its picture quality is concerned. Paramount has released it in a beautiful anamorphic widescreen version (16x9 TV compatible), and other than a few shots here and there it looks absolutely gorgeous. The picture, mostly, is sharp and clean and the colors are outstanding.

Audio is supposedly Dolby Digital 5.1 and, while we did notice a bit of multi channel use (up front at least) it’s for the most part strictly mono - and not particularly good mono at that. The sound displays plenty of distortion and the overall volume is a tad low.

To be fair, Hollywood didn’t often pay a lot of attention to its audio quality back then so one shouldn’t look for whiz bang sound from this vintage of film. But this one is even less whiz bang than usual.

Alas, there are no extras, not even the trailer.

A Man Called Horse, from Paramount Home Video
114 min. anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1, 16x9 TV compatible), Dolby Digital 5.1
Starring Richard Harris, Dame Judith Anderson, Jean Gascon, Manu Tupou
Produced by Sandy Howard
Written by Jack De Witt, Directed by Elliot Silverstein

Little Big Man

Little Big Man on DVD

Dustin Hoffman stars as Jack Crabb, in a movie that’s kind of a Western version of Forrest Gump.

Crabb isn’t short on the brain power, though. Rather, he’s an incredibly long-lived white man, the only white man to have survived the battle of Little Big Horn. At movie’s opening, he’s 121 years old (in terrific Dick Smith makeup) and spends the rest of the movie narrating his life’s story.

And what a life it is! We get to see Hoffman’s Crabb (in a marvelous performance) from his youth where, his family killed by Indians, he’s brought up by Cheyenne Indians (who call themselves Human Beings) led by Old Lodge Skins (Chief Dan George, in a wonderfully warm and witty performance). The story follows him through various episodes in his fascinating life.

As with Forrest Gump, the movie moves along episodically as Crabb’s life goes through phases, including Cheyenne warrior (Little Big Man is his Cheyenne name), a medicine show conman, gunfighter, entrepreneur, drunk and U.S. Army scout. Each facet of his life is amusing in its own way as Life keeps sending our hero in wildly different directions.

Crabb himself is trapped between the cultures of Indian and White Man, and he slips from one to the other as circumstances, and convenience, dictate.

The movie leads up to Crabb's climactic role in the Battle of Little Bighorn, where his advice to the egotistical Custer leads to the defeat of the U.S. forces. Not that he was trying to get them all killed - but Custer had his own agenda, according to this movie.

Little Big Man is populated by memorable characters played by memorable actors including Faye Dunaway (as Jack’s horny adoptive mother), Richard Mulligan (Custer), Martin Balsam as Jack’s disappearing (bit by bit) conman mentor, and Jeff Corey as Wild Bill Hickok. Each of these characterizations is broad and over the top; the most restrained and believable characters here are the Indians, and this is undoubtedly deliberate as they’re portrayed as the real human beings coping with a new, white-dominated world that’s closing in on them.

Director Arthur Penn made a sprawling historical (or is it hysterical?) epic of a film, a star vehicle for Hoffman, coming shortly after his breakthrough role in "The Graduate."

Not enough can be said about Hoffman’s performance. He really is outstanding.

The DVD is excellent so far as it goes. Paramount has given it a wonderful video transfer, with a rich and detailed and colorful anamorphic widescreen picture (16x9 TV compatible) and good, though unremarkable, Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound that doesn’t exhibit much in the way of 5.1 channels.

Unfortunately, there are no extras.

Little Big Man, from Paramount Home Video
139 min. anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1, 16x9 TV compatible), Dolby Digital 5.1
Starring Dustin Hoffman, Martin Balsam, Jeff Corey, Chief Dan George and Faye Dunaway
Produced by Stuart Millar
Written by Calder Willingham, Directed by Arthur Penn.

Big Jake

Big Jake on DVD

John Wayne stars in Big Jake, one of his weaker efforts. It's a violent movie set against the background of an old West that’s fading into history as times and technologies change.

He’s Jacob McCandles, who everyone seems to think is six-feet under ("I thought you was dead" is a running line). He’s summoned by his estranged wife (the glorious Maureen O’Hara) when their grandson is kidnapped in a brutal attack on their ranch that leaves most of the people there dead.

It’s his job to take a million dollar ransom to the kidnappers, led by Richard Boone, and rescue the boy. The law goes on the same mission, albeit separately and without the ransom, in their fancy new automobiles that aren’t nearly as up to the task as the good old fashioned hay burners - and for the most part they aren’t a part of the story. It’s McCandles, accompanied by sons Patrick Wayne and Christopher Mitchum and Indian friend Bruce Cabot who track down the baddies and, in a series of shootouts and other incidents, bring them to justice while saving the young boy.

There’s a lot to like about Big Jake, from the Duke himself and the strong supporting cast to the amusing use of technology - including telescopic gun sights, motorcycles and cars, and more - and this helps make an overall weak story more enjoyable.

O’Hara, alas, is only there at the beginning and we even get to see singing heartthrob (at the time) Bobby Vinton flex his acting muscles long enough to get gunned down in the opening scene. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. Singing star Glen Campbell stuck around for all of True Grit, and that was a shame.

It’s a decent story, when all is said and done, well shot and well acted, and so while it won’t go down in history as one of Wayne’s finest, it’s still worth a look - and John Wayne fans will undoubtedly want to own it.

The DVD’s pretty good. It’s presented in anamorphic widescreen, 16x9 TV compatible, and the picture quality is very good overall. It’s a tad soft in places, but the color is good. Audio is Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, supposedly, though as with the other flicks on this page they might as well have called it mono and not have teased us.

There are no extras.

Big Jake, from Paramount Home Video
109 min. anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1, 16x9 TV compatible), Dolby Digital 5.1
Starring John Wayne, Richard Boone, Patrick Wayne, Christopher Mitchum, Bruce Cabot, and Maureen O’Hara
Produced by Michael Wayne,
Written by Harry Julian Fink and R. M. Fink, directed by George Sherman

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on DVD

Now here’s a Western classic!

Burt Lancaster is Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas is John “Doc” Holliday in John Sturges retelling of the famous shootout, though the fight itself only occupies the very end of the film.

Earp is a tired lawman ready to hang up his guns for the love of a good woman - until his lawman brother Virgil (John Hudson) calls for emergency help from his gig in Tombstone, Arizona.

Holliday used to be a dentist, but it appears he’s found a more lucrative profession in card playing. And he’s very good at it, good enough to live a good lifestyle while becoming the target of all kinds of low lifes who seem to gravitate to him and challenge him. He’s a notorious killer, though apparently always in self defense (not that he doesn’t goad people into drawing first).

The paths of the two continue to cross and though they don’t start off the movie as fans of each other they develop a grudging respect for each other’s abilities and character.

Well, certain aspects of character anyway, at least as far as Earp’s feeling about Holliday are concerned. Holliday has a woman problem, in that he has a woman but he treats her shabbily and this causes more than its share of drama as the story unfolds.

From its opening theme song, sung by Frankie Laine, through the well staged climactic gunfight between the Earps/Holliday and the Ike Clanton (Lyle Bettger) gang, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral grabs your attention and never lets go. It’s a terrific flick, told with wit and intelligence throughout.

The excellent cast doesn’t stop with Lancaster and Douglas, either. Star Trek fans will get a kick out of DeForest Kelley as Morgan Earp, and some terrific performances are put in by the likes of Whit Bissell, Earl Holliman, the wonderful Rhonda Fleming, Jo Van Fleet, Dennis Hopper, Martin Milner, and Kenneth Tobey (as Bat Masterson).

Of course if it ain’t on the page it ain’t on the stage, so credit must go to Leon Uris' outstanding, literate screenplay that humanizes all of these characters (even the Clantons!).

This is a great flick!

The DVD is also very good, though Spartan. The picture is anamorphic widescreen, 16x9 TV compatible, and it’s bright and sharp and colorful. Audio is Dolby Digital mono with no pretense of being 5.1 surround and it’s about as good as one would expect under the circumstances.

There are no extras, unfortunately.

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, from Paramount Home Video
122 min. anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1, 16x9 TV compatible), Dolby Digital mono
Starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Jo Van Fleet, John Ireland
Produced by Hal B. Wallis
Written by Leon Uris, Directed by John Sturges

Rio Lobo

Rio Lobo on DVD

Rio Lobo may not be one of the Duke's finest, but it may be among the funniest - at least periodically.

The story follows Union colonel Cord McNally (Wayne) on a personal vendetta after the war to find a traitor from his former unit who sold information about gold shipments to Confederate guerillas who robbed the trains. We get to see one of the robberies near the beginning of the film, and it's quite imaginative. It makes you almost cheer for the guys, except that they're on the wrong side of the Duke.

On this personal journey, Wayne also manages to help a beleaguered town escape the clutches of a rich landowner and the corrupt sheriff he owns. It may sound like an old story, and it probably is, but there's enough interesting new stuff to make this a very entertaining movie. And, as mentioned, it has some very funny moments.

Wayne, as usual, is great. He's joined by Jorge Rivero, one of the Confederate train robbers whose friendship he had made before and after war's end, is good as Pierre "Frenchy" Cordona. Joining them are the gorgeous and spunky (though green as an actress) Jennifer O'Neill, Christopher Mitchum, the outrageously funny Jack Elam, and Victor French.

The DVD is very good. Paramount has blessed it with a good anamorphic widescreen (16x9 TV compatible) presentation that for looks very sharp and colorful. Well done!

The audio isn't nearly as good, unfortunately, and despite it being billed as Dolby Digital 5.1 it's pretty well limited to the front channels - all three of them, fortunately. Audio quality itself is okay.

Alas, there are no extras, and this is a shame, if for no other reason than this was Howard Hawks last picture, and some sort of commemorative thing would have been interesting.

Oh well.

Rio Lobo, from Paramount Home Video
114 min. anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1), 16x9 TV compatible, Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
Starring John Wayne, Jorge Rivero, Jennifer O'Neal, Jack Elam
Written by Burton Wohl and Leigh Brackett, Directed by Howard Hawks

 

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