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Cashing in (indirectly I suppose you could say) on Clint
Eastwood's latest two Oscar nominated films, Universal has
repackaged two classic Clint Eastwood western and one good
one on a two disc set. The best of these "High Plains Drifter"
combines borrows from the supernatural Samurai revenge genre.
Written by Ernest Tidyman and sharply directed by Eastwood
himself, "High Plains Drifter" is dark, spooky and one of
Eastwood's most effective American westerns. ***
A stranger (Eastwood) rides into Lago a small town build
around a lake that is bracing for a quartet of escaped criminals.
The stranger is the perfect anti-hero or perhaps the perfect
Id; he's not bothered by a conscience and does pretty much
what he wants from the moment he arrives in town. He's so
fearless that the town's people want to hire him as sheriff.
Instead, he makes a midget that has been abused by the towns
people sheriff but agrees for free room, board and whatever
else he wants to help the town mount a defense. The first
thing he does is have them paint the entire town red (the
reference to Hell here is intentional). When the criminals
show up he does exactly what he agreed to do but it's apparent
that the town's people have made a deal with a devil of
sorts. ***
Eastwood absorbed his lessons from director Don Siegel,
Sergio Leoni and others very well indeed. He creates a small
masterpiece with this film one of his most memorable 70's
westerns. Featuring a parade of 70's great character actors,
"High Plains Drifter" brilliantly captures the atmosphere
of Leoni's western classics combing it with the tension
of Siegel's suspense films. ***
"Two Mules for Sister Sara" is directed by Eastwood's
mentor Don Siegel and has some nice plot twists that make
this more than a garden variety western. A nun (Shirley
Maclaine) is rescued by Hogan (Eastwood) from three cowboys.
Hogan has been hired gather information about a French fort
and it turns out that the French are chasing Sister Sara
and have a lot more common than they figured. MacLaine who
replaced Elizabeth Taylor (Taylor approached Eastwood while
he was shooting "Where Eagles Dare" with her husband at
the time Richard Burton about their co-starring in the film.
Universal balked at her asking price to star). Despite the
fact that MacLaine and Eastwood didn't get along (she also
openly fought with director Siegel who couldn't stand her
by the end of the shooting schedule), she has some nice
screen chemistry with Eastwood. Based on a story by the
late Budd Boetticher ("Seven Men From Now"), the screenplay
by writer Albert Maltz ("Destination Tokyo", "Broken Arrow"
credited to Michael Blankfort because Maltz was blacklisted,
and "The Beguiled" which was credited to his pseudonum John
B. Sherry) provides plenty of banter for Eastwood and MacLaine.
***
"Joe Kidd" had "The Magnificent Seven" John Sturges
in the directing chair. Written by Elmore Leonard the film
finds Eastwood playing the title character a former bounty
hunter who is hired by Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall) a wealthy
land owner to hunt down Luis Chama (John Saxon). It seems
that Harlan wants Chama and his people's land at any cost
including murdering Chama. Kidd realizes what is happening
and sides with Chama against Harlan forcing him to face
off against the ruthless killers working for Harlan. ***
Although hardly in a league with "Seven" or most of
Sturges other great westerns, "Joe Kidd" is an above average
oater with strong supporting turns by Duvall and Don Stroud
as well as Saxon. With the names of Sturges and Leonard
audiences today might expect bigger and better things (and
audiences at the time enjoyed the film but critics were
disappointed since it was another film by Sturges) but on
its own modest scale, "Joe Kidd" is a minor classic. ---
Image & Sound:
It appears that Universal has ported over the previous
transfers from the individual releases. Those releases looked
pretty good overall. The film grain was part of the original
theatrical release and a characteristic of films from the
70's. It adds to the gritty character of the film. The original
mono audio sounds fine if a bit thin at times. Universal
certainly could have spilled this up by going back to the
original soundtrack elements and making this into a stereo
or 5.1 mix. ---
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