Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by afilado (A) on October 06, 2008 at 14:40:09

In Reply to: RE: Westerns are a true test of a director's skill because of the posted by tinear on October 06, 2008 at 13:17:48

... I felt that Mortensen did well enough with little through most of the film. He is such a magnetic figure. When I saw his intensity and his physical posture in that endgame scene with Irons it was delicious to watch. He had studied, prepared himself for the part. He exuded power and certainty.

Open Range was as romantic a picture but far more harmonious and substantial beginning to end. A better picture. The climactic gunfight was "right". When you decide to face a man to kill him, that's what you do, you don't talk it over with him first. You put yourself into the most favorable position and do it, first.

I also think of Paul Newman in ...Judge Roy Bean. When he knew the assassin was in town, he laid in the loft and blew that big 'ol funny hole in his back.

There's that great scene in Unforgiven where Gene Hackman schools Saul Rubinek on how a gunfight unfolds. Lots of bullets miss their intended targets for lots of good reasons when you consider to take another man's life.

Of course this is all make-believe stuff. Great fun to argue about the dynamics of movie gunslinging.

My grandaddy told me about witnessing a gunfight when he was just a kid. He said the air was so charged with tension and fear he shit his pants.