Directed by John Carpenter and written by Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon, Starman is the story of an alien who arrives to Earth as he is presented in the form of a widow’s recently-deceased husband. The film is a genre-bending film in which an alien encounters humanity and the world around him with a woman who shows him the world as they try to go to Arizona so he can go back home. Starring Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith, and Richard Jaeckel. Starman is a compelling yet heartfelt film from John Carpenter.
The film revolves an alien from a distant planet who receives a message from the Voyager 2 as he crash lands on Earth where he meets a recently-widowed woman whom he asks to take her to Arizona so he can go home. It’s a film that plays into a woman helping this alien, who takes in the form of her recently-deceased husband, while evading all sorts of things including government agents who want the alien believing he is hostile. Yet, there are those including a scientist who just wants to know about the alien for the right reasons as he has to deal with the tactics of a national security supervisor.
The film’s screenplay by Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon, with additional and un-credited work by Dean Riesner, plays into the journey of this alien (Jeff Bridges) and the widow Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen) as she reluctantly takes him to Arizona from Wisconsin as she isn’t sure about his motives. During the course of their road trip, Jenny sees the alien do things that are otherworldly due to the seven small silver spheres he carries which allows him to perform a few miracles. It would spur Jenny to do what she thinks is right while evading the authorities from state troopers and government agents while the only character in that group that is sympathetic is the scientist Mark Shermin (Charles Martin Smith). Even as he makes a discovery about the Voyager 2 probe as he realizes that the alien is there for something else.
John Carpenter’s direction is unique for the fact that he’s going for something that is sort of straightforward in terms of compositions and the fact that it’s a road film of sorts. With its usage of close-ups and medium shots for the intimate moments and wide shots for the many location established shots, Carpenter plays into the development relationship between Jenny and the alien as well as the many things they would encounter. Some of which involve some comical moments and heartfelt moments as it plays into what an alien would encounter with the world of humanity. While some of the sci-fi elements don’t look so great, it does help create something that is otherworldly where some in humanity don’t understand what the alien is trying to do while there are those like Shermin who believe that the alien is here with good intentions. Even as its climax would play into what the alien wanted but also the gift he would give to Jenny as well as what humanity would learn from him. Overall, Carpenter creates a very touching and magical film about a woman who helps an alien return to his home.
Cinematographer Donald M. Morgan does excellent work with the film‘s cinematography with its naturalistic yet colorful look of many of the locations in the day along with some unique lighting set-ups for the scenes set at night. Editor Marion Rothman does superb work with the editing as it‘s very straightforward with a few jump-cuts for some action scenes and a few dramatic moments. Production designer Daniel A. Lomino and set decorator Robert R. Benton do fantastic work with the look of Jenny’s cabin as well as some of the government military bases that is looking for the alien.
Special effects makeup designer Rick Baker does brilliant work with the sequence of the alien taking the form of Jenny‘s husband. Special effects supervisor Bruce Nicholson does nice work with some of the visual effects though some of it looks a little cheesy considering how primitive the technology was in those times. Sound editor Tom McCarthy Jr. does terrific work with the sound in creating some sound effects of the spheres and some of the other elements in the film including a few of its action scenes. The film’s music by Jack Nitzsche is wonderful as it’s mostly a low-key electronic score that plays into some of the film’s sci-fi elements while the soundtrack includes different kinds of music from the likes of Frank Sinatra and the Rolling Stones.
The casting by Jennifer Shull is brilliant as it features some notable small roles from George Buck Flower as a cook who gives the alien a ride, Lu Leonard as a roadhouse waitress, Dirk Blocker and M.C. Gainey as a couple of cops who try to cause trouble, Tony Edwards as an army sergeant helping out Shermin, and Ted White as a deer hunter who is annoyed by the alien. Richard Jaeckel is superb as national security leader George Fox who wants to capture the alien as he thinks the alien is hostile. Charles Martin Smith is fantastic as the scientist Mark Shermin who is tasked to find the alien where he believes that the alien isn’t hostile but just receiving a message as he is looking for answers from the alien.
Karen Allen is amazing as Jenny Hayden as a recently-widowed woman still dealing with the loss of her husband as she is shocked by the appearance of the alien who would look like her husband as she guides him about the ways of the world and such as it’s a very engaging performance from Allen. Finally, there’s Jeff Bridges in a remarkable performance as Jenny’s husband Scott and the alien where Bridges brings a sense of restraint to his performance as the alien who doesn’t know much English or anything that relates to humanity. It’s one that allows Bridges to be quiet but also display some low-key ideas to humor while he is more lively in the home movie footage as Jenny’s husband as it is one of Bridges’ finest performances.
Starman is a sensational film from John Carpenter that features great performances from Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen. While it’s a very different film from what Carpenter is known for. It is still a fascinating and engaging one due to its romantic elements as well as the fact that it bends all sorts of genres. In the end, Starman is a phenomenal film from John Carpenter.
John Carpenter Films: Dark Star - Assault on Precinct 13 - Halloween - Someone’s Watching Me! - Elvis - The Fog - Escape from New York - The Thing - Christine - Big Trouble in Little China - Prince of Darkness - They Live - Memoirs of an Invisible Man - Body Bags - In the Mouth of Madness - Village of the Damned - Escape from L.A. - Vampires - Ghosts of Mars - The Ward
The Auteurs #60: John Carpenter Pt. 1 - Pt. 2
© thevoid99 2015
Directed by Sam Peckinpah and written by Rudy Wurlitzer, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is the story of an aging Pat Garrett who is hired by wealthy cattle barons to hunt and kill his friend Billy the Kid. The film is an exploration of friendship and betrayal in the Old West as well as the final days of the West as James Coburn plays Pat Garrett and Kris Kristofferson stars as Billy the Kid. Also starring Jason Robards, Slim Pickens, Katy Jurado, Richard Jaeckel, Chill Willis, and Bob Dylan. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a wondrous and evocative film from Sam Peckinpah.
Set in 1881 in New Mexico, the film is about Pat Garrett being asked by forces with political ties to hunt down and kill his friend Billy the Kid. While it is a simple story, the film is more about a sense of change that looms in the American West where Billy the Kid is a representation of someone that doesn’t play by the rules as he spends much of the film trying to live his life and find ways to play under his own rules. Pat Garrett meanwhile is a man that is conflicted about hunting the Kid down as just wants him to go to Mexico or deal with him by himself instead of letting others kill him. Even as he meets with individuals who are part of a secret ring of cattle barons who not only want the Kid dead but want to do things their way to the world that is the West.
Rudy Wurlitzer’s screenplay opens with Garrett’s death as he is gunned down by a group of mysterious men as it adds some ambiguity into why he is killed. It plays into not just the sense of change that Garrett didn’t want to be a part of but a change that already happened as it inter-cuts with a time where Garrett had just become a sheriff where he meets the Kid as they shoot down the heads of chickens. It plays into a moment where things were simple as Garrett and the Kid are friends though Garrett knows he is now the law and he is instructed to capture the Kid. Yet, Garrett tells the Kid on what he has to do where he wants him to be safe and not be killed in the hands of the law. However, the Kid is a freebird that just refuses to do what anyone tells him as there is someone who admits to killing some people whether they were good or bad.
The script also plays into that sense of changing times where Garrett is forced to uphold the law as he struggles to do things his way but finds himself coping with these changes. Especially as he would be forced to work with men who are part of this secret ring as they do things in ways that not only disgusts Garrett but also the Kid who would encounter some of these things on his way to Mexico which would force him to seek refuge in the place in Old Fort Sumner. It is in that moment where both the Garrett and the Kid are forced to realize that the ideas of the Old West is coming to an end where Garrett would have to make a decision to either adapt or die. A decision that the Kid wouldn’t stand for as the inevitable is to come.
Sam Peckinpah’s direction is very entrancing for not just the way he pictures the American West but also into how its sense of mythology and codes are being pushed aside in favor of greed. The film is very stylized in not just the way Peckinpah shoots some of the violence but also in the way people lived in those times. There is a looseness to the direction where Peckinpah puts in some humor over some of the situations the Kid would get into but also play into someone that would kill someone when he didn’t want to but had no choice. With its usage of wide and medium shots along with some close-ups, Peckinpah takes great stock into the world that surrounds these characters but also plays into a sense of change that is looming. Most notably a scene where Garrett and an aging sheriff in Colin Baker (Slim Pickens) try to confront a gang only for things to go wrong as it plays into a world that is changing.
The direction has these tense moments in the drama such as a meeting Garrett would have with New Mexico’s leader in Governor Lew Wallace (Jason Robards) who would introduce Garrett to this group of cattle barons who are part of a secret ring in New Mexico. Most notably as it plays into the sense of change that would emerge that the Kid would later see when he encounters a group of men killing a friend and raping his wife to show an ugliness in a new world that he doesn’t want to be a part of. It would all play to the inevitable as the climax where Garrett would do what has to be done since it plays into a new world that neither he nor the Kid could be a part of. Overall, Peckinpah creates a mesmerizing film about two friends who are both forced to go against each other in an ever-changing world.
Cinematographer John Coquillon does brilliant work with the film‘s cinematography from the usage of lights for some of its nighttime interior/exterior scenes along with some gorgeous and naturalistic images for the scenes in the day including a shootout involving Sheriff Baker. Editors Roger Spottiswoode, David Berlatsky, Garth Craven, Tony de Zarraga, Richard Halsey, and Robert L. Wolfe, with additional editing by Paul Seydor for the 2005 special edition, do amazing work with the editing in creating some unique slow-motion cuts for some of the action along with rhythmic cutting for some of the drama and suspense. Art director Ted Haworth and set decorator Ray Moyer do excellent work with the design of the sets from hideout that is Fort Sumner as well as the look of Lincoln where the Kid was supposed to be hanged until his escape.
The sound work of Harry W. Tetrick and Charles M. Wilborn is superb for the naturalistic sound it captures along with some sound effects in the sound of gunfire and knives that are thrown. The film’s music by Bob Dylan is fantastic as the soundtrack album features some country-folk instrumentals and a few songs including one of Dylan’s greatest songs in Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door that is played in one of the film’s most poignant moments.
The casting by Patricia Mock is great as it features notable appearances from such noted Western character actors like L.Q. Jones as a bandit Garrett confronts in a shootout with Sheriff Baker, Jack Elam as Garrett’s ragged deputy Alamosa Bill Kermit, Emilio Fernandez as the Kid’s Mexican friend Paco, Chill Wills as a saloon owner named Lemuel Jones who knows Garrett, screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer as a friend of the Kid in Tom O’Folliard, Luke Askew as a cattle baron that is part of a secret ring in Santa Fe, Richard Bright as a member of the Kid’s gang, Rutanya Alda as a prostitute who lives in Fort Sumner with the Kid and his gang, Charles Martin Smith as an early member of the Kid’s gang who encounters a horrifying shootout, and Aurora Clavel as Garrett’s wife Ida who appears in the film’s 2005 reconstructed special-edition version. Other notable small roles include Harry Dean Stanton as a member of the Kid’s gang in Luke, Matt Clark as a deputy sheriff the Kid befriends, R.G. Armstrong as a sheriff who despises the Kid, and John Beck as a hired gun for the secret Santa Fe ring who is eager to kill the Kid.
Barry Sullivan is terrific as a cattle baron named Chisum that the Kid used to work for as the Kid learns what Chisum’s men would do that would disgust the Kid. Slim Pickens is fantastic as the aging sheriff Colin Baker who aids Garrett in trying to find the Kid while Katy Jurado is wonderful as Baker’s wife who helps them both while being great with a shotgun. Richard Jaeckel is superb as a friend of Garrett in Sheriff McKinney who helps Garrett late in the film to capture the Kid while Jason Robards is amazing in a brief but memorable performance as Governor Lew Wallace who tells Garrett what is at stake in capturing the Kid as he is part of a new world order. Bob Dylan is excellent as a young bandit named Alias who joins the Kid during the film’s second act as he proves to be very handy with a knife.
Finally, there’s the duo of James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson in phenomenal performance in their respective roles as Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Coburn brings a rugged yet weary role to Garrett as a man who is now part of the law as he deals with the new rules of his role as well as times that are changing which adds to the conflict in capturing the Kid. Kristofferson brings this sense energy and joy into the role of the Kid as someone who is a total free spirit that doesn’t believe in rules as he copes with a world that is very difficult and troubling. Coburn and Kristofferson have great rapport together in how they both share similar views towards the world as they’re both being pulled into different directions.
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a remarkable film from Sam Peckinpah that features exhilarating performances from James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson. The film is definitely one of Peckinpah’s finest films (whether in its preferred 1988 122-minute preview version or the 115-minute special edition version) as it plays into the myth of the American West and how it would change. Especially as it features an incredible soundtrack from Bob Dylan that plays into the mythological elements of those times. In the end, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a riveting film from Sam Peckinpah.
Sam Peckinpah Films: The Deadly Companions - Ride the High Country - Major Dundee - Noon Wine - The Wild Bunch - The Ballad of Cable Hogue - Straw Dogs - Junior Bonner - The Getaway - Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia - The Killer Elite - Cross of Iron - Convoy - The Osterman Weekend - The Auteurs #62: Sam Peckinpah
© thevoid99 2015
Based on the short story by Elmore Leonard, 3:10 to Yuma is the story about a rancher who accompanies a captured outlaw to a train station where he’s to go to prison while trying to evade the outlaw’s gang. Directed by Delmer Daves and screenplay by Halstead Wells, the film is a western that explores the complex relationship between a rancher and a criminal as they test each other in a game of wits and honor. Starring Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr, Leora Dana, Henry Jones, and Richard Jaeckel. 3:10 to Yuma is an engaging yet thrilling western from Delmer Daves.
The film is about a notorious criminal who is captured by a poor rancher after an encounter they had as the rancher is tasked to bring this criminal on a train to Yuma so he can go to prison. Along the way, the rancher has to evade a gang who is hell-bent on freeing their leader as this rancher named Dan Evans (Van Heflin) is dealing with intelligence and drive of Ben Wade (Glenn Ford). Though Evans is aware of how dangerous and cunning Wade is as he refuses to give in to Wade’s charms. A growing sense of respect between the two emerges in the course of the day as Wade offers Evans a way out so he can save his ranch. Still, it all plays to mind games where other forces start to create trouble leading to a climax where these two men have to do something for the mission at hand.
Halstead Wells’ screenplay definitely plays to the myth of the west as it is about pride and honor where two different men have very two different ideas about what is right and such. While Ben Wade is a criminal that does do very despicable things, he’s a man with limits as he doesn’t like to kill someone and has respect for the dead. Dan Evans is a man that just wants to do what is right for his family and gain their respect no matter how bad things are. Once Evans is given the task to accompany Wade to the train station, there’s complications not just from Wade’s gang but also people such as a stage line owner named Butterfield (Robert Emhardt) who is a man only interested in money. The people that would become Wade’s entourage all have reasons to want to put Wade in prison but there’s Wade’s gang led by his right-hand man Charlie Prince (Richard Jackel) who is a more wild individual that has no qualms about killing people and such.
Delmer Daves’ direction is filled with an array of exotic images of the American West that is filled with a lot of mythology and ideas about honor. Daves infuses a lot of unique compositions in the way he puts Wade and Evans into a scene to play out the tension while creating an intimacy that adds an element of suspense. There’s also some wide shots to capture the wide depth of field of the scenes in the small towns and such while using close-ups to help play out the drama. There are also moments where things do get very thrilling where Daves know how to create a sense of action but keep things simple but also engaging. Overall, Daves creates a very fascinating yet captivating film about justice and doing what is right.
Cinematographer Charles Lawton Jr. does amazing work with the film’s black-and-white photography to create some unique lighting schemes for some of the film’s exterior scenes as well as some shadings to help play out the atmosphere. Editor Al Clark does excellent work to create some style in the cutting from the use of transitional dissolves to some methodical cuts in the film’s suspense. Art director Frank Hotaling and set decorators William Kiernan and Robert Priestly do brilliant work with the sets to create the feel of the west along with the design of the saloons and hotels of the time.
Costume designer Jean Louis does superb work with the costumes from the clothes the men wear to the dresses that the women wear. The sound work of J.S. Westmoreland is terrific for the atmosphere it creates in the suspense scenes along with the layer of sounds in the shootout scenes. The film’s music by George Duning is fantastic for its sweeping orchestral music filled with dramatic touches as well as heavy compositions for the suspenseful moments along with a title song co-written with Ned Washington sung by Frankie Laine.
The film’s cast is marvelous as it features some notable small performances from Barry Curtis and Jerry Hartleben as Evans’ sons, Henry Jones as a town drunk seeking redemption, Ford Rainey as a Marshal, Sheridan Comerate as a man seeking Wade in an act of vengeance, and Robert Emhardt as the opportunistic stage line owner Butterfield whose only reason to capture Wade is money. Felicia Farr is wonderful as the bartender Emmy who is charmed by Wade while Leora Dana is superb as Evans’ wife who is hoping for things to turn out well for her family. Richard Jaeckel is excellent as the wild Charlie Prince as a man who is seeking to retrieve Wade in order to continue his pursuits as a criminal.
Van Heflin is remarkable as Dan Evans as a man who is full of pride but also a man deeply troubled by his misfortunes as he hopes to gain something despite the temptation that Wade offers. Glenn Ford is brilliant as the criminal Ben Wade as a man who is a notorious criminal but with a sense of morals as he adds a complexity and charm to his character. Notably as he and Heflin have chemistry in playing out their differences as well as similarities as men of honor.
3:10 to Yuma is a tremendous film from Delmer Daves that features outstanding performances from Glenn Ford and Van Heflin. The film is definitely one of the most compelling westerns that is highlighted by its suspense and themes of justice and honor. Notably as it also adds new layers into the mind of a criminal as well as the flaws of a hero. In the end, 3:10 to Yuma is a sensational film from Delmer Daves.
Delmer Daves Films: (Destination Tokyo) - (The Very Thought of You (1944 film)) - (Hollywood Canteen) - (Pride of the Marines) - (The Red House) - (Dark Passage) - (To the Victor) - (A Kiss in the Dark) - (Task Force) - (Broken Arrow (1950 film)) - (Bird of Paradise (1951 film)) - (Return of the Texan) - (Treasure of the Golden Condor) - (Never Let Me Go (1953 film)) - (Demetrius and the Gladiators) - (Drum Beat) - (Jubal) - (The Last Wagon) - (Cowboy (1958 film)) - (Kings Go Forth) - (The Badlanders) - (The Hanging Tree) - (A Summer Place) - (Parrish) - (Susan Slade) - (Rome Adventure) - (Spencer’s Mountain) - (Youngblood Hawke) - (The Battle of Villa Fiorita)
Related: 3:10 to Yuma (2007 film)
© thevoid99 2013
