When one thinks of the term "Western", they would most likely recall fondly back to John Wayne shootin' some injun-folk in front of Monument Valley. The films I'm reviewing today have grown off of, and even improved on, the heroes-&-villains adventures of The Duke and other American-Western hero's.
The "Western" genre is dead. It died with Pike & the other boys of the
The Wild Bunch in 1969 in a hail of gunfire. The remains of the genre consist of fake westerns with 0 heart, soul, or grit posing as genuine. The "hero's" of these films are pretty boys who smeared mud on their face to make them look tough (eg.
American Outlaws, Tombstone). The real hero's of westerns had wrinkles, scars, dried & crackling skin, and an omnipresent layer of dust on their bodies that seemed more native to them then their own skin. The memory stays in a genuine way through two forms. The first has kept the memory alive through the scriptwriters who have written in homages, references, or western-styled scenes into their films (
Kill Bill Vol. 2 screamed Italian spaghetti western in parts) that all payed their respects to the genre. But the genre lives again through it's sons, who pop up every few years to sing their requiem, and move along on their own path.
Jim Jarmusch's
Dead Man was a brilliant example of this, taking a weak-willed - let's just say it-
pussy-character, and putting him in the same blood-soaked shoes as previous genre hero's: stranger walks into town looking for work or shelter, and gets in to trouble with the local criminal class. Johnny Depp gradually becomes the hero we wished for during the course of the movie, right before our eyes. Then, he shows his vulnerability, deepening the character and smashing our view of the hero. It essentially changed how I thought of a hero, and even helped me start to see fault in the Western's tendency to make the hero unbreakable.
Dead Man serves to both carry the torch of the western and go it's own way. Johnny Depp's character, William Blake (I don't feel like getting into the differences, but essentially think of the characteristics and the poetics of the poet William Blake being transported into a character in the west.) travels across the West to a small mining town, hearing he has a job waiting for him. After spending all his money just for the train ticket, he soon hears that someone else was hired in his stead. Jobless and homeless, he goes to the local bar, and meets a woman. The two go back her place for some lovin', and a jealous admirer (Gabriel Byrne) steps in with a present for the woman. She angrily tells him she doesn't love him, and in retaliation the jealous man tries to shoot William. Caught in front of the bullet, the woman dies in William's arms, and William reveals a revolver from under her pillow. He raises it and weakly fires at the jealous admirer, killing him. Under the circumstances, the man's father, the same man who screwed Blake over for the job by giving it to someone else, hires three hit men (one of which is Lance Henriksen) to hunt down William. This sets off Will on a journey to escape the men, and other hit men on the prowl for his head. He meets Nobody, a corpulent Native American and becomes friends with him. The film is shot beautifully in black & white, and includes many jaw-droppingly cool shots. The poetry of the film is nearly indescribable, between the photography, graceful acting, and a lyric script, all melding in a perfect cohesion that gives the film a dream-like quality. As if a parent were reading you poetry all night while you slept and the words invaded your dreams.
Dead Man: 5.0/5.0
The Proposition is another son of the fallen genre of the western that pays it's respect, but doesn't get distracted from going it's own way and being it's own film. The realism of it is honesty, and makes the journey the viewer goes on that much more palpable and personal. There's a beautiful and real balance in both nature and characters in this that was refreshing. There are no hero's, there are no beautiful, natural oasis'. Everything has a beautiful
and brutal side to it, especially the characters. Our protagonist is a murderer, and probable rapist, but redeems himself with his good intentions and actions later on. The love of the lead "Villain" is so unconditional, pure, and true for his "family", completely independent of the fact that they are mixed by race. He loves his brother, the protagonist, too dearly to even defend himself from him. But he is not all good either. He too is a rapist, murderer, and robber. The stunning and seemingly-endless landscapes appear purely good, as it is in most films, but as we see when a drunk is left in the sun for too long, it has a brutal side as well, acting as an omniscient character rather then a setting. It's this polarized "ying-yang" of beauty & brutality that makes the film so deep and epic. The beautiful photography, intense acting, touching soundtrack, and deeply-human script all add to the realism of the overall film, so that the journey you go on may feel as personal as possible.
The Proposition: 5.0/5.0
PS- Oh, and did I mention Nick Cave wrote the screenplay and co-scored the soundtrack for The Proposition?
The New Pornographers are not a fluke. Each member of the band proves him or herself in multiple ways, one of which being a solo-album. Neko Case's fine work has yielded 5 eclectic albums, and A.C. Newman's solo work is no less incredible. The interesting thing is hearing his style present on this album, and then listening to a New Pornographers album with that in mind. It seems like the NP's albums have too much talent to contain in one, 60 minute album, so its members take it out on a solo project.
