Snippet Reviews: Classic and neo-Westerns

Seraphim Falls (2006)

Finally, Pierce Brosnan gets the much-deserved opportunity to demonstrate his acting chops, playing Gideon, a scraggly ex-Union soldier under tireless pursuit from Colonel Morsman Carver (Liam Neeson) through the mountains and into the flatlands of Northern Nevada. Neither Brosnan nor Neeson dissapoint, each managing to deftly maintain the taut, captivating atmosphere. It's a film of small scope, but it's elevated to the status of legitimately capable neo-Western just on the basis of the two leads' performances. Although the story drags from time to time and we're left with a somewhat lackluster yet unavoidable ending; the landscapes are breathtaking and both actors are at the top of their game, creating a palpable chemistry despite sharing only a few scenes together. Plus, you get to see James Bond jump out of a dead horse. Final grade: B

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

If there's one thing that director Robert Altman has truly mastered over the years, it's atmosphere. The dead, snow-filled backwoods of the Northwest are the perfect backdrop for Altman's anti-western, beautifully framed by the listlessly mournful songs of Leonard Cohen. Warren Beatty, in arguably his best performance, is McCabe, a lonely drifter who sets up shop in the small town of Presbyterian Church. Soon enough he's joined by Julie Christie's Mrs. Miller, an opium-addicted prostitute too numb to reality to understand, as McCabe says, that "he's got poetry in him". Altman's fable is a heart-wrenching portrait of loneliness, isolation and greed that won't soon be forgotten, unlike the lives of "McCabe & Mrs. Miller"'s ultimately doomed protagonists. Final grade: A-

The Searchers (1956)

Much has been made over the years of the blatant racism of John Wayne's hard-bitten Confederate soldier Ethan Edwards, who small-mindedly refers to his kidnapped niece as "the leavin's of a Comanche buck". This, to me, is not the fundamentally offensive aspect of the picture, but rather it's insensitivity towards historical accuracy (for example, it's depiction of Texas-native Indians as living in teepees is totally incorrect; Native Americans from that area were not nomadic and therefore didn't use teepees). Despite this major flaw, legendary director John Ford tackles the most ubiquitous Western morals with world-weariness and insight that elevates the film to the status of classic. It's a tale of epic proportions, spanning the length of over five years as Edwards and companion Martin Pawley (Jeffrey Hunter) search tirelessly for Edwards' niece (Natalie Wood), kidnapped in a Comanche raid. Despite an unnecessary subplot involving Pawley's issues with his estranged fiance and it's historical inaccuracies, the film's injustices are eventually overcome by the breathtaking landscapes, enthralling battle scenes and the genuine rapport we build with Edwards despite his polarizing prejudices. Final grade: B